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Coming after Rajamanikyam, and Pokkiriraja is another film in the same vein in the title ‘Rajadhiraja’. Presented by debutante Ajai Vasudev, the movie but starts off in a different manner than these prototypes but graduate soon into the similar lines of mass thrillers. Clearly meant to satisfy the fans of Mammootty, the fast-paced flick but goes for over the top action and easy twists and climax to spoil the plot.
The movie follows Aiyappan(Jojo), a fraudster who is moving on to a village in the border, to the place of his brother-in-law Sekharankutty,(Mammootty) who works as the manager of a petroleum pump in the highway and also runs a restaurant nearby. Sekharankutty is a decent gentleman who weights his family comprising of wife Radha(Rai Lekshmy) and his only daughter Sreedurga, much more than anything else. He is very particular not to get involved in any skirmishes that happen outside his family. But as an impulsive Aiyappan steps into the restaurant, he also starts to make newer problems to Sekharankutty in an everyday basis. With police and conman at his doorsteps everyday, Sekharankutty is forced to take a new avatar to protect his dear ones from impending danger.
A formulaic clichéd film from scriptwriters Uday Krissna- Sibi K Thomas, ‘Rajadhiraja’ inspired from films like ‘Ustad’ and ‘Basha’ is filled with plenty of mass elements, slow motions and star tantrums to satisfy the fans of its lead star. The former half of the movie which takes a different buildup of the lead character is impressive. The flashback scenes are also told with flair with Mammoottty looking younger and stylish in different looks. But the problem with the movie is it’s unrealistic action scenes ,whose lack of believability largely affects the effectiveness of the other part of the narratives which are canned better. A few years back,(particularly at the time of Pokkiriraja) Mammootty could have earned applauses with this kind of action with henchman thrown all around and bouncing back to distances, but of late we don’t know whether there will be many takers for these predictable ‘Telugu’ style action. Add to that the poor dialogues and punch lines doesn’t work well for the movie.
Ajai Vasudev ably proves that he is a close disciple of director Joshy and Vysakh, sticking to their styles of pacy making , though he is offered not so promising scripts . With plenty of helicam and aerial shots, the movie has a chic look but could have fared better if the entire action scenes and climax was shot more realistically. In the acting side Jojo effectively holds the movie all across with his dumb act and cracks some fine wits .Mammootty is back to his previous action avatars, though he is not having any easy walk through across action stuffs .A couple of sentimental scenes are also handled wisely by the senior star. Nelson as a restaurant staff manages to create a few fine laughter's while Rai Lekshmy , Joy Mathew and Siddhique are clad in their regular roles.
In the technical side, Cinematographer Shaji repeats his ‘Pokkiriraja’ style of shot- making, while Mahesh Narayanan’s fine cuts evenly pace the move which is currently at 148 minutes. The three songs in the narratives are rhythmic, though they are pictured in an average manner and the last one comes up in an unwanted time. Gopi Sundar’s BG scores are over the top, but the title music is thrilling.
In the final analysis, ‘Rajadhiraja’ doesn’t offer any freshness in narratives. But it can be a fine for an one-time watch, if you are not in theatres with any big expectations. Rating -6/10 |
