ast: Mohanlal, Amitabh Bachchan, Ganesh Venkatraman, Ragini Dwivedi, Sumalatha, Sunil Shetty, Anoop Chandran, N.L. Balakrishnan, K P A C Lalitha
Direction: Major Ravi
Production: Mohanlal, Sunil Nair
Music: Shameer Tandon
Superstar Mohanlal’s much admired character, Army officer Mahadevan is back to screen, the third time in Major Ravi’s ‘Kandahaar’. Played now as a top commando, his third mission is to fight the terrorists who had hijacked a plane in ‘Kandahaar’. Though this movie has some sequences that impress, it comes nowhere to the cohesiveness and grande with which Major Ravi has told the first installment of the series, ‘Keerthichakra’.
The highlight of the movie is the big star ‘Amitabh Bachchan’, who appears as Loknath Sharma, a retired school teacher and a man of principles, married to a Malayalee women played by the yesteryear heroine Sumalatha. He has much hopes on his only son Soorya, a hot blooded youth played by Ganesh Venketraman. Though a man with valid pilot licenses, Soorya finds it hard to get an impressive job till he meets Major Mahadevan. He undergoes rigorous training under Major Shiva, (played by writer-director Major Ravi himself). While Soorya is training to be an Army officer, we are also shown terrorists training in Afghanistan, including a jihadi young lad, the only son of a poor Muslim lady, played by veteran actor KPAC Lalitha. The movie goes on to tell how Soorya, who is now assisting Major Mahadevan in his new set of chores, comes back with flying colours to satisfy his father.
The problem with this Major Ravi endeavour is that though the movie is about hijacking of an Air India flight and efforts of Army men to safeguard the passengers and crew, the movie turns petty melodramatic and sentimental in more scenes than needed. The Major wastes most of the time of the former half in presenting the story of Soorya, while the viewers are eagerly expecting more brainy attempts from Major Mahadevan. The scriptlines are overall not impressive and hence even sequences with Mohanlal lacks the punch. In an attempt to instill patriotism in the audience, the movie goes over the top and exaggerated with plenty of logical loopholes. The climax also hardly impress giving more thoughts about the believability in the action.
In the acting side, Mohanlal has aptly performed the role which has its set of shortcomings. Amitabh Bachchan, who is for the first time in Malayalam is more than impressive and showcase his wizardry in emerging the best in the more competent cast list. Ganesh Venketaraman is ordinary in his first appearance in Mollywood. The rest of the cast stick to the demands of the role, but the short cameos by K PA C Lalitha and Anil Murali does strike a chord with the audience.
But as usual with Major Ravi films, the technical sides are of fine standards with an impressive camera work form Ravi Varman. The action sequences are also well and good though they may not come anywhere near his previous flicks. The music by Shamir Tandon is also top class.
‘Kandahaar’ could have been more impressive, if Major Ravi has tried to go for a better script, than one that he is on. Any how, the movie is an onetime watch for its impressive cast comprising Lal and Bachchan.