Jawan of Vellimala review: "Mammooka's wait for an elusive hit continues!!!"

Before proceeding into the review, I would like to express my gratitude to all my well wishers & blog readers for their support as this is my 151st review with a cumulative readership which just crossed 50K. Pretty similarly, Anoop Kannan was indebted to his guru Lal Jose on his maiden venture "Jawan of Vellimala". What made it all the more fascinating was the fact that both of them were locking horns on the same weekend. With Lal Jose creating a gem with "Ayalum Njanum Thammil", the question now is can Anoop Kannan size up to his guru???

Vellimala dam was an architecture of pride for the villagers as it was a testament to the struggles & hardships that they suffered to make it into a reality. Gopi Krishnan (Mammootty), one of the caretakers of the dam was an ex-army personnel who was forced to retire following a mishap to his eye. However, his claims of having struck terror in the enemies in his heydays evoked laughter as Gopi was scared of the dark since he saw ghosts of people who had plunged to their deaths from the dam. So was it just a figment of his imagination or was there an iota of truth???

After having being the associate to the maestro Lal Jose for quite some time, Anoop Kannan has finally conjured up courage to call the shots.With Mammooka's Playhouse production house pumping in the money & not to forget, Mammooka's lean patch; the pressure on Anoop would naturally be much more than a normal debutant. Considering the execution of the movie, there is no doubt that he has honed his skills pretty well under his guru. However, he has been massively led down by James Albert's script who struggles to create an engaging thriller. The premise & basic storyline had the promise of something interesting, but it turned out to be a damp squid. Satheesh Kurup has done a decent job with his visuals while Bijibal's music was average with "Pora neranjoru pathira" going to be a hot favourite for booze parties.

Now what do I say about Mammooka, for more than a year now no matter what he does his films have been  barely able to have queues reminiscent of the beverages corporation atleast for the opening weekend. Even here, he makes a decent effort along with Sreenivasan but with a flawed script there is nothing much that they can salvage. As for the rest of the cast, they were average at best with none of them deserving a special mention. 

Verdict: The film will have an encouraging opening thanks to the promos & hype surrounding the clash between the heavyweights. But in this battle, the guru & heir apparent wins it hands down as the script is bereft of an engaging tale. In short, if lucky it might break even nothing more!!!

Rating: 1.5/5

Regards...Ben