Review for MIKE:
•Language: Malayalam
•Duration: 01 Hour 48 Minutes.
•Genre: Drama.
•REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R
• POSITIVES:
1: BASIC THEME OF THE FILM
2: MUSIC AND BACKGROUND SCORE
3: CINEMATOGRAPHY
4: EDITING
5: ACTION SEQUENCES
• NEGATIVES:
1: AVERAGE DIRECTION
2: MEDIOCRE SCREENPLAY
3: PLENTY OF CLICHES
4: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS
5: POOR FIRST HALF
•ONE WORD: A good theme spoiled by weak script and direction.
•STORY IDEA:
The story of the film revolves around Sarah, who hates her gender and believes that men have more freedom and are not restricted. Sarah always chills with boys, she used to drink and some like they do. Sara lived with her mother and grandmother but Sara was not on good terms with her mom. Hating her gender, she decides to undergo gender affirmation surgery to become male. For that, she finds the best hospital and makes her way without telling anyone, and during the journey, she meets a young man named Anthony. The rest of the story revolves around their friendship and the changes in Sara’s life after meeting Anthony.
•ANALYSIS OF THE DIRECTION, STORY, SCREENPLAY AND DIALOGUES:
The film Mike is directed by Vishnu Sivaprasad and written by Ashiq Akbar Ali. The movie is produced by John Abraham under JA Entertainments and is released by Century release. The movie stars Anaswara Rajan and Ranjeeth Sanjeev in the lead roles. The cinematography is by Renadive and editing is by Vivek Harshan. With a running time of 01 Hours and 48 minutes, the film is currently running in theatres with a U/A censor certificate.
The basic theme of this film is fantastic, it’s a relevant subject which needs to be discussed. Gender affirmation or Sex Reassignment surgery is the topic which the movie portrays, it was a great theme and without any fear, the makers had brought it fearlessly. But sadly due to the poor direction, cliche storyline, weak screenplay and badly written characters, the film turns out to be less interesting and engaging. The theme of the film was having the strength to create an impact but unfortunately, the makers had miserably killed a good theme by the weak execution. There were many flaws, the direction didn’t have good momentum, and some of the important scenes were getting flattened, as a viewer I was not able to relate to the premise and the storyline. The theme was great, but it was not utilised properly, the writing and the screenplay did not do any justice to the theme of this film.
There are some moments in the second half like the realisation of who I am, do I really need to change my gender and what’s the purpose of changing my gender was shot well in the film, but the journey of the film to these moments was not that much exciting. The predictability in the story was causing many issues for my viewing experience. Every scene is predictable and what’s going to happen next can be understood easily. Therefore the ultimate climax didn’t create any impact, how the movie is going to end and what will happen to the central characters and their final decision didn’t surprise me. We can find many routine cliches, and the flashback of the central characters was utterly disappointing. The tragic incident happening in the life of the hero was overdramatic, it was a kind of flashback which we used to see in the 90s. Also, the family issues in the heroine’s life were written out badly and that flashback scene killed the total atmosphere of the film. I wish the writers should have focused more to bring out fresh ideas, the life of the hero and heroine in the film goes through the toughest times and incidents happening to their life in the past have fallen flat for creating an influence. So rather than the theme, nothing was interesting, also the romantic track in the film was dull.
The screenplay was extremely poor so I didn’t feel the film was engaging. The first half of the film ended fastly but still, it was boring. The first ten minutes were ok, but when the heroine meets the hero things start to get off balance. Their friendship and the flashback of the hero were largely focused on in the first half. The flashback of the hero was tedious, slowly how the heroine and hero share a great bond among themselves was mediocre. Proper chemistry was missing in their combination, their acting and the situations haven’t matched well for the ongoing and upcoming situations. The hero’s look, attitude and personality were exactly like Vijay Deverakonda in Arjun Reddy, the same style and swag were seen in the acting of Ranjeeth Sanjeev so I felt it was making the character less interesting. The second half followed the journey of the heroine, her decision to change her gender, her living and friendship with the hero, her family flashback and her realisation was showcased in the second part. Compared with the first half the second half was better, at least there were some moments, the climax was predictable but the way they executed it was pretty decent. The flashback shown in the second half was poorly written, also the reason behind why the heroine decides to change her gender wasn’t justified or explained well. The villain character was poorly written, the affair scene felt regular, the husband and wife issue was also filled with typical cliche stuff and the Himalayan journey of the hero towards the end felt unrealistic.
So overall the script was disastrous, the theme was the only good thing. The storyline and screenplay were carelessly written and the making also didn’t have proper depth. Continuity was missing, scene by scene everything was predictable and the emotional outline of the central characters didn’t impress me. If the writers have done good research the script would have turned out better. When a person is deciding to change his/her gender it should at least have some solid reason rather than some teenage thoughts. The sociological and psychological criteria behind the reason for changing the gender were shown terribly. The reason was not at all unacceptable, the formalities in the hospital and how the doctor addresses a person like this were inaccurately shown. The love track in the film was also average, it was just ok, rather than some good frames of the hero and heroine nothing greatly worked out. Therefore the script was utterly weak and it was followed by a mediocre direction, and importantly, the performance of actors also didn’t turn out as saviour.
•PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS:
Anshwara Rajan and Ranjeeth Sanjeev are the ones who appear in the lead roles. Looking at their performances I found their acting as ok, it was good but not great. The mannerism of Anshwara Rajan was the same as we can see in her previous films. Her personality and attitude made resemblance to her last few films, the way she speaks and the dialogue delivery was the same which we can see in the films like Super Sharanya and Thanneer Mathan Dinangal. Her expression according to the different situations went nicely but she was not that perfect to do the sole, I think someone more mature would have been better for the role of Sara. Ranjeeth Sanjeev’s performance was average, his whole acting was reminding me of the attitude of Vijay Deverakonda and the film Arjun Reddy. The combination scene with Anshwara Rajan was decent, but the performance didn’t give a proper feel. His dialogue delivery could have been better, but he scores well in the action sequences. His outlook and gymnastic body were impressive, but the expression and the attitude he expressed were ordinary. Dayynna Hammed did a good job, her screen presence was less but she handled her role well. The supporting roles of Vettukili Prakash, Abhiram Radhakrishnan, Sini Abraham, Rohini and Jinu Jospeh were fine, everyone did justice to their roles. The actor who did the negative shade character did a good job, his actions and gym body suited well for the character.
•MUSIC, BACKGROUND SCORE & TECHNCIAL ASPECTS:
The musical work for the film is composed by Hesham Abdul Wahab, the songs he made and the background score he tuned were perfect. The song “Nee” was nice, and the vocals of Sid Sriram made it melodious. The song had given a pleasant feel and the lyrics of Kaithapuram made it more vibrant. The only additional vocals of Gayathry Rajiv, Luksimi Sivaveswaralingam, Devu Mathew and Vrusha Balu were attractive and created a good feel. The song ‘Ladki’ matched to set the situation and the vocals of Sithara Krishnakumar suited the song. Also, the lyrics with the Hindi words were fitting the style of the song. The song ‘Move Your Body’ was average, the beats in the song were striking but the tune was found ordinary. The vocals of Siddharth Menon and the dance steps in the song were fair. The background score in the film was terrific, the scenes didn’t give the proper emotion but still, the background score helped to make some feel. The background score in the emotional scene was nice but the scenes lacked to give a good impact because of the poor script and execution.
The cinematography by Renadive was beautiful, there were many good frames and the whole cinematography looked classy. The action sequences with the slow motion towards the climax were superb, also the camera movements in the Kalari martial art scene were outstanding. The cinematographer focused more on the close-up shots to showcase the acting skills of the actors and it was nicely done. The editing of Vivek Harshan was satisfying, mismatches were never felt and the transition of scenes from one to another went smoothly. The colour grading was reasonable and the action sequences in the film looked energetic, especially the rain fight scenes.
•CONCLUSION:
So overall the film ‘Mike’ had give me a disappointing experience because of the shoddy screenplay and making. The theme of the film was amazing but when they executed it into a script that there was no proper depth, I didn’t feel any kind of emotional connection with the premise of the film. The direction was mediocre and the cliches crammed in the film were making my viewing experience dull. The performance of the lead actors was also average and sadly the film failed to create an impact. If the writer and director had done proper research on the theme the movie could have been turned better. So I won’t recommend this film and better to watch it at your own risk.
•VERDICT: DISAPPOINTING
•RATING: 2/5
