Pathaaka - the film by the veteran K. Madhu was finally released as an Onam offering. Suresh Gopi who agreed to play the lead role in a script which is intended to whitewash the suspiciously close story of the former industry minister , finally lands in trouble as the film lacks anything novel than his old political thrillers. The film lacks direction as the pace drags wearily and the scriptwriter Robin Thirumala tries to tell a lot of things at a time to land up in a mess.
The film tells the story of a young politician strongly in the lines of the news making former industries minister of the state.
George Tharian is the son of Elizabeth Mammen, (Sheela in the looks of Indira Gandhi) firebrand political leader of yester years. It is not surprising therefore that he becomes a politician himself as his mother also wants him to become a great leader like his father. Known to friends simply as George Tharian, he loves and has a clean image, and has the interests of the State at heart. He is now the Industries Minister in the coalition government led by chief minister Viswanaathan (Played by Lalu Alex).
George Tharian wants to rapidly industrializes the state and embarks upon a spate of reforms with the help of foreign investments. He is given valuable support by the friends inside the party like Farooq Shah. But this also creates disquiet among his opponents like Rajan Nadar (Devan), Johny Xavier (Kollam Thulasi) and Monipally Dinesh (Shammi Thilakan) who wants a share of every business deals and is in the way of his success.
Very soon he has to encounter a series of corruption charges against him. Kerala Television, the leading news channel also airs a campaign showing clips of him in intimate scenes with Meera (Renuka Menon) a journalist and sister of Namitha (Sunita Menon), an IPS officer who is looking into the corruption charges against the Minister! He soon finds out that the think tank behind all this malicious manipulation is Farooq Shah and a terrorist group under him.
Hurt by the new findings he resigns from the cabinet in a huff and plans innovative methods to bring his opponents and their intentions before the public. He then starts a rival channel and exposes his raw criticizers to devastating depths. The climax encompasses some televised live happenings aired statewide via rival channels. The plot looks promoting but not the film.
The sequences show the shades of the old thrillers like superman and New Delhi in some aspects. The film doesn't deviate to any plane of stylishness but stay back in the old line of verbal deliverance as usual in every Suresh Gopi flick.
The film has a huge star cast featuring Manoj.K.Jayan, Navya Nair, Janardhanan, Lalu Alex and Renuka Menon. The recent similar happenings to another minister of state, P J Joseph, who was also forced to take a break from the ministry due to similar charges, may help the film in its promotions.
On the whole, Pathaaka is another average fair in the long list of political action films which don't cling much to your heart for long. The film which extends to a little more than two hours is just watchable and if you are in the look out for anything different, you really might be hoping for too much.
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