STORY : A chronic bachelor from Thopramkudy, Joppan is a well-to-do achayan who turned an alcoholic after losing his lady love. He once meets a perky young girl and falls for her, and then on, a series of interesting episodes follow.
REVIEW : Giving an ‘achayan flavour’ to dialogues, costumes and settings has been a popular tactic for comic relief in Mollywood for long, and for his latest film, Johny Antony too has tried the same formula. A popcorn entertainer with a decent storyline, however, 'Thoppil Joppan' isn’t a movie that fully depends on the cultural stereotypes alone, to say the story. Joppan and his cronies are all about kabbadi, alcohol and camaraderie and what you get to watch is vignettes from the protagonist’s love life.
Joppan (Mammootty) is the typical ‘jubba-wearing,’ ‘cooling glass sporting’ strong-spined achayan, who drinks heavily to forget the pain of losing Annie (Andrea Jeremiah), the woman he loved. He stands up for his loved ones fearlessly, and his family is concerned about his devil-may-care attitude and drunkenness. He once meets a young girl named Maria (Mamta Mohandas) who reminds him a lot of Annie. But does he get to impress her?
As always, Mammootty looks a true blue, handsome achayan in the film and he proves again that none else can outdo him when it comes to carrying off the role. His charisma upstages everyone else in the movie and when he makes an appearance in slow motion in the classic white-and-white ethnic avatar, you can’t help but be glued to every ounce of it on screen. An average, almost-predictable storyline also chugs alongside making the film an OK experience, but there’s nothing more to it that makes the film anything exceptional.
When one discovers that Salim Kumar is also part of the movie, that too in a role with a lot of humour potential, expectations soar. However, like many films of the recent times, Thoppil Joppan also turns to some of our evergreen comedy dialogues – used in the films of the same actors in this movie, sadly – to spark fun. Since when is it that M-town turned so bereft of quality, original comic one liners? One can’t help wondering… Mammootty tries his hand a bit at shaking a leg, probably to generate some laughs, but doesn’t help much. Andrea doesn’t seem to be out of her Annayum Rasoolum mode yet and doesn’t get much space to perform.
Predictably, Joppan can be easily endearing for the numerous all-embracing Mammootty fans and for the rest, it can be one of those boilerplate films with glimpses that remind you of films like 'Kottayam Kunjachan'.
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