The Priest
Director: Jofin T Chacko
Cast: Mammootty, Manju Warrier, Nikhila Vimal, Saniya Iyappan, Venkitesh VP, Baby Monica
Jofin T Chacko makes an attempt a convoluted plot in The Priest in his very first outing with the megaphone. The movie in Malayalam has Mammootty essaying the title function as Father Carmen Benedict. Now think about him because the hooded character from a Dan Brown thriller, and high this up by giving him the traits of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. Yes, Benedict doesn’t stay in London’s 221 Baker Street, however in a distant place in Kerala. He, in contrast to Holmes, doesn’t have Watson as his sounding-board, however strikes round along with his pet canine, which appears imply and menacing.
Benedict in the true Holmes’ type helps the native police, headed by Deputy Superintendent Shekhar (Sivadas Kannur), crack crimes. This man (very similar to Inspector Lestrade in Sherlockian tales) follows the Father faithfully, at all times a step behind, meek and obedient. After all, Benedict doesn’t take credit score for fixing instances, gifting this honour to the boys in khaki.
But Benedict isn’t any unusual sleuth, like Holmes, who relied on his unbelievable powers of scientific deduction. The priest does make use of science, however goes past it, firmly satisfied that logic and cause can’t clarify every little thing that occurs in this world. He says spirits do exist, and a few can get vengeful, like that of Susan Cherian (Manju Warrier in first ever collaboration with Mammootty, and in an prolonged cameo).
When Susan dies in a street accident on a darkish evening with a automotive pushed by her sister, Jessy Cherian’s (Nikhila Vimal) boyfriend, Siddharth (Venkitesh V P), a supernatural story is ready in movement. What started as a homicide plot – with a number of members of a wealthy enterprise household committing suicide – slips into the world of evil forces with an orphan woman, Ameya Gabriel (Baby Monica), learning in a faculty run by nuns, exhibiting unusual signs. At first, these appear as if psychological trauma, and the one particular person she warms as much as is her trainer, Jessy. An unusully grumpy and even aggressive woman, who makes no mates in school or the orphanage she is rising up in, has a smile taking part in on her face the second she comes throughout Jessy.
Things flip alarming when Jessy goes to her ancestral dwelling on a vacation with Ameya, who turns into inexplicably violent the second Siddharth arrives. Seeking the assistance of Benedict, whom Jessy had met earlier and who says in no unsure phrases that the woman wants an exorcist not a psychiatrist, the trainer helplessly watches the priest going about his mumbo-jumbo, solely that he makes use of modern-looking devices which monitor the woman’s very important parameters.
Honestly, I don’t perceive why a very good actor like Mammootty (with some nice films, together with some helmed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan) must have stepped into the sneakers of Father Benedict, remodeling himself from a priest to a prober!
The story penned by Chacko and scripted by Shyam Menon and Deepu Pradeep, is pure hotchpotch. and by the tip of the over 120-minute lengthy work, we stay confused concerning the preliminary suicides and the way these relate to Ameya’s situation. In brief, the narrative is unclear.
It is definitely humorous to see a Mammootty carrying an impeccable hat going round with a magnifying glass, and his inquiries to the cops about forensic studies and the like appear extra like a joke than any try at critical sleuthing.
Monica appears to repeat The Exorcist (1973) baby, who’s possessed by an evil entity. Others like Nikhila and Venkitesh make little impression, and even Manju pales as Susan, a character written in such an slipshod method.
It is a pity that Chacko regardless of wonderful actors like Mammootty and Manju may solely provide you with such a lopsided plot.
Rating: 1/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is film critic and creator of a biography of Adoor Gopalakrishnan)
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