Thallumaala – A Ballad of Brawls.
I don’t remember the last time I enjoyed a movie this much. The last movie I can remember is another Malayalam movie, one of my all-time favourites, Angamaly Diaries (2017). Thallumaala has been on my watchlist for a long time and Lokesh Kanagaraj gave the final push when he mentioned Thallumaala as his favourite watch in 2022.
Watched it 3 times and as of now my Thallumaala obsession is nowhere near its end for another 2 weeks, I suppose. Let me start with the soundtrack by Vishnu Vijay. What a banger! I have been listening on repeat to the entire soundtrack with a special focus on ‘Ole Melody’. I want to mention how all the tracks are so well spun into the narrative of the movie. The ‘Thallumaala Paattu’ (Lo La Lo La Looo Laaa), Kannil Pettole for the ‘gram vibe, mystical Tupathu, and of course the ever vibing ‘Ndaakkippaattu’. I also keep revisiting the climax song battle ‘Chakkarachundil’.
Secondly, the fights. Of course, I have heard praises of fight sequences even before I watched the movie. Even then, I was taken aback by the stunt sequences. How the camera moved, and how the editing worked magic (by Nishadh Yusuf) made the film into one of my top favourites. The situations that build up to the marriage fight made all the waiting without an actual fight sequence in the movie’s runtime totally worth it.
I loved how memorable the characters were, without even going into major details about each and every character. I didn’t get enough of Jemshi (Lukman Avaran), tbh. Shine Tom Chacko’s Reji made a perfect villain (or friend) to Tovino’s Wazi, without saying.
I am still thinking about how certain sequences were shot, how they were edited, how the costumes and set pieces made the film an even more intimate affair, how the songs and dialogues were almost inseparable, and how much fun they had while shooting this epic. I am still not over my Thallumaala craze. I am late to the party, yeah. But I think I found this movie at the sweet spot of a time when overhype would kill people’s interest in the movie and the time when people will move on to the ‘underrated’ saga.
Thallumaala obsession phase, FTW!
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