For all those who predict Mollywood's doom day is nearing, just watch out for a new bunch of filmmakers, brimming with ideas. They are trying to find an audience, experimenting with stories that were long considered abstract and out of the box. `Currency' is one such film that envision a story that almost strikes the right balance between real and make-believe.
One cannot classify `Currency' in any particular genre. Debutante director Swathy Bhaskar in an attempt for a dark thriller packs the narratives with lighter moments, tense moments, dramatic moments, and even mad moments. No issues with that, except for that the movie is a little overlong stretched for no reason, thereby diluting the impact.
The movie traces the journey of Keshu, the only son of Subhadramma, a school drop-out, who slowly and gradually takes to the world of crime. An introvert, he is working for a minuscule salary in a Photostat store, owned by Indrapalan (Suraj Venjaaramoodu), a clerical staff in the RTO office. Keshu, who doesn't have any friends, is madly after Rose (Meera Nandhan), a sales girl in the nearby boutique. Other than working at the store and roaming quietly after Rose, he often takes Photostat copies of currency notes and finish working on them with meticulous precision, but fears to spend them. One day he happens to meet Daany D,souza,(Mukesh) an over-ambitious Anglo Indian, who always aspires to make the right moves to get that big break in life. He realizes the competence of Keshu in creating fake currencies and forces him to continue with his act, for emerging successful beings in life. And how Keshu falls into this pits of no-return, forms the rest of the story.
Swathy Bhaskar's debut venture initially has its heart at the right place and that's made abundantly clear 30 minutes into the film. After a well engaging first hour. its wafer thin storyline gets repetitive. There's not much movement in the story after a point and the proceedings get prolonged and tedious. The director proves himself as an accomplished storyteller in several individualistic scenes, mostly in the first half. But the screenplay isn't foolproof with romantic track ending up as the weakest link in the enterprise, with Jayasurya and Meea Nandhan sharing zero chemistry in the sequences.
The movie has very little loose ends, but some dialogues in the later half and also the execution of the material isn't the type that would appeal to every sections of moviegoers. And after the entry of Kalabhavan Mani in varied looks, the movie struggles to retain the tempo of the thriller. Almost all the songs, especially the two dance numbers, comes as a speed breaker in the proceedings and its visuals hardly match the quality of the movie.
Keshu, a marked departure for his regular chocolate boy role, may undoubtedly be one of the best in Jayasurya's career. But the actor's histrionic talents fail to make the best out of it, though he has maintained himself just adequate for the demands of the character. It's clearly Mukesh, as Daany Sayipu, who takes a lion's share of the plus points of the movie. He, in interesting costumes, looks ''out of the world'' in the opening sequences, but quickly switch over to his elements of strength. Meera Nandhan looks unimpressive and suitably dazed in the first half, and recovers very little towards the end. And the rest of the cast including Anoop Menon, Seetha and Mamukoya are in their regular roles. Suraj looks a little jaded, but still induce the bits of laughter expected from him.
The technical sides of the movie are worth mentioning with outstanding cinematography by Viswamangal Kitsu, enriched with best colour graded frames. Mohan Sithara in the BG scores also brings out some great title tracks and undoubtedly it's easily one amongst his finest works in rerecording. Even the titles and animation has been used wisely by the director to build up the mood of the movie. The art direction by Gireesh Menon is top class, though the makeup department fails to maintain the continuity in many sequences.
On the whole, `Currency' is a decent fare that stands out for its different makings and for a few individualistic episodes in the narrative. A laudable effort from a first time director who definitely promises to be here in the helm within a short time. At the box-office, the movie have meat to make bountiful business in the bigger cities, if marketed well. Recommended for all those, who really want a difference.
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