Mammootty magic works again

It seems to be the time of reunions in Malluwood (the Kerala film industry, for the uninitiated) as old teams come together to cash in on nostalgia.

If it was Mohanlal and Satyan Anthikad with Rasathantram recently, now it is the turn of Mammootty and I V Sasi to come together as a team after a 15-year gap, with Balram Vs Tharadas.

First and foremost, we have to commend the audacity of the veteran director for bringing together two legendary characters and try to make it work.

The next question must be: Does it work? The answer will be a qualified yes.

Balram Vs Tharadas does work, and it brings with it the old style of filmmaking that we felt has been missing in recent years -- the old-world charm of changing locations, numerous characters with significance to the story, and all that.

The most difficult task for the makers was to weave a cohesive storyline around these two characters. They have pulled it off quiet well.

The circumstances that bring the two together (or should we say against each other) are convincing and the plot topical. There is a cache of arms discovered at a construction site. Then it leads to typical criminal-police-politicians nexus.

This thin thread is padded up by Mammootty's characterisation. Balram the no-nonsense cop of the vintage film Avanazhi has by now been promoted to the post of deputy superintendent. He is given the charge of investigating the arms case, which ultimately leads to Tharadas, the suave smuggler from the 1980's hit Athirathram. He has by now become an international criminal.

The characterisation of Tharadas leaves us unsatisfied; he looks superficial without depth or emotions. Even his love for Supriya, the starlet played by Katrina Kaif, seems to be artificial. There are no high points in the love angle; just a song picturised in Dubai to underscore the romance.

The overall treatment of the film is of the typical masala genre of the 1980s, where every ingredient had a part to play, be it comedy or action.

Mammootty's performance cannot be said to be top class, but that he pulls off playing both parts without faltering is enough for us. One only wished that the confrontation scenes between the two were a little more imaginatively written.

Kaif is just reduced to being eye candy. She has nothing much to do.

The supporting cast of Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Kalpana and others as Balram's subordinates gets noticed. Young actor Arun, politician-actor Rajmohan Unnithan and Siddique on the other side play their parts well.

Technically, this film is superior to the other films made these days. It is being touted as the most expensive one to be made in Malayalam; the lavishness is there to be seen in the locales. But the action sequences need better choreography and photography; they look tacky when compared to the rest of the film.

Finally, Balram Vs Tharadas needs to be seen just for re-living the nostalgia of good old days, if not for anything else.

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