Best Actor - Movie Review

Best Actor – Movie Review

Director- Martin Prakat

Producer- Naushad

Cinematography – Ajayan Vincent

Music – Bijilal

Cast- Mammooty, Lal, Nedumudi Venu, Sreenivasan, Salim Kumar, Shruthi Krishnan, Biju Kuttan, Ranjith, Lal Jose.

            Debutant Martin Prakat’s ‘Best Actor’ starring Mammootty hit the theatres last week. On seeing the movie’s name we feel that it is the story of a superstar, but in fact ‘Best Actor’ is the story of ‘Mohan’, an ordinary school teacher who aspires to be an actor.

            The movie starts with the ordinary life of Mohan who is shown visiting directors begging for roles in their upcoming projects. Directors Lal Jose and Ranjith play short-roles as themselves.

            After an incident that led to Mohan being insulted in front of his own villagers, he leaves the village for Kochi. There he joins a group of ‘goondas’  (Lal, Nedumudi Venu, Salim Kumar) to learn about their ways of living and improve his acting skills.

            The first half of ‘Best Actor’ is quite ordinary. We feel as if the scriptwriters (Martin Prakat & Bipin Chandran) are desperately trying to make us laugh, but as is evident, they didn’t succeed immensely.

            ‘Best Actor’ takes a sudden turn in the second half when the ordinary school teacher suddenly turns into the filmy action hero. The ‘Om Shanthi Om’ dialogue “picture abhi baaki hae mere dosth” is used to signify the change in the hero’s character. But on many occasions there was this feeling that the second character of the hero was actually a mimic of several ‘famous’ characters including SRK’s ‘Om Prakash Makhija’ in OSO. But, perhaps that is what the director wants us to feel.

            The character of Biju Kuttan barely made anyone laugh. The few hilarious moments were from the characters of Salim Kumar, Nedumudi Venu and Lal. Sreenivasan plays a small but important role. Another highlight is the ‘dual climax’ which must be watched rather than said.

            The heroine Shruthi Krishnan is a positive that Malayalam cinema can take out of the movie. She, though not a Malayali, has got the perfect Keralite look and was aptly cast for the role.

            Bijilal’s music is commendable and the title song is interesting. Cinematography is handled pretty well by Ajayan Vincent.

            Martin Prakat has proven his ability as a director with his first film itself but could have handled the script better.

            Overall, ‘Best Actor’ is a decent movie but one that could have been even better with a proper script.

Rating: 3.5/5