This was one crash and burn like none other. As an ardent admirer of the Lijo Jose Pellisery school of film making and an even bigger admirer of Prithviraj (and to a lesser extent, his brother too), this was one flick I was betting the year on. Lijo's first movie was an under-appreciated little gem 'Nayakan' with Indrajith in a role which should have catapulted him to the big time, but didn't. Sadly, his second movie, and probably his best, City of God, was commercially noticed even less, but was one of my favorites of that year. But considering the huge supporting cast of big names and the Tarantino-sque trailer for this one, plus the fact that Lijo had finally cracked the commercial approval code with 'Amen', this had to be a surefire winner right?
Nothing could be further from the truth. Speaking as someone who loves experimental Malayalam cinema, I have to say I found nothing really to recommend here. The first sequence, in fact, was quite promising – with the arguing couple, the silent gunman and the explosive culmination of it in a black comedy of errors. But from then on in, I could only watch with growing disbelief as the movie descended into farce of unbelievable proportions. The silent gunman, played by Sunny Wayne, was probably the best part of the movie, and not nearly enough time was devoted to this character. A farcical tale on the pursuit of two diamonds, Laila and Majnu, which together are valuable beyond your wildest dreams but worthless individually, a whole cast of characters come together (or blow apart) in its chase. Leading the pack are the duo of brothers (Prithvi and Indrajith), small time crooks trying to break the big time. Chemban Vinod Jose and Arya play another track of small time hooligans trying to bury a couple of bodies their mobster boss killed. Speaking of which, how in the world is Arya such a huge star in the neighboring state? His lack of emotive skills and even poorer dialog delivery shows exactly why he probably could not make any in roads into the currently competitive Malayalam industry.
The ingredients were all there for a wild and quirky romp in a Mallu stoner attempt at Tarantino. Unfortunately, the biggest problem here is that the situations and dialogs are just not funny. What was meant to be rib tickling funny fell flat most of the time. Most of the story lines (apart from the silent assassin one) did not connect and it was way too long, clocking at a mammoth 2 hours 40 minutes.
There is almost nothing redeeming in this misadventure – except maybe for the fact that every director is allowed a misfire, and considering this is Lijo's first, he will hopefully bounce back with a bang.
