The Priest Movie Review Rating: 2.5 Stars (Two & A Half Star)

Star Cast: Mammootty, Nikhila Vimal, Monica, Manju Warrier, Venkitesh V.P and ensemble.

Director: Jofin T. Chacko

What’s Good: how a debut filmmaker puts his story ahead of the massive star he has cast to play the lead.

What’s Bad: the rough transition from one conflict to the other, and how it looks like two disjointed films in one.

Loo Break: start watching, and you are smart enough to know when. Just not when Monica is on-screen.

Watch or Not?: if you are in love with Mammootty, watch it to see the superstar experimenting as he cuts out all his superstarness (if that’s a word) to make The Priest shine.

A murder mystery of suspicious staged suicides is being invested by police with the help of a Priest. There is a lot of commotion as there is a lot more to the case than what is visible to the naked eyes. Amid all this is an orphan little girl Ameya who has witnessed death and behave weirdly. Begins the exploration of Ameya’s weirdness, and we are up for news twists and turns.

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The Priest Movie Review: Script Analysis

The new wave cinema in the South is experimental, respectful, and an equal give and take. While superstars are putting their trust in debutant filmmakers, the filmmakers are making sure they are not getting flabbergasted by the presence of such huge names on their sets.

For instance, The Priest houses a star as huge as Mammootty, and you can imagine how easily one can expect this to just become his show. But director Jofin T. Chacko, who is credited for the story as well, and Screenplay writers Shyam Menon – Deepu Pradeep, never let that happen. For them, their material is always bigger than the star who is going to translate it on the screen.

The Priest begins on a cliff-hanger as we get involved in a murder investigation. The cluelessness and lack of evidence are induced so well that predictability doesn’t knock doors, even once. There is a certain amount of subtlety in the screenplay but also appropriate intrigue. Maybe, this balance is also the virtue of the new wave, as it has been observed in most of the content in recent times.

But what hits the rock bottom is the end of the aforementioned mystery and the transition to other. The film, in its act two, shifts its focus to Ameya and her weirdness. But what bothers me is the fact that there is neither enough glue to stick these two varied narratives nor an apt reason for the transition. So technically, we are watching two different films with only two recurring characters ( Priest & Ameya). And to our further dismay, the first half has no effects on the second, and that is problematic now. But I would have had fun watching an extended version of the former, to be honest.

The post-interval narrative is also where the film manages to win the battle just half. After the suspense and mystery, we enter the horror territory. Full marks for still balancing subtlety with everything else, but can I say the same about the twists? Probably not. I would appreciate that the twists aren’t predictable or staple, but they are too small to have such hard consequences. Majority of them make it look like ‘all of that due to this?’. And you know how that feels.

The Priest Movie Review: Star Performance

What is the test of an actor of the grandeur Mammootty is? It is to shed all the stardom and become one with the film. The actor wonderfully does that, and not for once it is the superstar of Malayalam cinema, it is a man who is a Priest and doesn’t necessarily want the centre stage all the time. It’s difficult and only a few can, and Mammotty has made it to the list with good marks.

The second in line and the powerful in the cast has to be Monica, who has the most difficult character in her hands at this age. She plays Ameya, a girl haunted by her past and well…. (That’s suspense). But Monica whenever on screen doesn’t let you take off your eyes from her, not even when Mammootty is in the frame. You go, girl!

Nikhila Vimal is impressive in what she does and looks natural when she is scared, subtlety plays the good trick here too. Manju Warrier, in a special appearance, does what is expected of her and is impressive. Just one complaint, her character turns out to be one tone, and the flashback is just a single layer extension to what we already know until then.

The Priest Movie Review: Direction, Music

Jofin T. Chacko is on this chair for the first time, and his vision is capturing stars that are enough to define projects. The pressure is imminent, but Chacko successfully makes his mind be stable and concentrate on his material. With the help of the actors not demanding more, he manages to give them what’s enough, and that is commendable.

The glue missing, which I mentioned above, should also be blamed on this section. The transition from one story to other and the abrupt nature of it must have been visible from the director’s chair and seems like he ignored it.

Music enters at appropriate points and isn’t stereotypical like the past few half baked horror flicks. Which is a plus. The set design also deserved a mention.

The Priest Movie Review: The Last Word

It is a half and half situation. Something good, a few things bad, but not the cast definitely. Mammootty with all others are in control, and it is a fair job. Watch it if you have no other plans, but go in with the idea that it is two narratives in one.

The Priest Trailer

The Priest releases on 14th April, 2021.

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The post The Priest Movie Review: Mammootty Sheds His Superstar Image Complimenting A Film That Is Two Disjointed Narratives In One appeared first on Koimoi.