REVIEW 745: UNDER WORLD

Release date:	Kerala: November 1, 2019 Delhi: November 8, 2019
Director:	Arun Kumar Aravind
Cast: Language:	Asif Ali, Farhan Faasil, Mukesh, Lal Jr, Samyuktha Menon, Muthumani Malayalam

Under World’s keenness to be grand and imposing screams out of every cell of its being. It manifests itself in the grandiose lines its characters utter and the angles the cinematographer favours while shooting them. In the end though, the film is as empty as the character played by Mukesh, a septuagenarian politician in jail on corruption charges and from whose words it appears that he is in control of the world he left behind: his ultimate fate proves that he is, in truth, an all-bombast-no-intelligence kind of fellow. Like Under World itself, he amounts to nothing.

Asif Ali here stars as Stalin John, a hooligan and a petty criminal with an inflated sense of self-importance. Farhaan Faasil is Majeed Abdul Rahman, a ruffian for hire. The two end up in the same jail where Mukesh’s Padmanabhan Nair is lodged. Initially, they clash but soon become unlikely allies primed for an assignment from Nair. Lal Jr is Solomon, in whose custody Nair left the Rs 500 crore he filched for which he lost his freedom.

Apart from some atmospheric background music and one slickly executed mobike chase, Under World has little going for it. Ali, Faasil and Mukesh are earnest, but the writing of their characters is too superficial for them to make a lasting impact. So sketchy are they that you deserve a prize if you can make out why Stalin’s lawyer Padmavati (played by Muthumani) cares so much for him.

For the record, Padmavati is the only woman with a notable presence in this narrative. The charismatic Samyuktha Menon from Theevandi is criminally wasted here in a minuscule role.

There are a few seconds here and there when it feels like Under World may perhaps lift itself out of its ordinariness to become something more than a waste of time. Such as when a fugitive loses his mother who he loves and realises that the mere act of attending her funeral is a risk. Or earlier when he sits negotiating with a young woman who becomes collateral damage in a cheque bouncing case against him. Or in the otherwise unscrupulous Solomon’s affection for his wife and child.

Writer Shibin Francis does not have the depth to flesh out these thoughts though. The only nice thing that can be said about the writing is that Under World is not sickening, crude and prejudiced like other recent films of this genre such as The Great Father starring Mammootty, Mikhael starring Nivin Pauly and Kalki starring Tovino Thomas.

Even the one instance when it tries to shock with its violence is almost laughable because of the rubbery look of the severed supposed human limb shown on camera. When Solomon chops off a man’s hand in Stalin and Majeed’s presence, we are given not one, not two, not three but four close-ups of that hand (correct me if there are more), in addition to other shots. Again in the name of realism I suppose, earlier when a companion of Majeed throws up after drinking, the camera stands bang in front of him, giving us a clear view of the puke emerging from his mouth and his vomit-covered tongue. Uff.

These instances of pretentiousness suggest that the single genuinely memorable moment in Under World happened by accident. When a policeman commits an act of unspeakable violence against an important character about half way through the film, instead of moving near plus embellishing the sound design to underline what we are witnessing, the audio chooses not to be exploitative, the camera moves away and we are given a distant overhead shot as a man steps on another’s spine and a torso caves in. It is a moment that made me freeze with horror yet did not feel voyeuristic.

The rest of Under World shows a complete lack of imagination and implies a desire on Arun Kumar Aravind’s part to join the club of masala directors to which Haneef Adeni belongs. Even the title is unimaginative, and the random splitting of the word looks like a last-ditch effort to salvage it. Call it Under World or Underworld if you will, either way it is under-done.

Rating (out of five stars): 1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	160 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/under-world-movie-review-the-shooting-of-an-act-of-unspeakable-violence-is-the-only-imaginative-moment-in-this-generic-asif-ali-starrer-7632411.html

Visual courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/ActorAsifAli/

REVIEW 532: RAMALEELA

Release date:	September 28, 2017
Director:	Arun Gopy
Cast: Language:	Dileep, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Mukesh, Prayaga Martin, Radhikaa Sarathkumar, Siddique, Renji Panicker, Suresh Krishna, Leena Malayalam

A young politician is expelled from Kerala’s Communist Democratic Party (CDP) and joins a rival front. He fights a candidate from his original organisation to win back the seat he had to vacate when he switched parties. In the midst of the machinations against and by him, comes a crime of great daring, and all clues appear to point towards the same individual.

Will an innocent person be framed? Is the guilty person feigning innocence? These are the questions that occupy us through the two hours and 38 minutes running time of Ramaleela, a new release directed by debutant Arun Gopy and starring Dileep in the lead.

Ramaleela has made news for ugly reasons so far, since it comes to theatres while its main star is in jail on charges of conspiring in the abduction and molestation of a top woman actor in Kerala. Dileep plays Ramanunni Raghavan, a youth leader and rising politician at the centre of the action in the film. The casting choice is an unwittingly appropriate reflection of the Indian reality where 49 for a man is indeed seen as youth in both cinema and politics, while women in cinema are compulsorily retired 10-15 years before that or relegated to playing sister and Mommy to men of Dileep’s age.

So anyway, Ramanunni’s father was assassinated by forces unknown to the world at the start of Ramaleela. His exit from CDP causes his mother, Comrade Ragini Raghavan, to label him a traitor, while his entry into NSF ruffles feathers there too. Ramanunni’s bête noir in CDP is Ambady Mohanan (Vijayaraghavan) while his Enemy No. 1 in NSF is Udayabhanu (Siddique)

As Ramanunni grapples with these opposing pulls, the police are called in, first to provide him with protection and later to investigate the crime mentioned at the start of this review.

Like this year’s Oru Mexican Aparatha and Sakhavu, Ramaleela too, in its own way, is an ode to Communism. Primarily though, it is a mystery story. Arun Gopy and writer Sachy complement each other well. While Sachy has a surprise for us at every turn, Gopy is confident in his direction. This is a thriller written and shot on an epic scale yet, for the most part, attention has been paid to the characters’ motivations, not the lavish cinematography and art design alone.

There are intermittent missteps, but the overall pace is so unrelenting that there is little time to think about the improbabilities and far-fetched scenarios in the film. For instance, a key character hatches an elaborate scheme, but it is unclear how that person or their collaborators found the resources for such a plan and implemented it at such short notice. A fugitive easily crosses state borders despite heavy police patrolling. Also, Ramanunni’s intention in meeting politician-turned-columnist Madhavan (Renji Panicker) is tenuous. It is as if Sachy could not think of a more credible way to introduce Ramanunni to Madhavan’s daughter Helena (Prayaga Martin).

Dileep’s insipid personality is well-suited to a role where it is important that his physicality not come across as larger-than-life and where he is to be seen as a little man, a beleaguered lone warrior, a common person who one might easily underestimate. Equally to the point, his is a clever performance – he does not set a foot wrong for even a moment in Ramaleela.

The cast is packed to the brim with artistes more charismatic than he is, but Dileep’s limited charisma serves to heighten the impact of his character’s towering intelligence and actions.

It is nice to see Prayaga Martin looking more natural here than in her dolled-up avatar in last week’s Pokkiri Simon and to see her Helena – an architect-turned-reality-TV-set-designer – serve a purpose other than to be a pretty appendage to the hero. And while the nearly 30-year age difference between Martin and Dileep conforms to Mollywood standards, what does not is Helena’s unconventional relationship with Ramanunni.

That said, it is irritating that any time a good-looking single woman and a Malayalam film’s hero share a frame, the surrounding characters compulsorily envision romance or marriage in their future. Unlike those characters, Sachy himself shows that rare hero-heroine partnership where she at least does not see matrimony as the only route to a happily ever after in her life and he too is not single-minded in the matter of his association with her. That said – yes, again – Martin’s impact is curiously feeble though Helena has a crucial hand in the proceedings.

This is a seemingly secondary element in Ramaleela. The overtly overriding factors are the games politicians play with each other and the media. Here too Team Gopy-Sachy score by not caricaturing either the netas or the journalists involved. The one slip here is a scene in which a flunkey who is trying to manipulate the media against Ramanunni is so stupid as to be caught with a phone on his person that he had used seconds earlier to leak information to the press.

Ramaleela also offers more scenes of routine policework than we are used to seeing in Indian films, which tend to either lionise or demonise cops (more the former). DySP Paulson Devassy (Mukesh), the lead investigator in the case, and his team are portrayed as real people going about their work with the constraints all Indian police face, not shorn of their own prejudices and ambitions, but also – thankfully – not sounding idiotic or ignorant to a viewer fed a diet of TV shows such as CSI and Law & Order supplemented with common sense.

Of the supporting artistes, it is only fair to single out Kalabhavan Shajohn who is highly effective – and hilarious – as Ramanunni’s secretary and shadow. The weak link is Radhikaa Sarathkumar whose turn as Comrade Ragini lacks spark.

The rape joke in Ramaleela is a tricky one. Real people in such situations do speak lightly of rape, but – unlike in other films – here it is unclear whether the film itself takes sexual violence lightly. In a situation of doubt, I am choosing to err on the side of caution and Gopy.

Ramaleela has been marketed as an expensive venture. The monetary investment is evident in the polished production and Shaji Kumar’s swish camerawork. One of the earliest scenes in the film features a particularly striking frame of Ramanunni at the centre of scores of TV news cameras and mikes covering every inch on all sides of the screen. Another, not long after, gives us an overhead night-time shot of CDP members carrying red flags and flaming torches gathered outside the gate of Ramanunni’s house while the compound itself is filled with police in uniform. It is one of several visually rich scenes in Ramaleela.

Kumar over-uses overhead shots and aerial shots after a while, but the result is so eye-catching that he can be forgiven for succumbing to temptation.

At the end of the day, grand images would have mattered little if it weren’t for the excellent execution of the suspense in Ramaleela. Gopy has delivered a gripping thriller set in Kerala’s political establishment, and succeeds in keeping the viewer guessing every step of the way. When you have a good thing going, it is important to know where to stop though. The biggest folly of his direction and Sachy’s script – both at an ideological and cinematic level – comes after the big reveal in Ramaleela. Far from being satisfied with that gasp-inducing climax, they proceed to needlessly raise the film’s pitch from that point, thus subtracting from the impact.

Worse, what follows is a leading character in the film advocating taking the law into our own hands, not merely to settle personal scores, but for the ‘larger good’, and articulating a bizarre view of what makes a Communist. Instead of a dissenting voice in the narrative, we get instead an endorsement of that anarchic stance by the most upright person in the entire saga.

That populist conversation was absolutely unnecessary, designed to tap the audience’s bloodlust and elicit cheap applause.  

The caveat to this review then is that as a political commentary, Ramaleela makes sense until that disturbing discussion in the end. As a thriller though, it is thoroughly enjoyable – not in the league of, say, Drishyam but entertaining all the same.

Rating (out of five stars): **3/4

CBFC Rating (India):	U
Running time:	158 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/ramaleela-movie-review-dileep-holds-centre-stage-in-an-entertaining-though-ideologically-iffy-thriller-4097169.html

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