Jackson Bazaar Youth

Jackson Bazaar Youth has the makings of a wonderful movie, but falls short in key moments. Govind Vasantha's music saves it to some extent. The first half of the film gave viewers some hope for yet another good movie, but with the clumsy and cringe-worthy entrance of the character played by Indrans during the interval made it clear that Malayalam cinema is still in that fatigued state where nothing is working out well.

From the music, to the life of people in Jackson Bazaar where fifteen families live in puramboke land and the unique inter-personal relationships, the Shamal Sulaiman directorial had a lot going for it initially. However, unconvincing story telling in the second half and the lack of the originality will make one sigh in frustration towards the end. Like, the tropes used are as old as the industry, to put it kindly. What could have been a great movie, goes the conventional way, trying to reprise age old tricks.

The cast was convincing with the unusual and notable exception of Indrans. The actor who usually aces every single role he takes up, looked thoroughly unconvincing in this one to the point of ridiculousness. It also gives us some moments that can be treasured- like the entire story arc with Jackson Velayyan (Jaffer Idukki). Lukman, on the other hand, didn't have much to do in the movie. The torture scenes were so horrible and painful to watch that they were convincing but took the joviality out of the movie's setting which was already inconsistent and all over the place.