Mariyam Mukku is the
first directorial venture of popular screenplay writer James Albert and the
film had a great star cast of hFahad Faasil, Joy Mathew, Aju Varghese, Manoj K
Jayan and new face Sana Althaf as heroine. The film don’t have much promotion
and hype before its release and the only hope on the film was James Albert who
wrote great scripts such as Classmates and Ividam swargamanu. But the film
ended up as a below average affair and it is not a good beginning to James
Albert as a director.
Mariyam Mukku is the
love story of Felix (Fahadh), a fisherman and Salomi (Sana Althaf). Felix who
lost his parents at a very young age is brought up by Mariyan Aasaan (Manoj K
Jayan). Felix meets his childhood friend Salomi but at a particular point he has
to choose between his Aasaan and the people of Mariyam Mukku as they stand in
his way to own Salomi. The events that unfold thereafter form the basic crux of
this movie.
Its a confused script
as the scenarist is caught midway through as to whether to proceed as a full
length romantic film or add more drama to it. The latter option was chosen and
thus that romantic track that was developing well looses its presence.
Direction from James
Albert is not that bad and his screenplay had in it to deliver something good
but it ended up as an average film that is visually good with all those beaches
and sea backdrop beautifully captured by the cinematographer who deserves
credit for that. Renjan Abraham has done a decent work on the editing table
while songs by Vidyasagar is not upto the standards set by the music director.
Still it was refreshing to hear veteran singer Yesudas singing a song here.
Fahadh did a decent job
as Felix. It was a neat effort from the Asin look alike Sana Althaf as Salomi
who is also making her tinsel town debut. Manoj K Jayan as Mariyan Aasaan was
able to make a good presence along with Joy Mathew, Irshad, Nandu, Sadiq and
Neeraj Madhav. Prathap Pothan is also part of the film in a very brief role.
Aju Varghese also appear in a pivotal role but somehow he was not able to make
a big contribution. A lengthy list of other actors are also part of the
supporting casts.
Overall, the film could
have been a better one had the love story between Felix and Salomi been better
handled and given more prominence than the events that unfolded later. Not a
bad film but did not provide the required level of entertainment either.
Impressed with his direction somewhat but not with the scripting completely and
I am going with two and a half out of five for James Albert's directorial debut
Mariyam Mukku.
Rating
: 6.5 / 10
Directed by James Albert
Produced by [A. K. Sabeer]
Written by James Albert
Starring Fahadh Faasil, Manoj K. Jayan, Prathap
Pothan, Joy Mathew,
Sana Althaf
Music by Vidyasagar
Cinematography Gireesh Gangadharan
Edited by Ranjan Abraham
Production company Sam
Big Movies
Distributed by LJ Films Pvt. Ltd
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