Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty
(translates as "a girl on live")
2012
3/5 stars
A naïve village girl, Manjula (Nithya Menon), is chosen for a reality show planned by Zareena (Shweta Menon) of Real TV. The point of the show is to follow Manju from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, watching as she deals with real life situations. Manju and Zareena share a flat during the shooting, and become close, with Zareena acting as a mentor to Manju as she navigates the consequences, good and bad, of the show. Manju meets Suryan (Unni Mukundan) and romance seems to be in sight, but things take an unexpected turn, and Zareena must make drastic decisions about the show.
(Cast also includes Maniyanpilla Raju, Siddique, and Baburaj.)
This Malayalam language flim started off extremely good. It is immediately engaging, with a compelling plot, both humorous and touching, and realistic characters. Manju is extremely likable, and was played excellently by Nithya Menon. The chemistry between her and Unni Mukundan was perfectly played, and the relationship between the two women equally good. Nithya Menon, Unni Mukundan, and Shweta Menon were all natural and convincing; the secondary cast also gave strong performances. The music, while not prominent, was generally lovely. The movie looked good as well, nicely filmed and realistic.
Why, then, the three stars?
In the last thirty-seven minutes, Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty fell into a complicated mess culminating in a dissatisfying and underwhelming conclusion. I felt cheated and terribly disappointed.
I would still recommend Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty on the strength of Nithya Menon's performance and the plot of the first two and a quarter hours, but with viewer warned in advance about the inadequate ending.
