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'Lal, Bahadur & Shasthri' is one film from debutante director Rejiish Midhila, which has the power to engage you on screens but soon fades off as you leave the screening centres. With rich flavours of warmth, love and human bonding spread around, the movie tries hard to impress as a feel good entertainer, which attains a bit of success too.
Jayasurya comes up as Lal, a happy-go-lucky young man from Kuttanad, who lives with his parents and sister. He has to travel to Ernakulam to meet a man who will ensure his job as a driver. On the bus he meets Bahadur (Nedumudi Venu) an enterprising senior, who buys a lottery ticket from a boy (Minon) for 50 rupees. Unable to pay the balance amount, the boy, forces the remaining one ticket into Lal’s hands, who is sitting next to Bahadur, asking the young man to hand over the price of the ticket, Rs. 50, to Bahadur. The boy moves on for some other important business. Lal and Bahadur who starts their journey together, soon meets once again a few hours later, in Ernakulam, but under different circumstances. Dharmajan Shasthri(Aju Varghese), aka Shasthri, who dreams of a career in cinema too crosses ways with them. And soon the threesome is going to head for a little ‘adventure.’......
The pitfall of the movie, soaked in positive virtues is that nothing that happens here is afresh or unpredictable. You have seen many of these sort in recent days in new generation multi-narrative films. And the director Rejjish Midhila who is also in charge of scripts fails to increase aspects that could have added to the tempo of the proceedings. With around two hours of running time, the movie but succeeds in cleverly avoiding moralising sermons and crude clichés. The debutante director also gives an impression that provided better scripts he can make memorable movies. In the acting front, Nedumui delivers another fine performance though in a shallow role without depths while Jayasurya seems to be repeating his best of the young man roles in his typical mannerisms and dialogue delivery. Aju Varghese must find ways to present him with different gestures, not to get type casted . State award winner Minon as you expects is good, while debutante Sandra Simon, the lead lady, is ok. Nandhu and the rest of the cast are clad in just forgettable roles. Bijibal, the music-director, doesn’t deliver needed goods this time. The final line will be that this ‘Lal, Bahadur and Shastri’ is just watchable, if you haven’t got any big things to do. As of now it can be skipped if you doesn’t feel for a predictable, usual stuff. Rating: 6/10 |
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