Among the numerous movies that are lined up release, there are quite a few that I had eagerly waited for & Santhosh Vishwanath's "One" happens to be one such flick. The Covid situation meant that the release was delayed for close to a year. However, with the elections just round the corner; the makers couldn't have chosen a better time to make it available to the audience. The trailer was compelling & the plethora of artists that were part of this project, skyrocketed the expectations. So will it satiate the audience & give the producers the right to big bucks???
Kadakkal Chandran (Mammookka) was the much feared CM of our state who made his own party members sweat bullets, if he found them indulged in corruption or scandals. However, his impeccable image took a hit when a college student, Sanal (Mathew Thomas) posted against him on FB out of frustration coz of a physical assault from the police that he wasn't to be blamed for. As expected, the post goes viral & the opposition grabs onto the issue to fan violence in the state. The CM manages to defuse the situation with his tactful decisions, but this was just the beginning of the problem. With the voices of discontent growing within his own party, will he able to remain incorruptible or will he mellow down his ideals to ensure that his party remained in power???
This is Santhosh's second directorial venture after the spoof flick "Chirakodinja Kinavukal" with the script being penned by the Bobby-Sanjay duo. There is no doubt that Santhosh has done an admirable job in creating a palpable excitement in the first half with the towering presence of Mammookka. The script sensibly doesnt opt for a superhuman persona to the CM & humanizes him by giving us a fleeting glimpse of his health & family. Another huge positive was the attention paid to make sure that there was no distinction between the parties & all that matters is whether they are concerned about the welfare of the public.
However, none of the events that gets touched upon over the course of 2 h manages to elevate the movie to the next level that it was very much capable of. The over indulgence of sequences between the CM and Sanal was a flaw & the political scenes ought to have been more impactful rather than mere verbal discourses. On the technical side, it was fine with Gopi Sundar's BGM & Vaidy Somasundaram's visuals deserving special praise, though Nishad Yusuf's editing wasnt quite upto the mark.
Mammookka was brilliant as the protagonist & shoulders the movie with his screen presence even when the script falters. With a huge star cast, it is hard to pin point and mention about each one of them, though it would be fair to see that all of them have done utmost justice to their roles. Interestingly, Mathew has the most screen time after the legend & was fine along with Murali Gopi, who has definitely turned a corner in his acting career as he churns out yet another praise worthy act. Equally impressive despite the limited screen space was Joju as the party secretary, Babychan.
Verdict: It's surely an engaging movie especially in the first half which kinda fizzles out later on. There is no doubt that it had an interesting core theme, but it was more like a utopian concept & hence the latter half doesnt quite have the impact. Despite the pitfalls, do check it out for Mammookka!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment