Thobama movie review - A pleasing experience

Thobama comes under the production of new sensation Alphonse Puthren. This movie directed by Mohsin Kassim may feel like an easy breezy fun film from the looks of it, but the fact that it has managed to achieve something beyond that makes it a movie worth watching. Thobama ultimately works okay as a friendship drama.

Set in 2006, Thobama talks about 3 friends Thommi, Balu and Mammu. Thommi is largely interested in quick money making methods. Mammu is this guy who aspires to be an actor and doesn't think much. Balu, on the other hand, is a typical middle-class guy with an employed father and no life aspirations. Thobama actually shows us a phase in the life of these three which makes them realize the value of friendship and relationships.

The Alphonse Puthren influence is very prominent in the making of Thobama. Mohsin Kassim was an associate of Puthren and from the craft, you can sense the direct inspiration. The way the camera tilts to the edit pattern, Thobama has the ambiance of Premam on a treatment level. The overstretched middle areas of the movie that can't handle the detailing of the lottery mafia gently is the problem with Thobama. But by having an impactful emotional tail end to the tale, Kassim and gang patch up that error considerably. 

Even the cast of the film has all the Aluva gang members. Siju Wilson is Balu, Krishna Shankar is Mammu and Sharfudheen is Thommi and they all were really good at making those characters humane rather than comical. Heroine Punya Elizabeth was good. Sree Lakshmi, Rajesh Sharma, and Shabareesh Varma have got good enough roles in the film.

On a making level, Muhsin Kassim adds realism the same way Alphonse Puthren added it in his first two craft filled entertainers. The depiction of the lottery mafia and subsequent things are not irrelevant, but it sort of blurs the focus of the film. That randomness gets a recovery and fair enough backing up in the last half an hour, where the film goes back to being a friendship driven cinema. Sunoj Velayudhan's frames were good and the music from Rajesh Murugesan sounded really good. A special mention to the carefully etched out sound design of the film.

If you are thinking this movie is a light-hearted comedy-drama, it's not. It is beyond the scope of a comedy one would expect to see the cast. But the ambition to be a bit more than the usual does derail it occasionally. In the end, Thobama is a pleasing experience.