Thulasidas, seems to be in big trouble in recent times as his films are not working out to become cinematic successes. His last 'Avan Chandiyude Makan' received little applause from the box office and so is his latest flick with Kalabhavan Mani 'Rakshakan'.
Rakshakan is also the same story of middle class lives enmeshed in goonda problems, related mayhem, bloodshed, swords, and brazen killings as usual in a Kalabhavan Mani flick. The film also has the mandatory item number that panders to commercial interests without necessarily adding anything of interest to the storyline.
Even though the film has a thick story which moves on from twits to twists, each adding to its soberness, the director Thulasidas manages to maintain the momentum of narration to a large extent with the help of fast cuts. The first half actually makes better viewing. Post-interval, it takes the rather tame route, concluding in a rather regular climax.
Rakshakan opens with finding of the dead bodies of two college students which captures the headlines of newspapers. The bodies were identified as that of Sreekuttan and Heera Viswanath , who were studying in the same college and were in love. The related investigations never prove anything more than that the two have committed suicide. The movie presents Kalabhavan Mani as Mukundan, who is the elder brother of Sreekuttan, who is forced to start a new life as mechanic following a premature death of his father and brother. Mukundan who is the only reason to live for his mother and three sisters, has got a lot of financial liabilities, that incurred to the family as his father has borrowed a lot to marry off his eldest sister, Indira.
Lazar Panackal, who lends the money to the family, now starts threatening Mukundan for repayment. Mukundan depends on Bhaskaran Nair, his father's business partner who owed him around ten lakhs to repay the money. But he denies Mukundan anything on the advice of his second wife Lekshmy Thankachy and Mukundan's family is thrown out of the house. Bhaskaran's daughter Aswathy who is a journalist, decides to help Mukundan in getting back the money and through some ways they manages to get the money and a shelter for his family.
In the meantime a group of goondas tries to manhandle a youth who came with a marriage proposal for Mukundan's younger sister, Indhu. Mukundan identifies them as the team of Vedimara Zakhir, who is a known don of the city and happens to cross swords with him. In these times of chaos, appears C.I.Sugathan, who take charge in the city and begins to clear off the mafia with the help of Mukundan, who by then has become a closer friend of the C.I. But Sugathan has his own interests in the cases. As the plot goes on twists after twists to the climax, the viewers are not more occupied to the cause of the protagonists and his agonies.
Kalabhavan Mani has every ingredients and punch lines to excel in the lead role of Mukundan. Manya plays Aswathy, better than her recent outings while Riyas Khan appears as Vedimara Zakhir. Aashish Vidyaarthy as C.I. Sugathan is a well etched out character, even though his lip sync and larger than life activities defies logic. Jagathy as feminine Inspector Karvarnnan, Harishree Sshokan as Podimon and Suraj as Kusumakumar gives some relief to the otherwise heavy proceedings.
The film, based on a story by Haridaas Karivellor is scripted by the A.K. Santhosh. Even though the writers have pulled out a number of twists in the later half, the film gets out of hand in the end, vacillating between Komsi-Komsa to confusion. Everything that happens thereafter only takes the graph of the movie down. The others in the cast include Indrans, Suja Kaarthika, Shruthy, Jayakrishnan, Mini
