Patriot Review: Will Mammootty-Mohanlal Reunion Enough For You To Reach The Theatre?
Patriot Review: Okay. Finally, they are here on the big screen after almost 18 years, together. I am talking about Mammootty and Mohanlal, who are like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan or MGR and Sivaji Ganesan or NTR and Akkineni Nageswara Rao or Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna, Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor or Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor or Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan or Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee or Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the Malayalam film industry who are ruling and competing with each other for decades for good movies and legacy. After acting together in Twenty:20 (2008), a Malayalam multi-starrer featuring both as lead actors, they were later seen in 2013 for Kadal Kadannu Oru Maathukutty which had a cameo appearance by Mohanlal. And this time, it’s for Patriot by Mahesh Narayanan, the editor-turned-director who is famous for Take Off, Cee You Soon, Malik and Ariyippu.
(Spoiler alert) So, is Patriot worth the hype it was marketed for? As a cinematic experience, Patriot has many good things to take the audience the cinemas in these days of scorching heat and political happenings. Obviously, the first reason is the most expected reunion of Mohanlal and Mammootty. They are not like Salman and Shah Rukh in Pathaan or Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat. They are in their own universe in Patriot. Mammootty as Daniel James is a committed to his job, profession and righteousness, while Mohanlal as Rahim Naik is a retired but still able to take risk, not only for him but also for one of his good friends. Are they together in the mission? That is for the movie to tell. But, if you have watched the trailer, yes, what you had seen in the shots are correct, and there is blast in the reunion.
In a role reversal of Narasimham (2000 action drama film directed by Shaji Kailas and written by Ranjith), you could say, Mohanlal is doing much of an extended cameo while Mammootty is there all through the movie. As reports said earlier and also was mentioned by Mammootty himself in an interview, the first cast of the movie was Mammootty, and the role which was given to Mohanlal was earlier set for someone from Bollywood or outside – a normal practice in Malayalam to give extra hype to a savior or powerful character.
About the elephant in the room – whether the septuagenarian is still capable of pulling off full-fledged action flicks or not? -, yes. Mammootty is going to do such things many more times. Mammootty of Patriot is an amalgamation of what you had already seen in movies like Turbo, Kannur Squad, Bheeshma Parvam and The King. He is powerful when in a stunt, he is breathtaking when acting emotional scenes and he is mesmerizing when camera focusses on him.
Then comes Mohanlal. Though his parts were limited, he registered the second half of the movie on his name. By the time you read this review, you might have heard rumours about what happens to his character towards the end. Don’t give much thought and time to those things. Mohanlal is Mohanlal, and the director who created magic with Fahadh Faasil in Malik has created same thing with his actors in this movie. Like it happens in many action and mass movies, both the big ‘M’s are not introduced to the film with the so called mass intro scenes. They both enter into the story without much noise. Mohanlal also enters into Patriot’s most volatile moments with ease and calm. Then Mohanlal does what he does: steals the screen.
Another positive of Patriot is its second rung characters including those of Fahadh Faasil, Kunchacko Boban, Revathi, Nayanthara, Darshana, Rajiv Menon and Zarin Shihab. Out of these important characters, Fahadh, Kunchacko, Rajiv and Zarin got enough time and scenes to make their performance visible and effective in the whole movie. Fahadh, with a powerful character with negative shade, proved again why directors and writers believe in him. Though she remains unrecognizable in the most part of the movie, with a tilt of sorrow and agony on her face, Zarin’s Ayisha will stay with you even after you leave the theatre. Kunchacko was able to shift between different roles with the elements of redemption and atonement.
There are more things you will find interesting in the movie, like the story. It might be the first time a mainstream movie goes into the detail on how government and corporate companies misuse your data and privacy. By drawing parallels to spyware like Pegasus, writer-director Mahesh Narayanan bravely addresses the issue, and question the authorities on their aims and objectives of bringing surveillance into our day to day life. Mahesh was also successful in bringing in high quality action sequences to the Malayalam after a long time.
Despite an expansive cast, a substantial budget, and a top-tier technical team, the film falters in two critical areas. First, the narrative occasionally loses the audience as the dialogue becomes overly technical and the scene transitions feel disjointed. Second, even legendary leads like Mammootty and Mohanlal are underutilized, appearing statuesque in moments where the script fails to give them purpose.
Timeline verdict: Patriot is good movie with a great story and fantastic cast. Watch the movie for its story and cast, though you will feel a little bit discomfort at times.
