Mangalyam Thanthunanena

Story: Roy and Clara are newlyweds. Roy is caught in a huge financial struggle and Clara is pissed at him for being irresponsible. Will they manage to settle things and live happily ever after?

Review: It is a common notion that a man’s life becomes miserable after marriage. So has Royichan’s, according to him. He is neck deep in debt and unemployed, and he believes that neither his mom nor his wife can understand him. As he struggles to find solutions for his financial crisis, we see many male characters empathising with him in Soumya Sadhanandan’s debut directorial. Are wives unbearable like how they think? Mangalyam Thanthunanena has the answer.

Mollywood has seen many films that narrate the side effects of marriage. Mangalyam Thanthunanena serves an old wine in a new bottle and reminds one of Mohanlal’s Midhunam and Jayaram’s Veendum Chila Veetukaryangal.

The film opens with the wedding of Roy (Kunchacko Boban) and Clara (Nimisha Sajayan) and quickly switches to their life after three months. There are fights between the husband and wife and between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Amidst all these, Roy is grappling to find monetary help to pay his debts. He finds his home a hell and many misogynistic remarks are being made by people around him on ‘post-marital trauma’. The remarks cannot be justified even if it is necessary for establishing the plot. It could have been easily avoided in the script. Being a female director, Soumya Sadhanandan could have taken a special interest in the same.

The effortless screen presence of the lead actors and Shanthi Krishna is quite endearing. It is a movie with a weak script but has turned out to be watchable as each character in it has done justice to their roles - be it Kunchacko Boban, Nimisha Sajayan, Shanthi Krishna or Hareesh Kanaran. Double thumbs up to Hareesh Kanaran, who essays his character with ease. The problems of the middle class in Kerala are very well portrayed by the makers.

Mangalyam Thanthunanena is a simple film without much to boast off.