A curry western that is filled with references that indulge in the style a bit too much. I feel like this is by far the weakest in LJP's filmography. The film is too disjointed without a proper flow. It tells the story through chapters to develop the myth of Vaaliban and ends with a promise of a second part that seems to be much more interesting than anything in this movie. The different stories throughout the movie should have been combined to make a tighter first half and then the second half of the movie should have been what is now the second part to be made. The myth-building of Vaaliban wasn't something novel enough to entice the audience through the disjointedness of the narrative. But the style itself used for it was incredible throughout the movie. The cinematography is brilliant and together with the background music creates a great atmosphere. The influences of Samurai movies to the Spaghetti Westerns, from MGR to Sholay etc, are great to pick up. It's such a beautiful movie to watch that more than often, I was ready to forgive all the flaws in the narrative. Even though the background music was great, the songs were not as well-suited. The mixture of so many different cultures on screen should have been mirrored in the songs as a positive thing but the songs brought out more on how a lot of it doesn't fit well, even though outside of the songs, that mixture of culture was quite nicely portrayed. I really feel like this would've been way better if they hadn't decided to make it two parts. Nonetheless, just by the technical marvel that is in this movie, I enjoyed a lot of it.
Review of Malaikottai Vaaliban
