Passenger - Malayalam Movie Review

When you dare to experiment, you end up being different!
I f you ask me what the Mollywood screen was lacking for the past few years – I would say innovation, new ideas and young talents. Unlike the neighboring Tamil big screen, which brought out many different movies (from M Kumaran to Anniyan to Mozhi to Subramaniapuram to Saroja) Malayalam audience were contented either watching 2 hour stereotype substandard stories or seeing their old superstars doing the same thing all over again. Here comes a talent to look for – Ranjith Shankar – with his first movie “Passenger” that brings something different on to the screens – a thriller – which we have been missing for years. A thriller that not just glues you to your seat for a solid 2 hours but drives in a social commitment message as well.Well…the storyline: Sathyanathan (Sreenivasan) is a typical average middle class guy working in the Finance department of a private chemical firm. He commutes by a passenger train every day to his workplace, and like many others has programmed his body clock to sleep and get up at exact locations. The initial set of scenes give enough lighter moments with the co-commuters of Sathyanathan (played by Harisree Asokan, Kochupreman, Anoop Chandran and T P Madhavan) discussing the political and social issues around them and interpreting it in the way that affects their life. Sathyanathan is also portrayed to be a temple festival buff and at home he has a nagging wife (Lakshmi Sharma) a TV Crazy mother (Valsala Menon) and 2 kids.As Sathyanathan’s life goes ahead on a preset mode, we also get to see a couple whose life is on the fast lane – Adv. Nandan Menon (Dileep) and Anuradha Nandan (Mamta Mohandas) who is a reporter for a channel, Right TV. The burning issue that affects the ruling party and Minister Thomas Chacko (Jagathy Sreekumar) is about black sand extraction from a shore village by name Marankara. The minister is accused for molestation of a social activitist from the place – Thankamma Rajan (Sona Nair). As Nandan Menon appears in court for the villagers of Marankara and Anuradha gets appointed by her channel to cover a live interview of the minister, the couple becomes a pain for the minister and his gang.On one particular day, Anuradha does a risky operation on the minister and shockingly realizes that the minister and his gang have deadly plans to wreck the state. Thomas Chacko finds out that his plans have leaked out and is now in bad need of Anuradha. At about the same time, Nandan and Sathyanathan meet for the first time (Dileep & Sreenivasan sparkles the screen with comedy) during a train journey when Sathyanathan happens to oversleep. The minister’s gang decides to use Nandan as a victim to bargain with Anuradha. When they carry out the ploy, as fate would have it - Sathyanathan gets drawn into it. The story takes a special turn here, and ensures that you are at the edge of your seat till the next 90 minutes.Sreenivasan handles the role of a typical, and finicky middle class guy – he doesn’t need any special training for that role. Dileep gives out a good performance in the subtle and to be underplayed role of Advocate Nandan, though the sophistication of a leading advocate is a little too far for him. Mamta Mohandas, who is known as a glam doll in South India steals the show gets a role with a lot of stuff in it. Among all others, the actress covers maximum length of the film roll and proves her worth. The smart, and adventurous TV reporter is carried out convincingly with ease, well supported by the voice from Vimmy Mariam George. Anand Swami (as goonda “anali” shaji) and Sreejith Ravi as his assistant are good. Sathyanathan’s co-commuters have done well, but don’t have much to do. Sona Nair overacts as Thankamma Rajan, while Manikkuttan and Lakshmi Sharma are forgettable. Casting seems to be thoughtful, we haven’t seen Jagahthy in an end-to-end villain role, Dileep in a subtle role, and Nedumudi as a taxi driver for very often. Mamta was a good choice for the lead role.A thriller that has no songs, has to be supported by a good background score and Bijibal does just that. The camera and edits also adds to the pace of the movie. The animations used seemed to be a little primitive.The entire movie is the brainchild of debutante Ranjith Shankar and he surely deserves a round of applause for that. The choice of the plot (a real time movie that tells about things that happen in 2 days), the way it is scripted, and the treatment given to the subject – all make the movie special. The best part is the movie talks about real places, real trains, and real timings. The movie delivers a very good message towards social commitment of individuals and re-iterates the fact that the power of truth stands above anything else. The prevailing social and political issues and how it affects the life of lesser mortals – are analysed and laid out in the most subtle, still powerful way.Aren’t there loopholes in the script – Yes there are. When Sathyanathan comes to Adv. Nandan’s house and picks up Anuradha’s call – the house is shown as empty. There isn’t even a single person around at a house in Ernakulam, where the family living in the house is accused for the death of someone – unbelievable! It sounded a little difficult to digest the fact that, when Anuradha finally meets the colleagues in her channel, she just walks away with them forgetting about Nandan. I am also interested in knowing what wireless connection she uses that makes her send such a big file so fast to her manager at Right TV JBut, Mr. Ranjith – we forgive you for such small things, for you have given something unusual to the Malayalam big screen.
Verdict: Go ahead!