(#65) Lucifer (2019) - [6.5/10]
A mad scramble for power ensues when the leader of a political party dies suddenly.
How would I describe this film in one word?
Chaotic.
Note I've gotta admit, my opinions on Malayalam films shouldn't be taken seriously, at least, not all of them. Reason being, I don't understand the language all too well. There are some Malayalam films that I could understand by its visual portrayal and by deciphering the little dialogue that I am able to understand but others, like this one, are so packed with dialogue and sometimes even thick vocabulary that I'm not able to keep up and I leave the explanation of the minute details to my mother and brother. Having said that, I do understand things enough to comment and review on it but I just wanted to provide that disclaimer.
Review This synopsis for the movie reads, "A mad scramble for power ensues when the leader of a political party dies suddenly." I didn't summarize it myself because I found it difficult to recall what the movie was about in terms of the progression of its story. Now, don't get me wrong, just because I gave that disclaimer in the beginning, doesn't mean I don't understand any Malayalam film, I understand plenty, but it's just rare ones like this with so much vocabulary I found difficult to understand. I even understood the stupid story of the previous Malayalam movie that I reviewed here 'Argentina Fans'. But now, having thought about the movie for some time, I realized that it's not exactly the vocabulary that I had difficulty with (or not just) but the convoluted story as a whole. It's confusing, yes, but more than that, it's not very interesting either. I like large-scale blockbuster movies and this definitely had that feel and had a great political canvas to explore, but was explored ineptly. It felt like a lot of things were happening with a lot of noise with no real purpose. If you read the synopsis again, "A mad scramble for power ensues when the leader of a political party dies suddenly", it's kinda accurate when it describes the plot to unfold following the death as a 'mad scramble'. Chaos. I just felt it to be a bunch of grown men getting mad at each other over the actions of one guy. Is that really a story? Ehh. Maybe. Just not one that I would find interesting. Even as I write this story, I'm struggling to understand what happened. Let's just say it's a very simple plot made complex - by adding in subplots - to prolong the story to its tedious 3 hour length.
That being said, I can't say I was 'fed up' up watching it, not at all. It wasn't very enjoyable but good enough to not avert your attention to your phone notification alerts. I find it quite surprising that I was the only one among my family that didn't particularly like it. Even some of my friends said it was nice. I did notice though, everyone has been saying it's nice but no one had said it was great. So that must mean it's on an 'above average' level. I'd agree.
P.S. Sorry for the unorganized review. This was just one of those movies where I just didn't understand well enough to review properly. Sorry. RATING: 6.5/10
Director: Prithviraj Sukumaran Rated: UA Runtime: 2 hr 55 min Genre: Action, Crime, Drama Starring: Mohanlal, Vivek Oberoi, Manju Warrier