Oru Muthassi Gadha Movie Review

Story: Though in her mid-sixties, Leelamma is quite a ‘rowdy’ picking up fights and expressing displeasure with everyone around her. Her life takes a 360 degree turn when the rest of the family goes on a trip, leaving the grumpy oldster behind.


Review: Often in our films, grandparents are either characters yearning for love or mentoring those around them with some ‘seen-it-all’ gyan, except may be for a Manassinakkare. Jude Anthany Joseph’s Oru Muthassi Gadha, like the Sathyan Anthikad film, is about a muthassi who gets a chance to materialize a few of her little wishes. But the similarity is no hindrance to enjoy the film as the exuberance of the story and characters is contagious, and the director has smartly weaved in so many little elements to keep the energy flowing and the excitement up.


Rowdy Leelamma (Rajini Chandy) is quite a talking point in her family and the neighbourhood, for her devil-may-care, rough attitude. She doesn’t know fear and hardly minces words about what she dislikes. While the nature doesn’t bother the woman, her family, consisting of her son (Suraj Venjaramoodu), his wife (Lena) and two children, is quite annoyed by her temperament. Once, she gets a chance to figure out what shaped her character thus, when the rest of the family leaves for a trip. Already fearless and smart as a whip, the opportunity brings out another side of Leelamma.

What works for Oru Muthassi Gadha is not that it presents the woman in new situations. It’s more or less the same – family members of various generations who conveniently forget little things that matter to homemakers, and the like. It’s that director Jude Anthany Joseph has handled them all differently, just like how he has brought in elements of novelty into everything about the film – be it the trailer, credit rolls, characterisations or the casting. He has smartly cast the 65-year-old debutant Rajini Chandy, who has delivered a stupendous performance in the film. She hasn’t missed a beat while enacting any emotion. Even in the scenes where there must have been chances of getting the character’s rage played up, she has done it just right. Bhagyalakshmi, who plays her buddy Susamma, also adds to the warmth of the setting.


The movie silently communicates that even those with a justifiable grudge against the world for whatever reasons one can think of, can be mellowed down with the right approach. All they need is someone who cares enough to help them shed the burdens of the past. Oru Muthassi Gadha is a film that will make you want to give your dear and near a call and have a hearty chat.