Our reactions to a film often depend on everything from our life experiences to the social and political atmosphere around us and even on our mood on the specific day. At a time when hate speech fills the air with worrying regularity, the progressive-minded might welcome a film which seeks to target such overt and covert attempts at communal polarisation and uphold a message of amity, even if it is lacking in other departments.
Filmmaker Dijo Jose Antony and screenwriter Sharis Mohammed appear to have been driven by this thought while making Malayalee from India, their third outing together. For, other than the strength of the politics that they attempt to convey and Nivin Pauly’s screen presence, there is not much that can hold this film together convincingly.
Even the politics, at times, is conveyed in a manner that betrays an eagerness to draw some easy applause rather than genuine conviction. One can almost sense the force fitting of various scenarios into the narrative to make some political points. Nuance and depth are in short supply, in the writing of the characters as well as in how the situations play out. Yet, the fact that it takes potshots at the religious extremists of all hues is commendable, although there is a bit of evident struggle in maintaining the delicate balance.
