Rebel Review - Pointlessly Political, Yet Passable!

Ashwin Ram

Premise: GV Prakash and a bunch of Tamilians from Munnar go to Kerala for their college studies. They are discriminated against by the height of politics there. How they cross all the hardships and pass by successfully is the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:  There are movies with no redeeming qualities, there are movies with good intent but a boring flow, this one falls under a different category of not being boring but no clue whatsoever of why it is being made. It was engaging to an extent as something or the other kept on happening, but it nowhere lets us invest with the story world. The suppression genre movies are usually very relatable like Pariyerum Perumal, despite having various scenes to describe discrimination in hand, it doesn’t connect even on a basic level. Maybe the story actually took place once upon a time to a set of people, the preachy take creates no empathy towards anyone on-screen. The character behaviors are so weird, knowing the repercussions with respect to the election results, why would any person with brains openly act in public in such a cruel manner. The first half focuses on how the Tamil students are being tortured by the Malayalis, the establishments are dull as the scenes and montages shown are lazy with repetitive milking of state emotions. The second half concentrates on the payback, which is done in a timid way with no punch. Becomes so preachy in the name of equality with age-old dialogues and runs as if it is a freedom struggle film. There are plenty of continuity issues at crucial situations, the storytelling isn’t steady enough. Even some of the thoughtful ideas like the interval block land in an underwhelming way due to poor development.

Performances:  GV Prakash has done some grounded mass movies before, he looks more confident in this, his dialogue delivery for the serious portions is also a lot neater. Mamitha Baiju perfectly fits for the Malayali role, her initial scenes made sense but her overall character arc could have been written wiser, she realizes her mistakes only at the very end just for the sake of it. Weak role for Aditya Baskar who has been placed as the primary emotional tool, hence no impact. Good casting as everybody helped to keep the nativity factor alive.

Technicalities: The songs are pretty good, the mix of languages with respect to the lyrics worked. The background score elevated the vital scenes well which carry a lot of slow-mos. Decent camera work, frames with high speed shots have been conceived neatly and the ones involving crowds are clearly presented, except for the fact that the focus shifts were poorly handled. Blunt editing and has a lot of spoon-feeding too, which makes the storytelling so preachy as it proceeds. Stunt sequences are impactful, the gang clashes and fights have been structured lively.

Bottomline

Suppression is felt only when there is a connection. The characters and situations seem to be convincing enough, but the flat storyworld with preachy presentation, also the whole setup of this Tamil versus Kerala students enmity make it a pointless flick.

Rating - 2.5/ 5