‘Minnal Murali’ is the most accessible superhero movie I’ve watched

While the genre generally tugs at your senses by dazzling and impressing you, this one comes with soul and focuses on the people behind the superheroes. In that sense, the superhero is more the journey than the destination.

The hero’s and villain’s origin stories, their motivations for themselves and against each other, the action, the CGI - it’s all there but set in a village in Kerala among people with less means, hence feeling very real and extremely rooted.

Guru Somasundaram is brilliant as the villain you empathise with and Tovino Thomas is extremely sincere as the hero you root for.

Although the film has received a lot of praise and became a sleeper-hit even though made at a small scale, it has received some criticism for its treatment of mental health. But I’m not sure if that criticism resonated with me.

However, one complaint I did have is that the film gets a tad overindulgent in its world-building, which I’ve noticed other Malayalam movies doing as well. Perhaps that aspect will be more relatable to a native Malayali than it is to me but I felt the film could be at least 15-20 minutes shorter than its 158 minute runtime. The last hour is when the film truly comes into its own and rewards you thoroughly!

Minal Murali belongs in the same universe as Hancock and Bhavesh Joshi. Overall, recommended for its sheer novelty.