Producer– Sudeep Karat, Arun M C, Sreekumari CS
Director– Rajeevnath
Cast– Jayasurya, Anoop Menon, P Balachandran, Lena, Indrans, Sowmya, Anumol etc.
Music– Ratheesh Vega
Review By : Unni R Nair (Kerala9.com )
I am not totally disappointed with Rajeevnath’s ‘David and Goliath’, and I am not totally impressed either. As I sat there watching the film, I was hooked on to the proceedings. The story, the location and the cinematography, the performances etc kept me engrossed, but once I got out of the theatre, I realized that there is not much worth carrying with me in my mind. What I had seen could to an extent be forgotten, courtesy the lag that makes you feel more exhausted than exhilarated and some vital issues with the script.
David (Jayasurya) is an orphan, brought up with love and care by Father Gerald (P.Balachandran). David had always been told by Father Gerald that it’s Jesus who is his Father. The young chap is afraid of people and when he is afraid, his nose starts bleeding. At school, his nose bleeds when he sits for exams with other students, but he is confident when allowed to write the exams all alone and scores full marks. This trait remains all along with David, who excels in making all kinds of devices and innovative machines. An inventor in his own right, he makes a machine that generates power, but when given the chance to exhibit his invention, goes nervous and fails miserably. He also vows to protect young Sharon (Sowmya) against a guy who teases and threatens to molest her, but backs out at the right moment due to his inherent fear. But later, Father Gerald’s narration of the biblical story of David and Goliath makes him take up arms against the molester. After Father Gerald passes away, David is left all alone and has to move away from the church, which, along with the adjacent property, has been bought by someone else. It’s while travelling away from the church that the power-generating device he invented falls into a river and gets lost.
Enter Sunny Kaithamattam (Anoop Menon), an ambitious guy who is happily married to Deepa (Anumol) and has a little daughter Twinkle and who aspires to do wonders as an entrepreneur. He has already lost much money, but hasn’t lost hope and moves on, fired by this hope. Sunny happens to find the power generating device and that ignites his hopes. Soon he fetches the person behind the invention, the meek and sincere David and requests him to stand by him. But little does David, who readily accepts the request, know that Sunny would turn another Goliath in his life. What all happens next forms the plot of the film.
The plot in interesting; the biblical parallels and references apt and the way the story evolves is also interesting. But there is something cold, something dull and insipid about the film that makes it go wrong at some level. ‘David and Goliath’ doesn’t communicate as it should have done and doesn’t stand out as extra-ordinary. There is some kind of a lag, a rather slow pace that at times makes you let out a yawn or two. I feel the film should have been a bit more fast and loud and then the interesting plot would have made for a good, really good film.
As of now, ‘David and Goliath’, though interesting and different, is a bit slow-moving and doesn’t rise to the levels that it was expected to touch, being a Rajeevnath film scripted by Anoop Menon.
Performance
Jayasurya as David is good; he does a perfect job of his role. The trouble however is that he seems to have played characters of this shade very often and that sort of puts us off, despite his excellent performance. Anoop as Sunny is also good, but he too seems to be repeating himself, as regards the dialogues and dialogue rendition plus the mannerisms and the characterization aspect too. P Balachandran is the one who scores, among the others in the cast. The ladies don’t have much to do…Oops, forgot Lena, she is good indeed, nothing much to say about the other ladies in the cast..
Technical aspects
Jithu Damodar has captured the beautiful locations even more beautifully in his camera frames. Kudos, Jithu! Art-work by Arkkan Kollam is also good. Xian could have made the film a bit slicker with editing of a different kind. Just a thought, as the film is slow moving at times.
Music
Ratheesh Vega does a good work of the music, both the background score and the songs. “Athiru kaakkum mala…” stands out…
Script
Anoop Menon deserves appreciation for having come up with such a different theme. But there is something lacking in his script, some amount of pace and loudness which bestows the film with a cold and dull feel and it’s this that has hampered the flow of the whole film.
Direction
Rajeevnath is in control of things and directs the film in his typical style. But that he couldn’t rise above the script and make-up for its flaws is also notable.
Verdict– Good, interesting plot, good performances…but slow moving and a bit boring.
Rating: 2.5/5