I am not a hardcore mohanlal fan and I actually question his sensibilities in some of the recent movie choices he has made. But, this movie actually worked for me. In full, I liked the movie, but in parts, I was like meh. Not bored by any means, but felt disconnected. Mohanlal has the aura, the innocence and the body flexibility to pull off the role of vaaliban. He sold it to me right from the first scene. The issue was that in between all the amazing frames and the different characters and homages LJP wanted to include, he forgot to establish a bond between the characters and develop arcs, atsast for the main cast. None of the relationships are explored or strongly portrayed, so deaths, revenge, treachery etc. Don't hit the mark at all. Also, the fight choreography could have been improved so much, some of them were an absolute joke and looked awkward. Danish Sait was a miscast. That role needed somebody who could command the screen a bit more and was a bit more insane and wild. Danish looked meek. The second part looks promising, but I am not sure if LJP has it in him to do it. One last point is about mohanlal fans. After the fdfs reviews, I am now sure that it's the hardcore mohanlal fans who are destroying this talented actor. After this so called failure of vaaliban, I really hope he doesn't go back to doing utter garbage movies like Monster, Aaratt etc.
Review of Malaikottai Vaaliban
