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Release
date:
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January 26, 2018
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Director:
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Shamdat Sainudeen
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Cast:
Language:
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Mammootty,
Dharmajan Bolgatty, Hareesh Perumanna, Stunt Silva, Adish Praveen, Lijomol
Jose, Soubin Shahir
Malayalam
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Three men – two petty thieves from
Kerala, and a Tamil gangster – are on the run with a stolen diamond necklace.
Their precious loot belongs to a man called Simon Mundakkal. As luck would
have it, Mundakkal is the ammaavan (uncle) of a senior policeman –
James played by Mammootty – and calls on his nephew for unofficial,
off-the-books help since the necklace is part of his untaxed, unaccounted-for
wealth. James agrees.
Elsewhere in the city, a poor
little boy’s posh classmates mock him for his shabby uniform and schoolbag.
When he manages to earn some money, he gets himself a new bag and clothes.
Not far from where the child
lives, a young woman is being pestered for attention by a man to whom her
father offered her hand in marriage many moons ago. Ramya works at an Idea
showroom, her stalker is a beauty parlour owner.
These apparently disconnected
strands come together in Street Lights, a film that is
uncharacteristic of Mammootty’s current filmography dominated by aggressively
masculine, star-struck tosh.
Though Street Lights is
marketed and positioned as a Mammootty flick, his character does not relegate
the rest to the sidelines. When James is around, we are treated to some
stylised camerawork dwelling on him, but it is not obsessive like films of the Kasaba and The Great Father variety. On the whole then,
cinematographer-turned-debutant-director Shamdat Sainudeen does what very
few of this iconic Malayalam actor’s directors have bothered to do for too many
years now: Sainudeen tells a story that is not dwarfed by a star fixation, and
he gives all the major characters in the film ample space and time on screen.
Dharmajan Bolgatty and Hareesh
Perumanna play small-time robbers Sachi and Raju. It is an unusual casting
choice, considering their naturally comical screen presence, which serves
as a foil to the hard-core criminality of their companion and accomplice
Murugan played by Stunt Silva. You know as soon as you first see their faces
together that Street Lights is not your regular crime
thriller.
The sub-story of the impoverished
boy Mani (played by National Award winning firebrand Adish Praveen) provides
the film’s strongest emotional pull.
The thread involving Ramya
(Lijomol Jose) is the only one that is typical of the hardcore commercial
cinema that Mammootty usually inhabits. Her ‘beau’, played by Soubin Shahir,
refuses to take her no for an answer, has her parents’ support in his
peskiness, and at one point, as she lies back with her eyes closed in a chair
in his parlour for a facial, he comes over to take a selfie with her without
her permission, as his female staff look on and giggle. In short, he indulges
in the sort of obnoxious behaviour that has become familiar in films which
happily equate sexual harassment with courtship. The narrative tone used
throughout this segment is one of fond indulgence, despite her evident
disinterest and disgust.
The social attitude towards his
conduct is underlined by the irony of scenes in which he is pursuing Ramya on
his mobike while this standard Censor-mandated notice flashes on screen: “Riding
two wheelers without wearing helmets is a punishable offence.” And stalking
women? This question becomes particularly pressing because the Central Board of
Film Certification a.k.a. Censor Board thought it fit to give Street Lights a U (universal) rating.
Read: suited for children.
In terms of performances, Shahir
is suitably icky playing an icky character who is comedified by the writing.
The film may be an unusual choice for Mammootty in many ways, but his acting is
somewhat generic. My favourite characters in Street Lights are Raju, Sachi and Murugan. Their group dynamic, the
suspense surrounding the cat and mouse game between them and James, little
Adish Praveen’s sweetness and the manner in which the three stories finally
intersect are what make this film engaging. It is not remarkably memorable, but
it is fun while it lasts.
Rating
(out of five stars): *1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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129 minutes
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This review was also published on Firstpost:
Poster
courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/StreetLightsTheMovie/
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