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Despite having elements that might be termed as Stereotypical, The Ron Clark Story (2006) still manages to keep you engaged, with a poignant tale of a teacher who wish to change the lives of kids from troublesome background.

Matthew Perry nailed this one throughout, in this 1 hour 30 min odd TV movie, which speaks about compassion, empathy, importance of education in a relatively straightforward manner, without much ado.

Even the emotional sequences were not overplayed, and the feelings were as grounded as possible, making this as a complete YES in my Re-Watch list ❤ Pretty heart-warming experience!

Kudos to Randa Haines (Director), and the writers - Annie DeYoung and Max Enscoe.

Having previously directed Neram and Premam, Alphonse Puthren decided to gamble with his editorial techniques in this multi-starrer that focuses on how products are consumed in today's society. Backed up by a splendid score from Rajesh Murugesan, this experimental surprisingly worked for me, despite certain shortcomings. However, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, especially if it's a filled one!

Prelude - to the post Being a fan of his work and the kind of genre he created, I was eager to catch Alphonse Puthren's next feature (Gold) on-screen. Since the day of its release, there have been numerously mixed to negative reviews, blaming the runtime, abrupt editing pattern and improper characterisations at major. However, I thought not to judge a movie quickly, that too from a man with so much love and passion towards movies and music, and decided to go forward with my plan to watch it today on the big screen.

As it turned out, I kind of liked the movie! If you wish to spare a few minutes, I will tell you why I liked it and you might be intrigued in watching the film as well! As usual, I will refrain from any kind of spoilers, unless specifically stated.

The Experimental Visual Narrative - The major gamble I was aware that Alphonse Puthren himself will be handling the editing table but not of the surprises it withheld. Right from the title animations to the visual effects and editing, Alphonse Puthren took a humongous risk by employing several editing techniques on-screen, that most often suits the mood of that particular moment. The reason I describe it as a major gamble is that the narrative style is kind of binary in nature. Either you like it, or hate it.!

Unlike any traditional movie, Gold has multiple edit patterns that focus on the moment than the overall treatment of the story itself. An odd song from a band playing on a river shore, or a peppy dance number from Aleena Alphonse Puthren are all part of the narrative that makes us feel "the" moment, though sounding like an oddly placed number. By edit patterns, I did not mean just the editing of scenes/sequences. Right from the camera angle to the background score, everything synced with his editing style, which could be perceived as abrupt cuts by many.

For a narrative that is majorly hyperlinked in nature, such abstractive work might not be totally necessary. However, I think the director chose this because of the subtext the movie focuses on - the gormandizing nature of today's consumeristic society.

Consumeristic Society - the sarcastic subtext Being known for his beautiful portrayal of nature and environment as a form of subtext in his movies, Alphonse Puthren decided to use something way more serious as an underlying subtext for this film - the way products are consumed in today's society.

More often than not, People can't make rational decisions on what they want in their life, especially when it comes to the consumption of products, physically/digitally. There is a sequence in the film, where a person buys an iPhone just like that, without any prime reason for actually using it. The same iPhone that ends up as an "unwanted" gift for someone, actually hinting at our behaviour at marriage halls/family occasions.

Such social issues were comically portrayed on-screen in the form of multiple characters, with the sequences involving Lalu Alex ("Idea" Shaji) and Ajmal Ameer (Sunesh Shaji) serving as prime examples.

By providing visual titles for almost anything on-screen (be it sky or a house by the bank of Periyar river), and edit-patters that feel like Insta-reels, the narrative had a rather sarcastic take on both physical and digital consumption of goods, and how people are greedy/ignorant around them.

The subtext involving the ants and the sugar ball was kind of a mass element if you ask me, as it directly correlates with that of Joshi (Prithviraj Sukumaran). The whole discovery of the "sugar ball" and the way "the ball" was utilized, were nothing short of commercial highs!

Characters - the strengths and the weaknesses The role of Joshi and C. P. O. Rakesh Manjappra is of prime importance here, as they are shown as (primarily) the ones who are not so ignorant of how the consumeristic mindset functions. For such pivotal roles, the choice of Prithviraj Sukumaran and Baburaj is highly commendable. If not for them, the narrative could've lost its giant pillar of support.

However, with such an ensemble cast and such a serious issue as a subtext, Alphonse Puthren could've utilised the characters to a much more effective extent. With a runtime in excess of 160 minutes, the narrative had ample room for the dynamics to sprawl among the characters, which could've resulted in a much better screenplay than what I witnessed today.

The Alphonse Puthren genre - Is it worth the time?

The reason why Neram and Premam worked big time was because of the journey the movie had than the point-to-point travel of the narrative itself - the Alphonse Puthren Genre. It is the "how" that matters and Gold experimented with this "how" a lot! Nevertheless, it worked for me and I am satisfied with experiencing such a visual experiment on the big screens, which proved effective.

As mentioned in the section title, Gold belongs to the Alphonse Puthren genre, which is a dynamic one. If one's cup is filled with a lot of expectations, then there might be a hell lot of disappointments. However, if one chose to be open to what the director has to say if one lets himself/herself into the world of the director, then there will be some good takeaways.