Charlie

About Charlie, you can’t say that you can relate to that character. Charlie is a person whom at least some of us want to be in life. That person who lives a detached life but everyone who comes to his life gets attached to him. The latest Martin Prakkat film written by Unni R is actually the joy of seeing that hippy who sort of asks you to live life to the fullest in that crazy instinctive way.

The story actually is narrated through the eyes of Tessa. She is this young girl who isn’t ready for a marriage. The crazy girl runs away from the family and manages to find a shelter in Kochi. The movie is about Tessa’s journey to find that man who lived in that room before her. His stuff and his one random call create a curiosity in Tessa to know more about him. Her journey to find out who Charlie really is what the movie narrating.

Just like C K Raghavan (a character that came from Unni R’s writing), Charlie is also that refreshingly intellectual character who sort of interprets the events in everyone’s life in a simpler, broader way. The difference is that the range of subjects he has an opinion on is lesser than Raghavan. In one aspect he is this typical “good” hero. But writer Unni R has given the character more of a natural flare. His habits and approach looks rawer. The various good deeds done by he has this charm which isn’t cheesy at all and that’s because the reaction of each character in this film is more genuine. The commercialization has created songs, but to the credit of Martin Prakkat, all of them are in sync with the narration.

Dulquer Salmaan manages to handle this charming character nicely. There is a slight hiccup when Charlie goes extremely mad, but otherwise his portrayal of Charlie has that grace to influence you. Parvathy once again with her easy style did a good job and her Tessa really looked curious. The climax has that energy because of the pair’s chemistry. The elaborate cast has actors like Aparna Gopinath, Nedumudi Venu, Soubin Shahir, Chemban Vinod Jose, KPAC Lalitha, Kalpana, Neeraj etc. All of them looked perfect for the roles assigned to them.

Martin Prakkat gives that energetic, visually engaging treatment to Unni R’s writing. The screenplay co written by him keeps the audience occupied even after having no typical suspense factor in the content. It is the way characters were built in the story that makes a difference. Charlie has no inhibitions, he is detached, he cares about people he meets in his own style. If Tessa was a usual girl, the inquisitiveness of Tessa would have made no sense and the screenplay shows enough instances to show us that she is the right hippy better half Charlie can get.  Jomon T John has done a good job once again with visuals. Thankfully Charlie isn’t a festival of aerial shots; something that has happened after the introduction of cheaper helicams. Cuts could have been better. Liked the songs and loved the BGM from Gopi Sunder. A special mention to Sameera Saneesh for the peculiar costumes.

Charlie is not just a fun film in my opinion. A crazy man is described by many people with different life situations and he was a healing factor for all of them. After a while I sort of had a smile throughout a film and that’s because of the less preachy style of this movie. At one instance Charlie tells Kani about his life policy, which is to give people certain surprises and to see the joy in their eyes. That part was really there in abundance in this film.