Thudakkam review: Vismaya Mohanlal plays it safe in Mollywood debut

Released on: August 7th, 2026

Cast: Vismaya Mohanlal, Ashish Joe Antony, Bobby Kurian, Sai Kumar, Kottayam Ramesh and Manoj K Jayan

After his industry hit ‘2018 ’, director Jude Anthany Joseph is back in business with Thudakkam. Vismaya, daughter of Mollywood superstar Mohanlal, makes her big screen debut, along with Ashish, son of Mohanlal’s man Friday, Antony Perumbavoor.

If it was parkour in ‘Aadhi’ for Pranav Mohanlal, it is Muay Thai in 'Thudakkam' for his sister Vismaya. The movie relies heavily on the combat sport. This thriller plot is a tried and tested recipe in Mollywood, but it still seems to work for some.

Plot:

26-year-old Meenu (Vismaya) is a new tenant at a scenic hilltop residence in Idukki along with her village officer father Ravi (Sai Kumar) and pet dog Messi. They have an amicable landlord and a closely-knit community nearby. Meenu soon finds comfort in the place and gets along with the people of the hilltop town.

However, a journey to Ernakulam to appear for a bank test turns her life upside down. Meenu’s humanitarian urge to come to the aid of twin sisters, whom she met on a bus journey back home, goes wrong, even ending up in a home invasion.

A contract killer, also a hardened criminal, is on the loose and is in town for his next assignment. However, he has scores to settle with Meenu before indulging in any other crime. The police are helpless; the town is sleeping, and the night is dark.

The script is seemingly predictable, but Jude did the essential work to keep the pace intact. There is so much of a warm tone in the movie, and the cinematography looked a bit shaky at the start. Jude has put in his experience to weave a decent output from a very run-of-the-mill plot. The movie had a few intriguing moments, but it didn’t help people get away from the lag felt during the second half.

Sai Kumar blends into the character well and is arguably the best performer of the whole movie. Kottayam Ramesh and Manoj K Jayan provided good depth in supporting roles while Gibin Gopinath did the extra work to keep the plot engaging during dull times. Bobby Kurian, with his Kottayam dialect, looked solid on screen and occasionally brought a tinge of humour that was missing throughout the movie. Superstar Mohanlal appears in a cameo. It may look fine for some but superfluous for others.

Vismaya already admitted her lack of prowess in Malayalam, and so she appears on her debut with minimal dialogue. Not many actresses have flexed this much in action scenes since Vani Viswanath in Mollywood, and Vismaya can take credit for bringing that action vigour back with a femme fatale performance in the final lap. Ashish brings a certain menace to his part and makes a rather interesting debut.

‘Thudakkam’ might cater for a separate section of the audience who gets the adrenaline rush from women delivering power-packed dialogues, giving sermons on empowerment and showing how they can overpower men if in need.

The film appears to be an assignment that Jude took voluntarily to launch Vismaya in Mollywood. As a debut, the movie will work fine for Vismaya and a little better for Ashish.