'Chinatown' (Malayalam, Comedy Entertainer)
Director: Rafi Macartin
Cast: Mohanlal, Dileep, Jayaram, Kavya Madhavan, Ponnam Bajwa, Deepa Shah
Mohanlal! Jayaram! Dileep! A dream line-up as far as the Mollwood is considered and leaves an impression that the movie ‘Chinatown’ is all set to roll a giant fun wheel.
With the fabulous star cast, the first challenge in front of director duo Rafi-Mecartin is to make a movie with the heroes having equal screen time. Script! What script. Who cares about the script when the spectator is coming to the theatre expecting an entertainer. Interestingly, nowadays in Mollywood, entertainer is an anticipatory bail and a request to the spectators to lock their brains in the freezer and come to the cinemas.
The film unfolds the story of Mathukutty (Mohanlal), Zacharia (Jayaram) and Binoy (Dileep) who are reunited in Chinatown in Goa after a long gap of twenty-five years. Re-united means, of course, there should be a past for the three friends and so let us start the movie from that point. So here comes the opening scenes with actors Mohanlal, Shankar, Shanavas and Deepu Karunakaran, all clad in 1986 outfits, singing and making merry at a Casino in Goa with their family.
Here enters the villain – Gowda (Pradeep Rawat) and kills three of them. Gomez (Deepu Karunakaran) survives the attack, but the three kids of his friends were separated. You guessed it right. These three children are our heroes. And after twenty five years, Gomez (now a mature adult, in Captain Raju) is returning to Goa. He reclaims the Casino and wants to hand over its charge to our heroes.
Perfect.
With Goa and the cash rich Casinos and gambling as the back drop, the directors, who penned the script, took a shortcut and simply adapted Todd Phillip’s ‘The Hangover’ into Malayalam in the latter half.
But it is not an easy gulp. The hangover deserves a much more decent adaptation. Sorry sirs!
However, attempts have been made to fit in some funny scenes to tickle the laughter bones, So here comes Suraj Venjaramoodu, who plays a don. Easy, right? This ‘joker don’ gives him the chances to get thrashed by three heroes, sometimes to cry, and perform buffoonery. He even gets stripped. Bravo! Sheer sacrifice indeed!
Some interesting comic numbers like Sree Rajarajeswari Adholokam, Jayaram imitating K P Ummar and and Dileep’s introduction scene are come as a relief. The movie has a good sense of pacing in the first half, but fails to up the ante and thereby increasing the energy level along the way.
Mohanlal as Mathukutty is quite impressive and perhaps may end up as a treat for his diehard fans. Jayaram as Zachariah is okay while Dileep who, with his comedy numbers, is the ‘live’ element in the movie. But imitating ‘Ayyappa Byju’ in many scenes turned out to be an eye sore. Sumo wrestler Libor Dizo plays a stilted cameo without any impact.
Overall, ‘Chinatown’, which could have been a lot more, in absence of genuineness, ends up being a ‘fan’ carnival than a fun carnival.