Mallu Nayakan: My quick take on FaFa’ s latest movie “Malik”
It may sound like I am making a sweeping statement, but whatever I have observed to date is that “An NSD passed out will either act or produce a play “Jasma Odan (जसमा ओदान) sometime in his theatrical career, similarly a Film Institute pass out will attempt a Godfather type movie or pick something from the Coppola classic. The talented director Mahesh Narayanan who is a graduate of Film Institute from Chennai has fulfilled his Coppola dream with Malik. I have seen two of his movies, C U soon & Nayattu and have thoroughly enjoyed both off-beat movies.
There is no novelty in the plot and screenplay of Malik, same old story of a young rebellious youth fighting it out against the corrupt Politicians and Police and rising to prominence in his small little ghetto (we have seen this in Nayakan – the rise of Velu to Varda bhai, here it is the rise of Sulieman to Ali Eka). The movie is mounted on a huge montage spanning nearly 60 years, here I should commend the actor Fahad Fasil and director for showing the incredible aging process of FaFa from 21 yrs. to 58 yrs. Director has very cleverly made use of flashbacks to make us go through this long period. He has deftly handled very contentious communal issues (Muslim-Christian conflict and corrupt Hindu politician, I only hope it was not a deliberate ploy to paint different communities in the same stroke).
I am a self-confessed Fan of Fahad Fasil; hence the expectations were very high while watching this movie and let me confess that FaFa does not disappoint you, he is simply awesome as a local don and leader of his community. You should closely watch his body language, it’s a master class to budding actors on how to make your “body” speak. The other cast is also awesome. Nimisha Sajayan, an actress who is known to stay away from conventional makeup plays FaFa s wife and she has done a stupendous job, similarly, Joju George (I am becoming a fan of this “hulkishly” built persona) is simply outstanding. The production quality could have been better especially when the earlier era of the 1960s was re-created, the mob scenes (riots) could have been ghastlier. However, the performances of the cast will make overlook these minor glitches. Secondly since the span of the movie is so wide, the length of the movie also has got stretched (touching nearly 3 hrs.), this could have been trimmed.
It was also nice to see some of the classic moments Hollywood classics beautifully got adapted in this movie, like the continuous shots as seen in “1917” is used here (opening continuous shot of 10-15 min is damn impressive), Like the Funeral sequence of Godfather wherein there are simultaneous killings taking place during the funeral is also done here, also there is one action sequence where the hero stalks the antagonist from a rooftop, (this in my view was bit unnecessary) has a “Godfather” stamp.
If you are a FaFaFa (Fahad Fasil Fan) then you are not going to miss this for sure, even otherwise you should watch it for the sheer brilliance of the talented Director and his awesome ensemble of cast.
On a lighter note – the movie starts with a scene that literally depicts “सौ चूहे खा कर बिल्ली हज को चली”.
You will love this socio-political Nayakan like plot where Fahad Fasil once again proves that he is true “सबका मालिक’ when it comes to natural acting.
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