Black Coffee

Some movies test your level of tolerance. And as a film reviewer, I have boasted about my tolerance level to people by saying that “I have seen this movie from the theater.” Black Coffee, the new movie directed by actor Baburaj is one such experience. Presented as the spinoff/ sequel of the 2011 Aashiq Abu movie Salt n Pepper, this one is horrendously bad, and anyone who was creatively involved in the making of Salt N Pepper would find themselves guilty for allowing this movie to happen.

Cook Babu of Salt N Pepper is the link that connects between the 2011 movie and Black Coffee. After having a particular ego clash with his master Kalidasan, Babu leaves that home, and he met Ann, a fashion designer living with three other independent women. After initial hesitation, all of them agreed to have Babu in the flat as a cook. The events that unfold in these women’s journey and how the presence of Babu affect that is the plot of Black Coffee.

Orma Bose, who has played a role in the movie, is credited as the film’s story writer. Well, there is hardly any story here. We are always in that confused space where we are absolutely clueless about what the movie wants to present. It is only by the interval of the movie we get to know that one of the four women, Malavika has some personal issues, and the whole film revolves around that. So basically, Black Coffee is an outdated blackmailing drama that gets suffocated by pointless tracks featuring various characters. The lack of significance of several characters in this movie, including Babu himself, is the most irritating part.

Baburaj, who has written the movie’s screenplay and dialogues, is simply dragging a thin thought into a two-hour twenty minutes long film. His idea is to make it look like the journey of four independent women in a metro city. But the episodic approach with which he presents each of them feels lame. You can clearly see the peripheral gaze of a male in writing, and almost all the characters here are caricatures. Salt N Pepper was fun to watch, and it never went after sloppy humor. But here, everything is overdone. Even the feminine element in Babu’s character is pushed to a vulgar level. Sitting through the “comedy tracks” in this time of OTT needs a superior level of patience. The cinematography mostly follows flat lighting, which will make you feel that you are watching a daily soap on a big screen, and the editing has no concerns about continuity or motive.

Cook Babu had a significant role in how the audience perceived Baburaj as an actor, and it was sad to see the actor ruin the same character in his own directorial by overdoing the character traits. The always reliable Lena was also annoyingly animated in this film. Rachana Narayanankutty delivers a very stiff performance. Oviya as Malu is pretty, and that’s about it. The most unbearable of the lot was Orma Bose, and the performance of Zinil Zainudheen somewhat represented my frustration seeing her acting. Lal and Shwetha Menon are there in extended cameo roles, and even they don’t know what they are doing in this movie. Sunny Wayne, Shiyas Kareem, and many other names are there in the star cast who are just forgettable.

If any of you have any plan to watch Black Coffee, I would highly recommend you watch the trailer they have released first. Because anticipating any trace of quality that was present in Salt N Pepper can make this movie a tormenting experience for you. You will need multiple cups of Black Coffee to sit through this cinematic equivalent of exploitation.