Thirakkatha – A Lackluster Katha

I had been to Kerala on a long vacation and decided to catch up on some path breaking movies of 2008. One such movie which had lots of hoopla around it was Thirakkatha. It’s based on a true story of a yesteryear actress, late Srividya and an acting legend, our own Kamal Hassan. Story has been penned and directed by Renjith, known for his brilliant and aesthetic narration.

Priyamani dons the role of the actress Malavika, once a reigning box office queen, now a disgraced soul, whose current whereabouts are unknown. Anoop Menon plays a struggling actor Ajayachandran, now a reigning superstar, who had a romantic liaison with Malavika which ended in a brief nuptial.

A promising, new director Akbar played by Prithviraj is in search for an appealing and original plot for his next movie. The expectations from him are quite high since his debut movie was received stupendously by the audience and critics alike. He decides to make the love story between Malavika and Ajayachandran as the plot of his upcoming movie. As Akbar searches for Malavika, the love story between her and Ajayachandran unfolds as flashback. The meeting of these three characters forms the climax.

Overall, the story lacked depth and the characters not well etched. The climax too, was filmy and overdrawn. The national award winning actress Priyamani failed to impress. May be it’s her character which just failed to click. Anoop Menon was total miscast as Ajayachandran. His dialogue delivery reminded one of superstar Suresh Gopi during his “Commissioner” days. Prithviraj, though had a brief role, did complete justice as Akbar. His potential needs to be harnessed so that he can reach the leagues of Lalettan and Mamooka.

If you have plenty of time at your disposal or are insomniac, watch it.