What a nice film!!! And, most importantly, it is dubbed in English plus all major Indian languages on Netflix. So you can watch it with your kids! Finally, someone is smart enough to see the value in that.
This is a classic Tovino Thomas movie. Kind of amazing that a minor Malayalam actor already has such a distinctive onscreen persona. He’s young, sweet, a little self-centered, a little naive, quick to fall in love, but not actually a bad person. I guess the biggest thing is that he is sensitive. He is quick to feel hurt himself, but also quick to feel it when others are hurt and try to help them.
As a superhero, he is a throwback to the original Peter Parker/Spider-Man. An average person who is given powers not through any personal virtues, but just by accident. But those powers and what he does with them, that is what defines him as a character.
Where this film gets really interesting is that it takes this average person and puts him in an average place. Is a hero with great powers needed any less in a small village than in a big city? And why should a hero with great powers necessarily leave home? Why not stay back and deal with village matters in a village way?
I’m making the whole film sound deep and maybe kind of boring. It’s not! It’s fun, it’s clever, and it has some great special effects sequence that are more about being smart than spending money. It’s one of those Malayalam films where 2/3rds is a blast, and 1/3rd is suddenly tragic and heartbreaking. The 2/3rds is super SUPER fun, and light, and silly. And the 1/3rd is light-for-Malayalam.
It’s a great movie if you like superhero films, it’s a great movie if you like soft sweet heroes, it’s a great movie if you like to think, and it’s a great movie if you like village films. It’s also a great movie to watch dubbed with your kids. Enjoy it! And then come back and check out my other SPOILERS review.
dontcallitbollywood 
This movie reminds a lot Godha, the other Basil Joseph film: Tovino is a little lost and a failure in the beginning but later finds his goal and grows + there is a strong badass girl he likes.
Personally I like Godha more, and you?
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Yep, mostly because it doesn’t have thr dark bits
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I just finished the film, but not with kids, so I’ll get to see it again with them, MAYBE dubbed in English, we’ll see. But the acting, the acting was GREAT – the nephew was phenomenal. And the villain, wow. Such good writing! The villain wasn’t a real villain, the hero wasn’t a hero, an immature self centered kid. But the star, Tovino, what a specimen of human. He was like a foot taller than all the other actors. I don’t know if that is because he is tall or because everyone else was so short. It does always bother me in movies though when they have these amazingly muscled characters and they never show them working out. Oh yeah, he totally got those muscles at the sewing machine or we’re supposed to believe giant arms just come with birth.
I loved the most recent Spiderman, largely because of all the Spidermen in it – but this was a better movie. This was a real story. And it is a sad story. But this is the non-spoilers review so I won’t say more.
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Yaaaaaay, so glad you watched it! And so glad you think your boys might like it!
On Sat, Jan 8, 2022 at 1:06 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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They are watching it dubbed in English now!
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Such a nice film!!! I watched it in malayalam.
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