L2: Empuraan Movie Review: Empuraan doesn't quite match the punch of Lucifer
L2: Empuraan Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,A mass entertainer needs massy dialogues; this is a big miss in the movie
Critic's Rating: 3.5/5
Story: Khureshi Ab’raam is heading an international nexus, but he must return home to save his state from going down politically dangerous routes. And to help his right-hand man, Zayed, get vengence
Review: Empuraan starts out as a brave, bold film. Not for its budget and ambition alone, but also for the subject, with the quite upfront political portrayals.
The first half goes with the textbook 'thrill every few minutes' formula. After a brief geopolitical voiceover - about an Afro-China God Axis vs an Indo-Arab Lucifer nexus - and an action sequence in Iran, the story moves to the 2002 riots in west India. It tells the backstory of a young Zayed Masood (Prithviraj), the shadowy figure accompanying Stephen Nedumpally aka Khureshi Ab’raam in the first film, Lucifer. It’s a villain origin story- or in this case - anti-hero origin story, with Zayed's parents and family facing the brunt of the riots in communal clashes, under a new, rising political order, under a leader named Bajrangi.
About two decades later, when the scene shifts to Kerala, our investigative news vlogger, Govardhan (Indrajith), is on a satellite call with an intelligence officer to know why Bajrangi is interested in Kerala. Soon enough, Jathin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas), a once idealistic chief minister, now at odds with his party and sister Priyadarshini (Manju Warrier), reveals in a surprise announcement that he is making a change in his politics. It means, Kerala is going to sink into communal politics.
This change compels Govardhan to ask Stephen Nedumpally, whose whereabouts are not known, to return to Kerala. The international wheeler dealer, meanwhile, continues on his ‘narcotics is a dirty business’ (Lucifer reference) drive and destroys a $1billion drug shipment going to Europe via Senegal, from South America. This is where the film peaks on its mass entertainment value, with Khureshi marking his screen entry on an Apache in the west African desert. So far so fire.
Unfortunately, the pace dips in the second half, where the politics in Kerala could have really been engaging and fun. Jathin has made some unholy alliances over a dangerous dam situation in Nedumpally. Will Priyadarshini have the gumption to preserve a legacy that held the state together? Will Nedumpally return? Will his Khureshi avatar keep an old promise to Zayed to avenge his family? Even this latter bit doesn’t get us excited, even though the backstory was well told and got us emotionally involved.
Of course, the anticipation is sky high on the movie and it delivers to some extent, but doesn’t manage to have the novelty, punch and star power that Lucifer gave us. Mohanlal’s dialogues and characterisation were iconic and full of shocks and surprises in the previous film. That cult stunt sequence, where he pins a policeman to the wall, while his hands are cuffed, is repeated here with double effect, with Khureshi and Zayed doing it together while they tackle the bad guys, but even that doesn’t quite have the same thrills.
The work that Prithviraj and Murali Gopi have put into developing the story is visible and impressive in the first half. But we miss the nous, that some of our Malayalam political thrillers of the 80s and 90s had. Also, a mass entertainer needs massy dialogues; this is a big miss in the movie.
Deepak Dev’s music perfectly matches the brilliantly visualised scenes; we get involved Khureshi’s quests and get a feel for the mood, thanks to this. Sujith Vasudev’s camerawork balances the fast and mellow scenes superbly throughout.
The actors, including Mohanlal and Manju Warrier, come across as a bit restrained. Maybe we would like to see a bit more bombast in a mass entertainer.
It is definitely interesting to see director Prithviraj mount a Malayalam film that travels from Africa to the MI6 HQ in London to the Middle East. It definitely lifts the bar for our filmmakers. And it is a believable story, not just one that takes the hero on audacious missions that leave us shaking our heads and laughing. So, this could make for an entertaining, rousing viewing for audiences, with the promise of another installment.
Review: Empuraan starts out as a brave, bold film. Not for its budget and ambition alone, but also for the subject, with the quite upfront political portrayals.
The first half goes with the textbook 'thrill every few minutes' formula. After a brief geopolitical voiceover - about an Afro-China God Axis vs an Indo-Arab Lucifer nexus - and an action sequence in Iran, the story moves to the 2002 riots in west India. It tells the backstory of a young Zayed Masood (Prithviraj), the shadowy figure accompanying Stephen Nedumpally aka Khureshi Ab’raam in the first film, Lucifer. It’s a villain origin story- or in this case - anti-hero origin story, with Zayed's parents and family facing the brunt of the riots in communal clashes, under a new, rising political order, under a leader named Bajrangi.
About two decades later, when the scene shifts to Kerala, our investigative news vlogger, Govardhan (Indrajith), is on a satellite call with an intelligence officer to know why Bajrangi is interested in Kerala. Soon enough, Jathin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas), a once idealistic chief minister, now at odds with his party and sister Priyadarshini (Manju Warrier), reveals in a surprise announcement that he is making a change in his politics. It means, Kerala is going to sink into communal politics.
This change compels Govardhan to ask Stephen Nedumpally, whose whereabouts are not known, to return to Kerala. The international wheeler dealer, meanwhile, continues on his ‘narcotics is a dirty business’ (Lucifer reference) drive and destroys a $1billion drug shipment going to Europe via Senegal, from South America. This is where the film peaks on its mass entertainment value, with Khureshi marking his screen entry on an Apache in the west African desert. So far so fire.
Unfortunately, the pace dips in the second half, where the politics in Kerala could have really been engaging and fun. Jathin has made some unholy alliances over a dangerous dam situation in Nedumpally. Will Priyadarshini have the gumption to preserve a legacy that held the state together? Will Nedumpally return? Will his Khureshi avatar keep an old promise to Zayed to avenge his family? Even this latter bit doesn’t get us excited, even though the backstory was well told and got us emotionally involved.
Of course, the anticipation is sky high on the movie and it delivers to some extent, but doesn’t manage to have the novelty, punch and star power that Lucifer gave us. Mohanlal’s dialogues and characterisation were iconic and full of shocks and surprises in the previous film. That cult stunt sequence, where he pins a policeman to the wall, while his hands are cuffed, is repeated here with double effect, with Khureshi and Zayed doing it together while they tackle the bad guys, but even that doesn’t quite have the same thrills.
The work that Prithviraj and Murali Gopi have put into developing the story is visible and impressive in the first half. But we miss the nous, that some of our Malayalam political thrillers of the 80s and 90s had. Also, a mass entertainer needs massy dialogues; this is a big miss in the movie.
Deepak Dev’s music perfectly matches the brilliantly visualised scenes; we get involved Khureshi’s quests and get a feel for the mood, thanks to this. Sujith Vasudev’s camerawork balances the fast and mellow scenes superbly throughout.
The actors, including Mohanlal and Manju Warrier, come across as a bit restrained. Maybe we would like to see a bit more bombast in a mass entertainer.
It is definitely interesting to see director Prithviraj mount a Malayalam film that travels from Africa to the MI6 HQ in London to the Middle East. It definitely lifts the bar for our filmmakers. And it is a believable story, not just one that takes the hero on audacious missions that leave us shaking our heads and laughing. So, this could make for an entertaining, rousing viewing for audiences, with the promise of another installment.
