Prying Priest: My quick take on Mamooty’s “The Priest”
Having watched two good thrillers from Kollywood recently (Drishyam & Joji), I just could not just resist going in for a hattrick with Mamooty’s “The Priest”. Unfortunately, this supernatural (horror) murder mystery thriller stands pale in front of Drishyam & Joji. Looks like Mamooty had accepted this movie just to tick the check box of different genre of movies he has done so far, with this logic he has added a Horror genre in his repertoire.
The movie is a concoction of murder mystery, thriller & supernatural story with exorcism. Mamooty plays a “spiritual” man (pun intended as he can communicate with spirits) rather than an Investigative priest Father Benedict who is more comfortable with a Voltmeter like ‘Ghostmeter’ than the Holy Cross or Holy water which we have seen in cult classics of this Genre like Exorcist, Omen, Exorcism of Emily Ross. While solving a murder mystery he stumbles upon a new case of a mystery girl who is a witness in a murder/suicide case and the movie gets overstretched to ‘horrifying’ limits. It’s a predictable plot with a bit of horror quotient (slightly better than Roohi) but sans jump-scare moments.
On the positives the Background music is awesome, it has made up for what a poor screenplay. Secondly, the beauty of God's own country is beautifully captured.
This is one movie whose trailers and teasers are more promising than the movie itself, I had gone with a great expectation to watch my favorite Mamooty perform, instead, I became a fan of young Monica for her “spirited” acting. Manju Warrior's length of the role is as big as seen in trailers, other casts ( I am not well versed with Malayali actors) have given decent performances.
Its available on Netflix (with English Sub-titles)
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