‘Masterpiece’ review: excuse for hero worship

One is left wondering as the end titles roll by, as to why was it called masterpiece after all.

‘Masterpiece’ is quite an audacious title for a film. When a creator decides to give that name to his or her work of art, it points at a few things. In the case of a film, it can be a hint that the director has give it his all, and the work is the pinnacle of his artistic achievement. Or, it could be just a word play that has some connection to the narrative. In the case of Ajai Vasudev’s Masterpiece though, one is left wondering even as the end titles roll by, as to why was it called masterpiece after all.

The only possibility one can find is the title being just one more excuse for hero worship, which the film revels in. The story, set around a college campus has more than a few similarities to another recent superstar movie. Two rival gangs in this college, creatively named ‘Real fighters’ and ‘Royal warriors’ are at war with each other. Their rivalry and constant fights for one-upmanship leads to an unfortunate incident. When the whole situation looks irredeemable, in walks the new professor Edward Livingstone (Mammootty), to be the saviour.

The movie has all the elements one has come to expect from the pen of Udayakrishna, who also plays a cameo in it. It all plays out like something produced from an assembly line, right from the sequences inside the college campus, complete with the usual lame jokes inside the canteen to the two gangs perpetually running through the corridor, pumping their fists and brandishing hockey sticks.

With Mammootty’s entry, after an hour into the proceedings, expectedly the entire focus shifts to him, as students and teachers sing his praises and even the principal, whistling for him, as he walks in slow motion. The second half is a series of fights, interspersed with a crime investigation, the grand twist of which is revealed in a long monologue at the end, like in the good old 1990s.

The only novelty in the whole saga is the punchline — “I respect women” — delivered by the superstar on four separate occasions. After all the lines celebrating misogyny in several superstar movies over the years, this indeed was some novelty. Just that, with every repeat of that one line, it felt more out of place and half-hearted.

Even Santosh Pandit, that master of youtube kitsch, who plays a side character, will not consider this movie his masterpiece.