A heady mix of sea, football and Mohanlal in Mahasamudram promises it will charge us to welcome Onam. The excitement is palpable as we settle into our seats for the movie; we have just heard drumbeats and seen fans dancing and hailing their star as they left the theatre after the first show.

As the credits stop rolling and the film begins, you feel the fans are justified.

Unfortunately, the positive feeling does not linger.

We can divide Mahasamudram into three parts: Football, sea and Mohanlal.

Football

We are just out of the World Cup hangover and Zidane's infamous head butt has started to fade away from our minds. Mahasamudram succeeds to a great extent in reviving that euphoria; the film begins with a somewhat realistically shot game, with the camera remaining outside the sidelines for the most part and the hero making a dramatic entry, sporting a number 10 jersey, to score the winning goal. Then comes a song on the seashore that shows off Mohanlal and Rahman's dancing prowess along with a few dozen group dancers. So far so good.

It is the game in the second half that sounds the film's death knell. It's a typical life-and-death game, with all the necessary ingredients like cheating, deceit and coercion playing vital parts until we get a predictable result in the end.

A few months back, Sibi Malayil's Kisan had tackled a similar theme, but there is hardly any scope for comparison.

Sea

It always presents an opportunity to the director to show a microcosmic society. This film is also densely populated with characters; a church priest (Jagathy Sreekumar), an MLA (Sai Kumar) and his good-for-nothing drug addict nephew (Niyas) are the few characters that stay with us.

Technically, cameraman Shaji takes a few panoramic shots of the vast sea. Otherwise, it is merely an exotic backdrop to set a story in.

Mohanlal

His motivation to do this film was that it offered him the opportunity to play a fisherman for the first time in his long career. But his characterisation offers him nothing to chew upon. He is the same old golden-hearted, all-sacrificing protagonist who will go to any extent for the good of his people; it's a role he has done many times before. He looks out-of-form when one considers the high standards he has set for himself. He performed with zeal even in the recent Rasathantram or Naran. But, here, he seems like he is just going through the motions. Very disappointing.

Debutant director Dr S Janardhanan, who is also the writer of this film, seems to have no control on the sub-plots that are left halfway without any conclusion. Whatever is solid in the story seems to be borrowed. For example, Innocent's role as Mohanlal's father has striking similarities his role as Jayaram's father in Satyan Anthikkad's Mannasinakkare.

Mohanlal has his first disappointing film in the year 2006.

Rediff Rating: