CIA: Comrade in America Review - A Fun Tale of a Communist that works partly 

Sethumadhavan

Aji Mathew (Dulquer Salmaan) has just received his passport and he is slightly inebriated. With no one really knowing why this young firebrand communist has suddenly got a passport, he decides to spend the night at the communist party office. Walking up the stairs he sees a disturbed Joseph Stalin leaving and they have a brief chat. Aji then goes on to enter the office where to his surprise he ends up looking at Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara and Karl Marx and they go on to have a lovely discussion whereby Aji reveals the real reason behind acquiring a passport and his intent to go to the U.S.A , come what may. Now it wouldn’t take any ounce of intelligence to figure out that this entire segment is born out of Aji’s figment of imagination, perhaps with the alcohol aiding the same as well. But that’s really irrelevant, what’s indeed important is to acknowledge that this is a very smartly handled segment, most likely something that will leave you smiling.

Amal Neerad has been known for his larger than life kind of films, ventures which were mostly in the style over substance mould. He seemed to show an interest in bringing a change to his film making style with the short segment “Kullante Bharya” in 5 Sundarikal (2013) where he paired up with Dulquer Salmaan for the first time. He followed that up later with Iyobinte Pustakam (2014), his finest work so far, where he well and truly made great use of a fantastic ensemble cast. CIA: Comrade in America sees Amal team up with Dulquer once again and strangely Amal seemed to have preferred to keep the audience guessing as to what the film is all about. Yes one knew that the film would have a communist theme/background visible from the posters and teaser, but that was it as there was nothing else that was shared, an interesting but risky strategy I must say in these days of aggressive promotion.

Aji Mathew is an active communist in Pala, living in harmony with his parents. His dad Mathew (Siddique) is a staunch congressman but the differences in political ideologies do not create any problems at home between father and son. Aji’s life revolves around his party, his parents and his friends/fellow comrades (Soubin Shahir and Dileesh Pothan). Aji falls in love with Sarah (Karthika Muraleedharan), his junior in college and for a while it’s all hunky dory for the two of them as Sarah goes on to become an essential part of his life. But when her well to do family in the U.S gets wind of her relationship with Aji they call her back to the U.S and fix her wedding with someone else. She manages to make a distress call to Aji and asks him to come over to the U.S and convince her parents. Aji is more than eager to go and do the needful but then neither does he hold a U.S visa, nor a passport. What does Aji go on to do from thereon is what the rest of the film is all about.

The film has a fun first half and despite the rather simple plot, the writing by Amal Neerad and Shibin Francis ensures that we are kept entertained pretty well.  With a good balance of mass moments with a political tinge along with some realistic slice of life moments, especially those which feature Aji and his father, the first half of the film is quite a delight. But what one goes on to watch in the second half is something totally different altogether, instead of continuing to be a fun filled affair of Aji’s antics to get to the U.S it turns out to be a wannabe international film of sorts as Aji tries to go about entering the U.S illegally via Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico. This part of the film reminds us of some fine international films like Sin Nombre (2009) and La jaula de oro (2013), but then over here the edginess and brutal realism of those films is definitely missing. Despite the usage of a lot of slow motion shots (a hallmark of Amal Neerad films), cinematographer Renadive does manage to impress us with his visuals. Gopi Sunder’s music makes an impact and the songs and the BGM suit the narrative.

Of the supporting cast we have Siddique, Soubin Shahir, Dileesh Pothan and John Vijay who register an impact quite well with their performances. Despite some good screen time there’s nothing much for the female leads, Karthika Muraleedharan and Chandini Sreedharan to leave a mark. The film works to an extent mainly thanks to the spirited presence of Dulquer Salmaan who more than leaves a mark with his performance. Thankfully this film at least is not similar to any of the other Malayalam films with a communist theme, including the recent releases. CIA: Comrade in America is a mixed bag of sorts eventually but it’s worthwhile of an outing at the cinemas.

Bottomline:

CIA: Comrade in America has a fun first half while the second half is a let-down of sorts. While it’s not all showy like Amal Neerad’s earlier films but it’s not in the league of his best film (Iyobinte Pustakam) either.

Rating: 3/5

Post Your Review and Rating CIA: Comrade in America Review Here