Lucifer

By

Vishwesh Devadas

• 

When a policeman dared to lay his hand on Stephan Nedumbally we can see one of the best over-the-shoulder shot which parades the powerful glare of a star we loved for decades. The movie is a blockbuster and I have to say it’s only because of our love towards Mohanlal, the icon. The grey shade that Prithviraj boasted about in every interview is just a façade to the safe take on the philanthropic don.

However, it’s the way we wanted to see him. The glare, the evil smirk and the reference to the devil himself. Again, if anyone could pull off something as powerful as the devil himself, it’s the charisma of Mohanlal. Somewhere in between a nail biting political drama and a glorified fan fiction, Mohanlal the icon towered over the script. For a movie that is filled with boring slow motions and migraine inducing background score, Mohanlal was the only solace, the only savior.

But it’s Prithviraj Irony Sukumaran that surprised me. Sometimes when you ramble about misogyny on your interviews, you often forget that you might need a never ending item number with semi naked women dancing to some godforsaken lyrics. One of those moments I wished Mohanlal smacked me with the same hammer he used for his second action sequence. Prithviraj as a director is nothing but a puppet to the sentiments of Mohanlal the star and does nothing to revive the great actor. Though enslaved to the industry norms which makes Stephan Nedumbally nothing close to grey, Lucifer brought out the sheer star value of Mohanlal. It is the crowd that make a mass movie, not the actor or the director. It is their love for the actor that makes them erupt in a theatre. It’s because there is no other Malayali who is loved more than Mohanlal. So Prithviraj didn’t press the ‘Mass’ button in his editing studio, it’s the adoration to Mohanlal that made me cry at the top of my voice. With that said, Lucifer is your love for Mohanlal and not vice-verse.