സപ്തമശ്രീ തസ്കര (Sapthamashree Thaskaraha) (2014)

Director: Anil Radhakrishnan Menon
Writer:    Anil Radhakrishnan Menon
Cast:       Prithviraj, Asif Ali, Chemban Vinod
Language:Malayalam

A group of seven people, including both con men and common men, plan a small heist with a big reward.

This is Anil Radhakrishnan Menon's second film after 'North 4 Katham' which got National award for best film in Malayalam language, fuck knows how. Must have been a very poor year for Malayalam cinema. This one is better than the first one, but not by much. When you are making a heist film which relies very much on comedy, you needs to make it very crisp. There are some very good laughs in it but it comes within a very lagging storyline. Also, I don't know exactly how to put it, some of the humor didn't hit the right notes because of the way they were presented. It seemed there is a linger after the punchlines as if the director is waiting for a clap or something. The story is narrated through a confession given by Chemban Vinod's character to a priest who I found to be extremely annoying. The films is set in Thrissur and the slang didn't really help in my opinion as there was a distinct self awareness in the way it was delivered by many of the actors.

It is decent towards the end, with a well executed heist sequence, but I wouldn't have made it till the end if I was not watching it at the cinemas. I didn't mind the twist at the end because it is more believable than a common man masterminding the whole thing. Obvious reference for people to make would be Steven Soderbergh's 'Ocean's Eleven'. In Ocean's Eleven they establish all the characters in about 30 minutes whereas in this film it takes up the entire first half of the film. All the setting up stuff for the heist that can be done in about 30 seconds sequences run into minutes without adding much humor and thus being very difficult to tolerate. You don't need to give complete explanation to the audience on how you are going to get into the building through the AC ducts and then proceed to show the entire thing. Either one will do. Overall the film is a decent watch but not very good.

Rating: 2.5/5