Last night, Asianet movies beamed "Lucifer" for the nth time & as always I watched it for some time. Incidentally, this was the first Malayalam movie that I had watched in the theatre in US & I certainly enjoyed it. However, I didn't have the same feeling when I had watched Mohan Raja's "Godfather", it's official remake. It isn't a frame to frame recreation as Mohan had made some changes to his screenplay with regard to the characters. Well after the debacle of "Acharya" at the box office, Chiranjeevi would surely want this to click. So does it manage to keep the investors happy???
The basic plot as such remains the same though one prominent difference is the absence of Tovino's role. In doing so, Nayanthara's role is much meatier than Manju's, as the former essentially does his segment as well though in a different manner. The primary USP of "Lucifer" was the mystery that surrounded Stephen / Abram & menacing feel that Lalettan & Vivek Oberoi were able to impart to their characters. This aspect is completely missed here & some of the artists failed to create the impact that Indrajith, Baiju, John Vijay & Kalabhavan Shajon had done with their respective roles.
In its present form, it does have the content to be made into a sound political thriller but it falls well short of that. On the technical side, the VFX was pretty pathetic while Nirav Shah's cinematography was ok. Coming to performances, Chiranjeevi scored in portions where subtlety was required while he was rather wooden in the mass scenes, Nayanthara did a fine job while Murali Sharma's act was interesting (role essayed by Saikumar). However, I was reasonably impressed with Satya Dev as the antagonist as he looked more at ease than Vivek. & didn't seem over awed by Chiranjeevi's presence. As for the extended cameo by Salman, he did it in a bindaas manner but the way the makers had conceived it made it unintentionally funny and stupid.
Verdict: During one of the press interactions, Chiranjeevi mentioned about not being fully satisfied with "Lucifer" & hence they have crafted the remake in a much more engaging manner. Well he is certainly far from the truth as it was pretty mediocre in comparison to be frank. In short, wait for Asianet to play "Lucifer" yet again!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
Regards...Ben
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