For the die-hard fans, Mammootty’s latest film directed by debutant Jofin T Chacko completely revolves around the icon (as expected) playing a priest with some unusual abilities. The star keeps you glued to the screen, but surprisingly, the film is an unimpressive mix of a murder mystery and horror, making a loud kind of an effort to win over the audience.
Exploiting the two genres together, THE PRIEST begins with a murder mystery that gets solved within the first 50 minutes itself. However, the case ends on another unusual twist leading the investigating priest and police to a much darker secret. The presentation actually goes well till the intermission, but then it all becomes too loud and repetitive, offering nothing new in terms of either execution or content.
In fact, after around 90 minutes into the film, every scream along with the backgroud score starts annoying and you wish to get over it as soon as possible. The focus on an 11-year-old girl instantly reminds you of films having similar instances of exorcism seen in the past, becoming the major reason why the second half completely falls flat and fails to hold your attention in any manner.
In all, THE PRIEST is strictly an average film that begins on an exciting premise raising hopes, but isn’t able to exploit the same in any appreciable style . So you can watch it only for Mammootty and almost nothing else.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
(Note : The film is now available at Amazon Prime with English subtitles for a subscription)
Tags :
THE PRIEST (Malayalam) Review by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, New Malayalam Movies Reviews by Bobby Sing, New Regional Films Reviews by Bobby Sing, Mammootty New Films Reviews
