Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Left Right Left (2013)

Director: Arun Kumar Aravind
Writer:    Murali Gopy
Cast:       Indrajith, Murali Gopy, Hareesh Peradi, Lena
Language:Malayalam

Interlinked story of  three men (an evil politician, an eccentric cop & a former revolutionist) with different perspectives on life resulted due to confrontation of death in their childhood.

If my memory serves me right this film received quite universal praise when it was released. I decided to watch it after being impressed by the Writer-Director duo's previous film 'Ee Adutha Kalath'. To say that it was a disappointment for me would be an understatement. Am I missing something? Film got some helpful controversies accompanying its release due to its portrayal of the two distinct factions of communist party in Kerala led by VS and Pinarayi Vijayan. Rather than making a point about their ideological difference in a subtle manner, it chooses to do a caricature which is too ridiculous to be taken seriously. It wouldn't have been a problem if it stuck with the character stories like in the first half of the film, but it decides to make the problems in the party its center point with the ridiculous flashback scenes before the climax which had a distinct feel of them just trying to shoehorn all the characters into the revenge narrative.

In my opinion the film wanted to say something about the communist party but they ballsed up big time the way they did it. That is the problem with these multiple character story-lines which can look utterly ridiculous if they cannot pull it off with conviction. For me whatever that can be said about the ideological differences in the party has already been dealt with in Venu Nagavalli's 'Lal Salaam'. It is a political outfit struggling with its ideology in a capitalist world where it cannot operate without contradicting itself. The Mohanlal's character in Lal Salaam takes a sabbatical from the party to set a business up and be financially independent. He find himself ostracized from the party when he becomes rich as he is also classed as bourgeoisie. What is happening now in the party can be classed as kind of reverse of this with the party itself being run as a sort of business. 

Rating: 1.5/5

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