Robinhood, like all other recent biggies, have its source material from the comic book - all about men indulging in crimes, but for a cause. It is definitely the huge experience of veteran Joshy, that seems to have helped the new movie to end up as a safer fare. Planted on an illogical theme of ATM robbery, that too in a mass and regular scale (........with the help of decoding the emitted electromagnetic signals that arise when some one swaps their cards), `Robinhood' could have ended up as a too silly fare, but for the technical and narrative finesse of its director.
The movie has Prithviraj as Venkitesh Aiyer, a brainy physics teacher working in an entrance coaching centre, who is a regular burglar at night in the ATM's of a particular bank. As the local police fails to nab the culprit, the bank headed by Nandhakumara Menon (Biju Menon) invites private investigator Alexander Felix (Narain) to crack the clueless case. The little "sherlock holmes" is aided in his job by Roopa (Bhavana), who is also the systems head of the bank. The rest of the movie is on a thickly packaged plot of clues, leads, twists, crosses and double crosses and thrills of a potbolier.
Sachi-Sethu, the scriptwriting duo, is forced to resort to frivolous, predictable sequences to connect with the central events and the big surprise element is missing although this 'cat and mouse' game. More over, an average viewer will tell you, that there are more easy ways to catch the regular ATM looter, than to resort to these inane and sophisticated ways put on in the movie. Anyhow it is the director Joshy, who had come up with enough built- ups to make you believe that such events can happen somewhere in an utopian world.
The highlight of the movie is the glossy looks and colorfulness with which it is presented. With many song and dance sequences and funny moments, the movie will not give you much time to ponder over logic, atleast when in the cinema halls. Cinematographer Shaji excels, as usual with his shots while art director Joseph nellickal and even costumer S B Satheeshan parades the screen with many watchables that will keep you engrossed. With a brisk pacing cuts by Renjan Abraham and a bevy of beautiful actresses, it' may not be difficult to watch as long as you aren't expecting anything remotely intelligent to transpire. The songs by M Jayachandran, sticks to the mood of the movie. But the BG scores and title tracks by Rajamani proves more advantageous to the movie, than the average songs.
And in the acting side Prithvi makes a cakewalk with his usual manovores in twin avatars, the second with an uniform like jacket and head gear. And sometimes you feel this character to be one in the same mould of that in `Puthiya Mukham', rehashed in the opposite direction. But without the ''heist '' element. Narain is impressive and will gain more fans for his screen presence, though his character is not so convincing. Bhavana and Samvrutha provides that oomph factor and appear pretty all through. Biju Menon as the baddie seems to in a race to announce that he is behind all those wickedry. Jayasuriya and Salimkumar are in less demanding regular roles.
With better performances from the youngsters and a director with a real eye for virtuoso camera work, `Robinhood' is only a dynamite script away from becoming a good hit. Anyhow, the goods are delivered and there are enough elements to keep the minds occupied. If you are on the demand of a high-octane, low mind activity, keep your brains at home, and get rewarded with an easy go of two plus hours in the company of this 'Robinhood'.
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