Disastrous would be the simplest word I could find to describe the second directorial of Arun Gopy titled Irupathiyonnam Noottandu. When I saw the underwhelming trailer, I thought the movie would have some content and only Pranav Mohanlal could end up being the cringe factor. But luckily for Pranav, the script becomes his companion throughout the movie and for the viewers, this 162 minutes long movie is a tiresome experience that just doesn’t work on any level.
So Appu is a surfer in Goa who lives with his parents. His father Baba is like a retired gangster-like figure who now doesn’t have the old charm and power. Appu happens to meet a girl named Saya during New Year’s Eve at a Goan party and the girl eventually becomes his love interest. But there were restrictions for Saya which was unknown to Appu. And the movie Irupathiyonnam Noottandu shows us how Appu realizes those problems and frees her from all that.
Anyone who has seen Imtiaz Ali’s highway would definitely understand from where Arun Gopy got the spark for the story. I even liked how he placed the nun element into it. But the major issue is that this particular area and aspect is only a minuscule part of the script which is unbearably typical. After the movie, I was thinking about a lot of subplots in the movie which had no real relevance. The writer in Arun Gopy has his opinion on many ongoing events and it almost seems like he created scenes to state his viewpoints on those issues without even thinking whether it will do any good to the whole movie. The only thing I liked in the trailer was that last action set piece and even that got canned in a very clumsy way, making me feel almost exhausted.
As an actor, Pranav Mohanlal is still struggling to get the emotional aspects correctly. He is physically fit to do all the stunts and that can’t be the only thing to build a career, at least in Malayalam. His dialogue delivery is really disappointing. And Arun Gopy has mostly written too dramatic dialogues for an actor who is still struggling with his diction. His drunkard act was terrible and even in the remaining portions, the actor in him was struggling. Debutante Rachel David plays the role of Saya and she was giving a tough competition for Pranav in not being expressive with the help of Raveena Ravi’s dull dubbing. Abhirav Janan (formerly known as Abhishek Raveendran) as Macaroni was a big relief and I really hope this guy gets more meaty roles. Manoj K Jayan is that over-enthusiastic father here. There is a series of irrelevant characters played by prominent actors in the film. And one of them is played by Gokul Suresh and I must say that even a true communist would find the Sakhavu glorification in that part annoying.
Arun Gopy should either drop the idea of writing or should improve his writing in the next film. Like I said in the beginning, he has a political view about almost all ongoing issues. Even the credits, in the beginning, show us current hot topics. The issue is that he wants to showcase almost all that in his movie and we as an audience would wonder where this movie is going. Towards the climax, there is a scene where Appu talks to Saya about gender equality and the guy next to me was asking from where that debate suddenly came. Arun Gopy himself shows up on the screen to criticize malicious journalism. The lack of subtlety in all those areas makes it an extremely boring experience. A talented Abinandan Ramanujam delivers an underwhelming output in this movie. The edits never really elevated the movie, especially the action sequences. And there was a noticeable technical mistake in the edit towards the climax. Fights never looked like they were done by Peter Hein and the CGI aided climax fight was disheartening. Songs were fine, but the background score was forgettable.
Irupathiyonnam Noottandu is a lazily written, clumsily made film that just doesn’t have a phase of excitement to its credit. The hero’s name was shown as Mohanlal which sort of transformed into Pranav Mohanlal. And there are plenty of dialogue references within the film. When you look back at all of them after finishing the film, it just shows how empty the movie is.
Irupathiyonnam Noottandu is a lazily written, clumsily made film that just doesn’t have a phase of excitement to its credit.