A stranger entering a calm atmosphere is one of the pet themes in films from all parts of the globe. “Once upon a time in the west” and our own “Thazhvaram” or “Kanmadam” are some of the best examples of this theme. Many films and literary works have come out in the name “Outsider” too. The latest entry to this group is the one written and directed by Premlal. It narrates the life of Sivankutty (Sreenivasan), his daughterMaya (Ganga Babu), Mukundan (Indrajith) and Balagopalan (Sai Kumar). Of course, the half-Malayali and half-Tamilian villain Lawrence (Pasupathy) turns the life of all into hell.
Though predictable, “Outsider” had all ingredients to make it a good movie. But as the director trying hard to get into the commercial track, may be because of his failure at the box office in his first venture, ‘Athmakatha’ (Autobiography), he loses the way somewhere. The dialogues are as old as Malayalam cinema and it could have been saved from being a disaster, if the director had chosen a better narrative.
To make matters worse, the most disappointing performances come, sadly from the veteran actors Sreenivasan and Pasupathy though in two extreme states.
When watching some of our films we feel the perils of brick kilns to our culture than to our ecosystem as it turns out to be one of the favourite locations. It is no wonder if one feels after watching this film, to be an “outsider” than spending 140 minutes in the theatre.