I haven't considered the name "Amal Neerad" as trustworthy. Also didn't tried to watch his movies first day. The names which made me buy an fdfs ticket of this magnum opus were, Fahadh Faasil & Jayasurya. Yeah, I said "magnum opus". Iyobinte Pusthakam is the career best of cinematographer/director Amal Neerad till date.
I had seen the manhunts from Genesis to Revelations in this movie. Job is a person who can be seen in the Bible. He's wealthy, righteous and was a person who don't hurt anyone, even an ant. But here, Job from Iyobinte Pusthakam is an antonym of Job from the Bible. They'll take the opposite poles when it comes to the characteristics.
And Ivan is the representative of Kane from Bible. Isn't he? Up above at heaven, there's Lasar who's sitting next to god. Down below at earth, Lasar is on the right side of power and money. Dimitri is definitely not Pothifer, but we can relate his wife Rahel to Pothifer's wife. And Aloshy is having the characteristics of Abel and Joseph (from the old testament) at the same time.
The names of Job's 3 sons are taken from the Russian classic novel, "The Brothers Karamazov". Iyobinte Pusthakam is a visual treat from Amal Neerad. I'll name it as the 'visually stunning movie of the year'. Fahadh Faasil performed well as usual and did a great job in action sequences. Jayasurya also made his role memorable. Another actor who should be praised for his performance is Jinu Joseph, who played Ivan. As I said before, cinematography is excellent. Neha Nair and Yakzan Garry Pereira produced good music. But as a period story, Iyobinte Pusthakam lacks the honesty. Amal Neerad preferred style over history.
Malayalam industry is producing wonders using limited budget. If someone ask me 'Bahubali or Iyobinte Pusthakam', I'll prefer Iyobinte Pusthakam.
So guys, Iyobinte Pusthakam is a must watch.