Monday Aug 18 2008, Trivendrum

‘Ayudham'- A letdown!

Directed by - M.A.Nishad

Produced by - M.A.Nishad

Music by - Alphonse Joseph

Casts - Suresh Gopi, Bharathy, Thilakan, Madhu, Murali, Jagathy Sreekumar, Rajan.P.Dev, Bala, Adityan, Shammi Thilakan, Baburaj, Sudheesh, Karthika, Sivaji Guruvayoor, Urmila Unni etc

Banner - Channel Entertainment

Here’s a Suresh Gopi thriller that won’t thrill you.M.A.Nishad’s ‘Ayudham’ of course has many of those things that you expect in a Suresh Gopi thriller.But all the same, it lacks those vital things that would make the thriller thrilling.

  ‘Ayudham’ tells us about an investigation held by Hrishikesh IPS, DIG, Crime Branch, into a series of blasts that rocked a peaceful coastal village named Vilayam.It’s when the blasts becomes a sensation (Do we get the ‘sensation’ feel anywhere in the film?) and when the investigating officers seem to be treading the wrong path (as in any such thriller, paving the way for the hero’s entry) that the ‘good Samaritan’ Chief Minister Madhavan (Thilakan) swings into action and brings in Hrishikesh IPS (Suresh Gopi) to probe the case.Hrishikesh, who has always enjoyed the CM’s patronage (The name Hrishikesh and the CM connection: Doesn’t it ring a bell? Yes, you got it right.It’s him.), begins the investigation in typical Suresh Gopi style.

Anwar (Bala), a youth, who has been arrested and projected as the person who had planned the blasts, gets interrogated by Hrishikesh and his two aides (two regular ‘baddies’ of Malayalam Cinema, for a change) and this interrogation leads Hrishikesh on and on.He travels to Chennai, makes inquiries there; then flies to Dubai, plans and executes some strategic moves there, with all help from another aide (played by Ashokan) and a very cooperative and efficient (Does she really seem so?) lady employee (Urmila Unni) at a Dubai-based firm.And then back to Kerala, only to zero in on the real culprit, who had all along remain hidden somewhere.Suresh Gopi, though he looks good in a role tailor made for him, has put in much weight, which of course won’t be appreciated by those who like his cop roles.And at places he himself seems to be rather uncomfortable with his character and just goes on and on, sort of mechanically.

There are places where his character seems to lack life and his performance seems not at all riveting (Remember, we are speaking of the same guy who enthralled us with films like ‘Ekalavyan’, ‘Commissioner’ and ‘Bharath Chandran IPS’!).And the credit (?) for this goes not to Suresh Gopi, but to the director (who is yet to prove his grip over the medium) and the scenarist (here the director himself) and of course the dialogue writer, who seems to have forgotten that he’s penning the dialogues for Suresh Gopi, who has uttered some of the most punchy dialogues in Malayalam Cinema.Thilakan as the Chief Minister is good.The others actors have done their parts satisfactorily.Murali has put in some really good moments of acting as Anwar’s hapless father.

Anyway we can’t stop wondering as to what Urmila Unni is doing in the film.And why was Lal made to do all those terrible things? And Madhu, Seema, Jaffer Idukki etc seem to have been put in just to add names to the cast.There may be people who point out that Seema did have one ‘powerful’ scene in the film, but if the scene had been penned by a better scenarist and if it had been executed in a better manner, it would have made a lasting impact.And moreover, just a couple of such scenes are not enough to make for a movie’s total impact.Sanjeev Shankar’s cinematography is of course good.

Editing is also OK.Nothing to mention about the songs, which make no impact whatsoever.In total, it’s the director, the scenarist (here the director and the scenarist are the same person) and the dialogue-writer who could have made the film better.‘Ayudham’ doesn’t bore you in the first half, but in the post-interval section it does make you sigh, yawn and wriggle in your seats.And when the end credits finally appear, you do thank the director for being kind enough to have brought it to an end in just two hours.