Based on true events of 1953, Thuramukham follows the story of two brothers who find themselves at the opposite sides of the establishment of the worker unions at a harbour. Will their relationship survive the test of time? The story is intriguing and picked up from one of the forgotten chapters of Indian History. Now, I was reading about the 1953 events of Mattancherry wherein a protest did turn violent, leading to a massacre. And that did give me a lot of context on what the film eventually had to offer. I would urge all my readers to skim through the internet because this subject does require research to truly understand the politics of the area. And needless to say, the story is outstanding. The screenplay standing at a runtime of almost 165 minutes does make for a daunting task and here is where the film does turn into a niche! That said, I did love every minute of it.

The drama is a slow burn and the reason why I do urge of readers to read about this incident first is because in a runtime of nearly 3 hours, it is easy to lose track of the proceedings or get lost in the narrative. Also, sitting through this epic saga needs patience too for the events take time to unravel and set context. The writers do provide an additional 20 odd minutes of a prelude. Shot in monochrome, the viewers are acquainted with the area where the drama is set in where the headmen rule the roosts against poor labourers who are subjected to atrocities. The moment if anyone does raise their voices against the establishment, they are bumped off(seems familiar?). This did set the ball rolling perfectly for the drama to follow given how the prelude did end. It was textured, layered and quite infuriating with the workers being subjected to humiliation even to get work in the first place(with the toss of a copper metal) apart from their meagre wages.

The proceedings are interesting and almost immersive relying on the viewers to dig as deep as they can in the drama. The jump in the timelines does introduce the viewers to many new characters including the two protagonists who are born and brought up in the area reeking of violence and atrocities. The events are stray but each passing event does lay a foundation for the power tussle to follow. The warring lines are slowly laid out through multiple subplots and character motives that does make for an engrossing watch, provided you are patient. It is very important to be familiar with the politics of the drama to fully understand the events in their entirety. And that did require focus, particularly in the second hour when the unions were laid out leading to the dispersion of power which was previously centered around the headmen.

One of the highlights of the drama are the character traits which are quite unassuming and understated. The organic shift of mindsets is so subtle that you might end up feeling it to be sudden. And this is the quality of writing that you generally do associate with a Malayalam film. It is subtle and effective with the politics being played out in its second layer. The events leading up to the eventual massacre is fairly interesting that do involve changing equations. The finale act too is impactful although I did feel that the makers could have opted the drama to be a little in your face for a better impact. But overall, the screenplay here is understated and niche but quite textured and layered.