Sakhavu

This film is about some incidents occur in the life of an comrade who is old now. Story is portrayed as a young man who has accidentally seen the comrade and inquiring his story. The movie is complete failure as an entertainer excepts some random performances and finishing scenes. Movie portraits scenes from the past of comrade and scenes of present through narrator.

A lifeless cringe filled political movie. Nivin Pauly did his job well and he should choose his projects wiser. The movie offers cheap thrills for students and budding activists who are on their way of ruining their lives and many others by carrying the red flag. One could watch this just for the performance of the fine actors.

The film is intended to spread the message of Communism is an entertaining and easy to follow manner. The songs in the movie especially the intro is heart touching. Some people here does not seem to like it just because "Communism" is expressed in the movie. This is just plain old bais and hatred towards the ideology they stand for. The movie is actually great and does justice to the audience.

The movie is an entertainer. And that also is partially the problem of this movie. The introductory scenes briefly show various history of the Communist party and also that in Kerala so we are almost led to believe this movie would be a tribute to the ideology the party stands for. But the main character Sakhavu Krishnan who is a communist leader occasionally indulges in fights to teach those who err a lesson, and we wonder if that is what the party really stood for. I felt those cinematic fights mocked whatever serious history the movie showed about the party in the early scenes.

Nivin Pauly gives an excellent double performance as the Sakhavu Krishnan of the 70's and also the present day Krishna Kumar but as Sakhavu, he was especially commendable with both the physical appearance and the mannerisms. Aishwarya Rajesh gives very good support as a sincere party worker Janaki who also later becomes the Sakhavu's wife. Actors like Sreenivasan and Aparna Gopinath make good guest appearances. Nishanth Sagar was wonderful in a brief villain role, his performance has truly evolved over the years.

Most of the best scenes in the movie are the flashback scenes that involve the Sakhavu. The 70's or the 60's look(be it the costumes or how the people lived) shown in the movie are done quite realistically and another impressive factor is the music score too. The cons like I mentioned earlier are the fight scenes in the story which rob some of the shine from this movie, they weren't necessary. And I felt a final confrontation scene between two characters could have also been finished better.

Anyway, it's a watchable entertainer with family and friends and miles better than The Great Father.

Sidhartha Siva's films often touch topics that no one else dares to. While his brilliant 2014 film "Ain" ended up being dust in the wind, his newest venture, a political drama, is just a long, unsolicited exercise on the basics of communism.

Krishna Kumar (Nivin Pauly) is a young slacker who considers himself a staunch believer of communism but lacks the determination or ideals of a true communist. He is a good for nothing fellow whose only motivation is improving his personal life even if that means not fighting for what's right. One day, just after creating a nasty plan to beat up one of their own party members, Krishna Kumar and Mahesh (Altaf Salim), his dim-witted sidekick, find themselves in a hospital. They were asked by the party to go there and help with a rare blood group for a wounded veteran communist also named Krishnan. What follows is Krishna Kumar's harried attempts to use his puny powers as a party member to display authority in front of the patient's kin and kith. Things go for a toss when he realizes that the person lying in intensive care is somewhat of a big deal...

The primary story occurs in a single, present day, whereas the parts that have some substance is in the backstory of Sakhavu Krishnan from the time he goes to a Kerala village in the early 80s to spread canons of communism and build a party/union to the time that leads to his current undesired hospital stay. While the narration successfully tries to showcase the current state of socialist politics in Kerala, it is the tried-and-tested elements that hamper the viewing experience. The introductory duologue between Krishna Kumar and Mahesh is not the most happening thing to start a film with. From then on, it's just below-average comedy produced primarily by Salim until the time when the film plays out Sakhavu Krishnan's awe- inspiring escapades as he challenges a couple of fascist plantation owners in an uphill Kerala village.

It is clear with Sakhavu Krishnan's backstory as to what the makers had wanted to convey, mostly to today's politics-inspired youth. The film uses Krishnan's activities as ways to educate its audience about real socialism. Thankfully there's no hint of nationalism here, but if the film works a little as it does, it's because of this middle part. Strong dialogues and interesting stunts involving fire torches are a pleasure to watch, but then again, the clock ticks for long here. It's a terribly long film (at two hours and 45 minutes) that gives much importance to background score and dialogues. The second half is again a stretch, shifting the focus to another episode that reiterates Sakhavu Krishnan's greatness.

Weighing the number of plot holes and issues with good points gives me a negative ratio, which is good. It is borderline preaching, in a way, but extra points for reminding us that politics is a part of all our lives since birth even if we are not interested in it. It's absolutely true.

Pauly is good as the lead protagonist. Most of the audience are going to able to complete watching this film because of his charm. Altaf is an average comedian who will need to work harder if he intends to stay. Supporting cast do not have much to do, and so do the actresses. It stumps me how they cast Aishwarya Rajesh in such a prominent role. Her haphazard dialogue delivery aside, her acting skills are below par, especially when she has heavier frames to handle. Gayathri Suresh is a puppet while Aparna Gopinath comes out directly from the ABCD (2013) sets. However, it was good to see underdogs being cast.

Although with a weak start and a less weaker end, Sakhavu as a film manages to entertain sporadically. There are some good scenes here and there, but as a whole, it does not pass muster. Despite Pauly's above-average performance and the seasonal ingredient of communism, the film fails to grip its audience. Poor editing and clichéd plot elements are to be blamed. Nonetheless, it is still a better film than Tom Emmatty's Himalayalan blunder called Oru Mexican Aparatha (2017).

BOTTOM LINE: Sidhartha Siva's "Sakhavu" is a lengthy tutorial about communism, intended for today's youth who have a very short attention span. It does not really work, you see. Rent a DVD if you are into politics or are a Pauly fan.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES