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Release date:
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December 21, 2017
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Director:
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Ajai Vasudev
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Cast:
Language:
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Mammootty, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Unni Mukundan, John Kaipallil, Mukesh, Maqbool Salmaan,
Gokul Suresh, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Poonam Bajwa, Mahima Nambiar, Leena
Malayalam
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Since the December
2012 Delhi gangrape, which fixed the media spotlight firmly on India’s long-running
feminist movement, many autorickshaws in the city have taken to carrying
stickers bearing the words “This auto respects women”. It is the most tragic
and ironic testament to how dangerous this city is for 50 per cent of its
population and how autowallahs in particular have been known to harass female
passengers in particular.
A similar irony
marks director Ajai Vasudev’s Malayalam film that is in theatres this week. Masterpiece’s
leading man, college professor Edward Livingston played by Mammootty, chants a
mantra throughout his time on screen. “I respect women,” he says again and
again and then again, clearly unconvinced by and uncommitted to his own
declaration. The character’s actions suggest that the megastar has taken
on this catchphrase to mock those who have slammed him over the years for the
horrendously misogynistic films he has chosen to act in, including last year’s Kasaba
that earned him a notice from Kerala’s Women’s Commission. His insincerity
is underlined by the scorn and condescension with which he dispenses these
words each time he wishes to put a woman in her place, in a film that has been
made with the evident purpose of celebrating aggressive masculinity and
treating women lightly.
No, I am not
kidding. The hero even has this theme song playing in the background while he
struts about: “He’s the man, macho macho man.” I swear I am not making this up.
Masterpiece is set in a men’s
college where two gangs of students are constantly at war. Their
competitiveness extends to a good-looking youngster called Vedika in a women’s
college in the city who recently won a major cultural crown. Soon after they
mark Vedika out as property to be duelled over, she is raped and killed.
Suspicion falls on her boyfriend, which leads to a clash between students and
the local police including ACP Bhavani Durga (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar) and her
colleague John Thekken (Unni Mukundan).
About an hour into
the narrative, Edward Livingston enters the picture. He is the sort of prof
that dudes consider cool because he effectively disciplines them in class but
in his free time becomes one of the boys, so to speak, such that when he beats
up goons to protect them, the young men on campus cheer him by yelling “goonda
masha” (hooligan teacher), which the film seems to consider a
compliment.
Edward, of course,
proves to be a better investigator than the police, and solves the mystery over
Vedika’s death. Of course. The whodunnit part of the film is no doubt
suspenseful, but when the big reveal comes, its contrivances somewhat
overshadow its interesting elements. For instance, the crime at the centre of
the plot took place when a young woman fixes a late night rendezvous with her
lover. A credible explanation is not offered for why she chose a lonely spot
and that particular time. Another instance: a tubby middle-aged person is shown
chucking a human body over a wall as if it were a sack of cotton, a task that
perhaps a real-life WWE wrestler might be equal to.
Even the
anticipation of the case being cracked is overshadowed by director Ajai
Vasudev’s fan worship of Mammootty, which dominates every scene in which
Livingston appears. The rape and murder are just an excuse to prove how cool
Mammukka can be when he plays detective-detective. There is no dividing line
here between the character and the actor, not because the actor is doing a
great job of immersing himself in a role, but because he does not bother.
Mammootty here is himself on screen as he has played himself in countless films
through his decades-long career.
Masterpiece, in that sense, is
not so much a film as it is a prop against which Mammootty leans. Everything in
it is geared towards paying tribute to the star while apparently signifying
Edward Livingston’s coolth. And so, Livington’s car registration number is KL02 BOSS.
During his introductory scene an hour into the narrative, “Maharaja” from the college’s name on its boundary wall
is highlighted, as are the words “limited edition” on the back of his Hyundai
Creta. He has a signature gesture: he keeps holding up his right arm and shakes
down his shining kada. Even the title is unrelated to the film’s
storyline: it is an ode to him.
It is not that such
swagger does not ever work. Mammootty himself has pulled it off in the past.
The problem here is that these moves are so lacking in novelty and so generic,
that far from being impressive, they come across as laboured and puerile. The
director also seems to be working on a template already visited by the
Mohanlal-starrer Velipadinte Pusthakam to slightly better effect this
Onam, right down to the hero’s late entry, the much younger woman teacher who
evinces romantic interest in him and a murder with a college in the backdrop.
What distinguishes Masterpiece
from Velipadinte Pusthakam is the utter contempt for women pervading
every cell of its being. When a classroom full of male students gawk at a
pretty young teacher (Poonam Bajwa) with a sari draped low down her waist, a
senior colleague (Mukesh) chides them but mutters to himself as he looks away
from her slim body in embarrassment, “There is no point in scolding the
students.” In his book it is the woman’s fault that those paavam, helpless young men are leering at her.
Let us pause for a
moment to think of the extreme insensitivity of that line being featured in a
film in which a rape – a crime usually accompanied by victim blaming – occurs
shortly afterwards. The low point of this film though is that long after this
gruesome
assault takes place, a marginal character, the canteen guy Manniyan, makes a
quip about rape. Despite the abysmal expectations Masterpiece
had set up for itself by then, I was startled in that moment.
Incidentally, the
aforementioned woman teacher is included in the film solely as a showpiece who
is smitten by Edward, because no Mammootty or Mohanlal film these days is
complete without a good-looking woman young enough to be their granddaughter
falling for them. Her youthfulness is unwittingly rubbed in our faces in a
scene in which she opts out of her usual saris and wears jeans and a shirt to
dance with the students.
Through all this
misogyny, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar stands tall as ACP Bhavani Durga, the actor’s
natural screen presence defying every effort by Edward Livingston to rubbish
her character. Varalaxmi conveys power effortlessly, possibly because of her
own innate strength. She deserves better than to play secondary characters in
macho-fests like Masterpiece and Kasaba.
The film itself squanders away whatever little
potential it has
in its adoration of Mammootty and its
misogyny.
Rating
(out of five stars): 1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U (because rape jokes, in the
Censor Board’s view, are suitable material for children)
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Running time:
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160 minutes
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
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