Christopher

Christopher Review by M. Siraj. Mamootty's never dying thirst for distinctive acting.

Those who loves mass thriller films, Mammootty's "Christopher" fills their excitement and anticipation.

Its stylish teasers and theme songs were made a hysteria of anxiety, director flourished in satisfying their expectations with a perfect thrilling entertainment package that validates it. Director has made this film with such speed and technical perfection that we don't want to take our eyes off the screen. Christopher is a senior IPS officer who has a reputation of having lot of fan-following on social media, for his strong belief on delayed justice is injustice and for encounter the accused people in rape cases before trials.

The film narrates the story of him, played by megastar Mammootty with the tag line Biography of a Vigilante Cop, who punishes criminals in a vigilante model with his own law as his justice, director succeeded in telling the story in a non-linear way mixing present and past of his life more convincingly.

We can comprehend Director B Unnikrishnan's excellence through this mass gripping film who always has a special talent for making stylish investigation thrillers, while writer Udaya Krishna has penned a tight, loop-holed rousing screenplay, Director's mode of sculpting the Christopher character can be said to be the film's biggest success.

Throughout the film, the director has managed to tell the story by combining all the entertainment elements, that Christopher stands out for being able to present the audience in a very funny and trendy way, despite dealing with a lot of social issues, it touches on the present viral subject of violence against women and harassment against them with piercing strong punchy dialogues.

Needless to say, footing of this film is the mass performance of Mammootty only, who gave life to his character very sophisticatedly and coolly, director very meticulously used Mammootty's stardom as an actor very beautifully in this. His patting on the shoulders of victims with his hand, director gives a clear indication to the audience what is going to happen to the accused. While listening the agonies of the victim Mamootty's facial expressions in side angle shot, his chin shrinks and expands clearly essays Mamootty's inner feelings, Oh My God, even 100 pages of dialogue cannot give the effect, Mamootty express it in a single 30 seconds' frame.

While Mammootty's energy and screen presence as Christopher is worth mentioning, Vinay Rai as an antagonist gets applause, in every scene he appears, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Sneha and Amala Paul have also given life to their characters in an attention-grabbing manner in this film.

The cool visuals and thrilling background music is another element that stood out the best in this highly technical thriller film.

There are some minor setbacks in this film, lack of ability to find interesting or new ideas, it is almost like they want to show Mammootty the star in more slow-motion walks and the pattern is highly predictable.

Keeping aside the negligible short falls, in brief, Christopher is a mass entertainer that exhilarates and excites from beginning to end with a good movie experience for the audience.

***Christopher Malayalam Movie Review***

Directed by Unnikrishnan B starring Mammootty in lead role.

Also starring Amala Paul, Aishwarya Lekshmi , Sneha , Dileesh Pothan, Shine Tom Chacko

Always the dice doesn't throw 12 , post watching i felt.

Positivity of the Movie....

1) Mammootty, Mammootty, Mammootty...Its just him. It will be difficult for a cinematographer to take the best shot as evey shot he comes, it just awesome. He delivered the best & that he will do when he has the worst script.

2) BGM was good

3) Unnikrishnan Sir film making was quite different. Some shots seems to remind me of your Shaji Kailas sir. Making wise he tried to cover up the age old topic & that efforts needs to be appreciated

4) Amala Paul gave a fair performance.

5) No songs, no unnecessary comedy made the watchable.

Negativity of the Movie

1) Rapes, violence against women is serious, grave topic but thats not an overnight story. Its happening since years then why in 2023 , this topic needs to be highlighted???

2) Predictability observed in many areas including the climax

3) Logical issues behind executing a murder.

4) Villian performance seems to remind me of his character in Etharkum Thunindhavan movie.

5) Aishwarya Lekshmi character was just an unnecessary addition just to drag the story further. No notable performance from her side.

6) Sarath Kumar, Sneha, Siddique and many more but there were just having an extended cameo appearance. An actor like Sarath Kumar why not out of disrespect but it has to be something strong in character when taking his date.

Overall if Aarattu was a celebration of the Mohanlal stardom, here the writer Uday Krishnan and B Unnikrishnan exploited the stardom of Mammootty but came to be an average.

For people who like crime thrillers and cop movies, this one hits all the bills in the right areas. Seeing Mammooty's return as cop in uniform has been pending for long and he justifies the role perfectly like none other in malayalam movie industry. The story is good, but with a predictable end. The end could have been a little better. But, what else would you expect in a cop saga? All the other casts have played a brilliant role as well especially Vinay Rai, Asiswarya lakshmi, Amala paul and Shine chacko. The direction is good and the script is suspenseful and action packed. Overall, you will not be bored watching this crime thriller if you are a crime movie buff.

The bar for director B. Unnikrishnan and writer Udaykrishna is set so low to begin with, anything even marginally better will come across as tolerable. Christopher is a film that should have released in the mid 2000s, and audiences would've lapped it up. If you keep Faiz Siddik's interesting choice of frames and Justin Varghese's stylish score aside, Christopher has nothing to offer. With a script this sterile, the ensemble cast (including Mammootty) doesn't even try. From beginning to end, there's the repetitive format of a heinous crime (against women) taking place, Christopher learning about it, and he instantly goes after the culprits and offs them. Someone should seriously tell Udaykrishna and B. Unnikrishnan that depicting graphic rape scenes over and over doesn't make their film gritty. So many rapes, so many murders. We get the point, duh!

This easily is the worst film of 2023 I have seen and I am not looking forward to which other films compete with it. This sad excuse for a film royally wastes a Megastar Mammootty. The writing is tedious and that is a nicest thing I can say about it. More than a biography of a vigilant cop, it is more of a showreel of brutal rapes and murders added just to glorify the lead character.

Even with the non-linear narrative, there is nothing in the screenplay that could engage. It simply had a template, something worse is going to happen to the girls followed by Mammotty showing up in slow motion either while getting out of his car or walking. Then he kills the perpetrators in an encounter. There is no character arc or even redemption. Everyone around him gets murdered to a point it becomes unbearable to sit through.

There should be a petition to stop Vinay Rai from signing such characters. His character may be might have worked in 90s or early 2000s but it simply is a dud now. With the scene structure having no head and tail, the writer - director resorting to just one worn out template, this was indeed one of those Mammootty starrer which was outright painful to watch.