Shylock

Although I watched Big Brother on its release date last week, it was too soul destroying of an experience to write a review on. The release of Shylock today fared no better, underscoring the lack of quality writing and a story backbone in Malayalam cinema's attempts at mass entertainers these days.

Shylock is just a mish-mash of classic Tamil movie punch dialogues and slow motion sequences strung together with not even a single attempt by the director to form characters, back stories or genuine plot points.

Directors have to stop banking on just the superstar persona of Malayalam's two era-defining megastars and write characters and scripts that play to their acting strengths.

Awaiting Sachy's Ayyappanum Koshiyum and hoping it will offer a much better filmgoing experience.

It's a known fact that the younger crop (of Malayalam film actors) still struggles to deliver solid masala flicks like in the 90s. This, of course, is enough reason for the two big Ms of Malayalam to continue to churn out lazily written, hazily executed trash like Shylock. Everything in the movie reeks of unoriginality. The treatment by Ajai Vasudev is stale (it was already evident in his previous two ventures), and there's basically nothing in Shylock worth recommending.

The ridiculously clichéd revenge plot, the superficial action set-pieces, the irritating background score, the self-referential and borrowed (from other blockbusters) humour, the abundance of sunglasses, an unnecessary item number, lack of solid supporting characters and/or antagonists - Shylock suffers from all of it. The nicest thing about it is probably the absence of a romance track for 68-year-old Mammootty.

Verdict: Don't bother!

An out and out Mammotty show,where the energy level and screen presence of the actor himself makes it a pretty decent mass-masala entertainer!

The fanboy inside Ajai Vasudev has utilized the mass appeal and charisma of Mammootty to the fullest,the result being a memorable character,Shylock,who entertains us with his swagger,movie references and catchy one-liners.

The screenplay written by debutants Bibin Mohan and Aneesh Hameed is outright formulaic and the pre-interval session of the movie in particular is a treat for the fans of Mammootty and Mass movie audience who will enjoy each and every second of the narrative,thanks to a compelling act by the Megastar.

The narrative lost its pace during the lengthy flashback sequence in the second half,which was rather predictable and typical of village-based Tamil and Telugu family dramas,with the saving grace being an alluring performance from RajKiran.

The Background Score by Gopi Sunder was repetitive and too loud at times.Supporting cast did their part well.

As one of the dialogue in the movie convey,the narrative started as a comedy and then turned into a thriller and ended up as a revenge drama,the revenge part of which could have been handled better by further exploiting the shylock avatar of Mammooty,to elevate the overall cinematic experience.

Nevertheless,the quirky antics and energetic performance from Mammooty himself makes this a treat for the fans and a pretty decent mass masala entertainer for the common movie going audience.

Give it a try and experience the swagger of Boss,The Mega One! ✌ 3/5 #Afsaltouchriver

A One time watchable nbelow average movie which director made only for mammookka fans. Okayish first half with poor second half and cliche revenge story which makes this utter scrap.mammooka have to avoid these kind of roles. Waste of Both Money & Time. 👎

In this generation malayalam movie is producing somany good and wonderful movies with strong actings and great directions.. And there is this guy who still is in his 90s(mamooty)making somany worthless movies and his fans says it 'MASS'.....,ageless... How on earth this movie gets that much rating