Malayalam Movie Balan The Boy Review: The film ‘Manjummel Boys’, released in the year 2024, created a stir at the box office. After that blockbuster film, everyone was curious to know what would be the next film of its talented director Chidambaram? It was being speculated that he would make a typical commercial masala film with a big superstar. But Chidambaram surprised everyone and chose a path which proved that he is not just a machine making hit films, but a true magician who understands the soul of cinema. After visiting Cannes, his new film ‘Balan: The Boy’ has arrived in theatres. From the time the first trailer of the film came out, it became clear that this is the story of the relationship between a mother and son, which comes at a turning point and faces a big challenge. To put it in just one line, ‘Balan’ leaves such a deep impact on your heart and mind that even after coming out of the theatre, its characters stay with you for many days. But is it just an emotional drama? After all, what is special in this film that makes it stand apart from other films? Read the full review to know the answers to all these questions.
Story:
The story of the film is woven around a mother and her son. The story itself begins with deep suspense. A pregnant mother is serving a sentence for a crime. Her child is born in the prison cell itself. After completing her sentence, when this woman steps into the outside world with her innocent son, it is obvious that life will not lay a bed of flowers for her. To escape the sharp arrows of society and their past, this mother and son keep changing their identities, keep running from one city to another.
Amidst this hectic life, this mother gets the job of taking care of an elderly woman in a village area. For some time, it seems that finally this wandering mother and son have found a home of peace, a safe space. Both of them heave a sigh of relief there, but destiny had something else in store. Something happens there that turns both of their lives completely upside down. What happened there and how did that accident change the lives of both of them? To know this you will have to go to the theater and watch Balan.
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How is the movie?
As an audience, we enter this story right in the middle. In the beginning, we only see that this mother and son are constantly running away due to some unknown fear and we are curious to know what is it that is forcing them to run away even from a seemingly safe place. When we think that this film is going to be only about this journey, then the director gives such a big blow to the story that the whole film turns in a different direction. After this the film completely becomes a character study. For a moment you may feel that the film is deviating from its main track and going somewhere else, but this is the real quality of Chidambaram. He deliberately twists us so that the final climax of the film becomes ten times more powerful.
The biggest beauty of this film is that it does not show the mother-son relationship through any stereotypical film lens. We have seen loud mothers like ‘Mere Karan-Arjun Aayenge’ in Hindi cinema, or in recent films we have also seen such a mother who takes up the sword for her son or the son creates a massacre for the father. This film goes beyond that extreme level, but with great ease and simplicity. Here the mother does not look like a film character, but looks like a common woman living in our neighborhood. This mother is also very common, but the criminal instinct hidden inside her and her desperate attempt to save her son makes the film a crime story. Be it the police characters or the village people, the director has depicted different layers of the society brilliantly through each character.
direction
The biggest triumph of Chidambaram’s direction is that he knows how many deep layers can be added to a very simple line uttered by a character. There is a dialogue in the initial part of the film, whose importance we understand at that very moment. But the makers then take the story to a different track, due to which the audience forgets that thing for a while and then, when the same thing comes back in the form of a big revelation in the climax, such a cinematic euphoria is created inside the theater.
Chidambaram enjoys telling stories through visuals more than dialogues. ‘Manjummel Boys’ Like, he has used a flat aspect ratio in this film also. The frames set by cameraman Shaiju Khalid, especially the scene where the boy finds himself completely alone and helpless, the high paths surrounded by trees bring the boy’s loneliness and fear alive on screen. Sushin Shyam’s background score has been kept very low, but his instruments continuously maintain the mystery and uneasiness within the film. In the last moments of the film, a different version of the song ‘Angota’ is heard, the editing of which is worth watching.
acting
Chidambaram has chosen completely new and fresh faces for this film, and since the film is based on suspense built around the characters, these new faces help a lot in making the audience believe in the story. Farzana Palathingal has done a wonderful job in the role of mother. There is a strange sadness and deep mystery hidden in his eyes. His performance is such that the audience starts feeling sympathy for him even after knowing his criminal past. The childhood character of the child is played by Adiseshan, whose innocent eyes take the emotional graph of the film very high.
Although in terms of screen time, Mohammed Sinan, who played the role of a growing up boy, got less time, but according to me, he has proved to be the best performer of this film. There is an amazing stubbornness and boldness in his character, which he has lived with full enthusiasm. Apart from this, Dolly June’s work in the role of the elderly woman whom both of them look after is also good. It was very fun to see director Girish Eddy in the role of a policeman, and even without any dialogue, Archana Padmini has made her role very special.
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see or not
This film is definitely not for those who are going to the theater expecting to see a fast-paced survival thriller or any commercial masala like ‘Manjummel Boys’. Its mood is very calm, slow and character-driven.
‘Balan: The Boy’ proves that Chidambaram is not one of those directors who, after giving a big hit, immediately start running in the race of making a hollow commercial film worth Rs 200 crore with a big star. Without succumbing to the pressure of stardom, he gambled on a very simple, deep and characterful story. The film’s writer Jeethu Madhavan has written a very dark and emotional story, completely different from his old comedy-action image, which goes straight to the heart. This film reminds us that cinema is not just about noise, but a lot can be said through silence too. If you are fond of watching a realistic and mind-blowing cinema, then do not miss ‘Balan: The Boy’ at all.
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