Banner: Big Screen
Cast: Mammootty, Lal, Nedumudi Venu, Suraj Venjaramoodu, lim Kumar
Direction: Martin Prakkat
Production: Naushad
Fashion photographer turned film director Martin Prakkat is off to a very good start with the new flick ‘Best Actor’. An intimate realistic experience about an ordinary man who is ready to go to any extent to realize his dreams, the movie really scores well with its fluid narratives and balancing of emotions.
The movie has the megastar Mammootty as Mohan, a U P school teacher, whose ultimate dream is to get into films. His wife Savithry and their only son believes much in Mohan’s qualifications for making it big and don’t mind him spending much of his time meeting directors and pleading for roles.
Amidst his hardships, he faces a big humiliating experience in front of his whole village and is forced to go for some real life experience, by joining a goonda gang led by Lal. The movie goes on to tell how the aspiring actor and human in him clashes all through the events, that he faces to end up an inspiring morale.
The movie has a very nice, simple story which is told just like a colorful fable. Though the narratives take time to make a safe landing, thereafter it shows very innate sincerity. The use of Lal Jose, Renjith and Blessy among others in the casting lends a bulk of believability. And the freshness in presentations is evident from the very different title cards to the climax and anti-climax that the director experiments with appreciable success.
In the acting front, Mammooty is continuing with success stories in selecting roles of élan and here too he gives his best as a character with extreme dimensions, a man of humility in the former half and a non conventional hero in the later. Lal, Nedumudi Venu, Salim Kumar and Vinayakan, presented with the Kochy slang and the needed exaggerations, pace up the plot. Shruthy Ramakrishan in her Malayalam debut as Savithry also does a fine job.
The technical sides of the movie too are very good with neatly done cinematography by Ajayan Vincent. The art direction by Joseph Nellikkal, costumes by Sameera saneesh and Makeup by Pattanam Rasheed are top class. The songs are also choreographed well. Among the songs by Bijibal,’Swapnam oru chakara’ is a chart topper.
All in all, Mammootty and Martin Prakkat definitely have a winner in ‘Best Actor’. The movie which is almost sure to work well with the family audiences and the fans is definitely a right start for a promising director.