Shaji Kailas in his attempt to make a sequel (or can we call it a remake)to Sibi Malayil's twenty year old hit 'August 1', has managed to keep the feel of the original in its entire length, but the poor writing and lack of needed thrills has made it a pale imitation of the original.
The movie has Mammootty again in the role of Perumal, a senior officer with the Crime branch. He is now entrusted with the mission of finding the culprits behind the poisoning of the State Chief Minister Vasudevan,(Nedumudi Venu) who is now in a critical condition in hospital. The C M is in logger heads with the party secretary (Saikumar as a Pinarayi look alike) and also with the lottery and sand mafia. As with the original, there arrives the professional killer (this time, it is Siddhique) and the rest is predictable.
Though Shaji Kailas has resorted not to repeat the heavy presentations as in 'Baba kalyani 'or 'Red chillies', S N Swamy's scripts have all the mistakes that he had made in his recent investigative movies. The loopholes and illogical sequences in the scripts are numerous, much of which could have been made better with a little more care.The movie's slow pacing acts as a deterrent and everything that the writer keeps as big secrets is revealed much earlier. The big twist in the end that has become a routine in S N Swamy movies, didn't measure up to the expectations which is also unearthed much before by viewers.The dialogues are another big letdown, which don't work as expected. In the camera department, Pradeep Nair goes the Shaji Kailas way with a lot of extreme close ups and cutaways, included liberally.
In the acting side, Mammootty as Perumal, the CBCID, looks good with sunglasses always on, and in the Royal Enfield shots.His slow motion walks accompanied with the loud BGM may appeal to the fans, but leaves nothing fresh for the actor to experiment on, though his war of words with his superior officers and scene in the party secretary's house are well and good. Lalu Alex as his senior officer Peter Zachariah garners much of the applause for his comic timing .Siddhique is ok as the professional killer with a different look, but is nowhere near the feat achieved by Captain Raju in the original.Meghna Raj and Shwetha Menon as the lead female characters find more space in the posters of the movie than in the movie.
On the whole, 'August 15' may fare a little better than ' Drona 2010' but may not help Shaji Kailas or S N Swamy to bounce back with a hit.Prescribed only for the big fans of the megastar who still likes him walking handsome in slow motions and doing routine investigative stuffs.
