The very first time I heard the news that B Unnikrishnan is joining hands with Mohanlal for an dark shaded investigation thriller, I thought about Ajith Kumar starrer 2011 Blockbuster Mankatha- a heist drama in which lead actor has grey shades. Mankatha and its lead character Vinayak Mahadev holds a strong cult following among moviegoers. Here also, much like Mankatha, the character is a policeofficer with dark shades. Made on a lavish budget of 20cr, BUnnikrishnan directorial has been in the news since last year. Mohanlal’s makeover and quite stellar supporting cast including biggies like Vishaal, Hansika Motwani, Raashi Khanna, Srikanth had made a buzz among moviegoers. Villain is the first Indian film to be fully filmed in 8k resolution using helium special red camera. Villain also uses opius lens for the first time in the world cinema. ‘Everything is grey’ says the tagline of Villain. If you take a quick glimpse of B unnikrishnans’ filmography, he himself falls in the grey zone. He had made some very good movies like Madampi and Grandmaster, while at the same time made total dumb movies like ‘I love me’. Even the setting of B Unnikrishnan movies, also varies greatly. Madampi was about the enmity between two feudal landlords in Travancore. While movies like Grandmaster and I Love Me falls in urban category. The only thing that is consistent in his recent movies is its undeniable western literary influence (May be because he is a university rank holder in English literature) and ‘Salt and Pepper’ look for lead characters. Directors’ obsession with this salt and look is revealed at the moment when Pallavi Purohit’s character explicity tells Shivaram (Mohanlal) that he looks incredibly hot in Mr. Fraud. Unnikrishnan who always present his characters in most handsome manner, also presented Mohanlal in the most weird looking attire in the same Mr.’Handsome’ Fraud. These types of contradictions or contrasts were part of his entire career. When it comes to villain he said that he worked nearly 2 years on scripting and one more year for preproduction. But such claims failed to meet the expectations. I personally loves the way by which Mohanlal plays villainous characters.I still remember the first time, I watched ‘Sadayam’ on television. I was hardly 12 at that time. I was quite scared to look into the eyes of Mohanlal in the scene in which he kills the little girls. Acting Brilliance of Mohanlal is most revealed in these type of dark shade thrillers. From ‘ Manjil Virinna Pookkal’ to recent ‘Kanal’ Mohanlal shows an intensity and bodylanguage which is quite unmatched and beyond words in these genre of movies. Like that,there are lot of scenes in villain in which mohanlal emote through his eyes. Mohanlal as an actor delivered an award winning performance in this movie. Easily one of the best characters of superstar in recent years. Both Hansika and Raashi Khanna delivered good performances. Sreekanth was wasted. Siddique, Renji Panicker, Chemban Jose also performed well. I don’t know why vishal opted villain. Apart from ‘Mohanlal’ factor, there is nothing interesting about his characterisation. Sushin Shyam had disappointed me, but in villain he has done a fabulous job. Many scenes work only because of his bgm. Music by 4Musics is also impressive. Kandittum Kandittum is one of the best songs in recent times. Editing by Shamseer and vfx works (apart from one song) was also decent. On the negative side, villain lacks a solid screenplay. More than that, Villain has shades of two thrillers starring prithviraj. There were some memorable dialogues. But movie lacks consistency just like the career graph of b unnikrishnan. Mr. Unnikrishnan described Villain as an emotional thriller. Fine, but the very first rule of thriller is it should thrill the audience. Flashback of both characters are predictable. In the climax, we are getting a lecture on the meaning of villain. As an audience, I don’t have the patience and interest to get a Harvard/oxford/Princeton/MIT or whatever jargon regarding these terminologies. As SS Rajamouli said once in an interview, audience is not interested whether you are making a 20cr movie or 200cr movie. The only thing is it should show on screen. I still don’t understand the relevance of a Vfx (Mediocre) loaded song heavily inspired from Gladiator (An exactly same shot) to Baahubali. Moreover the club song ‘Angakale’ did not even have the richness of directors’ own previous movie Grandmaster’s song. I personally felt that even college fairs have better stages than that particular song. There are striking similarities in title credits with ‘The Great Father’ A film of this budget and boasting fight choreographers like Ram Lakshman (Rebel,Mirchi,Maghadheera), Ravi Varma (Googly,Raees,Sarrainodu) and G , failed to have one impressive stunt sequence. Moreover you don’t need to pitch actors from each industry to make film looks great. There should be a clarity regarding the conception and execution, in which director miserably fails. Overall, villain is an average thriller that works in parts. Watch it if you want to see some magic moments of Mohanlal- the greatest actor that world have ever seen and some ‘8K’ moments!!! Verdict: 2.5/5 Hit (Thanks to initial!) “ONE TIME WATCHABLE EMOTIONAL MOVIE”
kuzhappamilla..oru avg level aaye thonniyullu...prachandaforum parayum pole thani oola aayi thonniyilla...onnumilenklm lalettan performance kidu aan..oru award winning item..rekshayilla hospital scene okke..thematically pakshe orupad isses und..chilathokke spoiler aan..njan PM cheyyam..bunni is a below average director and an average scriptwriter.
