God For Sale

Technically mediocre and a dull content that can’t reach its goal; the latest Babu Janardhanan film, God For Sale is a really disappointing satire. Apart from some out of the safe zone performances from the leading actors, the movie never really manages to engage its viewer with its sarcasm. Trying to narrate the whole life of a man through a just above 2 hours long film, the movie is just a dry drama without any impact.

The plot here traverses through the life of the chief protagonist Prasannan Nair. Prasannan was born in a Nair family in Chirayinkeezhu.  His father had a tragic end after he meets a swami. Prasannan grew up as an RSS kar sevak and he was in love with a girl who followed the communist party. The movie is basically about the phase changes and loses in Prasannan’s life where he transforms from an RSS kar sevak to a communist and then to Christianity and finally ending up as a fraud dummy God named Poornananda Swami.

From the preview itself it’s clear that the writer-director Babu Janardhanan is trying to show us the entire environment surrounding Prasannan. What was really irritating was the hastiness in the script. The script never invests much time in events in the process, so that the audience can move along with the movie. The romance of the young Prasannan, the transformation as communist, the character change after marriage, the affection towards Christianity and the final attire as the Dummy God are all explained in a very vague way. The audience won’t be able to digest the protagonist’s emotions in such a swift narration. With technical aspects also being in the disappointing side, the movie becomes a test of patience.

As I said, the script is too vague. In an attempt to explain how a man turned out to be a dummy God, the writer tries too much by putting him in so many different backdrops. When you try to change the strong ideologies of a man twice in a movie, there should be sufficient reasons that are visible. But Sadly God For Sale fails to create such powerful plot twisters. The direction is an outdated one that couldn’t properly communicate with the audience. Cinematography wasn’t that great and the edits were also dull. BGMs are ordinary and apart from “Illathaalam Kai maarumbol”, no other song manages to impress the audience. Art direction was very disappointing.

Whatever positive is there for the movie is in its performance side. Kunchako Boban portrayed the role of Prasannan very impressively and I loved the way he goes slightly psycho in the second half. Suraj Venjaramoodu was a real surprise as he did a double role in the movie. He wasn’t using his typical gimmicks and all to make us laugh and still managed to crack the audience with those goofy dialog delivery and expressions. Jyothi Krishna was really impressive in her role. Anumol’s character wasn’t that much of a challenge. Rest of the cast was also good in their roles.

Overall, God For Sale is a charmless satire that fails to make us think seriously about the theme. I am giving a generous 2/5 for this used out theme. It really needs an overall boosting.