Review of 22 Female Kottayam (2012) by Anoop K — 09 Oct 2012

A quality drama with some bold substance shown flawlessly, that with no cooked up dialogs, no surrealism, no stupid subplots whatsoever. The plot doesn't boasts to be a novel one, the story of the deadlier sex in its throttling boldness have been told many a time. In fact, 22 Female Kottayam had bit of a resemblance with "ek haseena thi" big time. That said, emasculation of men in a subtly crude manner makes this drama a distant class, an aberration never seen in Malayalam Movies makes it top notch.

Shades of misandry and feminism can be pointed to, but all well complemented by the innocence, love and passion we see in each characters. All of them honestly sketched and neatly written be it T.G Ravi, Sattar, Prathap Pothen or Fahad. The protagonist played by Rima Kallingal stands out, easily the best female character written in a long time - loved her in nidra too. Fahad is a charm with his looks and subtle emotions. There were reasons why I started hating the neomallu noirs, read new generation film making. But then, this movie changes my perspective. The screenplay could have been crispier, for not all would find this an enjoyable outing. The background score and cinematography fuses well.

Lovable are the technicalities - was awed by the movie making style more than anything else - all so perfect which makes it an impeccable movie product. All credit to director Ashiq Abu & team who makes a raw film which shows the ugly side of our societal lives. 8/10.