God for Sale Review

Coming from the director Babu Janardhanan who has a penchant for making films based on real instances and recent historical materials,  God for sale comes up as another interesting tale about the belief systems that make an average men run after them. The movie takes some hard hitting, but satirical  stance about the men of god and their actual intentions.

The movie opens with Swami Poornaanandha( Kunchakko Boban ) being arrested for the murder of a kid. The activists  have destroyed his ashram while the believers of this demi god cannot think of him doing anything like that. In the Narco analysis session, Prasannan is probed about his making as a Swami. At the same time, his elder brother Bhaskaran also unveils to the investigation officers  how Prasanan turned Poornanandha. The movie follows an interesting narrative pattern , intertwining the details brought out from Bhaskaran and Prasannan.

After having a disturbing childhood while a mysterious swami took their home as his abode and constructed a temple in their home, Prasannan's father committed suicide due to some unfortunate turnarounds. Prasannan  who worked as a building constructor , had a good girl friend in Kamala (Jyothi Krishna) whom he has decided to marry. He  also grows up as a RSS activist after completing his degree. But soon Prasannan turns to communism as he joins the city college for studying law. He also opportunely forgets his love for Kamala when the parents of a rich girl (played by Anumol) come with a marriage proposal. With no specific  conviction in his  thoughts or deeds he soon becomes a Christian and turns to preaching. But within months he develops more reasons to turn a new leaf and become  Poornananda Swami.

As usual with Babu Janardhan plots, this one also tries to present a lot of subjects in a single narrative. Though it gets reasonably engaging, the viewers will get surprised to see that the main event described in the first few reels never get discussed in any part of the narrative.We surmise that the director has failed to shoot the sequences of poornananda and his reasons for murder due to technical problems and must have wind up with what he has got.

But for the discerning viewer, this missing is really tough to be forgotten which makes this `God for Sale' a half baked attempt, though it told some bold truths and presented it with needed power.More over the poor technical sides including a lazy cinematography credited to Sinu Sidhdarth and Pramod Pappan has taken the charm of many sequences.The editing is also mediocre with many sequences loosing focus, though Babu Janardhanan has penned some fine dialogues soaked with engaging, healthy criticisms.

The highlight of the film could be definitely the outstanding performances, especially by Suraj Venjarammoodu, who appear in a life-like double role. Kunchacko Boban plays to the demands of the role and is exceptional towards the end. Jyothi Krishna was effective as Kamalu while Anumol and others play to the demand of their roles.

Afsal Yousuf has comeup with some engaging tunes , while his BG scores are appropriate at times.

Even though with its shortcomings, God Of Sale' can be definitely prescribed for its  bold stance and disclosures. Have a watch, if you have some free time for a critical analysis on our society, but not for any meaty entertaining elements.

Rating - 6.5/10