Pattabhiraman Review: an extremely lackluster movie

Pattabhiraman may feel like a better movie only because of the fact that the team that delivered this movie has previously created horrendous films. Kanan Thamarakkulam and Dinesh Pallath is the team behind Pattabhiraman and the script of this movie is extremely lackluster. If you have an opinion that any video footage with a message attached to it is worthy of being called as a feature film, then Pattabhiraman is definitely for you.

Pattabhiraman, our hero is a food inspector by profession and a superb cook by passion. He is single and his criterion for finding a partner in life is that person’s idea of cooking and their ability to make rasam. The movie Pattabhiraman talks about the hurdles this food lover had to face when he took the charge of the food inspector in Thiruvananthapuram district.

It is pretty clear from the promos and the movie that Kannan Thamarakkulam and Jayaram will be marketing this movie as a very relevant and important film. Yes, when you look at the ultimate theme of the movie, it is indeed a movie that needs to be told in the modern society that is obsessed with junk food. But movie making is not hero repeating WhatsApp forward messages in every scene through dialogues. Nuanced storytelling, subtlety, etc are qualities that are required in movie making. In a particular scene, Pattabhiraman opens the eye of the district mayor by taking her to the RCC right from where she was eating her food. This kind of exaggerated unreal heroism is the problem with this movie. In another scene, a bedridden old man starts walking after having the porridge made by Pattabhiraman.

The daily soap-like making of Kannan Thamarakkulam continues and there is absolutely nothing here in the making to impress you as a viewer. The script that has no big plans to make things intriguing for the viewers is traversing through predictable trajectories and lame heroism. A comedy scene featuring Hareesh, Dharmajan and Pisharody are happening in the movie right after an extremely tragic sequence. The parallel tracks in the movie are either useless or forced inclusions. The cinematography with excessive light leak effect was really trashy and making every frame glossy is not considered as good cinematography. Unni Ganapathiye song was good while the other tracks were forgettable.

Jayaram is in his typical zone of acting with only costume getting changed. Miya is there in a caricature kind of role that represents the ambassadors of fast food. Sheelu Abraham struggles with expressions. Jayaprakash plays the role of the antagonist. Nandu, Anumol, Saikumar, Madhuri, Baiju, etc are there in character roles along with Dharmjan and Hareesh with their set of annoying comedy.

Kannan Thamarakkulam’s movie-making quality or Dinesh Pallath’s writing ability has not improved a bit. There are certain subjects that by default grab the attention of the viewers and Pattabhiraman is okay only on that regard. A subject like food adulteration needs to be addressed through a medium like cinema, but the way Pattabhiraman has done it is not the right way.