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Release
date:
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Kerala: September 6, 2019
Delhi:
September 20, 2019
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Director:
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P.R. Arun
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Cast:
Language:
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Rajisha Vijayan,
Suraj Venjaramoodu, Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, Maniyanpilla Raju, Muthumani,
Tini Tom, Nisthar Sait, Sona Nair
Malayalam
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“Each bicycle I
have owned has been a loan my father has taken, each medal we earn is to pay
back loans to our families, our people and banks.”
These moving,
profound, poetic yet practical words are the highlight of a speech delivered by
national cycling champion Alice Varghese to a small community gathering in her
home town Kattappana in Idukki district. At this point in the first half of the
film, it seems that this young woman – wise beyond her years yet charming in
the way she copes with the uncertainties of youth – is the protagonist of the
new Malayalam release Finals. She is
dynamic, she is an achiever and she fights enough battles to make her a
captivating heroine in a full-length feature. As long as she and her
coach/father are the centre of the action, it is smooth sailing for Finals.
Writer-director
P.R. Arun seems not to have recognised that he has a good thing going with his
initial focus on Alice, her widowered parent Varghese’s and her clashes with a
corrupt state sports establishment, Varghese’s single-minded devotion to his
only child, her blossoming romance with her life-long friend Manuel, and the
callousness of a system and a society that threaten to throttle talent every
step of the way. As the many turns on Alice’s path play out, Arun has a firm
grip on his narrative, never allowing its appeal to lag despite the languid
pace that only serves to underline the contrast between her busy career and her
beloved, visually beautiful, sleepy birthplace. Her heart is in Kattappana but
the world is the stage she aspires to be on.
The storyline and
storytelling during this phase – bolstered by Sudeep Elamon’s gasp-inducing
cinematography and Kailas Menon’s melodic song Parakkaam (Let’s Fly) in Yazin Nizar and Latha Krishna’s voices –
are engaging enough to overshadow occasional glitches such as the awkwardly
cast and written cameo of a Sikh sporting official/coach in north India.
And then at the
halfway mark, something strange happens. A dramatic twist of fate alters Alice
and Varghese’s lives forever, but instead of staying with the girl through a
potentially riveting thereafter, the narrative virtually discards her and from
then on suddenly becomes about Manuel and Varghese.
It is tempting to
wonder – arguably uncharitably – whether this happened because Manuel is played
by the film’s producer Maniyanpilla Raju’s son Niranj and that Daddy wanted a
platform to showcase Niranj Mon’s talent. More likely though is the possibility
that Alice’s future was just too challenging for Arun, that he actually did not
know what to do with her after the interval, and so he chose the easier option
in which she is done and dusted and vacates the spotlight to the two gentlemen.
This is not to say
that Niranj lacks charisma or that Manuel is an unworthy hero (neither is true)
but that Finals lacks focus. If it is
meant to be a film about Alice, Varghese and Manuel, then there is just no
excuse for why Manuel is so marginal pre-interval or why Alice becomes next to
irrelevant post that. Besides, in the second half, the languor that initially
served the narrative so well becomes a camouflage for limited substance. The
volume of the background score too is used to fill in much blankness,
over-stressing every single emotion, every challenge, every tear, every sigh
and every breath to wearying effect.
Niranj Maniyanpilla
Raju needs a script with greater heft to pull off a second half that rests
largely on his shoulders. He does the best he can, but considering that even a
seasoned artiste like Suraj Venjaramoodu (playing Varghese) is stretched to breaking point as the script starts
wandering all over the place, perhaps the youngster deserves a long rope before
we judge him too harshly here. Point to be noted: he does have a pleasant
chemistry with Rajisha Vijayan.
Going by the text
plates in the end, Finals seems
inspired by a real-life sportsperson. The big regret following a viewing of
this film is that it squanders its early gains headlined by Rajisha. The actor
has grown noticeably as she has journeyed from her performance as a child-woman in Anuraga Karikkin Vellam (2016) and a
woman-child in this year’s June
to the woman that she is here. She does not deliver Alice to us in mere broad
brush strokes, but pays equal attention to both the bigger picture and the
little details – like that fleeting absent-minded cracking of the knuckles as
she addresses a gathering.
The most endearing
aspect of the leading lady’s performance is the manner in which she juggles her
character’s maturity with the inevitable hesitation that comes from her
awareness of her limited life experiences. My favourite scene in Finals is the one in which she seeks her
father’s counsel before making a move in her romance with Manuel. Her
matter-of-fact question to Varghese and his unflinching response convey, within
seconds, their closeness, her openness to advice from Dad and his common-sense
approach to parenting. There is warmth, believability and sweetness in that
scene. This then is what Arun fritters away as he pretty much washes his hands
of Alice through the second half of Finals.
The road to cinematic ordinariness is paved with persons who had good concepts
that they struggled to flesh out, especially well-meaning men who find the idea of a strong woman appealing but don’t
quite know how to deal with one.
Rating (out
of five stars): **
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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122 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
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