Finally the most awaited Malayalam movie of the year has hit the screens in a manner that was reminiscent of the tsunami. The pre-release ticket sales threw up some astonishing numbers and all that contributed to a historic global box office opening of around 65C. With Eid falling on Monday, the extended weekend should have Aashirvad Cinemas & Sree Gokulam Movies reasonably confident about their returns in investment. But the question is whether the movie has the substance to sustain this excitement beyond the weekend, after the initial hype abates???
The movies unfolds in 2002 where communal riots led to the massacre of many Muslims which included Zayed's family (Karthikeya Dev) as well. The attacks were orchestrated by Balraj (Abhimanyu Singh) & his brother, Munna (Sukant Goel), with Zayed being the only one who managed to escape from the horrific mass slaughter. In the present day, Jatin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas) who had been the CM for close to a term found himself embroiled in numerous scams and financial irregularities. To add to that, a prominent political party with roots predominantly in North India decided to make their presence felt in Kerala. In this bleak situation, Govardhan (Indrajith) tries to locate Stephen (Lalettan) to seek help.
First & foremost, this is undoubtedly the finest Malayalam movie in terms of the production quality. Hats off to Prithvi for the way he has mounted this flick as it embodied grandeur. It definitely deserves to be watched on the big screens & the main reason for that are the exquisite frames captured by Sujit Vasudev. The action sequences were brilliantly staged especially the one in the jungle though the climactic one felt rather outdated (& in a way, reminded me of "Jilla"). As for Deepak Dev's music, it was quite underwhelming for most parts with the BGM at times failing to enhance the high moments.
However, irrespective of the canvas, the backbone of any movie is the script & to be honest, I was quite disappointed with what Murali Gopi came up with. The focus of the movie is on two aspects, one being Khureshi Abraam & the other, Stephen Nedumpally. Coming to Khureshi, the character was explored superficially with focus more on aesthetics rather than heft in the conflict that he had with other nexus. As for Stephen, though there was more meat to proceedings, many of the sequences & dialogues felt more like a rehashed version from the prequel. In effect, it failed to evoke as many high moments as expected. In terms of content, Kerala politics, international nexus, backstory & reason for change of certain integral characters made it feel like there was more adequate stuff to make it a delightful treat. But the truth is Murali has failed to gel it convincingly.
Coming to performances, Lalettan was impressive & did what was possible within the scope of the character though it didn't give him much opportunity to perform as such. He effortlessly carried the swag & the aura that the character demanded and owned the action sequences. Both Prithvi & his younger avatar, Karthikeya did their parts aptly. Abhimanyu & Sukant were both impressive in their negative avatar while Jerome Flynn as Boris had a significant role and did justice to it. Manju Warrier had more scope to perform and did her part aptly along with Tovino. There were numerous others also but most of them barely had adequate screen time or character arc to showcase their ability.
Verdict: There is no doubt that the movie deserves a watch & that too in the theatres. However, the weak storyline could certainly hamper the potential that it could otherwise have had. Anyway it will certainly inspire other makers from our industry to dream big & hopefully, Murali will have a banger script in L3!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
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