Reviews for Malaikottai Vaaliban are as mixed as ever. It is an LJP movie; his films are not meant for the “normal” audience. Mohanlal fans who come for this movie would want to see some mass fights, and the lack of it makes them dislike it, right? Let’s set that condescending tone aside and look at Malaikottai Vaaliban as just another movie; not an LJP movie, not a Mohanlal movie, just another Malayalam movie.
And oh, before you continue reading, please watch the movie. I am going to riddle this with spoilers. There’s no real point in a discussion unless you watch the movie. If you are here to decide whether to watch Malaikottai Vaaliban, you’re in the wrong place!
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Now that the spoiler warning is out of the way, let’s get back to where we were – considering Malaikottai Vaaliban as just another movie. But hey, what’s a “movie”? I’d define a movie as an audio-visual story. So breaking Malaikottai Vaaliban into these 3 constituents (audio, visuals and story) makes sense, right?
Visuals
Let’s talk about the visual aspects first, which really stood out for me in Malaikottai Vaaliban. The movie goes out of the way to present us with a setting that is absolutely outside our frame of reference – you have a desert that seems like it is in Western India, but then you see strata in the background like you’d see in the Grand Canyon. Or better still, Indian mercenaries fighting for a Portuguese warlord wearing British red coats and wielding katanas! Almost every frame is a painting – bombarding our brains with familiar yet weird imagery.
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Audio
And then there’s the audio aspect that adds to the fantastic visuals. From the rattle that plays when Chamathakan is up to no good to the songs and dialogues (“ithuvare kandathellaam poy!” steals tops the list!), all make this a truly immersive experience. A good example of this, I believe, is the courtship sequence between Chinnappayyan and Jamanthipoovu.
Story
But then, we come to the story. Okay, so here’s the movie’s plot on Wikipedia: Malaikottai Vaaliban, an uncontested warrior, proves himself to be a reigning hero across time and geographies by defeating every opponent he encounters. As Vaaliban continues his victorious journey with his aids, Chinnappaiyyan and Ayyanar, Vaaliban meets Rangapattinam Rangarani, an ethereal dancer at a betting parlour in Nooraanathalayur. This moment also invites Chamathakan, an antagonistic presence, who will shadow Vaaliban through the rest of his journey. The group then proceed on a journey with many twists that lead Vaaliban to his ultimate challenge.
You’ve seen the movie, so you know the “many twists that lead Vaaliban to his ultimate challenge”. That one line encompasses nearly 60% of the film! To me, 60% of the film felt that way – said in a sentence when it should’ve been multiple paragraphs. To me, this is where Malaikottai Vaaliban faltered – the pacing of the visuals and the pacing of the story follow different tracks, and hence, something felt amiss.
Think about it. The first part of the movie felt like a Western. This part is where we are introduced to the core cast. Almost as soon as that’s done, Vaaliban heads to Malaikottai to switch the film’s genre to historical fiction (a struggle against oppression). After the Malaikottai freedom struggle, the film switches genres again to become a Shakespearean tragedy.
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All three Acts were great stories (episodes in the life of the legendary Vaaliban) set in an absolute gem of a fictional world. But the shifts happened so quickly that the story felt rushed af. Disagree? Let me ask you a few things.
Why did he not go to Malaikottai until the Second Act? Vaaliban says the Portuguese “Maharaja” was oppressing his people, but he has been at it for quite some time, right? Was there a trigger? Or did he defeat all the champions in the land already? I don’t know, do you?
Let’s take a step back. The menacing Chamathakan was not so menacing till his head was shaved. He was a prick, yes, but he didn’t seem like a full-blown psychopath initially. Why was Chamathakan’s head shaved and not the defeated champion’s? You see Chamathakan pouring water on the defeated champion, saying his hair is about to get shaved. And then a scene later, it is Chamathakan’s head that’s shaved! But why?
While the movie seems to have tried to adopt the “chapters” approach, the passage of time between these chapters isn’t obvious and looks like they are continuous. Therefore, it is essential that it shows us what the characters’ motives are and why their arcs/behaviours change. And this is why I believe this movie should’ve been a series.
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Malaikottai Vaaliban would’ve made the perfect series with episodes depicting the warrior’s deeds, transforming him into a leader of the oppressed halfway through the season. All the while, the larger arc of Ayyanar’s revenge would develop in the background only to culminate in the season finale. The episodical format would’ve given the characters time to breathe – for Vaaliban to show that he feels alone and not say it out loud in a scene that felt so damn abrupt, for Ayyanar to display his affection for Chinnappayyan and not leave it as just a fleeting remark to some unknown lady at the start of the story, for Jamanthipoovu to start looking at Vaaliban as her brother and for Rangarani to feel jealous. What a series it would’ve made!
Alas! In the current scheme of things, a movie makes more sense economically than a series. Maybe it would’ve generated enough revenue if Malaikottai Vaaliban had been a pan-India series and not a Malayalam series. We’ll never know (like how many questions in the Malaikottai Vaaliban universe remain unanswered).
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What are your thoughts? Do you think Malaikottai Vaaliban would’ve been better as a series? Do you know the answers to the questions I’ve asked in this story (or better yet, do you have theories about them)? Tell me in the comments.
