Fancy Dress, the new Guinness Pakru movie directed by Ranjith Skaria is one good example of terrible writing. The predictability of this movie is very high and there is absolutely zero importance for freshness. The only thing that is good about this film, in my opinion, is its duration of 124 minutes. The movie ended exactly at that point when you will feel that you can’t take it anymore.
Two thieves (I can’t even remember the character names) who sell drugs in Goa to earn a living are our main characters. At one point they come under the radar of a gangster in Goa. After that, they are suddenly transported to Kerala to do something that we are clueless about. What is that mission and how they ended up as a part of that mission is what Fancy Dress showing us.
We have Guinness Pakru dressed up as a baby and Shweta Menon is giving him Cerelac. If I was seeing this in an absurd comedy, I would have been okay with it. But the movie shows the character of Shwetha Menon as an aching mother and it wants us to root for her emotionally. It is then this kind of wild imaginations will start to irritate you. The writing here has no intent to be fresh in any way. The characters are either caricatures or just heavily melodramatic. Fancy Dress was one of those movies where I felt they simply stopped the movie after a point to reduce the further financial loss for them and psychological torture for the viewer. The ending was that abrupt.
From frame one itself, Ranjith Skaria gives you an idea about what is awaiting you for the next two hours. The beta Irupathaam Noottandu spoof suddenly slips into songs and clunky Don sequences. And then they tried to be innovative with the narrative by making it a back and forth narrative. When there is absolutely nothing in the script that excites you, a change in narrative style isn’t going to make it exciting. The movie definitely has no regard for the intelligence of the viewer. I am not sure what will be the reply of the makers if someone asks them what the genre of the movie is. They might say it is a family suspense comedy thriller (every Malayalam movie has that nature of adding family along with genre) and the truth is that it falls under none of those genres. The music was disappointing and technical aspects like cinematography and editing was on the mediocre side.
Guinness Pakru isn’t portraying the role with full conviction. You tend to have a feeling that he is there mostly because he has written the script along with the director and also produced the film. Someone like Sooraj Thelakkad would have been a better choice. Hareesh Kanaran is mostly in his slapstick zone, but there are areas where he is slightly gray and I hope someone will see his potential and offer better roles. Sowmya Menon yet again gets paired opposite to Hareesh for a pointless role. Bala is the stereotypical Don. Shwetha Menon is way too dramatic in her role while Kalabhavan Shajon performed his part effectively. Saju Navodhaya, Pradeep Kottayam, Bijukuttan, etc are there to make sure that you are getting enough irritation.
Fancy Dress is a simple mixture of lame writing and mediocre making. Having a pool of actors on board is not going to make any rubbish script look like a grand one. The title is so distant from the subject that they had to create a song that screams Fancy Dress.
Fancy Dress is a simple mixture of lame writing and mediocre making. Having a pool of actors on board is not going to make any rubbish script look like a grand one.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
