‘Makal’ movie review: Family drama satisfies itself in just skimming the surface

Director Sathyan Anthikad underutilises a promising storyline involving the generation gap between a father and a teenage daughter

If any film can convey the feeling of smooth sailing on a calm sea, with the relatively strong wind just giving the ship a mild shake occasionally, Sathyan Anthikad's Makal can be one of the choices. For, there is hardly any serious conflict within the plot. Yet to resolve this lighter conflict between a father and his teenage daughter, a new character — no less than a goon from another state — is conjured up out of thin air to impart a lesson on parental love.

Screenwriter Iqbal Kuttipuram, who is teaming up with Anthikad after Oru Indian Pranayakadha and Jomonte Suvisheshangal, need not have relied on such a character introduction, which sticks out from the otherwise smoothly-flowing plot. He just had to look within his own promising storyline, of a father struggling to match the wavelength of his young daughter, for material to bring the narrative to a satisfying end.

Juliet (Meera Jasmine) shares a friendly bond with her daughter Aparna (Devika Sanjay), understanding all her tantrums and concerns. When Aparna's father Nandan (Jayaram), returns home after losing his job in the Middle East, he finds it hard to get along with his daughter. Behave to her as a friend, not as a headmaster, his wife advises him, yet his conservative mindset finds many of the things that she does unacceptable.

Sathyan Anthikad is in comfortable territory here, as the fraying and gelling of familial bonds has been one of the constant concerns throughout his career. But even within these familiar environs, he does not take many risks or bring in seemingly-insurmountable obstacles for the characters. The biggest conflicts between the father and the daughter are the one involving a missing pet dog and the other involving Aparna's friend Rohith (Naslen Gafoor), who is not even her boyfriend yet.

It is the other elements of the narrative that takes the movie along, until the point a new character is brought in to somehow resolve the issues. Aiding a lot in the pacing is the mildly-humourous subplot involving Rohith, who would go to any extent to win Aparna’s love. Kuttipuram weaves in other elements, especially Julie’s family’s way of constantly looking down at Nandan’s workshop job abroad, or his struggles to set up a new business after losing his job. Some lessons glorifying organic farming are also inserted into the narrative, with the real-life Sreenivasan playing himself as the obvious poster boy.

Despite the many possibilities that a storyline involving the generation gap between a father and a teenage daughter held, Makal never delves deep and satisfies itself in just skimming the surface.

Makal is currently running in theatres