Godha Movie Review: A fun ride which will never disappoint you!
Godha, the much anticipated Tovino Thomas starrer directed by Kunjiramayanam fame Basil Joseph had released this Friday here in Kerala. Rakesh Mantodi had scripted this movie and it was produced by Mukesh R Mehta under the banner of E4 Entertainments. Renji Panicker and Wamiqa Gabbi had played the other important characters in this movie which is all about Wrestling and also about a bunch of village people who loves this game. The anticipation level for this movie was so high because of the recent popularity attained by Tovino Thomas with the film named Oru Mexican Aparatha which had graced the screens in this year March.
The plot of this flick revolves around three characters mainly. One is Captain Phayalavan played by Renji Panicker, his son Anjaneya Das played by Tovino Thomas and a Punjabi girl named Aditi played by Punjabi actress Wamiqa Gabbi. The story takes place in a village named Kannadaikkal, where a group of people lives who are very fond of wrestling aka Gusthi. Captain Phayalvan is one of the champions of the game as well. They used to organize wrestling tournaments in a ground there as well. But the new generation including the son of Captain Phayalavan only plays Cricket there and Captain never allows them to play cricket on that ground. Then there happens a small rift between the father and son and Das had to go to Punjab for studying engineering. There he meets a girl named Aditi, who is a woman wrestler and for her, wrestling is her life. It changes the course of the plot.
We can say that once again Basil Joseph had become successful in giving us a fun filled feel good entertainer. It has everything in it to make the audience relax inside the cinema hall. It has a lot of fun moments, thrilling wrestling sequences, romance etc to make the audience glued to their seats. The screenplay by Rakesh was a complete package indeed. Basil had presented it in a very pleasant and simple manner as well. The technical perfection was the other highlight and that made the making side look great. The first half was great with a lot of hilarious situations and the second half too moved forward with good humorous situations. But we have to say that the climax could have been better and it lacked the desired punch that we expect from a movie based on a game like Wrestling.
Performance from Tovino Thomas was once again very impressive and he had certainly grown a lot as an actor. His dedication for this movie has been visible in the wrestling sequences in the movie. But the film belongs to Wamiqa Gabbi and Renji Panicker. Both of them were just terrific. Wamiqa was looking beautiful, natural and terrific in the wrestling sequences. She is the real highlight of this movie. Renji Panicker had delivered one among the best performances of him as an actor as well. Others like Aju Varghese, Biju Kuttan, Mammukkoya, Hareesh Peradi, Sreejith Ravi, Harish Kanaran, Dharmajan etc also done their part to perfection and they all had given us many moments to laugh.
DOP from Vishnu Sharma was superb and he had captured the beauty of both Kerala Village and Punjab with equal charm. But the lighting and frames in the wrestling sequences could have better. Editing by Abhinav Sundar Nayak was crisp and it had given a smooth flow to the narration. Music tuned by Shan Rahman was beautiful and his songs played a major part in the narration of the story.
In total, Godha is a very good fun film and a really fresh one in Malayalam Cinema. Don’t expect a Dangal or Sultan when you hear that this movie is all about wrestling. This one is a feel good fun filled entertainer in which wrestling plays an integral part.
