Kavya Film Company’s Mamangam (dubbed from the Malayalam film of the same name; UA) is a period action film. The story is about the Mamankam festival of the 18th century, held in Kerala.
The film follows the journey of Panicker (Mammootty) who challenges the ruler during the Mamankam festival in 1760. But the ruler escapes just when Panicker is about to kill him after demolishing his army. Since Panicker is unable to defeat the king, he doesn’t return home and is assumed to be a blot on the family reputation.
Twenty-four years later, his brother, Chandroth Panicker (Unni Mukundan) and his sister’s son (master Achuthan) set out to participate in the same Mamankam festival to challenge the ruler and bring back the family honour. Do they succeed? Was Panicker, in fact, a disgrace to the illustrious family of warriors? Where did he disappear if he did not return home? Does Panicker know that his brother and nephew have gone to complete the task left unfinished by him 24 years ago?
Sanjeev Pillai has based his story on true historical events which are engaging and interesting. His screenplay, adapted by Shankar Ramakrishnan, has a lot of action and some emotions too. Of course, romance and comedy find no place in the tension-ridden drama — and that’s a minus point. Another minus point is the heavy regional flavour of the film, which will not be palatable to the Hindi-speaking audiences. However, scenes of the little nephew’s training and the pre-climax as well as climax fights are exciting and even breathtaking. Rajan Agrawal’s dialogues are written in such flowery language that they will serve to put off the youngsters. Also, the names of the characters and places are so difficult to remember that this will be another minus point for the Hindi film-going audience.
Mammootty is excellent and plays to the gallery. But his fans will miss him in the first half. Master Achuthan is superb in action and performance. Unni Mukundan looks very handsome and acts ably as Chandroth Panicker. Prachi Tehlan (as Unnimaya) is effective. Tarun Arora has good screen presence as Samar Koya. Sudev Nair makes his mark as Rarichan. Siddique, Suresh Krishna, Manikkuttan, Manikandan, Kaniha, Anu Sitara and Iniya lend fair support.
M. Padmakumar’s direction is good but he has made the film unidimensional. M. Jayachandran’s music is average as far as the Hindi film-going audiences are concerned. Lyrics are okay. Song picturisations are alright. Background music (by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara) is quite good. Manoj Pillai’s cinematography is of a fine standard. Sham Kaushal’s action and stunts are pretty exciting. But they appear to be unrealistic as they are too death-defying. Mani’s production designing is appropriate. Editing could’ve been sharper. Dubbing is fair.
On the whole, Mamangam has excitement and entertainment to offer to the Malayalam-speaking audiences, but the Hindi film-going audiences won’t find much masala in this period drama with a pronounced regional flavour in it.
Released on 13-12-’19 at Nishant Koparkhairane (daily 1 show) of Bombay thru Rajshri Productions (P.) Ltd. Publicity: so-so. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.