Thankamani Review: Dileep’s Revenge Thriller Is Commercial And A Case Study On How Not To Touch History

Dileep’s latest release Thankamani, directed by Ratheesh Reghunandan, has a lot of plots and twists, but the movie is completely shallow and has nothing to offer for the viewer. The extreme commercialisation of a historical event in the movie is a wasted opportunity for the makers as Dileep’s Thankamani only serves the purpose of redemption efforts of a superstar.

The story of the movie is based on the infamous police atrocities in a panchayat called Thankamani in Kerala’s Idukki district in 1986 following altercations between the locals. The real incidents started when the locals demanded complete execution of a bus route to the centre of their village, as the bus operators were refusing to complete the route citing bad roads. Joining hands with the bus owners and local politicians, the police, allegedly unleashed terror in the area with shooting, torturing the men and gangraping the women of the village. The backlash of the police action ultimately led to the defeat of the incumbent government in Kerala next year.

The Thakamani incident has been recorded as a turning point in Kerala’s history. But, this movie has made it sure that relevance of a historical event can be simply sunk in the misdemeanours of creative errors for the sake of producing mass masala.

But, Thankamani, as movie has several positives. Though it has been made for the mass entertainment segment, there are elements of impeccable acting and plot twists to keep the viewer glued into the movie once you enter into the second half of the movie. The treatment of the movie is pure old class Malayalam potboiler in which the hero, accompanied by flashbacks and earthmoving back ground score, takes revenge.

On acting department, Dileep proves it again that he can helm any project, especially commercial ones, and veterans like Manoj K Jayan and Siddique wouldn’t disappoint you. Pranitha Subhash as the police officer, who is going after Abel Joshua Mathen (Dileep) after several high profile killings, is a major character but remains as a showpiece and is unable to deliver justice to the character. One revelation in the movie is Neeta Pillai, who dons the character of Abel’s wife.