A matter of faith

Who do you worship? The Holy Trinity or the sell-out/wash-off duo of Judas & Pilate? In essence, that’s the question David Kottarathil (or DK, played by Mammooty) poses. The answer is obvious, and smoothens the difficult-to-swallow reformation of the top cop, SP Rajagopalan (Lalu Alex), as part of a rushed wrap up to ‘Nasrani’. The question itself is voiced to M.C.Paul (Vijayaraghavan), a ruthless politician who will stoop to anything to remain in power; but when his younger son, Dr Benny Paul (Arun) is murdered, how will the dice roll? Has his elder son, Xavier Paul (Biju Menon) inherited the father’s political acumen and ruthlessness? Like that shown by M.C. Paul, years ago, in allowing his friend John (Capt. Raju) to be imprisoned for a murder that was only an accident?

Faith is again a central theme, one that keeps the lead pair betrothed for over 10 years. The accident that sent John to prison set back his son’s marriage to Sara (Vimala Raman); Sara, whose mother still believes that John was the one who encouraged her husband to take on a paramour and later, killed him in a manic scuffle. Whose is the stronger faith, here? No prizes for guessing. Thankfully, reconciliation is given short shrift, and we don’t have to sit through tales twice-told. But the DK-Sara romance goes on strong; he tells her that he’d pick her up after college – and all the students cheer as their teacher runs to the helicopter that her boyfriend comes in to pick her up! Nice entry for Mammukka and for the helicopter too – that comes in handy later, when DK thumbs his nose at the SP and rescues Sara’s half-sister Annie (Muktha George), who’s being framed for Benny’s murder.

But who has killed Benny? The disgruntled ex-MLA Ummachhan (Jagathy Sreekumar), who had to vacate his seat for Benny? Thamban (Devan), the leader of a rival party? Armchair detection – with the occasional beating up of select villains, of course – takes DK to the truth, and his own way of bringing it to the open.

The armchairs are good, at the Cosmopolitan Club in Kottayam, and DK’s friends (Bharat Gopi, Manianpilla Raju, Janardanan, Baburaj) swap tales of their glory days while waiting for DK and his factotum Suku (Kalabhavan Mani) to do their detecting and beating up. And when you add on several other usual suspects, such as Innocent, Risabava, Bheeman Raghu, KPAC Lalitha, Sukumari, Bindu Panikker…. you start wondering if Mamooty’s superstar status requires so much of scaffolding!

Think ‘Kottayam Kunjachhan’. Don’t get analytical. You’ll then enjoy the movie, but you must have FAITH!