User reviews

The most unprecedented aspect of Thankam is its distinct look at gold riders. Shyam Pushkaran's screenplay meticulously approaches its key characters Muthu (Biju Menon), Kannan (Vineeth Sreenivasan), and Jayant Sakhalkar (Girish Kulkarni), pulling you into their realistically gritty world with ease. The proceedings are completely engaging (up until the climax), with Bijibal's score, Kiran Das' cuts, and Gautham Sankar's cinematography serving their purposes well. Little revelations lead to bigger ones, and there are facets to Kannan that we get to know in bits and pieces. I wish Aparna Balamurali's character (Kannan's wife) had more meat to add to the plot, but since revelations surrounding Kannan are gradual, her character appears under-written.

Muthu and Bejoy (a superb Vineeth Thattil) take on the audience perspective, eager to find answers and getting perplexed at how sophisticated things are, beyond what they can imagine. Their internal banter also keeps things a bit light, in an otherwise cynical setup. Girish Kulkarni is fantastic, and the language barriers involved when a team of cops from Maharashtra investigate the case of a missing Malayali in Tamil Nadu are poignantly presented. He also gets at least one unexpectedly massy scene where a change of tone and posture in a conversation with a senior Tamil cop gets the job done faster. Same goes for the "poda koppe!" at the end. The climax, while not weak from a writing perspective, comes across as a bit of a dampener as all hopes of a bigger, more shocking twist are dashed.

Watched this one with my family today. This was an adult movie in a way. After an indifferent start, the film becomes so damn gripping. I really enjoyed it. It was a great police procedural. Awesome supporting cast - especially Vineeth Thattil (Kadan Benny Chettan in Angamaly Diaries), Gireesh Kulkarni and Jain Andrews, the actor who played Alex. After a slightly slow and indifferent start, the film suddenly grips you in a way only the best police procedurals can. Writer Shyam Pushkaran throws in a couple of mass scenes towards the end. Background score was jarring on some occasions. But this is a really terrific movie man. Great debut for director Saheed Arafat.

(8/10)

The first half of the film was highly involving and the making deserves an huge appreciation. The wonderful job on the Music by Bijipal helped as well.

I found the second half to be predictable and the story telling lost its pace which it gathered in the first half. Few shorts could have been avoided or bettered.

All the casting were perfect. The character done by Biju Menon, Muth was my personal favourite. But at the end of the day you will be thinking about Vineeth's character, Kannan. Thanks to Girish Kulkarni in trusting Working Class Heros, done amazingly well in the role of police officer. Vineeth Thattil's character was the joker in the pack, helped in the narration of the story, had also done an excellent job.

Highly recommended to watch in theatres!

Malayalam movie Thankam starring Biju Menon, Vineeth Sreenivasan , Girish Kulkarni etc is a good crime drama written by the great Shyam Pushkaran. Movie produced by Bhavana Studios who made some great movies like Joji, Kumbalangi Nights etc . THANKAM is a story of 2 men involved in Gold business in Trissur and they travel to mumbai for gold exchange it leads to crime investigation where the police who is played by the great Girish Kulkarni travels to different states to catch the culprit and tries to resolve the case.

Top notch performance by Vineeth and Biju Menon. It's Girish Kulkarni who steals the show . He plays this shrewd police officer and has given his best performance.

Good to see the makers have used all languages like hindi, marathi, English, tamil and malayalam instead of forcing to speak malayalam to non mallu actors like Girish Kulkarni and some other tamil actors.

It's a slow crime drama with a twist in the climax. The writer smartly kept the climax as open ended so that people can have different perspectives to it.. Watch it to know better #BhavanaStudios #VineethSreenivasan #shyampushkaran #BijuMenon #GirishKulkarni #Unnimaya.

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.

There are 2 friends who are gold merchants dng business successfully...but mysteriously one of the friend died jn Mumbai when business trip... Then investigation starts from a police team and they suspect each and every of them... Soo many characters so it's not easy to predict the killer or reason of suicide... All r acted soo well.. But climax was very disappointed... If u r a investigation fan then u must watch this movie..!!

I saw the full review in 'voice of visha' channel...

There are 2 friends who are gold merchants dng business successfully...but mysteriously one of the friend died jn Mumbai when business trip... Then investigation starts from a police team and they suspect each and every of them... Soo many characters so it's not easy to predict the killer or reason of suicide... All r acted soo well.. But climax was very disappointed... If u r a investigation fan then u must watch this movie..!!

I saw the full review in 'voice of visha' channel...

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 .

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!

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"

RATED 7/10 Language: Malayalam Source: Amazon Prime

The movie has quite different and less travelled backdrop and characters are fresh for this story. First twenty minutes, it was very difficult to follow the movie, later its become slow burner and hooked to the murder investigation.

The story flow and how it travel across different locations and revealing the different layers of the characters nicely. The climax is bit unexpected and looks more abrupt.

The best part is that all the characters had the grey shade in this story but still good human being. Decent watch and tune for the slow narration.

Mind-blowing story buildup, acting and the suspense. A must watch!!

These kinds of movies are once in a lifetime kinda movies in my opinion.

Vineet, Biju (and probably all others) - marvellous natural acting...brilliant would be a understatement!!

Oh, the Maharashtra police, girish, wow, equally matched the performances! The Tamil counterparts too, excellent!!

A well thought of storyline. Keeps you gripped right from start till the end (and I mean the fag end!!!).

I think this has to be one of the best movies of the year, undoubtedly.

Not to forget, 'Devi neeye' song, puts the icing on the cake!

Well made suspense thriller movie with all good acting especially the crime investigator Marathi actor Gireesh Kulkarni. Hats off to him because of home only this movie is so gripping.👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Marathi acor Gireesh Kulkarni as investigator. His performance is excellent. This movie is dubbed in Hindi also. Please do watch this movie for his excellent acting performance.

I need to see him personally to convey my congratulations. Such a capable actor is a missing in Malayalam movies.

Beautiful picturing all the scenes with realistic feelings. Kudos to all the team of people of this wonderful movie of the year.

Absolutely riveting and hard hitting!!!! The slow build up and the twists and turns before revealing the culprit. The movie takes us through the journey of the police personnel spanning several states to find the culprit/s behind the main crime. A Pan india Movie in the real sense. Not like those jarringly loud Idiotically violent over rated movies that just rake in money. Haunting long after you finished watching, for the theme it attempted to convey so realistically. Outstanding acting by Girish kulkarni, Biju menon, and Vineeth Srinivasan. Kudos to the director Sahath Arafeth and the producer Fahad Fazil for this bold attempt. A Must watch!

"thankam" definitely is an amazing crime investigation procedural drama.

The performances are awesome, so subtle and natural. Girish Kulkarni is the show stealer, what a performance. Vineeth, biju menon, thattil david and all the other actors who performed gave an amazing performance. The writing was amazing, very well researched and attention to details was commendable, shyam pushkaran proves that he is one of the best writers of Malayalam cinema now. Bijibals song was nice.

A small issue i had with the movie is its climax, it felt a bit underwritten, saying more would be a spoiler. Apart from that a solid crime investigation drama.

I'm their quest to show everything as realistic as possible, they absolutely murder all story lines. I am sick of this obsession with being "realistic". If you want to be realistic why don't you just stand outside and watch the road for hours, soak in as much reality as you want. Everyone bashes Bollywood but at least they used to have interesting story lines, nowadays it's all about grim sarcastic faces spreading "reality" in all directions. If you criticise it, then you don't have good taste in art. If your art doesn't interest me then take it elsewhere to your highly "intellectual" admirers.

I am a critic to an extend that I stopped watching "2018" in between, haven't completed it yet and rated "home" some 7 points here. Its so subjective , yet a movie is only good when you finish it and never felt you watched a "movie" ! All the legendary movies are sort of real incidents for me :) Lol ,Jokes aside, but a fantastic movie after a long time, every bit and pieces carefully stitched and no unnecessary bumps. So authentic screenplay (my personal criteria #1 )and the presentation too.. Kochu preman never spoke much, but its one such role of him ill never forget ..! All others too probably on their bests..Kudos everyone..

Summary - If you are looking for a pure play Thriller then you will be disappointed... What you end up getting is a Thriller which converts into a psychological treatise (on a middle class human who is getting weighed by all the financial issues that he faces)... AND I LOVED IT!!

Around the end of the film Vineeth says (heart touching) something to the effect of running the race for a very long time and then realizing that one has been running it in the wrong direction!! This gives a window into the feelings of a common man who is not winning in life!!

A very sublime acting from Biju Menon... Digesting as to what is happening and questioning his belief systems and whether his friend was truthful to him all along or not - EXCELLENT ACTING... But my favourite was Vineeth - that innocent smile and optimistic looks hid a lot of things that are going on inside this common man... KUDDOS ON A GREAT JOB.

I loved the Police man character (Girish Kulkarni if I am right). I loved the casting aspect too... Rather than going for a high profile actor, someone who might only "look" like a police inspector, it was an excellent idea to go for someone who is looking normal and has the ability blow hot and cold as the situation needs...

But logically/common sensically - a trip from Thrissur to Coimbatore will only take 2-3 hours (but the protoganists start after having breakfast and reach Coimbatore ONLY in the night!!) while a trip from Coimbatore all the way to Muthupettai will take more than 10 hours - not enough time for Vineeth to reach Muthupettai in the same night itself, get caught by Police and then for Biju to start from Coimbatore and reach Muthupettai before day break!!

But I understand why this episode was needed, especially the need for this episode to happen in a coastal area... But then they could have told that they were going from Trissur to Trichy first (instead of Coimbatore) and then Vineeth takes the car from Trichy to Muthupettai...

I saw quite a few negative reviews and I since I loved the film, decided to write a long review... Basically - If you are looking for a pure play Thriller then you will be disappointed... What you end up getting is a Thriller which converts into a psychological treatise. How many more 'pure' thrillers? This is good/better.

I LOVED THE FILM (PERIOD).

We've always been avid supporters of the producers of this film (Dileesh, Fahad, and Syam) as they never disappoint. But surprisingly, the story was uneventful and long

DELICIOUS

-Thankam gave us a good peek into the lives of gold agents, the hardships and dangers that come with the job as well as lack of profitability.

-Girish Kulkarni really stood out. He was the joker and mocker, but also the sharp detective who knew when to get serious and be fearless operating in intimidating and unknown territories

BLAND

-Some aspects of the film didn't quite make sense, e.g. Why didn't the Mumbai police order forensics to take the fingerprints on the padlock used to close Kannan's hotel room in order to quickly identify the suspect?

-The film, very regrettably, had nothing to look forward to; our imagination went above and beyond the story trying to come up with some jaw-dropping revelations but in the end, it was a casual investigation that resulted in nothing striking...

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.

I always wondered what has been the contribution of supposedly great arthouse directors of Malayalam Cinema over the years. Its next to nothing. How can you classify their cinema in the context of good cinema several Malayalam directors having being churning out for the benefits of Malayalees across the world. Gems that can be cherised until your last breath. Let's take a case in point of two exalted directors during the 1980 and late 1990. Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Govindan Aravindan. They made awful movies which had no entertainment value of any kind. They got ill deserved praise and adulation from journalists and juries with adherence to a certain political ideology. I remember watching "Kanchana Sita" by G Aravindan, its probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. It was meaningless and pointless, a retelling of Ramayana made by the jaundiced eyes of an ultra-left director. It was so comical to watch the movie, in fact Sita is never shown in a movie centred around her. But crticis educated us by saying that her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. How funny. It became evident to me why these people flourished making such crap during the so-called arthouse, new age period of Malayalam cinema.

There have been great directors apart from the arthouse clique in Malayalam cinema who provided wholesome entertainment which encapsulates what cinema should actually be. To a name of few Ramu Kariat, Padmarajan, K G George, Bharathan, IV Sasi, Fazil, T Hariharan, Sathyan Anthikad, Sibi Malayil, Ranjit etc made sensible and evocative movies. They raised the bar of Malyalam cinema by several notches, not the arthouse crooks.

The same malady is setting with the new crop of directors who are trying to emulate their long forgotten masters and their brand of cinema. The recent, Nna Thaan Case Kodu is a classical case of such cinema, this movie was completely rubbish but had a certain brand of film critics raving and ranting about it. Are they really honest in their opinion? Did they actually enjoy watching it? I guess not.

Thankam falls into this very category of baseless of should I say pointless cinema.

Starting was fine, story grew smooth, there was a crime and good team gathered to investigate the murder. In-between stories found by police developed suspense and eager to find the culprit. Theatre fight was excellent. But finally ended pathetic. There are people facing the same issue after the covid-19, some are still struggling to come out from it. For them this movie is a disaster. If there was good reason to end his life or if an actual murder has happened, it would have been fine. But the movie finally ended him as a looser, this was not expected from vineeth sir. Biju menon and his friend was excellent in Acting.

It's better to watch crime patrol in Sony than watching Thankam. It's such a disaster and literally crawls. Waste of time. Don't watch it. All the actors in this movie looked lost and only Biju Menon could contribute at least something. From the beginning to the very end, they made a good subject such a disaster, felt upset that I could have utilized this 2.5 hours for something productive. World is moving forward, but the so called new Gen movie crawls. I really wonder What role Aparna Balamurali has in this movie? She is such a fine actress, why she would have agreed to play a side role which has Zero contribution?

Based on the ratings here, i decided to watch this movie. Big mistake.

Lets start with The good - casting.

The bad - the direction The ugly - the script.

The movie lacks a good script. The idea of the movie is commendable. But the entire script and execution is very poor.

Vineeth srinivas and biju menon breeze through their rolez. The supporting cast did fabulous work.

The director tries his best to make this a "suspense thriller", bust fails miserably.

The movie does higlight some of our society's norms and current state of "affairs".

I would request everyone to provide proper ratings for movies. This movie was rated 9.5 on imdb and should never be.