2 Penkuttikal Malayalam Movie Review

A thought provoking subject indeed and the plot has high relevance in the society we live in especially Kerala, the land which is called as God's own country. But when it came to the execution part, the film looked far from convincing.
2 Penkuttikal directed by Jeo Baby is a sincere attempt with a female oriented plot. The problem was with the narration that looked amateurish and outdated as well.
Empowerment and freedom for the women is a much discussed topic. Also violence against girls and women is also something that is happening every minute in our society.
2 Penkuttikal has two girls Aswathy and Anekha who are coming from different backgrounds as the central characters. They are questioned by society as well as their parents when they do certain little things that are otherwise forbidden for girls.They dream of venturing out someday to enjoy life. Enjoyment for them was experiencing the beauty of sea and spending some time in a mall in the city.
How they realise their dream and the consequences they had to face form the backbone of the story. Later rehabilitation of women and girls who are victims of domestic violence also gets a mention.
Jeo Baby has definitely tried to make a film that has to be an eye opener for us but the manner in which it was executed was a letdown. At just over seventy minutes, 2 Penkuttikal is a very short film but looks little more than that with the way it was told.
Poor dialogues created a bad feel. Add to it some unwanted and unrealistic scenes that piled on the misery. Could not digest some scenes like when a senior lawyer in the city and that too a lady and mother of a girl calling the help of police when her daughter's little friend came to their home in spite of warnings. I feel there are better ways for dealing in such situations.
The school scenes where teachers take classes and also when they express their anger towards children in couple of shots was presented with good intentions but on screen they looked odd.
Bad casting from the supporting actors was another factor that let down the film. The two girls who portrayed Aswathy and Anekha did a reasonably good job with one of them winning the state award for the best child artist. Tovino Thomas and Amala Paul makes a brief cameo. Technically, nothing notable. Edits could have been better. BGM was okay overall.
On the whole the attempt deserves praise for the subject it has chosen but the screenplay and execution should have been better for a satisfying filmy experience. The rating for 2 Penkuttikal is two out of five.
Rating - 2 / 5