Ranjan Pramod, Lal and Howly will definitely regret for this overconfident experiment. ‘Photographer’ could have been ‘daringly different’ if it was conceived well. But unfortunately things happened otherwise.
“Photographer”
Language : Malayalam
Script & Direction : Ranjan Pramod
Producer : Howly Potur
Cinematography : Azhagappan
Music : Johnson Cast : Mohan Lal, Neeta Sree, Biju Menon, Manoj K. Jayan, Saranya Bhagyaraj etc.
The Plot
Freelance Photographer Dijo (Mohan Lal) earns a lot of money by contributing wild life photographs to The National Geographic Magazine. He is getting constant help from the indigenous people of Wayanad. On such a mission, one adivasi boy named ‘Tami’ assists him. But at the same time the adivasis’ agitation against the Government goes violent and a riot breaks out (between them and the police). Dijo captures one crucial photgraph.
He rescues Tami from a policeman (Manoj K. Jayan) and escapes. Later he discusses the incident with his friend, a minister (Biju Menon). But he advises Dijo not to publish the photograph and not to bring the boy before the public as it could harm the image of the ruling party. So , the boy is admitted to a juvenile home and later he disappears. Frustrated Dijo goes back to Wayanad to find the boy. But the special investigation team inside the jungle arrests ’the suspicious photographer with a camera hidden inside his cap’. After interrogation for days, they free him . But he is under depression and he looses his way out.
Meanwhile Dijo’s family –wife a Brahmin woman (Neeta Sree) and child- is taken care of by his brother Joy (Mohan Lal in a double role!) who is a planter -cum- pulp fiction writer. The inter religion marriage is not supported by both their parents. The story roams around such issues for a while and then goes back to the main theme. When our hero finds his way back to home, every issue gets settled.
Ranjan Pramod’s experiment
Some issues are discussed in a striking manner, especially the Malayali’s hypocrisy about social changes .Ranjan Pramod wanted to criticize the inactive and irresponsible politicians and bureaucrats .The film shows the contrast between the lives of us and the indigenous people of the same era. But Ranjan Pramod wanted to make the family audience appreciate the movie and thought that which is the only possible way to make it a success. So he added all the family sentiments and deviated from the main theme. The last 30- minutes of the movie is sheer non sense. Ranjan wanted to settle each family issue in a perfect manner and it is too amateurish to write a script like that. Ranjan is not matured far enough from his diploma film. This is evident in many sequences. The mother-character played by Bharti is a sheer waste of time.
Her mute scenes add up to atleast 15 minutes! The narration is irritatingly lazy.
But the visuals by cinematographer Azhagappan are breathtaking! And the melodious music by our great musician Johnson on his come back is an absolute treat! Johnson’s music is to be heard by many boastful musicians of today’s Malayalam cinema atleast to know how to make ‘songs with soul’ and not songs that only resemble old super hits. Each actor has tried to put their best. Mohan Lal is outstanding as usual. Neeta Sree the Kannada actor is above average. The two boys have done well too.
But this dead slow movie, due to its treatment, won’t entertain you and the issues discussed wont stay in your mind. So ‘Photographer’ is a disappointment.