It's finally here - 7 years after giving us the now cult classic "Premam" Alphonse Puthren is back with GOLD.
Does it meet or surpass its expectation - let's find out?
An unknown bolero packed with 200 Bluetooth speakers is parked right in front of Joshi's house.. Joshi our protagonist tries his best to get rid of it. First by informing the local police....but they seem to have problems of their own, then by getting his mechanic friend, who is less of a mechanic more of a guilt tripper - you know the kinds who go (you brought new car... didn't even tell me)
While joshi manages this... he realizes that things aren't what they seem to be. Ever so slowly the real owners of the vehicle, as well as the reality of the type of content it carries, gets revealed and then begins a race against time for our hero to set things right.
That is about the best synopsis that I could come up with for this movie without giving away any major spoilers or plot points.
The first thing that strikes you about Gold is how different and unique the story n the set-up is. This uniqueness is further accentuated by light-handed treatment of the narrative and the novel editing choices.
Right from the first frame, you know you are watching something completely authentic and different.
So far so good...
the pacing is slow... very slow perhaps it's deliberately slow you would think. But then the scenes are stretched out so much that it almost starts to get on your nerves and test your patience. You don't have to show each and every activity done by the protagonist - watching tv, peeing, carrying boxes, having tea, looking for the weighing machine, joking with mom - how I wished, I could also get served some of those tasty tea n snacks that joshi's mother kept making throughout the film. Sigh
by the time the interval comes, you would have for sure glanced at your watch more than a couple of times.
But then the pace picks up in the second half, as more n more characters get introduced. Idea Shaji, Unni, Freddy boss. The connections and dynamics between these characters do infuse an element of fun albeit for a short time.
My fav of the lot was Idea shaji played with unabashed relish by Lalu Alex. Idea shaji is a self-proclaimed legend, his ideas are said to have been so legendary that people of the town annotated him with the name Idea Shaji... a story this idiot tells himself n believes in.
His interactions with unni - Shammi tilakkan who plays nayantara's father are to be the best part of the film.
And there ends whatever was good or even ok about gold.
Because unfortunately there is nothing else to write home about the movie.
Gold suffers from many problems and I am not talking about the problems arising out of the high expectations, No. Nor am I talking about logical problems, No, nor am I talking about hyper indulgence problems, no - I mean forget the pedigree, the logic, the other stuff... just as a standalone movie, with a run time of 3 hours - it doesn't stand. It's just too straight, simple and flat and not in a good way. There are some good ideas, some funny situations and some characters but this can't be a full-fledged movie.
Prithiviraj to whom 80% of the screentime is dedicated tries to deliver a sincere performance, but the character is underwritten - why would someone go through all of this, when infact in the end he was going to give it all away. Why does he take that risk? Why is he called Danger joshi ? You get one or two scenes or real emotion one being when the girl he was going to marry rejects him. The camera doesn't even pan to his face.. Its as if the movie isn't interested in the main character as much as it is in what he does and how he does... the why can take a hike.
It feels like Alphonse Puthren and team started shooting the film without really fleshing out or even trying to double click any of the ideas and the angles they wanted to explore.... like the roshan mathew angel, or the chemban vinod angel, even sajiu kurup who just vanishes after a few scenes...
And what is nayatara doing in this movie... the ant shown here as a metaphor has more screentime and relevance than her.
What was Soubin sahir doing in that dance?
- Confusion - I am confusion.
Instead of fleshing these out so much screen time is given to such pointless things that I sometimes felt.. is this like a practical joke that the makers are pulling on us the audience... I mean why would you show the 2 mahagony wood business guys - walking in an out of police station in slo-mo, or so many characters being offered tea, then drinking tea - again n again. Joshi loading n unloading each bag that too in slow mo. The entire track of the circle inspector and his antics, and jadgish character ... its bewildering the logic. To cast Nayantara - where the only thing she does is sit on a couch - that in itself is criminal.
Alphonse Puthren himself in his tweet announcing the release of the film mentioned in his tweet - that gold just like neeram and premam is an imperfect film.
Well, Alphonse etta, Imperfection is an overstatement, it is not even in the same league as the other two.
Yes, it's extremely disappointing that perhaps the most awaited Malayalam movie of the year isn't great. It isn't even good. However, there are still moments n passages in the film that I believe would be remembered for...
- the electrifying bgm - it's quite kickass
- the Alphonse Puthren touch - all the quirks and the absurdities you expect from him are all there perhaps a bit too much for the liking.
- and finally Idea shaji - there has to be spin-off movie dedicated to this character. Lalu lex's voice reading the anti-smoking disclaimer before the movie will have you in splits.
All in all - Gold falls short of striking gold, could be the catchy one-liner to go with to end this video, but I would resist that temptation and go with another pun - This Gold doesn't deliver the value that it promised.
