 At last Lal is back with his favorite director playing another regular character of a mystified don, a millionaire who is into everything ranging from music to fisticuffs. And this time with every needed bit meticulously pasted for the grand package and performance from the veteran actor, arrives the first sure hit of the year 'Red Chillies'.
Essentially a murder mystery, the film has Mohanlal as OMR (a contraction of Oyyarath Madathil Ramanathan or is it that of catchphrase 'Onnum Marakkilla Rama''?), a tough and shrewd NRI business magnet who is well settled with his business firms and enemies, all across the Middle East and Singapore. He also runs an FM station 919.1 - OMR FM, which is based in Kochi. All the nine leading jockeys (RJ's) of the FM station are madly in love with this high flying businessman, whom they have never met in person. On New Year's Eve, OMR promises his jockeys that he would come over to meet them and reveal something to one of them. And the jockeys who are more than happy go around partying, dancing, disobeying traffic rules and creating panic but finds at the receiving end of all horrors, with one gigolo dead in their house. The very next morning also announces a hit and run case, presumably by the same Prado of the jockeys, killing ten workers who were on a round the clock agitation in front of a factory, including their leader Maani Varghese. The girls with a gang rape case and killing of almost a dozen people due to their displeasing manners, flee the spot .But as the police led by Commissioner Vyasan and Mani's IPS's son, Stalin track the car, the business baron OMR is forced to crash land in his home country with his own cheer girls, to save his other staff from a tricky plot that is aimed at him. He takes on the entire system single handedly, sometimes becoming an advocate, often a business tycoon and even the deity of a village.
Though resembling the 1997, Morgan freeman movie 'Kiss the Girls', A K Sajan has effectively re-created and mixed the basic premise of his previous hit 'Chinthamani Kola Case ' to suit a Mohanlal fans' taste. To the credit of the director Shaji Kailash, the movie has everything from great visuals by cinematographer Shaji, hard hitting punch lines, generously graded and colour corrected shots and most of the visuals effects known to the editor. The movie keeps us engaged till the last forty minutes but later half drags due to big pit holes in the plot. The lack of a meticulous screenplay is clearly highlighted in the last half an hour of the movie which is a bit long at two hours and 40 minutes.
Mohanlal is certainly the highpoint of the flick with another effortless rendering of style and substance. He holds the movie altogether with his versatility and never a minute appear plastic or unbelievable, though the plot offers many loose ends. He in fact has three presentations in the movie, with stylishly done slow motion sequences and fresh hairdo and a bearded look that may satisfy his fan followings. Senior actors like Thilakan, Biju Meon and Siddhique are also a treat to watch in many sequences in the first half.
The movie makers also finds surprising business chances promoting a bunch of products through the film ranging from Club FM to Vodafone and Silkair, without affecting the story telling. But the unsavorily cut shots which continues with sound effects for every swish and insipid jumps, deters the interest in the proceedings.
Despite all this clichés, 'Red Chillies' is a definite recommendation for those who love the star in Lal and his mannerisms, Red chilies is sure to bring an end to the years continuous entries into the flop charts.
|
- 
