The biggest highlight of this weekend was the clash of the titans at the box office as it saw projects that headlined Mammookka & Lalettan take centre stage. Bhadran's "Spadikam" was re-released in the 4K format & as per reports, it was well worth the effort with the audience having received it with open hands. It was undoubtedly a welcome relief for Lalettan who hasn't had the best of times in recent times, though his upcoming movies with credible film makers certainly provides hope. Two of the movies for which he was roasted the most were Unnikrishnan's "Aarattu" & Vysakh's "Monster", both of which were incidentally penned by Udaykrishna. Hence when "Christopher" was announced which saw Unnikrishnan & Udaykrishna join forces yet again, it certainly didn't inspire expectations. However, Mammookka's presence gave the hope that the project might engage the audience. So did it manage to???
As the tagline says, it is the biography of a vigilante cop & the person in question here is ADGP Christopher (Mammookka) said to be the messiah of women who were subjected to brutal crimes. Over the course of his career, he had chosen the path of vigilantism numerous times & one such incident had put him up for departmental inquiry. The most pertinent question at this juncture is whether Udaykrishna has been able to cook up something worthwhile??
Well even as the tagline sounded interesting, the story as such is predictable & featured numerous repetitive sequences i.e. assaults followed by encounter with the only difference being the characters involved. In the process, despite a significant amount of time invested in Christopher's backstory (which was indeed thoughtful); we do not get emotionally invested in him. There was no effort to pen in sequences that would showcase the investigative capabilities of the protagonist & comes across solely as a trigger happy cop. They build the image of a rather ruthless villain but reduced him to an insignificant character with an underwhelming climax. The makers seem pretty adamant of the fact that extra judicial killings is the only option & cant blame them as well since the culprits shown on screen are broadly painted in black after all they intentioned it as a mass entertainer. In terms of the making, I felt Unnikrishnan has done a decent job with support from Faiz Siddik as the DoP while Justin Varghese's BGM was good.
There is an army of artists in the movie with most of them featuring in just a couple of scenes. Almost all of them have done justice to their roles with the pick among the lot being Mammookka & Amala Paul. It was a barely challenging role for the legend as he manages to effectively convey the empathy that he has for the victims & the toll that the past had on him through his expressions & body language. Amala has also given a fine performance along with Dileesh Pothan while Shine Tom has started to appear in movies like the way he usually behaves in front of media which in this case matched with his on screen character. However, I felt Vinay Rai was wasted.
Verdict: Undoubtedly, far better than "Aarattu" & does not necessarily test our patience, though the story as such is predictable. In short, you may give it a try!!!
Rating: 2.25/5
Regards...Ben
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