What happened to the director of ‘Premam’? 'Gold' is boring

Gold

Malayalam (Theatres)

Director: Alphonse Puthren

Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Nayanthara, Lalu Alex, Shammi Thilakan

Rating: 2/5

In the era of relentless promotions in the film industry, Alphonse’s Gold hit the screens on Thursday with a bafflingly low hype. After watching the film, one needs to appreciate director Alphonse Puthren for not overtly selling a film that is, at best, an ordinary, one-time watch.

Of course, Alphonse’s previous film was enough to keep people extremely curious about Gold. His Premam is a gift that keeps on giving. The youthful energy of the film is still intact, seven years after its release. Sadly, his Gold, a thriller that minutely resembles his terrific debut ‘Neram’, is all style and no substance.

The film begins with Joshi (Prithviraj Sukumaran) waking up to an abandoned vehicle outside his house. He finds 200 portable speakers inside it. Joshi soon finds out that they are gold bars designed as speakers (not at all a spoiler as it’s easy to predict that something unusual is set to happen). He is thrilled but he needs to watch out as there are people eyeing the treasure vehicle for different reasons.

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Gold had an opportunity to be a rollicking thriller with many surprising turns. But Alphonse has given the audience a ‘Premam’-style presentation without soul. The director’s self indulgence kills an already ordinary material. Alphonse’s unique editing and abstract filmmaking exuded life into Premam. He repeats the style in Gold but after a lengthy layoff, you expect something more from a filmmaker who promised so much talent.

His first two films worked because along with the clever making, there were lip-smacking twists and a host of hilariously interesting characters. However, in Gold, the likes of Nayanthara, Shammi Thilakan, Lalu Alex, Baburaj, all bankable names, are wasted in half-cooked characters.

And the plot runs in circles. There are long stretches of bland proceedings that makes us wonder: why is the director making a big deal of a wafer-thin story? And Alphonse’s humour, which was fantastically absurd in Neram and Premam, is shockingly plain in this film.

Prithviraj, who gets the maximum screen space, somewhat makes Gold watchable. His endearing enthusiasm, irrespective of the role, is his biggest strength.

“You are only as good as your last film”, is a lovely saying. Alphonse has a huge task of getting back in the game after this huge letdown.