Marakkar review: Underwhelming experience

Marakkar

Malayalam (Theatres)

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Mohanlal, Nedumudi Venu, Arjun Sarja, Manju Warrier, Keerthy Suresh

Rating: 2/5

It's amusing how the National Award continues to have a great influence on film goers. The award, time and again, has proven it isn't the ultimate benchmark to judge a film's quality. Apart from the film's huge scale, the hype around Priyadarshan's 'Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea' was because of its good show at the 67th National Film Awards earlier this year. The war film clinched the best Feature Film, Costume Design, and Special Effects honours. Surely the film can't go wrong, right? Not necessarily.

'Marakkar' is Malayalam cinema's once-in-a-decade magnum opus on the lines of 'Pazhassi Raja' and 'Urumi'. It's a big deal because it's from an industry that revels in small, content-oriented films like no other. Maybe, the industry is bracing up for a change in trend with superhero film 'Minnal Murali' lined up later this month.

Priyadarshan, who took the historical path in 'Kaalapani' (1996), goes further back in history to tell the story of Kunjali Marakkar (from the Marakkar family), the man known to have organised the first naval defence of the Indian coast. In 16th century Kerala, the Zamorin empire in Kozhikode and the Portuguese army, under the leadership of Vasco Da Gama, got into several conflicts. Marakkar became the man who fought the Portuguese invasion.

On paper, this is a story worth exploring for an epic cinematic retelling. But, Priyadarshan overlooks historical events and focuses on drama between a host of characters. The film has everything from a mother-son relationship to friendships to a couple of love stories. For a three-hour film marketing itself as a war drama, this approach is a misfire. 'Marakkar' is watchable due to its experienced ensemble cast (Siddique, Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Prabhu, Manju Warrier) but it never rises above the ordinary.

In big-scale films, especially set in different eras, a filmmaker's imagination makes the difference. Priyadarshan fails in this department as 'Marakkar' is devoid of rousing scenes of a character hailed for his heroics. The film never becomes a big-screen spectacle that it wants to be because of its poorly-executed war scenes and below-par visual effects.

Priyadarshan's screenplay meanders, wasting time on insignificant plot points when telling the story from Marakkar's point of view should have been the goal. This undecided approach keeps us detached from all characters, including the leading man. The best example of this is the overlong story of a young Marakkar that eats too much time yet doesn't tell us about what makes the man special. What adds to our suffering is Pranav Mohanlal's forgettable performance. He appears clueless and so does Kalyani Priyadarshan, who stars in a blink-and-you-miss role.

Mohanlal, playing the titular role, is at his best in emotional sequences though he comes across tired in the fights. 'Marakkar', loaded with plenty of information, is a rather plain movie that makes for a passable watch on small screens. Mohanlal's performance gives us a sense of assurance to sit through the extra-long film but one-man shows in cinema are never satisfying.