It's that time of the year where we have a plethora of releases in different industries to cash in on the Diwali holidays. This year was no different as there were quite a few in Malayalam as well, not to mention the numerous OTT releases that hit the small screen. All in all, it provided much needed relief from the mediocre performance showcased by the Indian Women's Team in the Cricket World Cup until now.
The Pet Detective: "Sharafudheen's debut venture as a producer should give him smiles!!!"
There is more than a good chance that most of the people would have been reminded of Jim Carrey's "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" when they heard this title for the first time. After having plied his trade as an actor for more than a decade, Sharafudheen decided to take up the mantle of a producer. It also happened to be the directorial debut of Praneesh Vijayan who had also penned the script along with Jai Vishnu, the latter having earlier worked on "Madhura Manohara Moham".
The duo has created a comic caper which has multiple parallel tracks & characters that overlap with each other at various junctures before converging in the climax. As the makers had mentioned in one of the promotional event, they had kept "CID Moosa" as a reference and wanted to craft this flick along those lines. The movie unfolds in Mexico where Jose Alula (Renji Panicker), a private detective had to flee the country to escape from the clutches of the dreaded underworld don, Peter Sambai. Though he had planned to open up a detective agency in Kerala, it didn't quite pan out & he decide to devote his time to write crime novels about Sambai. In due course of time, the agency was entrusted to his son, Tony (Sharafudheen) who struggled to derive any benefit from it until he located a missing dog. Around the same time, he gets involved in the missing of a child which in turn was linked to the smuggling of exotic fishes. How he manages to clear his name & in turn, solve the case is what the story is about.
As mentioned earlier, there are numerous parallel tracks and the manner in which characters gets added to it is definitely interesting especially the one that links to Tony's school mates. It is a type of movie that is not supposed to be taken seriously but still has a reasonable tale narrated in a hilarious manner. For most parts, it does tick the boxes when it comes to humour & certainly made me laugh in a couple of sequences. The climax reminds one of the typical clash of all the characters as in Priyadarshan flicks, though I felt the chaos went overboard here and lacked that organic flow.
On the technical side, it was neatly done though no particular aspect deserves special mention. Coming to performances, almost all the characters did justice to their part despite the varying length of their characters. Sharafudheen was impressive and pulled off his part mixing humour and the swagger of the lead well. Vijayaraghavan rocked as expected, Vinay Fort was fine (his part ought to have been more) along with Anupama Parameshwaran, Joemon Jyothir & Shyam Mohan.
Verdict: It's a fun filled flick which delivers what it promised & manages to keep us in good spirits!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Pathirathri: "Underwhelming, considering the quality of the cast & crew!!!"
Over the past few years, most of the choice of movies that Mammookka has been part of has made it an exciting experience for the audience. Though many of them has been spoken about, one movie that is quite underrated which I personally rate as one of the best in the lot (after "Bramayugam") is Ratheena's "Puzhu". Hence this was more than ample reason as to why I wanted to watch "Pathirathri", not to mention that the script was drafted by Shaji Marad who had worked on the screenplay of "Ela Veezha Poonchira".
Based in Anakkara, SI Jancy (Navya Nair) was a sincere officer who tried to follow the rules as per the book even as she struggled with the cold relationship that she shared with her husband. In the same station, CPO Hareesh (Soubin Shahir) was also going through a marital discord which made him seek the legal system to spend time with his daughter. When it came to his professional responsibilities, he was quite unlike Jancy due to which they didn't get along well. It so turned out that both of them were entrusted to do the night patrol together which made them witness to an incident that threatened to put their lives into jeopardy.
There has been quite a few movies in recent times that more or less follows the same pattern, with "Ronth" being a prime example. It also has the reference to another popular movie (it will be a spoiler for one of the character arc), all of which categorises it in the crime drama genre. However, even as the others had an identity of its own in some way or the other, the issue over here is that it is way too generic. Even as we are shown the personal lives of Jancy & Hareesh, it fails to provide any kind of emotional connect which literally makes those segments insignificant to the story as such. One might state that both of them becomes a shoulder for other's sorrows, but the way it has been crafted felt way too abrupt & lacked the effect expected. None of the sequences managed to excite the audience as it was neither unique nor was it taken in an engaging manner.
As I was going through the list of the crew involved here, I was surprised to know that the music belonged to Jakes Bejoy as it was rather mundane. The same also applies to the others as none of them quite stood out. However, when it came to performances, Soubin was definitely better while Navya didnt come across as natural in the role of the SI though the emotional turmoil that she faces was conveyed aptly. As for the rest of the cast, Harisree Ashokan was wasted in an inconsequential role, Indrans impressed in a brief appearance while Ann Augustine, Sunny Wayne & Athmiya Rajan were ok.
Verdict: There are elements in the story that reminds us of other similar flicks. On the whole, it was underwhelming considering the talent that was on offer both in front & behind the camera!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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