00:00White seems to be the predominant color worn by all the heroes in Prithviraj's directorial, Lucifer.
00:14But unlike their pristine wardrobe choice, their actions are very dark and murky.
00:19Actor Prithviraj makes his directorial debut with a politically charged thriller starring top talents from the Malayalam film industry,
00:27including Mohanlal, Manjuwariar, Tovino Thomas, Sai Kumar and Indrajeet.
00:32Now the first question that you need to ask yourself is, how big of a fan are you of Mohanlal's?
00:38The degree to which you enjoy this movie is directly proportional to how much you adore the superstar.
00:44But if you think the top actor is not acting his age, then perhaps you may not enjoy this movie as much.
00:50Here's what I liked about the movie, it's the ensemble cast.
00:54If you look at it, there's Manjuwariar who's extremely talented, there's Tovino Thomas, Indrajeet.
00:59These are some of the best talents from the Malayalam industry.
01:02But are they given a meaty part when compared to Mohanlal? Not so much.
01:06This seems like a vanity project to showcase the histrionics of a superstar.
01:11It's Mohanlal's show all the way. I mean everything is done in slow-mo.
01:16Each of his punchlines come with operatic music which just increases in tone and tenor as he keeps delivering his punchlines.
01:25Now if you're a fan, you're likely to enjoy it.
01:28But there is a part of you that wishes that actor Prithviraj who experiments with acting choices in his career
01:35had not played it so safe with his directorial project.
01:38This is a movie about the power play that happens in a political dynasty.
01:43If you look at it, it clocks at 2 hour 50 minutes.
01:46So you need to have a lot of patience to sit through a movie that demands that you suspend belief.
01:51How does a 50 year old get away with the crimes that he commits?
01:54How does he get away by putting bullets through people's head is a question that you may ask but the answers are never coming.
02:00I remember few days ago when the cast of Lucifer had come along, they had told us, they had sworn that this is not a political film.
02:08We've chosen a backdrop that is political to say a story.
02:12The story itself is not political.
02:14Which is why I would not want to call this a political film.
02:17But after watching the movie and after analysing it so much, I'm still wondering why they were shying away from calling it one.
02:25Because this is like finding Nemo not a children's movie.
02:28Or saying that DDLJ, that is Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, the Shahrukh movie is not a romantic love story.
02:34Why would you shy away from calling it a political film?
02:38Perhaps it's because they were worried that since it's election time in India and parallels may be drawn to the iconic Gandhi family
02:46who's contesting the election and the underhand dealings that's likely to appear.
02:50Maybe they were playing it safe.
02:52They didn't want us to draw any parallels between the fictional family shown in Lucifer
02:56and the resemblance it might have to any real characters in Indian politics.
03:02Barring their length, I think this is a movie that kind of showcases Mohanlal in all his splendour.
03:07When it comes to performances, the movie is flawless.
03:11When it comes to screenplay and script, it's quite ludicrous and there are some bizarre twists that you may never ever believe in.
03:17But all is forgiven if you're a Mohanlal fan.
03:20I've gone with 3 out of 5.
03:22For my full review, go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid.
03:32.
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