Varaal Movie Review and Rating : Varaal is driven by loud crowd dialogues, deafening background music and familiar genre twists. The film also tries to recall some of the leaders of the current political parties and some events on a regular basis.
Varaal Movie Review and Rating : Several political leaders, drawn intense war for power, some dramatic events we heard about from honey trap to religious extremism… Directed by Kannan Tamarakulam, Varaal, written by Anoop Menon and scripted by Anoop Menon, is a film Malayalam has all the general characteristics of hit and miss political thrillers. Loud crowd chatter, deafening background music, and the usual twists and turns.
led Varal. The film also tries to recall some of the leaders of the current political parties and some events on a regular basis.
When we think of Varal, the first thing that comes to mind is its large cast: Prakash Raj, Anoop Menon, Sunny Wayne, Sai Kumar, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Suresh Krishna, Nandu Dudhuwal, Madhuri, Gauri Nanda, Jayakrishnan , Priyanka, Ranji Panicker etc. are seen in this movie. The film’s main problem is the multitude of characters. Accompanied by a huge buildup and background music, the actors disappear from the screen without doing anything after a powerful introduction. The film ends by leaving some actors with little to do.
The main storyline of Varal is the Kerala Legislative Assembly elections 2024. The current ruling party has ruled the state for ten years. As they plan their electoral strategies in view of the continuity of governance, the opposition shocks everyone by placing a ‘black horse’ called David as the main ministerial candidate. A big business leader with a past of failure, he comes to Kerala with something in mind. Varal develops through the dramatic events that follow. Anoop Menon hits the screen as David. In the film, David is the Varal who slips away from everything and everyone. David alone tries to save Kerala from political spies and religious extremists. The film Varaal is a very strange continuation of this story, which seems strange and exaggerated on first hearing.
The environment of Varal’s story is same as Lovelin, reactionary debate, the woman minister whose name is not on the poster, Ammachi and Mon in Delhi, High Command, Thangal family, ISIS, group dispute, hair shaving, etc., which appear regularly in these political party films and the events that are now in the news in the media. The film, the characters and the progression of the story repeat such films that we still watch. Many of the conversations were that the political environment in Kerala has not changed at all since the 80s. The film continued to give the impression that even the political machinations seen in Malayalam cinema have not changed
Irrespective of the genre of the film, Anoop Menon’s scripted films have the same style, dialogues and character traits of his characters. The same step was repeated in Varal as well. Even when he became the future Prime Minister, he continued to play the character of Tippikal Anoop Menon. Apart from Anoop Menon’s lead role, it can be said that the others don’t have much to do. There are even fewer other actors who appear in more than three scenes. This type of film is often enhanced by crowd scenes. There are no such scenes in this film.
Malayalam films that tell partisan political stories generally establish themselves in two ways. One is to stand with the ruling party and sing their praises, and the other is to say that both parties need everyone. Varal relies on the second approach. There are only two categories of characters in the film, the good ones who are surprised by Anoop Menon’s intelligence and the ones who get the occasional trick. Terrorism in one place and name hunting in another, the film tries hard not to hurt anyone. The story of the hero who prepares the honey trap is reversed here when the word honey trap itself becomes problematic. Although many events in the film are presented very dramatically, there is no sequence anywhere in Varal.
Varaal is a film that tells how to present political leaders in a new way in Malayalam, how to take a political thriller, how to present a political drama in typical Anoop Menon style.
