Anugraheethan Antony: "A slack script doesnt offer an anugraheethan experience for the audience!!!"

Election season has begun & our state went to the polls about a week back. However, the utter disregard for the COVID restrictions during the election campaign has led to an outburst of positive cases & even deaths which is bound to worsen over the next few weeks. Can anyone fool death? Hmm...certainly not after all it's an inevitable truth of our existence. This essentially means that we need to make the best use of our time on earth after all good deeds are never left unrewarded. So on Fool's day, Prince Joy released his directorial debut "Anugraheethan Antony" that dealt with something similar along these lines.

Antony (Sunny Wayne) was the lazy & aimless son of a retired and reputed teacher,Varghese (Siddique). The irresponsible nature of the former was the reason for constant friction between the father and son. It was around this time, that he met Sanjana (Gouri Kishan) the daughter of a local mill owner & as one would expect, it was love at first sight for Antony. But he lacked the courage to convey it to her & even if he does, will her father approve of it???

Without mincing words, the biggest flaw of the movie is the script penned by Naveen T Manilal, that wanders aimlessly for most parts of the movie. The screenplay does manage to salvage it to a certain extent with the melodramatic scenes (some might feel feel it was overdone) which makes us connect with the situation & at times, welled up the eyes. The dogs played an important part & that was an interesting take, though it should have been explored much more. Another aspect that works in its favour is Arun Muraleedharan's music & BGM while the other technical aspects were average at best.

On the performance side, Sunny Wayne has done decently though he falters big time in the emotional scenes. This is the first major role for Gouri in Malayalam & she has done a fine job along with Muthumani & the ever reliable Siddique. The rest of the cast also did their parts aptly be it Jaffar Idukki, Manikandan, Indrans, Suraj, Baiju etc.

Verdict: The emotional scenes does manage to work its magic on the audience though that doesnt hide the fact that the story lacks the impact. It was refreshing not to see the spirit in a vengeful avatar, however the makers fails to cash on it. In short, you may check it out if you have the time!!!

Rating: 2.25/5

Regards...Ben