Review for CHRISTOPHER: 

(REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R) 

•Language: Malayalam 

•Duration: 02 Hours 30 Minutes. 

•Genre: Action Thriller. 

POSITIVES: 

1: Performance of Mammootty 

2: Decent Direction 

3: Background Score  

4: Cinematography 

NEGATIVE:

1: Predictable story.

2: Half-baked screenplay. 

3: Direction could have been better. 

4: Lengthy Duration.   

5: Felt lag in between.   

 •ONE WORD: Mammootty’s performance is the only saving factor of ‘Christopher’, a disappointing film. 

•STORY IDEA: 

Christopher Antony is a sincere police officer who takes the law into his hands, he delivers instant justice through encounters. The story starts with the case of rape and murder, and the case will be investigated by Christopher. He and his team will find the culprits and will kill them all in a clever encounter. For taking the law in hand Christopher will be suspended and will have to face an enquiry conducted by ACP Sulekha. So ACP will be asked to give a report and she will start to conduct an investigation by digging into Christopher’s past. 

•DETAILED REVIEW: 

The film ‘Christopher’ is directed by B. Unnikrishnan and written by Udaykrishna. The film is produced by 

B. Unnikrishnan under the production company of RD Illuminations. The movie comes with a duration of 150 Minutes and is currently running in theatres with a censor certificate of U/A. 

When looking into the previous works of the writer Udaykrishna like ‘Aaraattu’ and ‘Monster’ the ultimate result was utterly disappointing so I was not having much expectations for the film ‘Christopher’. The glimpse of Christopher through the trailer and teasers was quite promising. So I went to watch the movie with zero anticipation and to be frank Mammootty could have skipped this tedious script. The previous scripts of Udaykrisha were unbearable, and when compared with the last two films the script of Christopher is much better. 

I didn’t enjoy the film, for me it was disappointing. The storyline was pretty ok for a crime drama and it blended with a thriller backdrop but the poor direction and the screenplay couldn’t make me thrilled. The predictable way of storytelling, the lengthy duration, the lag in between, the regular police story cliches, and unsurprising twists and turns in the screenplay made my theatre experience a little clumsy. The police investigation movies of B. Unnikrishnan is impressive but this time his direction doesn’t rise up to the level because of the weak script. The amazing performance of Mammootty was the saving factor, his screen presence and intense acting made me sit and watch the film till the end. 

The script of this film is composed of various flashback scenes, from the very beginning to the climax the film is exhibiting the flashbacks and life incidents of the protagonist. At first, it was interesting to watch, but after two or three flashbacks, the lag gradually started to appear. The scenes began to feel stretched also, and I was beginning to lose my initial interest. And from the mid-first half, the clear picture of how this movie is going to be was clearly evident. The major drawback of this film was its predictability, what is going to happen next is easily predictable. Therefore, the scene that was supposed to create thrill and excitement was passed without giving any impact. The police investigation in the movie was boring and I didn’t feel any kind of curiosity to know what was next. The actor Vinay was a good choice to do the antagonist character and he did it in his own style which was good. But the way Udaykrishna had written his character is bad. He could have been a great villain, but less screen space and fewer scenes were only given to him. 

The totality of the plot was ok for a crime thriller but the components which the writer had added could have been written better. For example there are many rape and molestation scenes in the film. Showing those scenes again and again made me annoyed and found those scenes very disturbing. In the film behind every crime scene, there will be brutal rape scenes and I was wondering why Udaya Krishna can think of something different instead of portraying too many rape scenes. Next, is the police encounter scenes, to give a heroic mass appeal for the central character the hero used to kill every man who commits rape. Like I said above, in the beginning, the encounter scenes had given an impact on the character played by Mammootty but gradually the encounter scenes also started to feel like an exaggeration. Next is the flashbacks, scene after scene the movie will reveal a flashback, and unfortunately instead of giving an engaging feel the backstories were giving me a stretched and lag feel. The flashbacks will also have some links to some rape scene and it was awful and overdramatic. 

In the direction of B. Unnikrishnan what I felt good about was the way he portrayed the character of Mammootty. The character Christopher looked stylish, and the attitude of a stubborn fearless cop was presented nicely by the maker Unnikrishnan. The films like Tiger, IG, Grandmaster, Villain and Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel by the director Unnikrishnan have the angle of an interesting police investigation but unfortunately in the film Christopher the investigation method was not surprising. The investigation method and findings felt normal, instead of Udaykrishna or along with him if Unnikrishnan had joined for writing the script the movie could have been more thrilling and interesting. Instead of the typical Udaykrishna script something new or a change of pattern could have been seen if the hands of Unnikrishnan were there in the script. So because of the worst writing the direction of Unnikrishnan was also not that impressive, felt just ok. As a thriller film the movie is supposed to make us thrill but here the average making and the nasty script holds the movie in the same momentum. The graph of the movie never went too high to and doesn’t offer enough thrilling moments, it was just continuing with the same flow and went flat in the end. 

The performance of Mammootty was good, he carried the movie on his shoulders and his screen presence helped me to finish the movie. The police mannerism he showed and the attitude of the character was perfectly acted out by Mammootty. The few punch dialogues and the action sequences also looked fine in the acting of Mammootty. The background score tuned by Justin Varghese was brilliant. The signature tune used for the character of Mammootty was superb, and the tune was passing a mass appeal for the style of Mammootty. There wasn’t any song but the background scores used in the film are noteworthy, the important scene had the backup of some nice tunes and matched the occurrences well. The cinematography of Faiz Siddik was flawless, the action sequences were beautifully shot and all the indoor scenes had good lighting methods. The dark indoor shots, the closeup frames used to capture the emotions of the actors and the drone shots looked perfect. The grading was ok but at some scenes the blue dark tone felt unmatched. For a better engaging theatre experience, the editor Manoj could have trimmed or shortened some scenes because I felt lag in many areas. 

•CONCLUSION: 

So overall I didn’t enjoy the film ‘Christopher’ because of the poor script and average making. The performance of Mammootty is the only saving factor which helped me to sit and watch, the movie could have been a good crime thriller if it was having a solid script. The screenplay was like a half-baked cake, thrilling scenes and engaging scenes were missing from the writing of Udaykrishna. As a thriller film, it should not be anticipatable but here from the beginning till the end can be easily predictable. If you are a fan of Mammootty, you can book the tickets for Christopher but it’s better to watch with fewer expectations. 

• FINAL RATING: 2.5/5

• A Review by ARUNJYOTHI. R