Not quite Heavenly...

The media has been going ga ga over the Land Mafia that is gripping the Kerala soils for quite sometime. That someone could convert this issue into a script for a commercial movie featuring one of the biggest stars of Malayalam Cinema was not quite imaginable. James Albert has done just that with "Ividam Swargamaanu" featuring Mohanlal and directed by Roshan Andrews.

Ividam Swargamaanu is about Mathews (Mohanlal), a successful agriculturist who owns a farm of his own that grows cereals, vegetables and rears cows. He is supported by his parents (Thilakan and Kaviyoor Ponnamma), aunt (Sukumaari), a trusted friend (Sankar) and a dimwitted Assistant (Anoop Chandran). All is well with Mathews till real estate supremo Aluva Chandi (Lalu Alex) sets his eyes on Mathew's property. Chandi wants to buy the property and sell it to a Marvaadi. With this end in view, he unleashes propogation across the village that he is going to construct a township on Mathew's land. Mathew refuses to sell the land to Chandi and the entire village turns against him.

Chandi subjects Mathew and his family to extreme troubles- he registers a case against him for environmental pollution, works behind the curtains to slam a huge penalty notice from SFC through fake documentation and turns the entire village against him. Not to lose hope, Mathew fights against Chandi and everyone else who plots against him and finally, emerges victorious.

At the core, Ividam Swargamaanu is a victory of good over evil and tackles a lot of topical issues in the bargain. However, it does not quite measure up as a feature film- the characters are not well etched out and there are too many to count. New characters emerge every 15 minutes and finally you end up with a feeling that you are in the middle of a crowd and half the crowd is unknown to you. The pacing of the film is very lethargic. Though the makers show Mohanlal as a common man, there are not enough scenes/ dialogues that bring out the emotional upheaval that the character is going through. Casting is not good enough with both Lakshmi Rai and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy cutting sorry figures. The only actor who manages to shine is Lalu Alex. It has been a long time since Lalu Alex played an author backed role and the talented actor makes good use of the opportunity. Jagathy Sreekumar and Manian pilla Raju are impressive but the same cannot be said about the others and that includes Tilakan, Kaviyoor Ponnamma and Sukumari too. Priyanka Nair shines brightly in a brief role.

The songless film suffers on the Editing front as well. The film seems to have been made in a hurry and the Art department has not taken enough efforts to ensure that there is cohesiveness and connection between the backgrounds. The scenes make it very clear that the farm and the house are 2 separate locations though they are supposed to be in the same premises as per script. There are a lot of such minor and not so minor glitches here and there that takes away from the movie significantly.

Ividam Swargamaanu is also a tad too long and as an audience you feel the lag while sitting through the movie. Even Mohanlal appears ill at ease and artificial in some key sequences and that probably is the weakest link in this Roshan Andrews- James Albert outing. Though the intention is noble, the execution of Ividam Swargamaanu falls way short of expectations...