Pallichattambi movie review: Heavy-handed approach drags down this ahistorical period movie

Subtlety has never been one of filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony’s core strengths, but even by his standards, some of the choices he makes in his fourth film Pallichattambi are quite odd. Like, the idea to introduce a much-feared antagonist by having him kill his pet dog with a fork, just because it was barking a little too much. The act was also to send a message to two men who walked in with not so favourable information during his dinnertime.

Being a piece of historical fiction or even an attempt at alternate history, the film’s treatment of history also follows a similar pattern, of landing a sharp fork at pages of history. Set amid the tumultuous period of the Vimochana Samaram (Liberation Struggle) led by revanchist forces against the land and educational reforms brought in by Kerala’s first Communist government in the late 1950s, the film’s protagonist is Pothan (Tovino Thomas), a strongman chosen by the Church to lead the ‘Christopher Sena’ to resist the Communists.