David & Goliath Malayalam Movie
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An idea that best suits a short film of less than half an hour of running time, gets puffed up into a gas balloon that takes almost a couple of hours to deflate in 'David and Goliath'. Rajeev Nath's film fails to rise above the middling script, as the exhausted viewer lets out one yawn after the other.
David (Jayasurya) is an orphan, brought up by a priest (P Balachandran) at a church somewhere on the outskirts of Vagamon. He grows up to be a timid youngster, who has a fear of the crowds. Though a school dropout, David displays an astounding expertise when it comes to creating machines. He is discovered by Sunny (Anoop Menon), a local planter, who reaps a fortune through one of David's remarkable discoveries.
The lethargy that encompasses the entire film is infectious, and it stars working on you like a sedative. The geyser that is one of David's initial discoveries takes a while to heat up the water, and when he discovers yet another gadget that produces electricity, you hope for his wheel of fortune to turn a bit faster.
I'd like to believe that David is an extraordinary person, but his characterization borders on the mentally challenged. Sometimes you wonder, if everything is indeed right with the chap, and if he needs some real special care and treatment. His bleeding nose and his tremors add to my skepticism.
No prizes for guessing that Sunny, who is on a desperate bid to prove a few points to the world, is as self-centered as a man could get. The writing again gets hazy when it comes to sketching down those precise details, and he turns out to be no Goliath; he isn't even an apt adversary to David, for that matter.
The morality tale that the film incorporates within itself is feebly constructed, and the questions that it poses lack the potency to warrant a discussion. The gut-punch is missing, and the anticipated tussle between the two legendary characters immortalized by the Bible, is sadly missing.
When it comes to the women, Jainamma (Lena), an alcoholic woman who has given upon her faith, after her kids were run over by a lorry, leads the pack. There is Deepa (Anumol) as well, who lights up the lamp every now and then as her husband Sunny gropes around in the dark. Sharon (Soumya) is more of an embellishment, rather than a woman character of note.
Jayasurya is fantastic as David, and is especially good in the climactic scene, when he puts down his catapult at the press conference and resignedly surrenders before Goliath. Anoop Menon contentedly takes the back seat, this time around.
Team spirit could well work wonders in cinema, but when you get to see the very same team repeatedly, film after film, it starts getting to you especially since cinema is a visual medium. Anoop Menon and Jayasurya, along with P Balachandran and Dhananjay do make a perfect family picture, but probably it's time to think of a change in cast.
'David and Goliath' is a film that is built on an appealing premise, but which follows it for so long that the story telling ends up robotic. Its inability to elicit genuine emotions in the viewers is hence, an offshoot of this grave deficit.
