Machante Maalakha Movie Review: A tone-deaf relic from a past best left behind
Machante Maalakha Movie Review: Critics Rating: 1.0 stars, click to give your rating/review,Sajeevan, a bus conductor seeking love, marries Bijimol, a regular passenger, but their once light-h
Critic's Rating: 1.0/5
Dear Boban Samuel and team, we get it — marriage is tough, relationships are messy, and sometimes people clash. But if your only solution is to dig up the age-old trope of Poor Husbands vs Dreadful Wives, maybe it’s time to pause and rethink. We’ve heard this side of the story for decades, husbands as innocent lambs, wives as nagging monsters, and frankly, it’s stale, regressive, and way past its expiry date.
Sajeevan, the 'hapless hero' and KSRTC bus conductor, thinks he’s found love when he marries Bijimol, a regular passenger on his route. But what starts off as a sweet, familiar romance soon descends into a series of over-the-top domestic battles, with Bijimol painted as erratic, controlling, and impossible to please. Sajeevan, of course, just stands there, helpless and pitiable, the poster boy for all "suffering" husbands.
The film doesn’t stop with this one toxic equation. It builds an entire world where women, whether mothers, wives, or even little girls are shrill, manipulative, and constantly scheming to make life miserable for the men around them. The men, meanwhile, are innocent bystanders, endlessly patient, with their pain either played for laughs or drowned in melodrama.
What’s most disappointing is how little effort is made to add depth or logic to these characters. Conflicts pop up not because of natural character flaws, but because the script needs constant friction to move forward. Bijimol’s behavior swings wildly from scene to scene, with no clear sense of why she acts the way she does. The result? A jumbled mess where no one, not the characters, not the audience, knows what’s going on.
Soubin Shahir, usually a breath of fresh air with his natural humor, looks lost in this outdated setup. His Sajeevan comes across more confused than lovable, weighed down by a script that doesn’t let him breathe. Namitha Pramod is equally stranded, playing a character so inconsistently written that even a seasoned actor would struggle to make sense of her motivations. Shanthi Krishna, Dileesh Pothan, and the rest of the cast are wasted on thin, cartoonish roles that belong in a long-forgotten TV serial.
Visually, the film does nothing to elevate its tired narrative. The filmmaking style feels like it’s stuck in the early 2000s, complete with loud, over-explanatory background music and comedy that relies entirely on outdated stereotypes.
At a time when Malayalam cinema is delivering nuanced, layered stories about relationships and gender dynamics, Machante Malakha feels like a tone-deaf relic from a past best left behind. There’s always another side to every story, but this side — the whining husband’s handbook — has been told, retold, and frankly, exhausted. Maybe it’s time to give it a rest and tell stories that reflect the complexity of modern relationships, where both men and women are flawed, human, and equally responsible.
A cringeworthy throwback that’s best avoided, unless you really miss the regressive ‘husbands are saints, wives are demons’ formula.
- Anjana George
Sajeevan, the 'hapless hero' and KSRTC bus conductor, thinks he’s found love when he marries Bijimol, a regular passenger on his route. But what starts off as a sweet, familiar romance soon descends into a series of over-the-top domestic battles, with Bijimol painted as erratic, controlling, and impossible to please. Sajeevan, of course, just stands there, helpless and pitiable, the poster boy for all "suffering" husbands.
The film doesn’t stop with this one toxic equation. It builds an entire world where women, whether mothers, wives, or even little girls are shrill, manipulative, and constantly scheming to make life miserable for the men around them. The men, meanwhile, are innocent bystanders, endlessly patient, with their pain either played for laughs or drowned in melodrama.
What’s most disappointing is how little effort is made to add depth or logic to these characters. Conflicts pop up not because of natural character flaws, but because the script needs constant friction to move forward. Bijimol’s behavior swings wildly from scene to scene, with no clear sense of why she acts the way she does. The result? A jumbled mess where no one, not the characters, not the audience, knows what’s going on.
Soubin Shahir, usually a breath of fresh air with his natural humor, looks lost in this outdated setup. His Sajeevan comes across more confused than lovable, weighed down by a script that doesn’t let him breathe. Namitha Pramod is equally stranded, playing a character so inconsistently written that even a seasoned actor would struggle to make sense of her motivations. Shanthi Krishna, Dileesh Pothan, and the rest of the cast are wasted on thin, cartoonish roles that belong in a long-forgotten TV serial.
Visually, the film does nothing to elevate its tired narrative. The filmmaking style feels like it’s stuck in the early 2000s, complete with loud, over-explanatory background music and comedy that relies entirely on outdated stereotypes.
At a time when Malayalam cinema is delivering nuanced, layered stories about relationships and gender dynamics, Machante Malakha feels like a tone-deaf relic from a past best left behind. There’s always another side to every story, but this side — the whining husband’s handbook — has been told, retold, and frankly, exhausted. Maybe it’s time to give it a rest and tell stories that reflect the complexity of modern relationships, where both men and women are flawed, human, and equally responsible.
A cringeworthy throwback that’s best avoided, unless you really miss the regressive ‘husbands are saints, wives are demons’ formula.
- Anjana George
