Thanmatra with all its brilliance is an amazing movie which deserves 8 Stars. The cinematography is pretty decent and characteristic of the 2000s era Malayalam Cinema,direction is good,summary script is simple and well,it has lots of good performances by the supporting cast and so on. Its an overall watchable piece otherwise. However two aspects elevate my rating from 8 to 9 and give it its "Masterpiece"-Rank. First is the brilliant screenplay by Blessy based on a short story by Padmarajan which is so meticulously crafted and nearly perfect. The second and most important of all is Mohanlal's extremely poignant and soul-touching performance as the smart Government employee with high hopes for his son slowly descending into the horrible grips of Alzheimer's. Mohanlal absolutely deserved the National Award which he was snubbed off,due to Amitabh Bachchan's political game. Each expression,each gesture,each body movement and each sound he makes speaks massive volumes about the character's hopelesness and misery. The performance is one which would blast open the flood doors of our tear ducts. Mohanlal's performance in Thanmatra is honestly one of the greatest pieces of screen acting one could ever hope to watch. It is definitely in the same league as the masterful performances by Daniel Day-Lewis,Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro.