The Great Father Review - A Little Too Cool for a Film that Tackles a Serious Theme

Sethumadhavan

The lead character David Ninan (Mammootty) receives a glowing tribute from his daughter Sara (Anikha) who describes him as her superhero. She regales her classmates with stories of his encounters with the Mumbai underworld and while they go on to disbelieve her, she remains unruffled. This is more than enough to make the audience build up an expectation regarding the image of David and that’s clearly justified as he makes his entry in style on screen for the first time. Now let’s look at Sathyan (Kalabhavan Shajon) who clearly comes across as slimy reporter always on the lookout for sensational news. During his introduction scene itself his character gets established as we see him pass comments on 2 senior cops, including some unpleasant comments on a lady cop. These are pointers which indicate that writer-director Haneef Adeni is keen on character development. I am of course referring to Haneef’s debut film, The Great Father, a film that’s been produced by August Cinema.

David is a real estate honcho in Kochi, who lives a contended life with his doctor wife Michelle (Sneha) and daughter Sara. Sara is very close to David and she means the world to him. But their joyful existence crumbles down one day in an unexpected fashion due to an unfortunate incident. This forces Sara, an otherwise bright and cheerful girl to withdraw into a shell, leaving David and Michelle totally distressed. Around the same time we realize that there’s a serial killer out in the city, someone who targets schoolgirls in particular. Andrews Eapen (Arya) is a young and dynamic cop who is assigned the task of nabbing the serial killer. But Andrews realizes that not only is the serial killer quite smart and tough to handle, there’s another worrying factor for him as well. What is the worrying factor for Andrews, who is the serial killer and how are all these connected to David and his family are what the rest of the film is all about.

Tackling a socially relevant topic, this one could have been treated as a dark and moody thriller. But that’s not the route that Haneef Adeni preferred to take. Imagine a cross between a Puthiya Niyamam and Kasaba, that’s the kind of space that The Great Father inhabits. The director has made it very obvious that he is fascinated by Mammootty the superstar, evident in the way he is presented as a superhero of sorts. It’s a minor consolation that at least the use of punch dialogues has been mostly avoided. The film however has an abundance of slow motion shots, especially the first half, reminding one of Amal Neerad’s films. Coincidentally the film even makes a reference to Amal Neerad, though in a different context. In the first few minutes I got this nagging feeling that this film would go on to be another case of style over substance, thankfully there’s a reasonably engaging plot which kind of provides the balance of sorts.

Roby Varghese Raj impresses with his cinematography, the visuals having an edgy look almost throughout. Sushin Shyam’s BGM is on predictable lines but thankfully not loud and jarring.  As for the writing, Haneef Adeni at least does well to ensure that the suspense is maintained quite well nearly till the end of the film. The Great Father does boast of a good star cast and though initially one is happy to see many female characters, eventually one realizes that only Anikha as Sara gets a lot of scope, sadly the characters played by Sneha, Miya George and Malavika Mohanan are strictly functional. Shaam appears in a cameo; Santhosh Keezhattoor and I.M.Vijayan leave an impression. After Urumi and Double Barrel it’s good to see Arya once in Malayalam films, as the beefy cop Andrews Eapen he does get a lot of scope, despite this being a Mammootty mass outing.

Talking of which, The Great Father is a film which is tailor made for Mammootty the star, as he plays David Ninan with panache. His fans would certainly be quite happy with the output, but if only the actor in Mammootty could have also got some scope, the film would have gone into a different zone. At the end it’s a film with which Haneef Adeni makes a fair debut, fulfilling his desire of perhaps making an entertainer against the background of a serious topic.

Bottomline:

The Great Father is a stylishly mounted film by Haneef Adeni, one which addresses a serious topic but doesn’t give it a dark and gritty treatment. Mammootty plays to the gallery but thankfully in a restrained fashion. Watchable for sure, but it’s not a film to rave about.

Rating; 2.5/5