The most awaited Malayalam film of the year, the biggest Malayalam film ever - the hype that Puli Murugan got prior to its release is something that has never happened in Malayalam. And all the credit goes to one man, Mohanlal, the King of Mollywood. The posters with Mohanlal posing as the wild hunter, the predator with eyes fixated on his prey, ready to launch himself, created a big buzz and got the fans of this great actor very excited about the movie.

Written by Udayakrishna and directed by Vysakh, Puli Murugan is the story of Murugan, a wild hunter hailing from the village Puliyur. The village is in close proximity to the forest and encounters with wild animals is a common thing to people living there. Murugan is the man everyone depends on to hunt down the man-eating tigers commonly known as 'Varayan puli'. The challenges Murugan has to face after he gets tangled with people from outside the village forms the crux of the movie.

Vysakh is a director known for making colorful and commercial films like Pokkiriraja, Mallu Singh and Seniors. This time too, he has made a very different Malayalam movie which looks more like Tollywood flick. Puli Murugan is the first independent screenplay by Udayakrishna of the Udayakrishna-Siby K Thomas scriptwriter duo and even though it is the universal hub of cliches, there are many humorous and thrilling scenes in it. There is everything in the movie that you expect from a mass entertainer, but it does fall short when compared to Mohanlal's previous onscreen avatars.

Mohanlal is awesome as ever, be it humor, sentiments or mass. The swiftness he displays in fighting sequences is not something you see from any regular 56 years old. The other cast includes Lal, Kamalini Mukherjee, Jagapati Babu, Bala, Kishore and Suraj Venjarammood and they all have delivered decent performances. The child actor who played Murugan's childhood was the other notable performer as he has the same intensity that Mohanlal has in his eyes. Namita's inclusion in the screenplay is a purposeful attempt to inject humour that could have been avoided.

The cinematography by Shaji Kumar is splendid. The beauty and the mystery of the deep forest are visible in every shot. The background score by Gopi Sunder is rock solid and he has carved out a masterpiece, but even though the songs are decent, it is not as impactful as the stylish background score.

The stunts by Peter Hein is the best thing in the movie and the background score has blended in with the edits by Johnkutty to make it an onscreen beauty. The VFX is good and will satisfy everyone who does not expect to see the VFX of a 400 crore Hollywood movie in a 25 crore Malayalam movie.