Film: Mariam Mukku,
Director: James Albert,
Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Sana Althaf, Manoj K Jayan, Joy Mathew and Aju Varghese
‘Kadal’ (Sea) is a short story written by renowned Malayalam writer T Padmanabhan, which depicts the emotional ebb and flow in human minds. Set against the backdrop of sea, Mariam Mukku- the first directorial venture of scenarist James Albert- had raised waves of expectations. The movie tells the story of Felix (Fahadh Faasil) and his experiments with life. The ebb and flow of emotions in Felix’s mind form the backbone of the film.
Felix is a fisherman at Mariam Mukku, a coastal village. He is the right hand of Mariyanasan (Manoj K Jayan) the main fish vendor at the area. Felix and his thug friends do whatever it takes for Mariyanasan.
As life goes smoothly for them, Felix meets Salomy (Sana Althaf), his childhood friend. They soon fall in love and, Felix starts to drift away from Mariyanasan, which brews animosity between them. From then on things change for the worse. Felix as a person undergoes many hardships to attain his love and a miracle of Holy Mary helps him overcome all these. The story or the premise of movie is nothing new. It never scales up from a usual love story told in a cliched manner. The presence of Fahadh Faasil, Joy Mathew and Nandu reminds us of scenes from the movie ‘Amen’. Without a strong screenplay (by the director himself) the excitement quotient falls flat.
The star cast, from Fahadh Faasil to Aju Varghese, was the major highlight of the movie. But without take-away moments they all end up as damp squib.
Except for the initial sequences, ‘predictability’ has been put up as the banner on ‘Mariam Mukku’. The performance of Pratap Pothen as the priest only evokes one response-what a waste of talent! Apart from the characterisation of Joy Mathew, the speech of Pratap Pothen, with a vacant face, is one of the lowest moments in the movie.
Fahadh Faasil has done justice to his role, but nothing remarkable. The role of Sana Althaf does not warrant much either.
Aju Varghese, with a dark shade, has done well. The climax scene in some way mimics the sequences of ‘Amen’ and stoops into a melodramatic tone. The mesmerising visuals of sea and interesting music by Vidyasagar are the only major positive strands in the film.
You don’t lose much even if you give it a miss. The movie gives you only one recurring feeling- been there, seen that.