Christian Brothers Movie Review: Harmless old wine in new bottle

Director Joshiy has been a veteran in the Malayalam film industry who has worked with most of the leading actors in his period. So when AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes) and Dileep joined hands to make Twenty: 20,the fund raising film for AMMA, it was Joshiy whom they turned up to for helming the project. Joshiy along with his writersSiby K.Thomas and Udayakrishna came up with the mother of all multistarrers in Malayalam Cinema by incorporating nearly the who’s who of the industry in the film. What was interesting was that the film managed to give enough mileage to almost the entire star cast while retaining the focus on the top billed stars of course.

Twenty: 20 wasn’t a film that brought about any revolution in terms of its story telling or probably even in the technical front. But it delivered what it promised- entertainment catering to the masses who were happy to watch all their stars in one single film. So in 2009 when Christian Brothers was first announced with the same team of Joshiy,Udayakrishna and Sibi.K.Thomas we knew what to expect. There was no doubt that it was not going to be anywhere close to some of the landmark films in Malayalam Cinema. It wasn’t going to be having any outstanding subject or an out of the box treatment or even technical wizardry. So for those who would complain saying that the movie is nowhere in the league of Joshiy’s earlier films ( Nirakootu, New Delhi, No.20 Madras Mail, Naduvaazhikal and many more ) or the landmark films of Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi or Dileep, well then I’d say you went to watch the wrong movie. The star cast comprising of names like Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Dileep, Sharath Kumar etc certainly looked impressive enough and did create a lot of excitement among the prospective audience. The film was also in the news when the producers association came out with a norm that no Malayalam movie should have a budget of more than 3.5 crores ( keeping the viability in mind ). Sensing that this project was going to be way beyond the 3.5 crs mark the association did not give the clearance initially before finally relaxing the norm for the same.

Ok so am I saying that Christian Brothers is a cracker of a movie? Hang on friends. Let me start by looking at the plot of the movie to begin with. Palamattathu Varghese Mappila (Sai Kumar) is a retired Army Captain and a disciplinarian. He has given up on his two sons, Christy (Mohanlal) and Joji (Dileep). He gets upset with Christy when he hears that Christy has probably joined the underworld in Mumbai while Joji earns his father’s displeasure by opting out of the seminary in Italy and falling in love with Meenakshi ( Kavya Madhavan ), the daughter of the home minister (Devan). When Meenakshi’s father gets to hear of his daughter’s affair he gets her back home but before reaching home itself, she is kidnapped. Considering the high risk involved in getting his daughter back the minister falls back upon Christy to handle the task. What happens from thereon is what the rest of the film is all about.

It is certainly an effort to make a simple story like this work to an extent and for that Joshiy, Sibi K.Thomas and Udayakrishna deserve some credit. In fact at the interval point you are even strangely relaxed watching the film unfold and build up character by character. But strangely what starts on a relatively good note fizzles out in the 2nd half. The film has a parallel plot of land mafia, which is linked; to the main plot and this is an attempt to remain deep-rooted to reality. Sai Kumar is earnest as the father who is strict and is unable to recognize the goodness in his son. Biju Menonand Vijayaraghavan get a lot of screen time but play the standard negative roles. Suresh Gopi as the cop Joseph Vadakkan does his usual job while Dileep in his limited portion is effective. In fact in the 2nd half its only the light moments created in the scenes featuring Sursh Gopi and Dileep that carry some impact. None of the female leads – Kavya Madhavan,Lakshmi Rai, Kaniha or Lakshmi Gopalswamy have anything much to do in the film. Jagathy Sreekumar is good in the cameo enacted by him. Sharath Kumar is just there to provide star power and his presence is just that of an extended cameo.

But pray what was Suraj Venjaramoodu doing in the film?I think its the director’s duty to ensure that he reigns in someone like Suraj otherwise there is ever the chance of him going berserk in the film and only proving a nuisance.Ultimately the movie is a Mohanlal vehicle and the star pulls it off in style. But his introductory shot (breaking the glass and entering the frame) and his characterization as “ Sher-Son” (couldn’t they get anything better than this) were just to please the frontbenchers. While this made me grimace a bit and wonder what other crowd-pleasing tactics were in store, I was relieved to find no unnecessary over the top punch dialogues or item numbers. All of these have been seen in plenty in recent “mass films” in Malayalam and hence the lack of such elements at least gives you the feeling of watching a Malayalam movie and not a Tamil or Telugu styled one. Deepak Dev’s music is of the popular variety but not something that you might remember after a few months though.

All said and done it looks like the producers of the film, A.V.Anoop and Maha Subair who have produced many films together in the past including Paleri Manikyam, were clear with their objective this time- of making an entertainer that would fetch them their moolah. Initial indications suggest that they could be right though. With a release in 300 odd centres Worldwide (a record for Malayalam Cinema) and with word of mouth not being negative, the star power seems to have done the trick once again. But its sad that today’s state of affairs in Malayalam cinema has reached the level where one feels happy when even something better than the majority (of the trash) comes out. So if looked at as an opportunity to come up with something non-traditional or out of the box then the movie of course is a failure but if seen as just an attempt to keep you occupied for nearly 3 hours of its running time, then I’d say it’s a fair attempt. Go watch it for lack of better options and also to look at what could have been a really good entertainer, if the 2nd half also had delivered equally.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/christian-brothers-movie-review-harmless-old-wine-in-new-bottle/