REVIEW 765: SHYLOCK

Release date: Kerala: January 23, 2020 Kerala: January 24, 2020 Director: Ajai Vasudev Cast: Language: Mammootty, Siddique, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Rajkiran, Meena, Baiju Santhosh, Hareesh Kanaran, Hareesh Peradi, Bibin George, Arthana, John Kaippallil Malayalam with Tamil

He is known simply as Boss or Shylock to the film industry. He has held producers in a vice-like grip since 2016. This nameless moneylender (hence the nickname, in a mindless nod to Shakespeare) is played by Mammootty, whose sole goal through the insufferable Shylock seems to be to emphasise his conviction that his stature remains intact and that he is a pan-generational star.

No really, I am not talking about subliminal messaging – he literally says so here.

Actually, scratch out that paragraph. Because “subliminal” is a word that should not even be whispered in the vicinity of this film directed by Ajai Vasudev who earlier made the Mammootty-starrers Rajadhiraja and Masterpiece. Every point here is stressed ad nauseam, the background score is loud enough to make a hole in the ozone layer and Mammootty’s character actually says in the closing minutes, “This is a game that will be a massive hit of the year,” in response to Villain No. 1 telling him that his game is up. This exchange is followed by the same bad guy (the Ernakulam Police Commissioner Felix John, played by Siddique) telling Shylock that the era of heroes like him is over, we have entered the age of villains and so he needs to look for secondary roles. To this, Shylock – who does not pretend to be anything but Mammukka’s alter ego – replies after bashing up a bunch of men: across generations, Boss is still the hero.

Okay okaaaay okaaaayyyy, got it: Mammootty rules.

This conversation in the middle of the bloody climactic fight follows about two hours of a singer screeching out a signature refrain for Mammootty every time he, in his avatar as Shylock, wallops a villain or spouts a grandiloquent line.

The music of Shylock is so painful and the narrative so clichéd, that if this were an Easter week release, Jesus might have raced back into his tomb begging never to be resurrected. And don’t get my imagination started on paavam William Shakespeare’s reaction to the appropriation of one of his most famous characters for this story’s protagonist.

About that ‘story’... So Shylock is a guy with a swagger, fancy-schmancy sunglasses, shoes that the camera loves, expensive cars and a misplaced sense of humour that he employs to lighten the mood in the bloodiest of scenes. The only few seconds of fun in Shylock come in its opening minutes, but are soon lost to repetitiveness. The first half of the film sets up a clash between the hero, along with his non-descript sidekicks played by Baiju Santhosh and Hareesh Kanaran, and the slimy film producer Prathapa Varma (Kalabhavan Shajohn) whose partner in crime is Felix John.

When one of Shylock’s flunkeys questions him about his uncharacteristic brutality towards Team Varma, our man launches into a loooong generic flashback brimming with generic sunshine and song, generic flowers, generic family, generic friendship, two generic pretty women and generic romance that all add up to two generic enmities, generic tears and ultimately, a generic quest for vendetta. Tamil actor Rajkiran plays Ayyanar, the generic motivation for Shylock seeking generic revenge against Varma, John and their generic murderous gang. In this portion, Shylock has little curls and is known as Vaal (meaning: tail), a nickname explained by some pseudo-philosophising about a serpent. Never mind what.

Ho hum.

To compensate perhaps for the absolute lack of novelty in the script, camerawork and all else here, multiple references are made to other films and their Tamil superstars, human beings are killed by the dozen and we are treated to numerous close-ups of various types of knives slashing various parts of various bodies. Since a certain kind of formulaic Malayalam film can only be explained by comparison, here are a whole bunch to help you fully understand this one: Shylock is as boring as the Mohanlal starrer Big Brother released last week, the violence in this blood-spattered film is of a lesser degree than Kalki, women are microscopic sidelights in the plot but it is not misogynistic in the manner of Kasaba and Ittymaani: Made In China, and though Mammootty struts about here too, his preening is not offensive as it was in The Great Father.

Here is the saddest comparison of all though: Shylock is a reminder that Mammootty’s soul-searching performances in brilliant films like Peranbu and Unda are an exception to his current norm that is exemplified by Shylock.

Rating (out of 5 stars): 0.25

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	131 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/shylock-movie-review-mammootty-uses-this-insufferable-film-to-announce-that-hes-still-the-boss-7952101.html

Posters courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/Mammootty/                 

REVIEW 554: MASTERPIECE

Release date:	December 21, 2017
Director:	Ajai Vasudev
Cast: Language:	Mammootty, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Unni Mukundan, John Kaipallil, Mukesh, Maqbool Salmaan, Gokul Suresh, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Poonam Bajwa, Mahima Nambiar, Leena      Malayalam

 

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

CBFC Rating (India):	U (because rape jokes, in the Censor Board’s view, are suitable material for children)
Running time:	160 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/masterpiece-movie-review-in-which-mammootty-chants-i-respect-women-and-proves-he-doesnt-mean-it-4272543.html

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/MasterpieceMalayalamMovie/