Director Mahesh Narayanan’s latest feature tells the story of a gangster and local strongman, Sulaiman of Ramadapally. When a supposed Hajj pilgrimage leads to his arrest, the police are in a tight spot on how to deal with him. Trying to legally prosecute him will be next to impossible considering his influence over the local population, thus leading them to make a decision of killing him off during his prison tenure by recruiting the help of another prisoner, Freddy and Sulaiman’s growth in stature over the population of Ramadapally is narrated to him via the perspective of multiple individuals who coming to visit him.
Malik arrives on the scene with a brilliant long take at around fifteen minutes, setting the tone for the technical and editing brilliance the ride has in store for us, juxtaposing Sulaiman’s backstory with his current imprisonment.
Fahad Faasil gives a great turn as the character portraying how the years shape him. The flash and fun of the first steps into the criminal life gradually gives away to the cost of the choices as the years go by and things become more muddled with politicians and people having vested interests starts coming into the picture and Sulaiman’s once friends start drifting away.
We see his growth both in his greying hairs and his demeanour as Fahadh undergoes a journey and although the core of his character remains the same, the time passed has a massive impact on him. An impact can be seen in the supporting characters too. Whether be it his wife played by Nimisha Sajayan and her transformation from being a headstrong free spirit in love to an old woman fighting for her husband, his friend David played by Vinay Forrt, the IAS officer, Joju George, that takes a liking to Sulaiman, and even his own mother played by Jalaja, each of them played brilliantly.
Malik deals with the consequences of time and the change it leads to not only the people but also to the place as Ramadapally goes all the way from a small community in harmony to one deeply mired in politics and ever-widening factions. The character of the politician played by Dileesh Pothan could have been written better though. He does a really good job at what is given to him, but considering the rest of the cast, he seems pretty one-dimensional, and a character who someone like Sulaiman would have easily picked on and dealt with better.
The length of the movie is a requirement considering the time period the story covers, but there are sequences that could have been improved by trimming.
Esp. the time spent on the Island. Also, some of the songs go on longer than they should have.
Malik has sections inspired by other crime movies notably The Godfather movies and Nayakan but they didn’t affect my viewing instead it was fun seeing how some of those scenes have been reinterpreted. One scene that I will be highlighting is where Sulaiman jumps across the buildings, inspired by the iconic sequence in The Godfather 2 with Robert DeNiro both of which take the character on a similar journey, but Malik tweaks a few elements to make the scene its own thing and in the process ensures that although Sulaiman is the hero for his community, but that won’t be taking away from his crimes.
Director Mahesh Narayanan jumps headlong into the mix of religion and politics fully embracing the complexities of the narrative and fictionalizing certain real incidents to give a complex tale without holding back. The brilliant performances coupled with some excellent makeup work successfully transports us to the era and into the lives of these characters inhabiting it. Malik does end up botching a brilliant ending that was within its grasp. There’s a great scene, startling in its execution, which could have led to an effective ending, but instead, it opts to go on longer adding unnecessary plot elements that take away from the impact.
But overall, despite the hiccups Malik, with its cinematic technique and performances added with the cinematography and a great score by Sushin Shyam, through the life of Sulaiman, creates an experience fully capturing the change that happens with the passage of time creating a really satisfying addition to the genre of the Indian gangster cinema.
My Rating:
