Michael is the supreme commander of the celestial army, the great prince who will arise at a time of distress. You see the archangel with his magnificent wings many a time in Mikhael – a fresco, a pendant, a statue. And the only time you miss him is when Mike, the titular character played by Nivin Pauly, fills the screen. Haneef Adeni’s avenging angel has zero bravura and charm, all his swag emerging out of plush props and top-angle shots, booming BGM and Bible quotes.
- Director: Haneef Adeni
- Starring: Nivin Pauly, Unni Mukundan, J.D.Chakravarthy, Manjima Mohan
- Storyline: When his baby sister Jennifer becomes the target of a gangster, Mike, a man with a high tolerance threshold for taking insults and beatings, has to transform into an angel of deliverance
- Run time: 150 minutes
Like Adeni’s previous films, Mikhael too is a potpourri of crime and drama, a formulaic on-screen package built on his ever-favourite theme – vendetta. Though the film offers plenty of fan moments, it somehow falls short of the artistry and tenor that makes an action thriller click. While the film is engaging at some levels, it lacks that raw energy and intensity the genre demands.
A cross between a revenge thriller and a family drama, Mikhael is woven around a young doctor who suddenly finds himself in the middle of corrupt cops, deranged dons and contract killers. When his baby sister Jennifer becomes the target of a gangster, Mike, a man with a high tolerance threshold for taking insults and beatings, has to transform into an angel of deliverance. And then comes Nivin's Basha moment, which unceremoniously falls flat since no director can force-feed charisma to a star. As usual the actor is at home playing his boy-next-door scenes, but loses it when the screenplay demands him to re-emerge as a larger-than-life hero. He tries hard to concoct that grit-and-grace appeal, but his body language is all confused. He tries to manage with a single expression of permanently furrowed brows, so much so that you are worried he will have to take wrinkle treatment. He simply fails to sign off in a blaze of glory.
The film features a truckload of baddies, in all shapes and sizes. Marco Jr, played by Unni Mukundan, stomps his way through the movie like a mountain of muscles and spits some profound philosophical thoughts on human excreta. He also has this habit of taking shower in boxers, that too in other people's homes, and later walking into his waiting Jaguar, all in an attempt to intimidate. The screenplay makes sure all the villains have personalities with varied flavours and though Adeni invests a lot of reel time in establishing their weird credentials, most end up as caricatures. Similarly, while the character of Manjima Mohan is so irrelevant that you can't even remember her name, the actor who plays Mike’s sister Jennifer is impressive.
The camera handled by Vishnu Panicker follows all the rules of the genre, often accentuating the plush quotient of the film. The film has moments when the background score by Gopi Sundar turns nearly creepy if not comical, but the movie demands a lot more discretion at the editing table. Mikhael can be an average action fare, but it fails to live up to that epic proportions of a through thriller.
