Thankam

Directed by Saheed Arafath starring Vineeth Sreenivasan, Biju Menon , Girish Kulkarni in lead role.

A gripping thriller with an unexpected twist.

The story tells us about the people in on in the gold business, their stress and strain in executing & what unintentional wrong steps they took which change their life, Thankam displays that grey area of the glitter business which is really not that glittery.

When it comes to performance, Vineeth Sreenivasan had done his best. He convincingly performed the character of Kannan the gold agent. His character represents that section of people in this glittery business falls into the traps which proves to be fatal for them. At one point we fells he is a con man but at the end we feel a sympathy towards that character.

Biju Menon alias Mathew had beautifully performed. His naive attitude, his innocence, his dialogue delivery in such situations where it is serious but when he delivers in his style, moment of laughter comes up.

Girish Kulkarni as shrewd police officer. An another notable performance. A perfect casting for the police officer.

Aparna Balamurali doesn't have much to deliver and in her limited presence had give an Ok performance. It was better to cast a heroine who is a beginner so that minimality of the screen presence and the artist carrying that character will be balanced as today especially post the national award scenario, public will expect more from Aparna Balamurali rather than being portrayed as a cameo heroine role.

Song restricted to 1 was an another positive factor.

Locations were good enough.

A crime thriller which takes like a slow train stopping at all stations wherein one by one a mystery is unlocked thereby not loosing the interest of the audience to watch till the end.

Overall Thankam ( Gold ) reminds us of one thing " All that glitters are not gold"

Thankam (2023) : Brief Review -

A cowardly crime drama, but that's the life of some middle-class people who have more courage than rich people. Thankam is a crime drama, a murder mystery actually, with a cowardice motive revealed in the climax, but you don't know, or maybe you know, that's the life of some people. Some lower- and middle-class people try too hard throughout their whole lives but still can't make enough money. Some carry debts for a long time and then bury themselves underneath that load. Thankam is about that pressure, that load, and how one middle-class man finds a getaway through it. The point isn't reasonable enough, but like I said, it's life for some people, so it's damn realistic for that chunk of people. Society may call them cowards and losers, but they have the courage to take their lives. Will any rich man have enough courage to do so? I know, that doesn't make any sense. Why would any rich man have to take his life when he has everything in his life? That's why this film would look illogical to a certain section of people, and that's perfectly alright. It deserves some hate for the point that it tries to make, as it might harm the entire point of living life and fighting for it. The film is about two gold brokers, Muthu and Kannan, trying to make more money than they need for a subpar life. They travel to Mumbai for a gold deal, and after that, Kannan disappears. The police have a tough time finding Kannan's whereabouts and what lies ahead of them. Since it's a murder mystery, I don't think I should give away any more plot details. The screenplay is a bit slow in the first half, and then the second half is somewhat pacy. Its length is a major issue here, but the performances of Biju, Vineeth, Aparna, and Girish Kulkarni have recovered a lot of losses here. The key factor is missing in Saheed Arafath's direction, but somewhere down the line, you are bound to feel a little sentimental about the whole thing even if you don't like it.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.

It falls under a good film with proper script and screenplay to lead from scene to another.

No time wasting scenes, songs or fights Every charecter had their scenes naturally performed with realistic tone as in our real lives, as in most Malayalam movies.

Some logistic questions do come into mind?

How is that they travel from Thrissur to Coimbatore and then to Muthupet near Thiruvarur in coastal Tamilnadu and return back to Coimbatore on same night?! Geographically, this seems impossible even with highways and nil traffic!

The ending was very dampened and abrupt which made a movie that could be 'best' to score 'just good'!

What happened to the 2 kilo gold, is a million dollar unanswered question in the movie?! If anyone got a clue about this, please update!

I enjoyed every second of this movie and loved the screenplay. The highlight of the movie is its climax and people are criticizing it because they never expected that. That's a classy story and screenplay for you, I would say.

It would have been great if the director gave some time to explain a few concepts regarding the occupation the main characters were doing, many people didn't get it at first instance and I also didn't understand what they were doing. Rather than that, I would say this is one of the best movies of 2023. Biju Menon and Vineeth played their roles nicely but the highlight is the Maharashtrian Girish Kulkarni, I have no words to explain his acting. I think it's time to rewatch the movie again.

Stellar performance by the cast, spellbinding script and very impressive direction, especially as there are many new artists such as the role of Arul , Abbas wife , Chechi etc to name a few .

BGM by Bijibal and Sound Design by Ganesh Marar is superb and adding to the whole feel of the experience.

It has enough lighter moments as well and not just about intense monents . Biju menon and Aparna Balamurli performance along with each and every character is amazing. Kochu preman .

Vineeth Srinivas character is also delivered seamlessly . Shyam Pushkaran is scaling new heights with each and every movie .