Arjunan Saakshi Movie Review: For the ‘Arjunan’ in all of us

Writer- Director Ranjith Shankar’s debut film – Passenger (2009) was one of the better films to emerge from Malayalam Cinema in that year. While the movie did have popular actors, what set the movie apart was the fact that the movie told the story from a common man’s point of view. The protagonist played by the wonderful Sreenivasan is someone whom we all come across in our daily life. Fuelled on by the response to Passenger, Ranjith went on to announce his next film,Arjunan Saakshi (AS from hereon) towards the end of 2009. Initially meant to be shot & completed in the summer of 2010, the film’s schedule kept getting postponed for various reasons and finally the film began in the later half of 2010 and got completed in quick time. Released on the 28th of January 2011, this was a film I was looking forward to. Not only was I keen to see if Ranjith was able to prove that Passenger was not a fluke, I was also keen to see how the leading man, Prithviraj was being portrayed in the film.

Let me go on to first talk about the film. AS begins with a letter written by an unknown person named Arjunan, reaching the hands of Anjali Menon (Ann Augustine) at the office of Matrubhoomi (a leading Malayalam newspaper and media house). In his letter Arjunan claims to have witnessed the murder of Feroze Moopan (Mukesh) the erstwhile collector of Cochin. This news creates a flutter in the media circles and everyone now wants to know the real identity of Arjunan. This is when Roy Mathew (Prithviraj) enters the scene. Roy is an architect who being an NRK (non resident Keralite), has decided to take up an assignment in Cochin so that he could experience the feeling of living in his home state for a while. Due to circumstances Roy gets mistaken as the unknown Arjunan and from thereon life becomes extremely tough for him.

So be it the Police or the media who is keen to know if he is the real Arjunan or some unknown people who keep harassing him and want him to leave Cochin, Roy is constantly under vigil. At one particular point Roy is determined and all set to announce that he is not Arjunan as people mistake him to be. But then comes the twist in the tale as Roy decides to face the situation head on. What happens from thereon? Who’s Arjunan and how is Roy linked to the Moopan murder? The rest of the movie is about all these. To start with I must admit that, AS has an interesting premise to begin with. All of us know that the common man can at times be witness to some extremely important events, sometimes unknowingly even being part of history.

But does the common man have the courage to come out in the open and narrate his part of the story? This is something that we need to dwell upon and the movie certainly makes us think on those lines. Also the background story (Cochin Metrorail project) is something that people can connect to. Today with malls, multiplexes and many new landmarks coming up in Cochin, the questions raised in the movie regarding development at what cost are very much valid. It’s also creditworthy indeed to note that the protagonist, Roy plays a common man and not a super hero (considering Prithviraj’s recent films – The Thriller, Anwar, Pokiri Raja have seen him trying to play larger than life characters), which is heartening of course. Another pleasant surprise is that while Roy and Anjali’s characters spend a lot of time together in the film, there is no forced attempt at building up a romantic track between them. Ajayan Vincent’s camerawork is quite effective and the car chase sequence in the 1st half was stunning to say the least. Having said all this AS is not a film without its issues. For me the biggest concern about the film lies in the writing. When the 1st half ends on a thrilling note and sets up the pace considerably, what was needed was an equally racy 2nd half, which kept up the tempo. Instead what unfolds is leisurely and routine indeed. Seeing Roy unravel the murder case of Moopan so effortlessly makes you wonder why the Police and allied forces couldn’t tackle it if it was so easy. And seeingBiju Menon, Suresh Krishna, Anand etc play the typical villains makes things only all the more dull. Both Biju Menon and Suresh Krishna are superb actors but their roles do not provide anything to challenge their limits.

When the film ended I was trying to wonder as to why the 2nd half disappoints after a promising 1st half and probably felt that somewhere along the way Ranjith might have decided that he needs to please the hard-core Prithvi fans as well. One can understand my point on seeing the film. While only Ranjith can say if my intuition is right or wrong, one thing is sure that in the process of trying to balance a realistic, common man’s tale with that of some heroism thrown in, the end result doesn’t come out all that impressive. Talking of performances Ann Augustine in her limited scope shows that her debut film Elsamma Enna Aankutty wasn’t any flash in the pan. Prithvi is effective especially in the 1st half of the film. The film has a whole host of supporting actors like Nedumudi Venu,Mukesh,Jagathy Sreekumar, Salim Kumar, Suraj Venjaramoodu etc but it is Jagathy and Mukesh who actually stand out over here. Mukesh’s role reminds us that there is more to him than just comedy and its good to see Ranjith utilising Jagathy Sreekumar effectively in both Passenger and now AS.

So all said and done the movie certainly does have an interesting premise and seeks out to once again speak from the common man’s viewpoint. It’s just that this time around the message somehow doesn’t come across all that effective.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/arjunan-saakshi-movie-review-for-the-arjunan-in-all-of-us/