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Release
date:
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October 18, 2019
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Director:
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Swapnesh K. Nair
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Cast:
Language:
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Tovino Thomas,
Samyuktha Menon, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Salim Kumar
Malayalam
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I doubt that Lijo Jose Pellissery
would have expected amusement as a reaction to Jallikattu, yet halfway through Swapnesh K. Nair’s Edakkad Battalion 06, I found
myself laughing out loud at the contrast between this film and
Pellissery’s new release that I had watched just hours earlier. Jallikattu strides purposefully towards
the many points it wishes to make, Edakkad
B06 waffles on and on. Jallikattu is
trim, Edakkad B06 is flabby. Jallikattu has clarity of thought, Edakkad B06 wanders about in
a confusing state. Most important, you may like or dislike, agree or
disagree with Jallikattu, but you
have to admit that it is pointed and sharp. Edakkad Battalion 06, on the other hand, is as dull as
hell.
The chasm separating these two
films getting to theatres across India on the same day is a perfect
illustration of how Malayalam cinema has for long swung wildly between
extremes in terms of quality.
Edakkad
Battalion 06
is set in a small town in Kerala where Captain Shafeek Mohammed of the Indian
Army is home on vacation from a posting in the strife-torn north. Here he comes
up against a bunch of no-good youngsters drifting through life and gets
acquainted with the drug menace plaguing local youth. His passing concern grows
into greater involvement in the problem when he learns that someone close to
him is an addict.
The first visual of Tovino Thomas
as Shafeek is preceded by a long-winded introduction to multiple characters in
the story accompanied by sketches of the actors playing them. You might imagine
that this will then be a busy film with each of these seemingly interesting men
and women playing a significant role in the plot. Curb your imagination, dear
reader, because the team of this film lacks it.
That intro – like so much else in
Edakkad Battalion 06 – could have
been shaved off without particularly impacting the film beyond reducing its
length. Because when the narrative is rolled out, none of these characters is
treated with any depth. Not even Naina Fathima, a teacher who has made a
mark while working with differently abled students, and is played by Samyuktha
Menon.
Thomas and Menon had sparkled and
shone together as a screen couple in Theevandi.
Her role in Edakkad Battalion 06
is so small, so generic and so marginal, that she can do little to lift it
beyond the ordinary despite her good looks and undeniable charisma.
Menon could have been replaced by
any random pretty woman without the change making an inch of a difference to
this film, since the only purpose she serves here is to look nice, and
give the male lead a woman to fall in love with, while Naina’s profession sets
the stage for a dramatic rescue by our hero early in the narrative and later
for some children with disabilities to be dragged into what must rank as one of
the most offensively emotionally manipulative, nauseatingly mushy, poorly written
film endings ever seen.
The plot of Edakkad Battalion 06 feels like a
contrived stringing together of disconnected sub-plots. Shafeek’s interactions
with his extended family, his romance with Naina, his work as an Armyman in a
terrorism-stricken state and his confrontation with drug peddlers back home do
not flow smoothly from one to the other, nor is any of these elements written
with any detail. As a result when they are thrown together they feel like an
odd, bland mishmash.
Women actors in most film
industries, and in Malayalam cinema more than most, have limited choices, but
male stars wield considerable clout, so while Menon could be let off
lightly, Thomas should certainly be held accountable for his decision to pick
this sub-par script. The charming young actor’s filmography so far is packed
with sweet, gentle cinema. Even when he did the horrendous Kalki earlier this year, it was possible to guess his reason for
having chosen it: an evident desire to be catapulted into the biggest of big
leagues in Mollywood although he is already a major star. What could he
possibly have seen in Edakkad Battalion
06 though? The search for the answer may well inspire a mystery
writer.
If you deign to check the credits
of this soporific film, you may be startled to discover, as I was, that it has
been scripted by P. Balachandran whose writing credits include the stupendous Kammatipaadam. A trough following a
crest in a wave is a natural phenomenon, but can science please explain how Edakkad Battalion 06 could possibly
follow Kammatipaadam from the same
writer? Seriously, how?
Rating (out
of five stars): *
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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111 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
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