After an array of flop movies in 2009 like Red Chillies, Sagar alias Jacky Reloaded, Bhagavan and Angel John, Mollywood’s superstar has finally come up with a movie that can definitely bring him some relief for the year end. His Ividam Swargamanu, directed by veteran Roshan Andrews, is a typical village story, completely different from the early movies of Mohanlal.
Starring veteran Thilakan as Mohanlal’s father after a long time, Ividam Swargamanu tells the story of a bachelor Mathew (Mohanlal), who chooses farming as his profession. This nice guy is very much attached to his family especially to his father Jeremiah (Thilakan). His peaceful life changes when a wealthy land mafia leader and businessman Aluva Chandy ( Lalu Alex) enters into the scenes. Chandy sets his eyes on Mathew’s big farm and dreams of bringing out it into a resort.
Chandy creates situations that create pressure on Mathew to sell his farm which is in the centre of the proposed project. Chandy convinces the villagers that a big township will be set up there and also creates obstacles in the smooth functioning of the farm in many ways that depress Mathew. in the meantime, Mathew seeks the help of an advocate Prabalan (Sreenivasan). How Mathew fights against the land mafia to save his farm is the crux of the story.
The major highlight of the film is that it is based on a true story. Mohanlal, as usual, is amazing in his performance and simply rocks with his realistic portrayal of Mathew especially in the second half. After a gap, Lalu Alex is seen in a meaty role as Aluva Chandy which he has done with easy. The movie has three heroines Lakshmi Rai, Priyanka and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy. Lakshmi Rai comes as advocate Sumathy, Priyanka as television journalist Betsy and for the first time Lakshmi Gopalaswamy is seen in a negative role of SFC manager. All have done their respective roles convincingly.
James Albert’s story is fresh and Roshan Andrews’ presentation is engaging. Divakar’s cinematography is impressive. Notably, Ividam Swargamanu has no songs, but the makers could have included one or two songs to emphasis on Mathew’s bonding towards his farm and father. All in all, Ividam Swargamanu is worth watching and one of the best movies by Mohanlal in the recent time.