Dubai is the story of Ravi Mammen, played by Mammooty, who seeks revenge for the death of his wife who was killed 10 years ago by some politicians and underworld gangs et al. This gives the producers of this film an excuse to pack up the crew and head all the way to Dubai to shoot this sad excuse for a move.
The movie is filled with flaws that even our Mallu public would notice. The errors in this movie range from simple continuity mistakes, which is part and parcel of every Malayalam movie to major factual errors. There is a scene where a white man asks Mr. Nair (N.F. Varghese) In an obvious Australian accent, why he is being asked to wait. Later in the film we are reminded that he is actually British. But hey, the dudes back home wouldn’t know the difference anyway. I believe that the British today are not that racist. Even if they are, I doubt if they would openly call anyone an ’’Idiotic Indian’’, in front of a whole bunch of Indians. It was probably added to give Mammooty an opportunity to blare out his usual barrage of insults for no apparent reason.
A chopper is shown carrying Mammooty to his office Building flying over Dubai City to the Al Habtoor Tower in Al Maktoum Street, Deira Dubai. First of all the chopper is a Civil Aviation aircraft, they do not render chauffeur services. The office is latter shown to be the B.M.W, showroom in sheikh Zayed Street, situated outside the city area. This is also evident in the earlier scene with the Australian; several BMW models can be seen parked in the showroom. This building does not have a helipad on its roof. Ravi Mammen is a very cool Business man who sell BMWs in the ground floor showroom while his conference room doubles as a Reebok showroom. There is also a nice discount going on which can bee seen in the background ’’Buy a reebok and Get All your Money Back’’. The Australian man who pretends to be an Englishman who drinks only Dutch beer (Amstel, Hieniken) is abused and accused of British imperialism in India that took place a hundred years ago. Great going sofar.
Ravi Mammen cleverly asks the Australian to a duel of Malayalam pronunciation and asks him to pronounce Ambala Puzha. Since the Australian hasn’t the faintest idea what this lunatic is trying to achieve, He makes a faithful attempt. Which sounded pretty neat when compared to Mammooty’s attempt at English. However it remains to be seen if any one would ever understand even a single line of English dialogue delivered by Mammooty throughout the entire film. Ravi Mammen is pissed off because of all this and cancels all business deals with the poor guy. Brown man 10/10 points, White man 0/100 points, Applause applause. Everyone is happy. But how is this relevant to this movie? We may never know.
Whenever a computer is shown in any Malayalam movies, they emit strange beeps and squeaks which our ears are not yet trained to pick up. Especially when the keyboard and mouse are used. It has been religiously followed in this film in the scene where Nedumudi is in front of his PC. When Haneef is introduced to us he is seen talking on his cell phone. He is accompanied by a Malayalee whom Haneef addresses as ’’ Vakeel’’ . Meaning Advocate. The UAE department of Justice forbids non UAE-Nationals to hold the post of Advocate. Ravi Mammen and Yousuf are shown driving to Hamriya port. They then walk 2 kilometres all the way to Deira Creek Jetty near National Bank of Dubai, to meet Mamukoya. They could have driven there on their BMW roadster. Perhaps Mamooty was avoiding the new parking meters installed at the wharf side. In spite of all the money spent on this movie, several scenes could have really spiced up this film. Some incidents are related instead of being enacted. Victor Sebastian’s (Haneef) life story is verbally narrated in one take. A more elaborate portralyal would have added some colour to this rather monotonous 2 dimensional scene. In his story Haneef talks of an ’’Ajman Sharjah Abu Dhabi Route’’. There is no such Route. Thers is however Ajman, Sharjah Dubai, route to Abu Dhabi. At swaminatans murder scene:
The police vehicles and personnel shown at the crime scene at Swaminathans house are Sharjah Police. The barricade tape shown is a Red tape. Sharjah police only use yellow tape with Arabic and English text. The English text simply reads ’’Sharjah Police’’. The Red Tape shown in this scene reads. ’’Crime Scene Do Not Cross’’ Such a tape is not used in any police department in the UAE. Public Cremation is not allowed in the United Arab Emirates. Especially in the immaculately preserved deserts of the Emirates. There are only electric crematoria in Sonapur in Dubai.
Ammu is shown arriving at Dubai International Airport. Neither Dubai International Airport nor any international airport allow visitors to enter the baggage clearance area. Ammu clearly shown being received here.
But the funniest goof of them all was towards the end of the film When the villain, Kishen Narayan Bhatta , is dramatically beheaded by the helicopters spinning blades. A standard helicopter’s blade spins well above a mans head. Approximately 10’ and 12’ above ground. There is also several shots where we actually see Mammooty standing very close to the Helicopter. Kishen Narayan should be the tallest man on the planet in order for the blades to reach his neck. Why did I spend two hours writing a review of this trash which should have been left on the cutting floors of the editing room in Chennai? Because I want our viewers to know what sort of silly muddle we are being served.
A lot of money was wasted on producing this elaborate farce. There is nothing in this film that attests to the expense. Its obvious this team had access to use two Helicopters in one particular scene. Achieving this expensive affair in a small town like Dubai is a big deal, for the Mallu crowd. In spite of this not one decent aerial shot of the beautiful Dubai City, the Desert, or the spectacular Hajjar Mountains were shot. A 6th grader could have written better dialogues than the joker who was hired to write this one.Shame on us who have made