301. Irupathiyonnaam Noottaandu; movie review

IRUPATHIYONNAM NOTTANDU
Cert 12A
162 mins
BBFC advice: Contains brief sexual threat, moderate violence, references to child sex abuse

Malayalam cinema fans are holding their breath to see if the son of much-revered Mohanlal follows his dad's steps to acting glory.
However, to be successful, he will have to choose movies with far greater spark than  Irupathiyonnaam Noottaandu.
Pranav Mohanlal plays Appu, a young man brought up in Goa - the party capital of the sub-continent.
He, his dad (Manoj K Jayan) and best friend (Abhirav Janan) enjoy a good time in their beach house where there is more sleeping off the night before than hard graft.
They owe money to a crime lord but who cares when there is surfing and jet riding under the beautiful Goan sun?
Anyway, as Russian new year is being celebrated, Appu is confronted by a drunken Zaya (Zaya David) who has lost her phone and can't remember where she is staying.
It is the beginning of a whirlwind romance by the side of the Indian Ocean.
He is on the cusp of proposing and then all hell breaks loose when it becomes clear who Zaya really is.
Arun Gopy's film is all over the place and so bloated I felt as if it was going to burst.
Every scene seems to drag on for an age, particularly a fight scene on the train which left me desperate for it to finally reach the station.
And then there is the final pay-off which jars so much with the rest of the movie, my head was spinning.
Last year, I was full of admiration of Pranav Mohanlal's adult feature debut in Aadhi, claiming that his performance had impressed me more than the recent movie's of his superstar father,
But this is disappointing - especially the scenes where the slim, muscle-free Pranav takes on and beats up burly policemen.
I was hoping that Pranav would be something different in Malayalam cinema but here he is an out-of-place masala lead.
There are many reasons Irupathiyonnaam Noottaandu falls flat and, sadly, he is one of them.

Reasons to watch: For fans of rambling romance
Reasons to avoid: It just doesn't hang together at all

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3/10

Did you know? There are more than 19.9 million Catholics in India which represents around 1.55% of the total population.

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