Flash - Flash disappoints
It’s all about delusion, manic depression, phobias and falsification of memories. Moreover the hero is a multifaceted genius, a psychiatrist doctor turned software specialist, who will leave all his preoccupations whenever he gets a necessary pathetic mental state to study. And the latest in his patient list is his favorite friend and staff's young fiancée. The Psychiatrist is ready to go to any extent to heal her, he even devices out-of-the-world possible to get her back intact............Any clues? No , we are not on to discuss anything about the decade old classic 'Manichithrathaazhu'...But we are just reminding the flashes of storyline that you will face onscreen, when you get to enjoy the new offering for Christmas,’ Flash'. Sadly to say, this new film which marks the return of celebrated director Sibi alayil after a couple of years, is a sad letdown affair, penned around the classic Fazil film, which resembles the original not even in parts but also in many sequences.
The film opens with the introduction of bold and beautiful, Dhwany Sekharan, a hyperactive engineering student and daughter of Chennai based construction business man Shekharan Nair, who is left in their ancient kalarithody tharavadu with her grandfather, after the early death of her mother. Shekharan, on the other hand had a lot of resistance in his family itself in the form of his younger brother Bhadran and his cousin Arun, who don’t want him to head any of the initiatives of the wealthy Karlarythody group of companies. Dhwany, who share a special relation with her grandfather, gets all support on her endeavors from him, whether it is the issue of teasing her uncle Viswanathan Nair or in the issue of the secret relation between the home driver and her cousin Veena, which was brought to public by her. It was at this point, Dhwany started showing some kind of anomalies in her behavior. And immediately her Uncle's son Priyan, with whom Dhwany’s marriage has been talked off, takes note of this and entrusts his guide and employer Midhun Madhavan to treat her.
The scriptwriter showers all kind of credentials to Midhun Madhavan, (whose name is rarely heard in the film, as the dialogue writer forget to call him by name ). Besides being an astute member of I M A, he was even the camp director of Scotland yard's session on criminal psychiatry in India. He was also the ambassador of international charity league apart from being the C E O of the multicrore software firm Infinity Visual magic, where Priyan works. Priyan tries to bring Dhwany to the firm as an employee, but the idea backfires as she finds the pretense drama before her interview, too silly. After a number of clashes, Midhun somehow manages to get into the tharavaadu as a family friend and establishes good relation with her grandfather, who runs a Kalary even at the age of seventy. Dhwany, who never gets a hint about her illness, instantly falls for Midhun. Around this time some kind of man missing is reported from the tharavadu .And shortly afterwards Dhwany’s father is also found murdered. Local C I Jacob Chandy, starts investigating on every related cases and every clues points to Dhwany, as being the part of each murders. Now Midhun is left in a critical situation in which he has to save his patient from the arms of the police and further mental breakdowns. How he manages to do so forms the rest of the story told is a rather unappealing way.
The plot, even though half baked, is little appealing but it is the screenplay and the dialogues that proved to be the biggest negatives of the film. The director, Sibi Malayil and the scriptwriter s Bhasurachandran has miserably failed to make the film an engrossing affair, as the first half with cliched sequences is a little dragging with none of the sequences inviting our interest. Instead of shooting in different unexplored locations and dressing up your lead stars in the best of costumes, the makers could have looked for a better contrived plot. The film's graph climbs up only after Siddhique, as the circle inspector, makes his appearance in its later half and there after the film takes the plight of an investigative thriller than the intended psychological thriller.
Mohanlal looks good, but doesn;t have anything special to do than to repeat the 'Manichithrathaazhu' act. Parvathy as Dhwany couldn't burnish the loads of expressions that were associated with a character suffering from such a trauma. She neither shows any onscreen chemistry with Mohanlal , even though the screenplay don’t demands it much. This was her missed chance; in a role of a lifetime .The actress gives a dilettante feel, in many sequences which could have worked out, if she was able to give better emoting performances. Suraaj, Jagathy and co tries hard to bring out some chuckles in many a scenes, but with little success.
The musician Gopi Sundar too couldn't bring up any great themes or tunes that could carry the film with it. Sajan Kalathil with his beautiful frames tries to revive the interest on the film, but good framing is not the only thing that makes good movies.
Sibi Malayil , the director who had delivered many classics in could have looked upon for a better script for his relaunch, than this which is found to be wanting in many areas. If he is to go on repeating things like this, very soon he will be stamped as a director who can't go over the potential of the supplied scripts. And if the final question is whether this movie is worth your time and money; the answer may be........ We defy answering, as we love this director of calibre, much more than this film.