72 Model Malayalam Movie
I never thought a further drop down the line would be possible for a director like Rajasenan, but he does the unthinkable in his latest film '72 Model' and comfortably sets a new low for himself. Here is yet another opportunity to reminisce over the several adorable films that he had once presented over us, and rue over the mystery as to why some comebacks seem implausible.
'72 Model' has Govind Padmasoorya playing Saajan, a cab driver who join hands with his best friends Vivek (Sreejith Vijay) and Parvathy (Soniya Das) to start a real estate business. The investment that he puts into the venture is thanks to a bag of loot that someone had accidentally planted in his 72 Model Ambassador cab. The trio appoint Janaki (Nazreen Nazar), a young girl in financial distress, in their company, but things go for a toss when Saajan finds that half the money that he had kept safe in his room has disappeared without a trace.
The writing is infinitesimally bad in '72 Model', that one squirms around in the seat, plainly unable to take it anymore. What does one do, when actors like Vijayaraghavan, Vanitha and Sabitha are made to perform in scenes that would be hard to find even in the terribly scripted films of the seventies.
I could not understand why the film has been titled '72 Model', except for a car which appears in the initial few scenes in the film. Talking of cars reminds me of a song in the film that is supposedly a tribute, but which would make you hate cars with a vengeance.
Where it is supposed to be humorous it makes you want to cry, and where it tries to be all emotional the film has you in splits. It's the kind of film that makes you want to give up seeing films altogether; the kind of film that doesn't have the faintest idea as to how tedious the story that it is frantically trying to tell you is.
After a point, in films as these, you simply give up and patiently wait for the ordeal to end on its own. '72 Model' takes a while to call the final shot, but when it eventually does, you rise up from your seats, immensely relieved.
There is this role that veteran actor Madhu is made to play in the film, that is nothing short of an embarrassment. The character called Kuttan Pillai Sir should have been done by anyone else but Madhu, and one wonders what made him take up a role as this. Though he appears in just a few scenes, the effects of the character are catastrophic.
My heart goes out to the young breed of actors who have put in their very best for the film. Of the two young men, Padmasoorya undergoes a makeover of sorts in that he experiments with a comic role, and comfortably fits into it without much of a trouble. Soniya Das is an actress to watch out for, since she has the potential to make even the most ludicrous of scenes convincing on screen.
Things have got steadily worse as far as Rajasenan films are concerned, and '72 Model' adds itself to the 'never to be seen' movies by the director. Its numbingly bad, and you wonder if it could have lasted for more than a week in the theatres even if it were released way back in '72.
