Making a full-length feature film out of the left-over ideas of your previous movie (‘Shutter’) might not be the best of ideas, as is evident from ‘Uncle’, Joy Mathew’s second outing as a script-writer.
- Starring: Mammootty, Joy Mathew, Karthika Muraleedharan, Muthumani
- Direction: Girish Damodar
Directed by debutant Girish Damodar, the film happens over the course of a road journey from Ooty to Kozhikode. An unexpected strike at her college, located in the hill station, forces Shruthi (Karthika Muraleedharan) to return home. Her father’s friend Krishnakumar (Mammootty), who is on a business trip there, offers her a lift home in his car, which she gladly accepts. But for Vijayan (Joy Mathew), her father, who knows Krishnakumar inside out, this means living through tense moments worrying about his daughter travelling with his old buddy.
The first half of the movie manages to kindle some interest in the viewer with simple concepts which is used to plant doubts in the minds of the viewer about Krishnakumar’s character and his true intentions. Interspersed with the road journey of the duo are conversations of his friends about the various escapades of the ‘still single’ man, and scenes depicting a worried Vijayan using various methods to ensure that his daughter is safe.
But, it simply does not work beyond a point because you know that the star playing that role will in the end predictably turn out to be a paragon of virtue. A non-star, with those baggages of virute, would perhaps have been a better choice. Of course, there are more than a hint of his many negative shades, which are evidently obvious attempts at misleading.
The content of the script, even otherwise, is so sparse that there is a visible struggle to fill the screen time. A hundred phone calls are made between the parents and the girl, most of it repeating the same lines, on where they have reached or when will they reach. The exchanges between Krishnakumar and Shruthi, though engaging initially, soon begin to tire you out, with some of the jokes falling flat. The real ‘message’ is retro-fitted at the fag end of the movie.
‘Uncle’ has an important message to deliver, but the script has only enough meat to sustain a short film.
