Ayudham Malayalam Movie
Ayudham has plenty of action without doubt, but hardly any of it is ground-breaking. It's a customary cop movie that offers infrequent thrills and spills with very little but blank bangs all around.
There is a strict adherence to the worn out police formula, if at all there is one. So we start off with those slum explosions that trigger off a few communal riots, and the baddie law enforcers come scampering after. There are the protests and the activists and of course the good samaritan chief minister. And then, the Special inquiry order and the no-nonsense officer, who this time around, gallops a gala entry. On to the investigation then, that follows a thread of suspects to the Super Crook based abroad.
There are two vital elements missing from this enterprise - the indispensable punch lines and the obligatory plotline. There are lines galore, sans the punch, and most of it is a snooze. The obviousness of the plot leaves so little to the imagination that it shouldn't hurt much to be branded a real lame cop thriller.
We have had it up to the neck with these minority exploitation themes on screen, that I hear they are about to start a cliché academy of their own. Amidst the screams and the stampedes, the shoot-outs and the show-downs, there is not a moment when you don't sigh, with an understanding that this is recycled business gone terribly wrong.
It's almost embarrassing to realize at the end of a film that nothing is ever going to happen, despite a long wait of more than a couple of hours. Almost as awkward as recognizing that we are in Dubai with Super Cop for about fifteen minutes of screen time to bring in that much-needed belly dance. Which is why the squander of talent, space and money for the film feels more improper than the doings of even it's most despicable characters.
Rishikesh is a poor cousin of Balram and even Bharat Chandran. Suresh Gopi seems to have put on oodles of weight and almost bursting out of his uniform, looks a bit too uncomfortable and restlessly restricted through out. I presume it would be unfair to hold him responsible for being jaded during most of this, but it's too bad, the fact is so glaringly noticeable all the way through the movie. And there is Lal, who looks more like a droll lunatic than a scheming rogue, and ends up looking unintentionally hilarious at all the wrong occasions.
There is a singular moment though, that makes the film worthwhile, when we get to see a Mu'athin (Murali), banished from the mosque on account of his son being falsely implicated as a terrorist, beg the chieftains to let him inside one last time. Pressing his trembling fingers to the ears, the man recites the Athan, beseeching the lord through his tremendously sorrowful eyes to see to it that righteousness prevails.
Under the routine direction of Nishad, Ayudham looks just like any other police story made during the past several years, minus the thrills. With a hoard of better cop-capers hitting the TV screens every other day, Ayudham would find the going ahead, real rough.
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