'Janakan' is old wine in new bottle

Movie: Janakan (Malayalam)

Director: Sanjeev NR

Starring: Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Biju Menon and Jyothirmayi

Music: M Jayachandran

After watching Janakan, the most-awaited film this summer, one may think – isn't anybody there to script a new story? Directed by debutant Sanjeev NR, Janakan is quite similar to the Malayalam movie Vairam which released a year back. Both the movies tell the story about the revenge of a father whose daughter was murdered after brutal gang rape.

The story begins with the scene in which Vishwanathan (Suresh Gopi), Monayi (Biju Menon) and Palani (Harishree Ashokan) flee from the cops. Though faced with many obstacles, they manage to enter the residence of Sooryanarayanan (Mohanlal), an ace lawyer in the state. There they narrate their past and present to Sooryanarayanan.

Vishwanathan's teenage daughter was brutally raped and murdered by a gang of highly rich and powerful businessmen along with an assistant commissioner of police and a young DJ. The desperate father sought justice, but the culprits escaped from the law. The angry father decided to take revenge and kill the trio. The state home minister's son and the city police commissioner's daughter, who were classmates of Vishwanathan’s daughter, help Vishwanathan.

Sooryanarayanan tries to save the lives of Vishwanathan and his friends, and how he does it is the story of the movie.

Expected to be a high-drama investigative film, Janakan falters on many occasions because of the lack of punch in scenes and dialogues.

The story develops in such a way that the spotlight keeps shifting on many characters, so much so that the intensity is lost totally.

The script by SN Swamy is OK, but would have been better if he had reduced the hype of Sooryanarayanan's character. Take those numerous scenes where almost everyone ranging from ministers to magistrates to hotshot cops eat the humble pie before him!

The first half is definitely thrilling, but somehow the second half is more or less predictable losing the momentum of the movie. Moviegoers expect much more control over the script from a veteran like SN Swamy.

Though performances from the lead actors are pretty decent throughout, it's the characters that fail them repeatedly. Mohanlal and Jyothirmayi (who plays the role of Dr Rani Mathew) have done what they have been offered with ease, while Suresh Gopi and Vijayaraghavan (city police commissioner) are good in at least a couple of scenes. Janakan loses out on characterisation and even the lead roles played quite well by Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi are no exception.

The music by M Jayachandran is good. Editor G Murali could have done a better job by removing many 'unwanted' scenes that tried to simply hype the character of Sooryanarayanan.

Director Sanjeev has tried to give a new angle to a story that's already been told several times, but he has failed to use class actors Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Biju Menon up to their potential.

A watchable movie, if you don't expect much!

Rating: 2.5/5

Critic: Shyam PV