Movie Reviews
The Great Father Movie Review
Critics' rating:3 {3/5}
Readers' rating: 3.5{3.5/5}
Cast & Crew : Mammootty, Sneha, Anikha, Arya
Direction: Haneef Adeni
Producers: Santhosh Sivan, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Arya, Shaji Nadesan
Music Director: Gopi Sunder
Release Date: March 30
GENRE: Action/ Family
Duration: 2 hours 31 mins
The Great Father Story: The story begins with a police officer, investigating the missing cases of school children, getting killed by a paedophile, who calls himself "joker".
The movie has megastar Mammootty as David Ninan, a successful businessman, who lives happily with his wife Dr. Michelle (played by Sneha) and daughter Sara David (played by Anikha). David is a cool daddy, a superhero for his daughter and she always narrates the "adventurous underworld Mumbai" stories (as seen in the movie's second teaser) of her father, for which she is called bragger Sara among her friends. An unexpected episode in the life of the jovial and smart girl leaves her, as well as her parents, depressed.
Arya's character, CB-CID officer Andrews, take over the investigation, while David also takes law into his hands to track down the paedophile. However, more than finding the serial killer, the biggest challenge for David seems to be competing with Andrews.
The Great Father Review: The highlight of The Great Father is the subject it has handled — child abuse.
What makes the Mammootty-starrer weak is its story that chose to glorify the heroics of the megastar than delving into the real issue. The intro scene of Mammootty shows him performing a road stunt in his Lexus — however, the stylish entry fell flat on its face. His versatility comes through in the handling of the emotional sequences, but otherwise The Great Father is all about show off with Mammootty appearing in stylish get-ups and even wearing leather jackets in hot climes [one of the characters are also heard saying: "Why is he wearing leather jacket in this climate?"].
Also read: The Great Father beats Pulimurugan
Anikha has done a really good job. However, Sneha gets sidelined as the makers focused more on Mammootty. Her make-up and sartorial outlook post the abuse beg question.
After Urumi and Double Barrel, Arya is back in Mollywood with The Great Father, but he seems more interested in showing off his muscles and toned abs. Though he looked stylish, his dialogue delivery left something to be desired.
Malavika Mohanan (female cop assisting Arya's character) gets more importance than Sneha in The Great Father, but looks like her character was inserted in screenplay to highlight the sexism existing in society as Kalabhavan Shajohn (Sathyan), who calls himself a filthy journalist, use sexual innuendos in their exchanges. Prithviraj Sukumaran (one of the producers of The Great Father), are you listening? Didn't you recently claim you will not to be part of movies that show women in bad light? Though Shajohn has done justice to the role, its high time Mollywood turned away from such sexist characters.
Now, coming to the climax sequence, though the suspense on who the villain is, was maintained till the last, few questions arise. The makers mislead us by using a different voices for the antagonist when he speaks on phone to David and Andrews, and in person. The climax stunt was choreographed for the fans of Mammukka. However, the slow motions shots made it a drag.
Technical aspects: Haneef Adeni looked promising, given the movie is his debut directorial venture. However, looks like the fan boy in him wanted to make it a Mammootty affair, than a movie dealing with a teething social issue.
The screenplay could have been leveraged with a strong storyline. Roby Varghese Raj's visuals and colour tones, especially the aerial shots are impressive, while Gopi Sunder's music and Sushin Shyam's background score complemented the whole mood of the movie.
Final verdict: In short, The Great Father is a tailor-made movie to boost Mammootty's heroism, and the real social issue gets lost in the antics at times. All in all, the Great Father is a one-time watch.
Direction: 2.5 2.5/5
Dialogues: 2.52.5/5
Story: 2.52.5/5
Action: 22/5
Visual appeal: 33/5
