There are some brilliant commercial movies which had to face an unbelievable cruel fate at the box office. Lal Jose’s subtle classic* “Randaam Bhaavam”, Sangeet Sivan’s “Yodha”, Dennis Joseph’s “Atharvam”, T.K. Rajeev Kumar’s “Pavitram”, Satyan Anthikkad’s “Pingami”, Pratap Pothen’s “Oru Yatramozhi”, Murali Nagavally’s “Wanted”* etc. etc. The year 2006 added two more to that list. Padmakumar’s “Vaastavam” and B. Unnikrishnan’s “Smart City*”.
Smart City
Language: Malayalam
Script and Direction: Unnikrishnan B.
Music: Kadri
Cast: Suresh Gopi, Murali, Manoj K. Jayan, Shammy Tilakan, Gopika, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Siddique, Jayasurya, Rajmohan Unnittaan, Sanjay Mitra, Sadiq, Baburaj and Rajan P. Dev and Kunchan(guests) etc.
*Plot
Shekharan(Murali) is the kingpin of the Gold Mafia of Kochi for several decades. He is very much dependent on his right hand Madhavan(Suresh Gopi). Including many business, they have their share in the real estate market of the fastest growing city of India. The *Kottoorans Group *is the arch rival of Shekharan’s syndicate.[ Kottooran’s Group is led by people like Joseph Kottooran(Rajmohan Unnittaan), Sadique, Sanjay Mitra(Vyshali* fame Bengali actor), the finance minister(Shammy Tilakan) etc.]
The Government acquires land from poor farmers to hand over to the BMW Company for a car factory. The deal ensures employment for one person per family of the farmers. But the company moves to Tamil Nadu and the manipulators inside the Government including the finance minister join hand with the Kottoorans to make the worst ever Real estate deal with a foreign company based in Quatar. The land of the poor farmers will be converted into a luxury village inside the city. It will be called as “Satellite City”.
Shekharan is determined to return the land to the farmers. Now the fight begins. One man is observing all these developments, he is the son- in- law of Shekharan, Sharat Chandran(Manoj K. Jayan), a Town Planning Officer in the GCDA(Greater Cochin Development Authority). Now another interesting character, the city police commissioner(Siddique) enters. He hatches a plan to destroy the city mafia. His first targets are Madhavan and Shekharan. He finds out Madhavan’s only weakness – an adopted sister(Gopika) now studying in a media school in Munnar- . Now she and her boy friend(Jayasurya) also fall in to the vicious game of the mafia and police.
* Script and Direction
* “Smart City” is one of the best scripts of 2006. Hats off to the critic turned writer-director Unnikrishnan B. All dialogues are sharp and sensible like those used to come from Ranji Panikkar. The story reminds us one big recent controversy in Kerala politics. Unnikrishnan’s direction is inspired from that of Shaji Kailas but is very good.
The film has brilliant camera work too. Newcomer Kadri’s two songs won’t stay in your mind even though they don’t irritate you. The film has a running time of almost two hours and it is thrilling.
Acting performances
In Malayalam cinema, the only hero who can match the screen presence of Mohan Lal is Suresh Gopi. When it comes to such strong and sharp manly roles, even our Mega star Mammootty can’t match him. Suresh Gopi’s best performance in 2006 is for this movie.The others have done well, especially Murali as Shekharan is brilliant. Lakshmi Gopalaswamy’s performance as the daughter of Shekharan is subtle and strong. Manoj K Jayan as the town planning officer has done well with his usual gimmicks in dialogue delivery.
In one scene, where Shekharan(Murali) comes for a settlement with *the Kottoorans, *the unsung character artist Sadiq shows a flash of immense talent.
Minuses
The director wanted not to exaggerate the story and hence the movie does not have an explosive climax. This may not satisfy the viewers. But the climax is not bad. The film was released along with Shaji Kailas’s Mohan Lal starrer “Baba Kalyani” and Roshan Andrew’s youthful “Note Book” .And “Smart City” is marketed badly with ineffective ads and promotions. So it became a flop.
So…
Smart City is thrilling with a tight script, brilliant acting and good direction. If it plays in any theatre near you, don’t miss it.