Bachelor Party Malayalam Movie
Amal Neerad's 'Bachelor Party' talks of five friends Ayyappan (Kalabhavan Mani), Benny (Rahman), Geevar (Indrajith), Tony (Asif Ali) and Fakir (Vinayakan) taking on the don Kammath (John Vijay), who in Tony's own words has 'kept the underworld stacked in his underwear'. Well, in case you are wondering why I have stopped right there, it's because you have just reached the end of the story. Yeah, that's all to it.
'Bachelor Party' has one of the shakiest scripts that I have seen in recent times, and by shaky, I mean the kind that is decrepit and literally falling to pieces. It features a story that could perhaps be fine material for a ten minutes (or less) short film, but with the characters moving around in real slow motion, I guess it's understandable that the film gets stretched to an odd couple of hours.
The kind of time that it takes to get things moving around here is unbelievable. You have these four guys coming to meet Tony, who has gone shopping, as bad luck (for us) would have it. They wait for him to return, and it's quite a long wait indeed. They might at least have a purpose being there, but why make us wait for this man from dawn to dusk?
The dialogues are raunchy no doubt, and you do get to hear all those bawdy Malayalam words splattered across the screen in abundance. What is funny though is that beyond a minimal shock value that they perhaps offer, they hold little significance in the film as such. Take for instance the story that Geevar tells Benny, while on their journey to meet Tony.
On a representational level, the film makes use of awkward symbolism. Perhaps no other actor in the Malayalam film industry has been able to do what Indrajith does to Vidya Balan in 'Bachelor Party'. And neither has anyone in Malayalam films counted currency notes as Vinayakan does. These are a few firsts no doubt, but they are there, just because they want you to be shell shocked. Nothing less, nothing more.
There is one scene that I really loved in the film. Just as I was wondering where Remya Nambeeshan had disappeared after the belly dance that brought the house down, along she comes in the climax, throwing open the doors of the brothel and walking away to freedom. Now that I think of it, it's the sense of liberation within you that makes you love the scene; you realize that it's all over and its time to go back home. And you love Remya Nambeeshan for leading the way.
It takes about ten to fifteen minutes of constant firing to get them all down though. Perhaps some people do find the sight of blood splattering around in slow motion quite appealing. But when it goes on for this long, you start wondering what is wrong. And you end up hating it all; guns, bullets and blood, films, life and what not.
Someone told me there would be buxom belle Padmapriya around in a sizzling item number, and she does drop by as promised, as the credits roll. Thankfully all the rolling is done right at the bottom, so that you don't really miss out on anything when it comes to the actress dishing out 'Chakkavaratti' and 'Kappapuzhukku'. Sadly, I just didn't have the mind to stay on. Maybe on TV, sometime soon.
There is nothing wrong with the acting as such; in fact all of them are brilliant. My pick of the lot would be Rahman, sporting salt 'n pepper looks and carefully underplaying his role, without ever appearing intrusive or dominant, and yet being very much there. The rest of them are quite good as well. But I need to ask this. What on earth was Prithvi doing there in this mess?!
There is just one purpose that this party has served. It makes me want to really swear. Oh yeah, f**k!
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