Manyam Puli Review

Manyam Puli Review, What’s Behind: Dubbing films are no more going beyond the Telugu audience observation. When it is a Malayalam film from Mohan Lal, obviously we expect it to be a realistic drama with strong nativity. However, Manyam Puli is a complete commercial cinema raked Rs. 125+ Crs gross at Kerala Box Office has now entered into Tollywood hunt. Let’s see, what is Manyam Puli all about?

Manyam Puli Story: Puli Kumar (Mohan Lal) is born and bought up in a remote hamlet Puliyoor situated inside a dense forest, easily vulnerable to human eating tigers. Puli Kumar lost his mother and father in tiger attacks. He is now married to Myna (Kamalini Mukherjee) and leaving happily with a daughter, younger brother. While helping his brother’s friends, Puli Kumar falls into a Ganja trap sketched by Daddy Girija (Jagapathi Babu) thus escaping hamlet to Rajahmundry town. Meanwhile, Puliyoor once again falls prey for a deadly tiger on a killing spree. Will Puli Kumar comeback to save his hamlet? How did he deal with social animals like Daddy Girija on one hand and wild animals in forest on other hand is rest of goose bumps action.

Manyam Puli Artists and Technicians: To start off, ‘Manyam Puli’ has got a proper storyline, screenplay shadowed by thrilling action sequences and Mohan Lal’s brilliant performance. With two flashbacks and one present, writer Udaya Krishna made it a perfect commercial package in two contrasting backdrops. Screenplay is tight and engaging dealing two aspects of Puli Murugan’s life, one with human beings like him and second is wild mauling animals like tiger. Climax is to strike a chord with both in action terms. Vysakh seems to be a gifted director in handling commercial subjects with simple story. Though his name isn’t popular in Telugu states, he showed the knack of cooking a breathtaking action flick more than regular Tollywood standards. Extracting the best out of technical departments and playing risky age defying stunts on Mohan Lal isn’t an easy challenge in centre of lush green forest. Shaji Kumar’s cinematography is beyond words and just splendid. He scored cent percent in capturing the beauty of a forest making Manyam Puli a visual feast. Gopi Sunder enhanced cinema viewing experience with a reverberating background score elevating essence of action and sentiment with his nodes. Songs are although not impactful, its RR stood rock solid pillar support. John Kutty’s editing is also ok. Beyond each of these technicians, Peter Heins should be given top credits for using the best, time tested rope techniques designing stunts on an aged super star like Mohan Lal. Alone this department is enough to give a run for your ticket money. Production standards from Sindhura Puvvu Krishna Reddy and Tomichan Mulakuppadam are above top notch levels.

Onto artists, Manyam Puli is a complete one man show, kudos to the complete actor Mohan Lal. OMG, his commitment in performing those rapid paced action sequences with twirls, twists, leg punches, knife throwing is unbelievable. What’s his age, weight and what’s this flexibility. Time for our veteran super stars to learn a leaf on how a passionate actor looks like! His moist eyes speak volumes of emotion. Sentiment, humor, romance; Mohan Lal is just beyond perfection. Kamalini Mukherjee delivered a decent performance. Jagapathi Babu’s visibility decreased before Mohan Lal. Among the rest Lal as hero’s bava, Vinu Mohan as hero’s brother, Kishore as forest range officer, sumptuous Namitha as Julie, Makrand Deshpande as dacoit Ramayya and others made their profuse presence felt.

Manyam Puli Advantages:

Mohan Lal

Peter Heins Stunts

Shaji Kumar Camera

Gopi Sunder Music

Movie Take Off

Movie Climax

Manyam Puli Drawbacks:

Missing Nativity

Lengthy Action Episodes

Feeble Story

Emotional Mislay

Over Cinematic

Runtime 

Manyam Puli Rating Analysis: Other than Telugu cinema, rarely do we find real definition for a perfect packaged commercial film with songs, action, romance, comedy, conflict and blah in neighboring film industries. Proving us wrong, Vysakh tried to parcel so called mass, masala ingredients into one film and he succeeded to major extent with Manyam Puli. Right from beginning the story with huge build up shots on child artist till adventurous action climax on Mohan Lal, we find Vysakh free flowing despite there are issues blocking his gripping narrative. Lots of clichés come and go through second half but Mohan Lal brings film back on track with his absolute screen presence.

First half takes off like a jet before we tighten the seat belts. Close up shots on childhood Mohan Lal and his hunting a tiger never seemed like over-action. Back to back two tiger fights in early 20 minutes haven’t gone boring. Establishing the family setup with Kamilini, daughter, brother, bava and others was somewhat lengthy with story moving nowhere. Entry of Bala as brother’s friend opened a new thread seeding for the second half. Forest range officer Kishore episode is one more show of heroism and thus we move to a decent interval block revealing Jagapathi Babu.

After first half flashback, we come into second half with one more back story narrated by Jagapathi Babu explaining the trust betrayal of an innocent hero in between social animals. After enjoying loads of action throughout, generally climax speculating audience are exposed to boredom. Yet, Peter Heins springs a surprise with new shades in stunt composition closing the film on bang.

All in all, ‘Manyam Puli’ is unique show from Mohan Lal and his deadly action. If you can withstand the clichéd narration in parts with under lying thin story and known screenplay format, you can happily watch the film for this weekend. ‘Manyam Puli’ commercial stamina lies more on reactions from lower order audience in B, C centers. CJ goes for 2.75 star rating for mesmerizing commitment from Mohan Lal, a complete actor.

Manyam Puli Cinejosh Verdict: Malayalam Film in Tollywood Commercial Tinge

                                                      Manyam Puli Cinejosh Rating: 2.75/5.0

                                                                                                Reviewed by Srivaas