M-O-N-S-T-E-R.
Now that I have your attention, let’s get down to business. In fact, this is what director Vysakh, too, seems to have done when he chose this name for his latest Mohanlal-starrer. For the whole 120 minutes and a bit more, one can only guess and fail to find a sensible reason for the film’s title.
Oh, how I wish that was my only concern with the film. It is difficult to even figure out where to begin. Let’s start with the story. A Malayali-Punjabi entrepreneur Lucky Singh (Mohanlal) arrives in Kerala to finalise the sale of his flat. Bhamini (Honey Rose), who works for a she-taxi service, is tasked with picking him up from the airport. A chain of events leads Singh to become an uninvited guest into her house and family. But, as even a 10-year-old would have guessed, there’s more to Singh and others than what meets the eye.
The major flaw is right there – the script. Both scriptwriter Udaykrishna and director Vysakh are known to play to the galleries. Their last venture with Mohanlal was Pulimurugan, which was an out-and-out entertainer and a commercial success. In Monster, they have tried a different template… but one which they are not familiar with, and it shows. The initial ban on the film in Gulf countries didn’t help the film’s suspense at all. What begins as a cringefest masquerading as humour, transforms into a family drama and ends as a crime thriller, with an LGBT angle thrown in out of nowhere. To a less observant eye, the twists in the second half may offer some solace, but to others, it’s as predictable as Mohanlal’s beard now!
Which brings us to the veteran actor himself. Mohanlal has been rightly accused of repeating himself for almost half a decade now, and even more if you count out Pulimurugan. Drishyam stood out mainly for the script more than anything else. For such a talented actor, he has hardly challenged himself or stepped out of his comfort zone. He can walk in and out of a film now or one of his recent ads, without batting an eyelid, and we wouldn’t know.
Another worrying factor is how sexism has become a hallmark of his films recently – be it Aarattu or 12th Man. Dismissing it as mere coincidence will be insulting the viewer’s intelligence. It continues in Monster as well. The first half is an assault on your senses as Mohanlal puts on a stereotypical act of a loud-mouthed and irritable Punjabi, with sexual innuendos ruling the roost. It’s high time that the actor puts his foot down and steer away from such cringeworthy dialogues, as most of his contemporaries and younger actors have done already.
The transition begins at the end of the first half, and the story finally starts moving in the second. Honey Rose has put in a commendable performance, especially as a mother and wife who is accused of a crime she has no idea about. Lakshmi Manchu packs a punch, literally. She steals the show in the otherwise absurd climax. In fact, the LGBT angle at the climax is so forced and shoddily written, explored and explained that one feels the filmmaker and the scriptwriter could have done a favour to the community, and the viewers, by not weaving it into the story at all.
Which brings us back to the title of the film. Who is the monster here? The antagonists with the peculiar reason for their evildoings? Or the one who comes to catch the monster, as the ending depicts? Who knows.
All I can tell you is when you see a monster, just run. Enough said.
Film: Monster
Language: Malayalam
Director: Vysakh
Cast: Honey Rose, Mohanlal, Lakshmi Manchu, Sudev Nair and others
Rating: 2/5
