Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas is known for his impactul and exhilirating performances and his film Pallichattambi hit the screens in various langauges on 17 April 2026. The film is helmed by Dijo Jose Antony and the OTT rights are yet to be bagged.The presence of Prithviraj Sukumaran is exciting all. Let us see what Pallichattambi offered to movie lovers.
Pallichattambi story revolves around a youngster in a small village and how he survives in the village ahead of this neighbors and where his risky gambles lead to.
Krishna Pillai (Tovino Thomas) due to turn of events is chosen to save The Church by becoming its Pallichattambi (Church Strongman). Where this leads to, what are the consequences, what role stage artist Rebecca (Kayadu Lohar), villainous and menacing cop Ramanna (Shatru) and how it is connected to Nambiar (Prithviraj Sukumaran) form the interesting part of the narration in the pre Independence era backdrop.
Tovino Thomas performed well as usual. He showed variations accoring to his role and delivered dialogues with ease. He with his screen presence carried the film on his shoulders and enacted breathtaking action sequences. However, poor writing undid all his good work.
Kayadu Lohar impressed with her performance but she got limited screen presence. However, her role lacked the emotional depth. Shatru got good role and screen presence and he made the maximum use of it.
Others performed accordingly. Prithviraj Sukumaran made his presence felt in a powerful cameo.
Pallichattambi story is penned by Dijo Jose Antony. He tried to entertain movie lovers with a fictional based commercial entertainer. He chose the British era backdrop and included various elements like communism and other ideologies. Though there is nothing wrong in including everything and come up with a hard hitting commercial entertainer, he in his quest to thrill viewers, ended up confusing everyone.
In order to overcome it, he tried to include more commercial elements and that looked forced and out of sync with gravity-defying stunts. While the first half is slow, it is still ok as viewers wait expectantly for the second half to happen something interesting.
The second half nosedives completely turning out to be a damp squib. The climax offered nothing new. He has taken many cinematic liberties that are hard to believe and the old fashioned narration along with the average dialogues played the spoilsport.
The editing of Sreejith Sarang left a lot to be desired. There are many scenes that slowed the pace of the narration impacting the overall feel. The cinematography of Tijo Tomy turned out to be average, robbing off the visual experience. He however showed the pre Independence era backdrop in a realistic way. Songs of Jakes Bejoy are soulful but didnot make any impact. His background music also turned out to be pretty average.
Altogether, Pallichattambi turns out to be below average entertainer. The film attracted the attention of all with the presence of Tovino Thomas and Prithviraj Sukumaran, but the director Dijo Jose Antony came up with a pretty ordinary stuff. Though his idea of social entertainer in fictious backdrop generates interest, the plot he selected will not connect all as it has many elements related to the developments in Keralam, which viewers weren't aware and get disconnected.
The over the top scenes, unrealistic elements and the lack of strong emotions impacted the film. The slow narration, insipid writing and old fashioned treatement tested the patience of the viewers. Considering all these aspects, Cinejosh goes with a 2 star rating for Pallichattambi.