Alexander The Great – Malayalam Movie Review
Published on May 11 2010

After a nice in Janakan, Mohanlal hit back the screen with his latest movie Alexander The Great and it’s very sad and disappointing to find that the movie is a disappointing one. Directed by Murali Nagavally, the film bears an amateur script with a very common and old storyline.

Alexander The Great is inspired from the 1988 Hollywood movie Rain Man. Despite the script, the movie does not have anything much that catches the attention of the audience and is hardly interesting.

1.5 stars By VN Sun, 09 May 2010 On his father’s demise, Manu Verma (Bala) arrives at Mumbai and spends the first half of the film finding his half brother Alexander (Mohanlal) whom he has never seen in his life, but who has been entrusted with the entirety of his father’s wealth. He finds Alex and much to his surprise also discovers that he is not normal. The second half has Alexander arriving in Dubai with Manu and finally heading back to Mumbai. If you think that this cannot possibly be content enough for a story, better think again. It’s apparent that Alexander has gone bonkers, and twenty minutes into the film we are ready to give him company. These assaults at your normal thinking skills are frequent and they go on for the rest of the film. Alexander is a strange chap indeed, and to ensure that we get a pretty decent picture as to how his normal day goes, they show him getting up, walking around, having breakfast, lunch and dinner, reading books on the bed, and finally switching off the light at 12 in the night. Now with an elaborate detailing as this, you could hardly miss a point. The real ordeal starts with Manu dragging Alexander out of the clinic. The problem you see is that Alexander keeps asking for specific colored shirts as the clock keeps ticking away. So we need to hang on till the shirt change is over. And once that’s done, he insists on a number at the dinner table. Four is the magic number, whether it be idlis or chapathis. Yes, you got it right. We need to stay around till those idlis arrive. Wait. If you are wondering if Alexander is just nuts, he isn’t. The man is a real genius. For starters, he was about to graduate from a medical school. He learns telephone directories by heart. He could tell you which continent Egypt is in. And to top it all, he takes part in Maths Wizard competitions and wins a cash prize of one lakh rupees. Now this is a breath-stopping event that goes on for a good ten minutes or so with some guy asking questions in English (with subtitles in Malayalam!!) and Alexander coming up with spectacular answers.

It’s a wonder that how can an actor like Mohanlal accept such a film! However he has showed similar mannerisms that of Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. The role invested on Mohanlal has nothing to do much and to perform. The film has been shot in picturesque locales in Dubai and Mumbai, but that doesn’t help in making the film interesting and convincing as well.

Bala repeats his same kinda role performed earlier. Jagadeesh too shows nothing interesting and new. The rest of the characters have limited roles to play. D Kannan’s camera is fine and the music is okay. Though the story is lifted from a Hollywood flick, efforts are not made to make it more impressive and attractive. Director has ailed in his experiment.

The film has taken quite some time in its making and the final product looks totally a disaster! With no interesting storyline worth mentioning or some interesting moments that remains in the viewers’ minds after watching the film, Alexander the great is a confused film with no linking as well as sinking. An utter disappointing film!

Cast & Crew:

Banner: Anugraha Cine Arts

Cast: Mohanlal,Jagadish,Kiran Kher,Lakshmi,Saikumar

Producer: V.B.K Menon

Director: Murali Nagavally

Music Director: M.G. Sreekumar

Screenplay & Story/Writer: C Balachandran

Source: Metromatinee