Maheshinte Prathikaram (2016)

Genre: Comedy

Theme: Love

Undercurrent: Revenge

Language: Malayalam

Watched it in a multiplex with English subtitles

If you see yourself through your youthful days, how many times will you laugh or smirk at least. Are there moments of pain from a break-up that are washed out by fresh love? When did you first discover the artist in you and what have you done with that art? Do you have good friends? Are you really serious about promises? Can you forgive the girl who cheated on you with a whole heart? If the answer to the above are true, you are almost like photographer-lover boy Mahesh Bhavana (played by Fahadh Faasil), our protagonist. The only difference is that you wouldn't have probably taken a humiliating beating for no wrong of yours. Even if you did, you wouldn't have been egoistic enough to say that you will walk bare feet till you avenge it. Even if you are crazy enough to do so, have you taken kung-fu classes to do so? If you watch the movie, you will know how Mahesh Bhavana takes all this to the next level. 

The storyline is simple, as simple as the characters and the place Idukki. The movie starts with a song that says how beautiful Idukki is and the cinematographer Shyju Khalid and the colorist excels in blending the colours and beauty of this quaint village in the hills with the story excellently. You would feel fresh but not from out of the context of daily life in a village. Good music with some sweet lyrics set up the love stories very well. There isn't a moment in the movie one is bored and all the credit goes to the editor (Saiju Sreedharan), scriptwriter (Shyam Pushkaran) and director (Dileesh Pothan) of the movie. Costumes by Sameera Sanish probably had an easy job making them pitch-perfect to each occasion and character. The tight teamwork by all the departments has succeeded in elevating the story to a good movie and not as a link-up of pretty shots or short films as is the trend today. 

Fahadh Faasil's failure in Bangalore Days disappointed me. I went with not much expectations on the lead, I was wrong and pleasantly surprised. Here is a guy who is capable of acting at elevated levels with ease, some one who is headed straight to the level of Mohan Lal. He fits the character so well that at no time can you see him make a mistake - every look, move and expression works out very well. Despite his relatively small frame, hands and feet, he has done these raw action scenes convincingly. I just kept looking at the sync between his body and his face features - as shoulders droop when his face goes down slowly and his back arches with it along with improvisations like looking away and not straight down and so on - brilliant work. This is followed by some amazing comedy timing from him. He is well assisted by Alencier Ley (Baby) and Soubin Shahir (Crispin) who produced enough dialogue and situation based comedy to match that of the towering performance from Fahadh Faasil. Aparna Balamurali (as Jimcy), Anushree (as Soumya) and K J Antony (as Mahesh's father) were good in their limited roles. The energy brought by Aparna to Jimcy's character helped the second half stand up to the first half as it is not easy to watch two different love stories back-to-back. 

My favorite scene is that of Mahesh getting inspired from his father's work as he develops a wonderful picture of a bat flying towards banana flowers that he photographed by patiently sitting in a banana grove for hours in the night - it was both surprising and sweet. The specialty of the movie is all in its ability to produce those little smiles and gentle humour throughout without losing strength in the main character. The drawback is also nearly that, the movie just moves around the main character whose arc is simple but distinctive while the rest play supporting roles. All of these generate so many types of comedy that you will feel fresh and laughing throughout - be it farce, sentiment, manners, satire, general humour and romantic comedy. Such a whole set of comedy is a big plus for the movie, a wonderful work by Shyam Pushkaran. A big applause should go to the effort taken to use only the elements of everyday life that can be formed from the main plot to generate that humour. As the story takes 5 unexpected turns, there is plenty of room to create plots for all types of comedy. Every bit is what we do or see in our daily life and there is nothing too artificial about it except a couple of farce scenes. The surprising thing is that it worked so well, despite trying so much in so little, that shows in Hyderabad have been running full since its release but Hyderabad's language is not Malayalam. As Dileesh Pothan appears in a hilarious cameo (the pic above) - "chin up, shoulders down, chin down, eyes open, ready", smile.