Gold

"Java is simple!" Who can forget the Java instructor and his class room - in Premam? When George fell in love with Malar it was not just George but a whole generation of youngsters who fell in love with her; and when she lost her memory, we all cried along with him. Each scene in Premam, each character - including the silent (and dialogue-less) lover rang a bell in our hearts and memories.... and from that Director comes something as inane and meaningless as Gold, where not a single character, scene or dialogue remains in our memory or touches our heart! I am simply stupified!

Ater watching the latest outing from Alphonse Puthrans, the only charitable explanation I can think of is that he has lost his marbles. Nothing else will justify the total nonsense he has trotted out in the form of a movie.... We all have seen many escapist fare but this takes the cake for being the most absurd movie ever.

To begin with, the whole thing hangs on a wafer thin story. Second it's filled with too many cartoonish - but not funny - characters, without a single one of them showing even a spark of intelligence. A hero who punches people without any rhyme or reason, contract goondas who run away at his sight, a cop investigating a strange unknown vehicle without even the sense to note down its registration number, a rich jewellery owner who does not give a second thought about 200kg of gold that his men misplaced, a girl who simply sits and watches TV all day, waiting to marry an idiot whose pauperised father wants to blow up the mall that his son is getting in dowry, and random people who perform group dance without any reason and a director who makes you watch boring things in endless repeatition expecting you to hold your breathe in anticipation........ in short that's Gold for you!

God alone knows what Prithvi, Nayantara - I presume her's was a guest appearance - are doing in this movie, let alone the other equally talented actors wasting their talents - and our time - in a mockery of a movie?

My rating: 2 stars.

It's finally here - 7 years after giving us the now cult classic "Premam" Alphonse Puthren is back with GOLD.

Does it meet or surpass its expectation - let's find out?

An unknown bolero packed with 200 Bluetooth speakers is parked right in front of Joshi's house.. Joshi our protagonist tries his best to get rid of it. First by informing the local police....but they seem to have problems of their own, then by getting his mechanic friend, who is less of a mechanic more of a guilt tripper - you know the kinds who go (you brought new car... didn't even tell me) While joshi manages this... he realizes that things aren't what they seem to be. Ever so slowly the real owners of the vehicle, as well as the reality of the type of content it carries, gets revealed and then begins a race against time for our hero to set things right.

That is about the best synopsis that I could come up with for this movie without giving away any major spoilers or plot points.

The first thing that strikes you about Gold is how different and unique the story n the set-up is. This uniqueness is further accentuated by light-handed treatment of the narrative and the novel editing choices.

Right from the first frame, you know you are watching something completely authentic and different.

So far so good...

the pacing is slow... very slow perhaps it's deliberately slow you would think. But then the scenes are stretched out so much that it almost starts to get on your nerves and test your patience. You don't have to show each and every activity done by the protagonist - watching tv, peeing, carrying boxes, having tea, looking for the weighing machine, joking with mom - how I wished, I could also get served some of those tasty tea n snacks that joshi's mother kept making throughout the film. Sigh

by the time the interval comes, you would have for sure glanced at your watch more than a couple of times.

But then the pace picks up in the second half, as more n more characters get introduced. Idea Shaji, Unni, Freddy boss. The connections and dynamics between these characters do infuse an element of fun albeit for a short time.

My fav of the lot was Idea shaji played with unabashed relish by Lalu Alex. Idea shaji is a self-proclaimed legend, his ideas are said to have been so legendary that people of the town annotated him with the name Idea Shaji... a story this idiot tells himself n believes in.

His interactions with unni - Shammi tilakkan who plays nayantara's father are to be the best part of the film.

And there ends whatever was good or even ok about gold.

Because unfortunately there is nothing else to write home about the movie.

Gold suffers from many problems and I am not talking about the problems arising out of the high expectations, No. Nor am I talking about logical problems, No, nor am I talking about hyper indulgence problems, no - I mean forget the pedigree, the logic, the other stuff... just as a standalone movie, with a run time of 3 hours - it doesn't stand. It's just too straight, simple and flat and not in a good way. There are some good ideas, some funny situations and some characters but this can't be a full-fledged movie.

Prithiviraj to whom 80% of the screentime is dedicated tries to deliver a sincere performance, but the character is underwritten - why would someone go through all of this, when infact in the end he was going to give it all away. Why does he take that risk? Why is he called Danger joshi ? You get one or two scenes or real emotion one being when the girl he was going to marry rejects him. The camera doesn't even pan to his face.. Its as if the movie isn't interested in the main character as much as it is in what he does and how he does... the why can take a hike.

It feels like Alphonse Puthren and team started shooting the film without really fleshing out or even trying to double click any of the ideas and the angles they wanted to explore.... like the roshan mathew angel, or the chemban vinod angel, even sajiu kurup who just vanishes after a few scenes... And what is nayatara doing in this movie... the ant shown here as a metaphor has more screentime and relevance than her.

What was Soubin sahir doing in that dance?

• Confusion - I am confusion.

Instead of fleshing these out so much screen time is given to such pointless things that I sometimes felt.. is this like a practical joke that the makers are pulling on us the audience... I mean why would you show the 2 mahagony wood business guys - walking in an out of police station in slo-mo, or so many characters being offered tea, then drinking tea - again n again. Joshi loading n unloading each bag that too in slow mo. The entire track of the circle inspector and his antics, and jadgish character ... its bewildering the logic. To cast Nayantara - where the only thing she does is sit on a couch - that in itself is criminal.

Alphonse Puthren himself in his tweet announcing the release of the film mentioned in his tweet - that gold just like neeram and premam is an imperfect film.

Well, Alphonse etta, Imperfection is an overstatement, it is not even in the same league as the other two.

• Film clip.

Yes, it's extremely disappointing that perhaps the most awaited Malayalam movie of the year isn't great. It isn't even good. However, there are still moments n passages in the film that I believe would be remembered for...

• the electrifying bgm - it's quite kickass
• the Alphonse Puthren touch - all the quirks and the absurdities you expect from him are all there perhaps a bit too much for the liking.

• and finally Idea shaji - there has to be spin-off movie dedicated to this character. Lalu lex's voice reading the anti-smoking disclaimer before the movie will have you in splits.

All in all - Gold falls short of striking gold, could be the catchy one-liner to go with to end this video, but I would resist that temptation and go with another pun - This Gold doesn't deliver the value that it promised.

If we could all look beyond the overall quality of this movie, at least everyone could agree that Alphonse Puthren is trying something new and he deserves praise for just that and that only.

The sad thing is that Gold (2022) could have been a great movie with better Direction from the makers. They should have clearly gone easy on the editing part because it's just unwanted texts from dialogues scattered all over the screen and slow motion scenes for no reason at all. Just FORCED into the movie. The same thing goes for the overall casting of the movie. It's as if the Director was trying to do a lot of things in a single shot. Most of the time this movie gives a short film vibe because of its below average directions.

Overall, Gold (2022) has good potential plot wise but fails in a lot of the other aspects. I get that most of the audience didn't like the movie at all and the main reason for that is because it's not by any means a movie for the theatrical audience, it should have been initially released through OTT.

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Whats wrong with Prithvi..such a pathetic movie.. The basic plot itself is illogical. A simple push from "strong" Joshi would have moved the vehicle and solved the issue , similarly a simple push on my remote would have saved my time. 20mins in to the movie I felt Prithvi and Alphonse have taken the audience for granted. Vain attempts at Humour.. unnecessary bgm.. illogical story , dialogues and situations. Characters over acting...detailing at certain portions were really unnecessary... Major efforts were put in to include almost all cast of Premam plus few others from Malyalam industry and for what?? This dumb movie shouldn't have been made.

I don't understand why Prithviraj and Nayanthara signed up for this crap.. Prithvi being an Amazing director himself wouldn't he know what is being cooked atleast when the shooting started.!!!!

Was it just for money ?( I am sure he is already one among the top 5% richest in Kerala) . I really adore his knowledge of cinema and his passion to bring great content for Malayali audience. He was supposed to take Malayam industry to global level and he ends up doing movies like Gold and bro daddy( which was atleast watchable like an ad film ) but gold is really really poor. No story and screenplay was also crappy.

Movie is watchable for the cinematography.. Nice locations and all the insects. Special mention red ants.

Alphonse puthren has gained a very large fanbase just with his 2 movies. His first movie "Neram" was a very crisp and clear thriller with amazing writing, music and performances. His second movie "Premam" was a industry hit and one of the best hangout and vibe movie ever to be made in Malayalam cinema. "Gold" on the other hand feels like a mix of both. A story like "Neram" and making like "Premam".

Prithvi raj Sukumaran gave a good performance. All the other actors who performed in the movie did good. The movie had a good story for a interesting thriller. Some jokes work. Editing, camera work and all the other technical things were done nicely.

The movie really stretches a lot. I felt the story deserved a crisp treatment like "Neram" instead was stretched too much with unwanted characters and scenes which never clearly adds anything significant in the movie. Alphonse tries to create a vibe and atmosphere with his sketchy characters and nature shots like in "Premam", but totally falls flat and fails to create an impact. Most of the jokes never land because the characters are not effectively written or established. Nayantara just feels like a talent being wasted, she gets no scope to perform or a effective character. The songs feel pretty unnecessary and could have been avoided. The writing is just weak, never felt emotionally invested with any character, No proper and impactful antagonist and the climax feels like a joke.

Hopefully Alphonse will give a better comeback with his next movie.