Maheshinte Prathikaaram

Mahesh runs the photography studio he inherited from his father in Idukki. His life is quiet; passport photographs, weddings, evenings with his friends. One day he is caught in the middle of a street fight and is beaten in front of everyone. The shame is larger than the fight. That day he takes an oath: he will not wear slippers again until he finds the man who beat him and settles it. He starts going barefoot. Months pass and the man is nowhere. Meanwhile his life goes on. Dileesh Pothan directs; it is his first film. Syam Pushkaran wrote the script and Aashiq Abu produced. Fahadh Faasil, Aparna Balamurali, Anusree, Alencier Ley Lopez and Soubin Shahir are in the cast. It is an Indian production in Malayalam. The film opened in Kerala on 5 February 2016. The story rests on a real incident in the life of a man named Thampan Purushan from Thuravoor, near Cherthala. The narrative is set in the villages of Idukki and the place works like one of the characters. The matter it treats is honour; the moment the oath is spoken the question stops being the beating and becomes the keeping of a word. The film does not inflate the revenge; the months in between are the real body of the story. Fahadh Faasil does not play the character as a hero and keeps him ordinary. The narrative also carries two love stories and hurries neither. The reckoning at the end is given in one shot and without display. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, the events small, and anyone waiting for action will be disappointed. Who it is for: viewers who like Malayalam cinema and quiet provincial stories. Who it is not for: it is slow, uneventful, and the ending quiet.