Those who think the future of Malayalam films is bleak, watch Malayalam film Passenger starring Dileep, Sreenivasan and Mamta Mohandas. The film gives you hope that there are new filmmakers, who want to try something out of the ordinary.
The film, written and directed by newcomer Ranjith Sankar, stays away from clichés as far as possible.
The gist of the film is simple: Any commoner with courage can take on the high and mighty and fight injustice. When that commoner is portrayed by redoubtable Sreenivasan, you are sure to be entertained.
The backdrop of the film is a train journey and a group of people using the train daily to earn their livelihood. They become friends with the fellow travellers and pass their travelling time playing cards and gossiping.
Sathyanathan (Sreenivasan) is member of one such group. His character is established as an activist with zeal; running a signature campaign for cleaner toilets in the trains and demanding more trains on busy routes. But this is looked down upon by his family and friends.
Running parallel to this is the story of a yuppie couple Adv. Nandan Menon (Dileep) and his TV journalist wife Anuradha (Mamta Mohandas). They are also social activists in a way. They have locked horns with no less than the Home Minister, Thomas Chako (Jagathy Sreekumar) over an environmentally disastrous case of sand mining, which would displace a whole community. The Home Minister is also entangled in a sexual harassment case.
By interval, all the three parallel stories suck us into its vortex.
There are numerous things going for this film apart from the basic story and the structure. This may be the first Malayalam film where new age technology tools like 3G cell phones, laptops and webcams are shown in a positive light (maybe because the creator Ranjith Sankar is a former IT professional). And like his Guru Lal Jose, the narrative is not overly dialogue-driven.
Sreenivasan is the pivot around which the film revolves. But thankfully, there is no overdose of self deprecatory humour.
Dileep happily plays a role that may be termed as second fiddle. Mamta Mohandas' oomph quotient is used in minimum, which is a rarity. Veterans like Jagathy and Nedumudi Venu are judiciously used.
On the whole, Passenger is worth your time and money.
Rediff Rating: