Lonappante Mammodisa Review: an updated Jayaram kind of film

Panchavarnathatha was the last Jayaram film that sort of received a fairly okay reception from the audience. Apart from that, every other movie done by the actor in the recent past was duds. Lonappante Mammodisa is one movie that I would is pretty much on the Panchavarnathatha level of quality. The numerous flaws in the making and writing get a cover-up through mature enough performances from the cast thus making it that passable feel-good movie.

Lonappan is the only brother of his three sisters. Lonappan was a talented storyteller. But due to financial liabilities, he couldn’t explore that creative side in him and was forced to do a regular job by managing a watch repair shop. As the financial state wasn’t that great Lonappan and his sisters were not married. The frustrated Lonappan loses his cool at one point in life when he sort of realized what he missed by compromising with his life. How his life plans change after that point and how it all ends is what Lonappante Mammodisa showing us.

Lonappante Mammodisa isn’t a flawless movie. The script takes ample time to set up the characters and the typical Jayaram ingredients are dragging the movie considerably in the second half. The bright side of this two hour 16 minutes movie lies in the second half were some positive moments are there which shows us the real Lonappan. The sequence featuring Dileesh Pothan elevates the movie considerably. The over-ambitious climax never becomes a burden for the movie because of the light-hearted rendering of some of the dramas.

Jayaram is pretty much repeating his safe zone performances in Lonappan. The actor isn’t getting a real challenge here but he suits the role perfectly. Shanthi Krishna as the stubborn elder sister is really good. Nisha Sarang manages to play with humor and serious tone effortlessly. Eva Pavithran was likable as the younger sister. Hareesh Kanaran gets a role that has more than humor to portray on screen. Dileesh Pothan’s brief character had the charm to win us over. Joju George, Kaniha, Anna Rajan etc are the other major names here.

As a filmmaker, Leo Thaddeus is partially on the old school style when it comes to handling drama. It was actually the actors who were saving the scenes here. The writing is also a bit clueless at many points in building the characters. The second half of the movie is where he manages to have some grip over the content and the struggle and feel good factors gives the movie a considerable boost. It had enough to make the audience root for Lonappan. The cinematography was okay and the music resembled Amen a lot.

Lonappante Mammodisa works as a Jayaram film in my opinion. It doesn’t really fit the mold of an updated Malayalam movie. It is an updated Jayaram feel-good drama.