Mamangam Review: An Average Experience that Fails to Capture the Greatness of History!

M. Padmakumar’s Mamangam is a film that blends history and fiction and explores the incidents that happened between the 17th and 18th Centuries. Mamangam is a festival that happens every twelve years on the banks of Bharathappuzha, and the movie depicts the story of the last two warriors sent to kill the Zamorin ruler to reclaim the status of Valluvakonathiri in Mamangam.

Mamangam‘s storyline is backed with some historical data as well as fiction, and added cinematic elements. The film travels through three generations from the Chadroth family who are being Chaver (Suicide Squad) sent by Valluvakonathiri to kill the Zamorin ruler. It also depicts the quest to travel to Zamorin, and the final battle makes the rest of the story.

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Kicking off with the characters and the performances, Unni Mukundan and Master Achuthan shared an ample amount of screen time in the movie and delivered exceptional performances representing the last two generations of warriors traveling for the kill. Megastar Mammootty went through a surprising makeover for his role, but, beyond that, he didn’t have much to offer storywise. The film displayed two diverse shades of emotions. The fighting spirit of the warriors and the trauma the women had to grow through to deal with the losses. The remaining set of characters played by Siddique, Prachi Tehlan had quite a few limitations and failed to make a stronger impact.

And to be fair, the promos and the trailers of the film promised an action-packed thriller. But, instead, it was filled with dialogues that don’t register an impression. Also, the screenplay sauntered around for quite too long, and as a result, the film turned out to be an average fare while having the potential to showcase a thrilling narrative.

The production design has done justice to the movie in recreating Mamangam. The massive budget helped the prospect of creating massive sets, that very well matched the 18th Century. The camera work by Manoj Pillai deserves applause as the visuals were pleasing to the eye. Particularly the ones which are shot during night time were crafted with excellence.

M. Jayachandran’s music was not appealing, and the songs were stitched to the wrong part of the movie. And the background music by Sanchit and Ankit Balhara was average but complemented the script well. The action sequences were decent, excluding a few gravity-defying moments which were justified in the latter half of the film.

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Overall, Mamangam fails to live up to the expectations and is definitely not a crowd puller. It had the opportunity to tell a great story, but, the screenplay was a major let down as the movie excelled in other areas. However, the performance of Master Achuthan will remain in our hearts for a very long time.

Rating – 3/5 | Grade – B