While watching Suresh Gopi's [Images] Bada Dosth, some phrases that reverberate in your head as you see villains flying and falling miles away are 'suspension in disbelief' and `leap of faith'. That aside, there are dialogues sprinkled with quotes from religious texts and a hero claiming he is a divine being sent to vanquish evildoers.

Director Viji Thampy doesn't try to experiment much, simply tweaking formulaic stuff a little to claim originality of plot. The film is about an honest cop bogged down by the system in his fight against an underworld don who has spread his tentacles over the city of Kochi. Unable to do much about it, he joins hands with him. The story is weird, and not because of its implausibility alone, but also for the circumstances under which it unfolds.

Daya Shankar (Suresh Gopi) is the upright cop; Geevarghese alias GV (Sidique), the bad man. After numerous confrontations, things get to such a point that GV harms Shankar's family, killing his mute younger brother Nandu (Mani Kuttan) and making his wife (Jyothirmayi) immobile. After this incident, GV offers his hand of friendship (hence the title Bada Dosth) and our man accepts after resigning from the police force. No, there is no revenge scheme or any such thing. Things come to such a pass much later.

The story is narrated in flashback mode by the Bada Dosth (who has now become a Good Samaritan by starting orphanages, hospitals and homes for the destitute) to Commissioner Zakir Ali (Manoj K Jayan), who thinks the don still continues his illegal activities.

The rigmarole continues for what seems like an eternity, with twists and turns we soon lose count of. If one has to look for interesting things in the film, they will be hard to find. But, on second thought, Sidique's (also the producer) three different get-ups are quite amusing. It is as if he is a wannabe Kamal Haasan [Images] in the makeup department.

As far as histrionics go, the less said the better. Suresh Gopi hams his way through. Sidique, as the Bible-quoting villain who proclaims himself Satan, catches our attention once in a while.

By the end of Bada Dosth, one is left searching for the spark that Suresh Gopi showed in his comeback film, Bharathchandran IPS.

Rediff Rating: