REVIEW 612: ABRAHAMINTE SANTHATHIKAL

Release date:	Kerala: June 16, Delhi: June 22, 2018
Director:	Shaji Padoor
Cast: Language:	Mammootty, Anson Paul, Renji Panicker, Kanika, Siddique, Yog Japee, Kalabhavan Shajon, Suresh Krishna, Tarushi, Sudev Nair, Shyamaprasad Malayalam

To review a Mammootty film these days, you can either analyse it in the context of the rest of Malayalam cinema, or you could acknowledge that Mammukka appears to occupy a separate universe in his mind and in the minds of his die-hard fans. Option 2 will result in less heartache if you erase the legend’s iconic performances from your mind and stick strictly to his works in the last decade. Option 1 is, of course, inviting heartbreak since it requires you to accept that he has been confining himself to the tried and tested and boring, unlike his young contemporaries like Nivin Pauly and Fahadh Faasil who are redefining what constitutes mainstream or even Prithviraj Sukumaran and Mammukka’s own son Dulquer Salmaan who are conventional in comparison with those two yet push the boundaries of commercial cinema.

I am going with Option 2 for this write-up. Abrahaminte Santhathikal (Children of Abraham) directed by debutant Shaji Padoor is better than most Mammootty films of the past couple of years, but nothing compared to his best. It is not horribly misogynistic like Kasaba (2016) and last year’s The Great Father and Masterpiece, nor is the camera as entirely enslaved by its star as it was in these films. On the Mammootty spectrum of Malayalam cinema, it lies in the vicinity of Shamdat Sainudeen’s Street Lights which was released this January: a suspense thriller with a somewhat engaging storyline that could have been more than it turns out to be if it were not so fixated on underlining its hero’s coolth, yet is not so obsessed with him as to be nauseating. 

Abrahaminte Santhathikal requires Mammootty to play a policeman for the nth time in his career. Here he is ASP Derick Abraham, investigating a spate of serial killings when we first meet him. Not long after we are led to believe that the case has been concluded, he is caught up in another. Derick is not very well liked in the force because he is such a stickler for rules that he has refused to bend or skirt them when his own colleagues have been in a tight spot. Adding to his fleet of enemies is Public Prosecutor Diana Joseph (Kanika) who has not forgiven him for an old romantic relationship gone sour.

Derick has the support of SP Shahul Hameed (Renji Panicker), but several senior cops (played by Siddique, Yog Japee and Suresh Krishna) have for long been waiting for a day when their bête noir becomes personally vulnerable. Their moment comes when Derick’s brother gets caught up in a heinous crime.

The nice thing about Abrahaminte Santhathikal is that Mammootty allows himself to be made up and styled to look older than he usually does in his films. Just when you think there is hope yet and start celebrating that baby step forward in his evolution, you realise that at 66-going-on-67 he has as his younger sibling Anson Paul who, the Net tells me, is 29-going-on-30. Okay then. This is as funny as Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai playing brother and sister in the 2002 Bollywood film Hum Kisise Kum Nahin.

So the cases Derick is called to investigate turn out to be not what they appear to be. They are reasonably enjoyable and would have been more so if so much time was not being wasted on DoP Alby giving Mammootty slow motion shots and fancy-schmancy camera angles to highlight his height, build and striking personality.

Even the usually excellent Mahesh Narayanan makes a couple of questionable editing decisions while presenting the timeline of the second case in Abrahaminte Santhathikal, I guess on the instructions of a director intent on scaling up the epic feel of his film. The shaky shift from the first to the second case is a jump that should be blamed not on him though, but on the writing.   

That said, Haneef Adeni’s story of the mystery involving Derick and his brother is not half bad and does throw up some surprises. This is the kind of narrative that would have been enhanced by greater zip and zing. But no siree, instead let us drag back the pace to let that moving vehicle gradually glide on to the screen, then for the door to open at a snail’s pace, then for one stylish shoe to be placed on the ground and then the next before the camera rises to reveal … OMG, you will never guess who!

Well at least there is not as much of this nonsense going on in Abrahaminte Santhathikal as there was in Masterpiece, White (2016) and their ilk which have, over the years, ODed on close-ups of The Big M’s sunglasses, bracelets, footwear and profile in addition to slow-mo shots of him sauntering towards the camera. At least Mammootty’s swag is not offensive here, as it was in The Great Father where the central plot – a serial rapist killing the hero’s daughter – was sidelined as the hero strutted about in leather jackets.

What do I know though? Mammootty fans in the hall where I watched Abrahaminte Santhathikal went hysterical with happiness during that introductory scene, cheered wildly in anticipation of a sighting, and at the appearance of the star’s first shoe began yelling, “Mammukkaaaa, Mammukkaaaa!”

For the record, the film’s title is a clever play on words because it implies a lofty reference to Abraham in the Old Testament of the Bible, which is in keeping with the ominous tenor of Derick’s opening case, but you later realise that santhathi is being used here not simply to literally mean children or offspring but also in its disparaging avatar. Like I said, the story of this film is not half bad. On the weighing scale of its pluses and minuses in the Mammoottyverse, Abrahaminte Santhathikal counts as passable fare.

Rating (out of five stars): *1/2

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

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/abrahaminte-santhathikal-movie-review-mammoottys-swag-is-better-suited-to-this-passable-thriller-than-his-recent-misfires-4581471.html  

Visuals courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/AbrahaminteSanthathikalMovie/

REVIEW 270: HOW OLD ARE YOU

Release date:	May 17, 2014
Director:	Rosshan Andrrews
Cast: Language:	Manju Warrier, Kunchacko Boban, Amritha Anil, Muthumani, Kanika, Lalu Alex, Siddhartha Basu in a guest appearance as the President of India Malayalam

Who decides the expiry date of a woman’s dreams? With this basic question, Nirupama Rajeev unwittingly sets in motion a mini revolution, not just in her own life but also across her home state Kerala. Not in reality, but in this story. How Old Are You marks the return to the big screen of the much-loved Malayalam film star Manju Warrier after a hiatus of a decade and a half. For that reason alone, it is a milestone for film buffs. For women across the country, it’s a different sort of milestone, asking uncomfortable questions about gender equality in situations that don’t involve extreme crimes or extreme poverty, and doing so in an entertaining yet realistic fashion.

How Old Are You revolves around Nirupama (Manju) who allowed her career ambitions to take a backseat in favour of marriage and motherhood. She was an outstanding student but now works in a run-of-the-mill sarkari clerical job, focusing all her energies on home management and the upbringing of her daughter. Having just turned 36, she is dreading the approaching 40.

We all know women like Nirupama, bright, energetic, brimming with potential yet having let go of the outside world for so long that they’ve lost their confidence. Hers has been further eroded by her husband Rajeev who scorns her work at home and the office, disparages her for her limited interests and for not being smart enough. Nirupama’s daughter too does not value her.

Like Sridevi’s character Shashi Godbole in 2012’s Bollywood film English Vinglish, though in a vastly different context and circumstances, Nirupama too rediscovers herself and recovers her self-respect during the course of this film. She goes many steps further than Shashi though, finding unprecedented career opportunities once she has shrugged off her insecurities.

Manju is so natural as Nirupama that it’s hard to believe she’s been away from the arclights for this long. Her large expressive eyes convey joy, hurt, diffidence and determination seemingly effortlessly. Her good looks and trim physique are enhanced by costumier Sameera Saneesh’s stunning albeit simple saris and Renjith Ambady’s minimalist makeup. Kudos too to DoP R. Diwakaran for the way he captures her lovely face without being overwhelmed by her beauty.

It takes courage for a male star to take on the role of Rajeev because the character is so hard to like. Kunchacko Boban takes the risk and lives up to the task. It’s interesting to see him subtly conveying his journey during the film, from condescension towards his wife to the gradual realisation that this newly confident woman doesn’t need him as much as he needs her.

Other members of this talented cast who deserve a mention are Muthumani as Nirupama’s colleague (what a striking screen presence!) and Amritha Anil as the daughter. The only one who doesn’t fit the picture is Kanika, playing Nirupama’s former classmate Susan, now a corporate hotshot who reminds her of the great expectations everyone had of her back in college. Kanika has a studied style of dialogue delivery. Worse, Sameera Saneesh fits her out in skirt suits that don’t suit her personality, possibly under the mistaken impression that the skirt is the outfit of choice for successful women in corporate India. It’s not.

Let’s be very clear – director Rosshan Andrrews and writers Bobby & Sanjay don’t at any point equate being a housewife with being unsuccessful. This is a film about not subordinating your desires before anyone or anything, and refusing to live with regret if your choices lie beyond the four walls of a house or a boring 9-to-5 job that your family may find convenient but that fails to exploit your talent. In fact How Old Are You bravely takes a stance that even many feminists may find discomfiting. Society tends to glorify women who choose home over offices. Feminists who are tired of such women being taken for granted by their families, over-compensate by placing them on an even higher pedestal. Don’t give me excuses, Susan tells Nirupama, other women have got married and had children without giving up their professional dreams. Ergo, if your dreams are not limited to home-making alone, then don’t make your home your excuse.

In fact, the only point where the film seems to defy believability is in Nirupama’s decisions regarding her husband towards the end. This is a woman who has begun to see him with such clarity as a man who has shamelessly treated her as a doormat, that she asks him at one point whether he’d have kept her with him if servants weren’t too expensive. Ultimately though, the film plays it safe with their relationship in ways I will not describe, possibly because the rest of it is so bold that it didn’t want to shake up the audience too much. Well, if that’s what it wanted to do, then that bit needed to be written more effectively. In that regard, I feel that Shashi’s final equation with her husband in English Vinglish was better handled.

I watched How Old Are You in a hall in Delhi, surrounded by an audience that seemed to be enjoying it, though I did catch the voices of a few gentlemen sounding decidedly uncomfortable with this woman Nirupama so openly defying her husband. It’s such a pain to have your boat rocked, no? Well, How Old Are You is no doubt the story of a woman rocking the boat, but open-minded menfolk could find their own lives reflected in the way Nirupama had let go of herself. This is a well-acted, well-produced film conveying a crucial message without being preachy. It’s a refreshing change for another reason too: like India’s largest film industries Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood, Malayalam cinema too is guilty of relegating women to a secondary role and writing off actresses at a far younger age than their male colleagues. In that context, it’s a joy to see the comeback of an actress in her mid-30s, that too in a film where the protagonist is a 36-year-old woman. Bravo Manju Warrier, Rosshan Andrrews and the rest of the team. Bravo!

Rating (out of five stars): ***1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	U
Running time:	141 minutes

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/HowOldAreYou/photos_stream