Mahaviryar, Review.

 

Mahaviryar is a politically satirical period drama that tells about a king named Ugrasena(Lal) who is afflicted with incurable hiccups. In one of his dreams, his Rajaguru conveys a remedy for the problem and following the same, he instruct his minister Veerabhadran (Asif ali) to search for a girl of poetic beauty. Veerabadran forcefully abducts a girl named Devayani from a border village named Chithrapuri. After this incident,the father of Devayani files a complaint against the king for this act in presidency court and faces the trail.

On another countryside apparently shown in present day timeline, a monk ( Nivin pauly) was caught with a golden idol of lord Hanuman, thats allegedly stolen by him from a temple and recovered by the villagers from his posession.

Trails for both of these offences happens in a same court room and Apoornananda (Nivin pauly) though he is monk, defend himself with modern day law points against the arguments of the prosecution.

On King's trail, As the court couldn't arrive at an amicable solution even after acquitting him from the legal charges for which he was summoned, Apoornanandha plays his cards and fixes things. Lastly he is shown as walking through a gorge and disappears into flickers. 

Positives.

The film is experimental in its theme and discusses critical aspects on Monarchy, justice system, Privileges, Democratic values, Rights, Spirituality, intersectionality, class struggles and varied sociopolitical aspects that are relatable to the present. It blatantly criticise the judiciary that jumps on the whims and fancies of the monarch, there by targeting the administrative executives of today, there by having a similarity with the famous novel named Dharmapuraanam by O. V. Vijayan.

Humor is blended very judiciously without spoiling the seriousness of the core. It assures a clever usage of artistic freedom to tell critical issues in an easiest way.

Cinematography, especially for a 17/18th century era was spectacular with decent art works for palaces and villages. Their costume designs and classic Malayalam accent was also impressive.

Music and background score tried few folk rhythms and instrumentations, was also echoed well.

Siddique takes the lead in courtroom portions in terms of his performance. Nivin pauly and asif ali also dealt their characters safely,despite  the film's nature of ambiguity.

Negatives.

Its not enjoyable for everyone. Even its humor may not get clicked for all, so the satire and ideas too. The entire film may look like a smokescreening incident with few humors as crackers for fun. It demands political sense of understanding and little knowledge about Democratic principles and natural justice that comes into play between the state and its citizens.

The modesty of a women, was challenged three times, firstly in the name of a seducing women, secondly with a women who seek alimony, and thirdly with the main character named Devayaani. Although one can infer parallelism between these characters, but repeated projections like this was not so entertaining. Though the central character named Devayani have so many space in the story but she was very underwritten and dragged into a mere submissive women.

Conjecture of two timelines seemed too imaginative and illogical on first instance.

Rating.

Am giving 8/10 for this great experiment and suggest everyone to watch this film atleast TWICE.

By the way, Mark these words- " its not everyone's cup of tea. " 😝