Janakan (2010)

Wonderful Movie

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

The entire movie can be described as a mix of parts equally bad and good. With a premise very similar to the slightly better 'Vairam', there is much potential at disposal which is not efficiently harnessed by veteran S.N.Swami's script. Mohanlal plays the cameo to perfection but the role is given more importance than it is due thereby sidelining the major issue of the movie. Suresh Gopi shines with a believable performance but the transition to the vigilante is not sketched out effectively. Harisree Ashokan, Biju Menon and Mohini phones it in while Vijayaraghavan has a few scene stealing moments which he does with aplomb. The movie also skims over the serious issue it deals with just as a framework for a thriller which is unfortunate, in my opinion, as it is a major one in the real world now. An average thriller which may work for you if you don't have much expectations from a Mohanlal-Suresh Gopi movie, which is hardly true in my case.

This is one of those movies that I began to watch with zero expectation(the previous show in the theatre had no audience) but was bowled over at the end. The direction was very good, editing's smart, very interesting storyline and performances true to the roles.I enjoyed Suresh Gopi's performance the most as he effectively expresses love, parental care, grief and vengeance at varying moments. Mohanlal was class, as expected. Even impressive were Biju Menon and Jyothirmayee. Priyalal as Suresh Gopi's daughter was decent.A lot of typical clichés were avoided in the story which gave the movie an intelligent feel from the beginning to end.Regarding the cons, it's negligible. I felt some of the acting could have been better by some of the supporting cast. Besides that, I think many of the entertainment-seeking youth might have been hesitant to watch this movie as it has less action and more of intellectual drama. But almost all who have seen it, liked it including yours truly. Eventually, the good word of mouth opinion will spread and hopefully make the movie decent money.Verdict - A smart crime drama, sprinkled with legal brilliance. Go for it.