Palunku - The Crystal

Year of Release
2006

Language
Malayalam

Director
Blessy

Cast
Mammootty, Lakshmi Sharma, Jagathy, Nadimudu Venu, Nasreen, Baby Nivedita

Palunku, the Crystal, tells the story of a farmer, Monichan, who has a transition between two diverse worlds.

The film traverses through the life of a middle class farmer, who leads a pretty normal and happy life with his family. He has a wife, Sushamma, from a well off family, who aspires for a better living that she used to have before. He also has two children, namely Geethu and Neethu, aged 11 and 6. Monichan is a happy man and leads a happy life as a farmer and likes his profession, the nature and all things around him.

Blessy has been his natural self in writing this one too after 'Kazcha' and 'Thanmatra'. It is a very strong script with he trademark touches to dialogues and the scenes with care and compassion. He takes us through the ordinary life that a farmer has and the difficulties that a farmer has to go through life for the repayment of loans and other stuff.

Monichan is forced to get admissions for his children in a school in the town 12 kms away as the management of the school in their locality were planned to close it down due to lack of children coming to school. One day he has to go the school to give water bottles to his children. On the way back meets Soman Pillai, Jagathy, a lotter seller, and take a lottery and bags 500 Rs for the same. During course of time, he come closer to Soman Pillai, who was one such kind of a person who always preferred shortcuts to making money.

Monichan later shifts to the city with his family and partners himself with Soman Pillai. The film shows how a naive person from a village gets sucked into the materialistic life that one lives in a city. Even his wife falls into the same vicious circle. But soon afterwards, such an incident happens which will make Monichan realise his mistakes.

The film never confuses the viewer with anything stupid. And the cast has performed their roles to perfection. The film leaves you in a state where you are pricked at the correct point. The viewer feels hurt not for Monichan, but for what he did to deserve such a huge punishment.

The film will not push you to the edge of your seat, but will surely keep you rooted. The enigma of Blessy is clearly visible. He has successfully completed a hatrick.

Rating: 8 / 10
A must see for all mallu film lovers.