The King and The Commissioner

Film making is a process which should always change according to the time, technology and sensibility of audience. “The King and The Commissioner” directed by Shaji Kailas and written by Renji Panikker is a movie that comes out with an outdated cliche  style of story telling. The old fire of Joseph Alex and Bharath Chandran is definitely missing and the only reason I could find for that was that the prequels were made with some fire in the mind of the writer, but this sequel comes out with pure intention of making a mass masala entertainer.

As it is a political thriller I dont want to go deeply in to the story of the movie. Renji Panikkar has followed his usual idea of making a commercial political thriller with current relevant political issues.  Home security, The silent prime minister, the influence of media, large scale scams etc are the backdrop of the movie with TERRORISM being the mother of all nasty. The film Kicks off well with some technically sound presentation and brutal and realistic making. But after the first half an hour, the main investigation in the movie starts and the movie’s mood changes to a mass masala heroic movie. Thats where the whole problem with the story happens.If both the main protagonists were given lesser priority than the script, the film would have got the certificate for honesty.

For around first 1 hour of the movie, there is no Bharath Chandran in the movie. Eventhough Bharath Chandran was given a grand opening, at the end of the movie we will surely think about the need of this character.With some powerfull English- Malayalam dialogs from both heroes, the first half is a relatively enjoyable one.
The second half becomes a tiring watch as the duration of the movie unwantedly exceeds and the story line is very much predictable with a climax that we have seen plenty of times.

Mammootty looked good as Joseph Alex. The old power wasnt there for both heroes especially in dialog rendering. Sai Kumar and “Thobiyas” did well in their in negative roles. Samvritha and KPSC Lalitha were literally useless. Rest of the cast includes veterans like Janardhanan , Nedumudi and Devan.

In the making side, Shaji Kailas promised something at the beginning but gradually disappointed. Renji Panikker still has that style of going deep into small details and including his political views. But the dialogs should have been crafted to a way that suits the new generation. Almost 80% of the dialogs have both Malayalam and English version. Cinematography, Editing, Fights etc were satisfactory.

Overall “The King and Commissioner” is a mass masala entertainer intended for the diehard fans. Old wine in Old Bottle with a new label..
My rating 2.5/5.

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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