Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves

Language: Malayalam
Genre: Action/Drama
Starring: Prithviraj, Narein, Bhavana
Director: Joshy (or Josheiey, as he spells at times)
Rating: Three Rotten Eggs



Contrary to what one might make out from the title, the protagonist of this movie hasn't got much in common with his legendary namesake. While the latter looted the affluent and fed the oppressed, the former played by Prithviraj, steals money from ATM counters of a particular bank (fictional, of course) for a reason which is entirely personal. So if this guy is a petty thief without any social obligation then why is the title of the movie an unabashed copy of a semi-biopic Kevin Costner starer? Well, we are as clueless as those investigators shown in this movie.

To add further insult to this excuse of a plot, the director has roped in four more bad actors in pivotal roles. Narein (I just hope I spelled his name correctly!) plays the role of a private detective hired by the Chairman of the Bank to investigate the series of robberies. An attempt to give several shades to his character has gone horribly wrong here. So we see him fooling around with the Chairman's Secretary, going about with the investigation as if he is holidaying in the Caribbean, cracking inane jokes as if they are earth shattering ones, handing a blow or two to an unruly customer of the bank etc. The weight of these several personalities is too much on him and as a result he ends up as a clown and quite a bad one at that.

The next in tow is of course, the bad actor of the decade (maybe our life time too!), Jayasurya. He is thrust upon with the role of a cop that requires robustness and he fails miserably as one would expect from him. Thankfully his role is minuscule and that itself is a consolation.

The names of the female leads, both fixated(one-way, two-way, three-way etc) on Prithviraj is enough to play spoilsport in any engaging conversation and both of them, Bhavana and Samrutha (as bad as ever) makes sure that we dont have a good time. They make things difficult either with their dialogues or songs and dances.

Bhavana's character, a staff of the Bank in question, is brought
from Mumbai to assist Narein and the two of them moves in as next door neighbors to Prithviraj. To our hero these two are simply auditors. Soon they start hanging out together and in a seemingly innocuous situation Narein reveals his true identity. Well, Prithviraj's hands tremble and he helps himself to a glass of water. A few reels and a lot of yawns later the twist in the tale comes out as stale as a week old roti and we are told that Bhavana is actually Prithviraj's girlfriend cum mole-in-the-bank. Well, she might have forgotten to alert her boyfriend that the supposedly charming auditor is in fact a donkey in disguise. Such memory lapse is of course pardonable in a movie like this. In another remarkable sequence, Prithviraj sets out on his motorcycle from Kochi after midnight, stops at an ATM counter of the Bank, withdraws money using several cards, repeats the process on the way till he reaches Thiruvananthapuram. A cool round trip of 450 Kilometers with countless stops in between and he is back in Kochi by dawn! That mo-bike must be something and he must agility personified! Apart from such blatant errors, the repetitive and boring robberies, the leisurely paced investigations, the romantic tracks, the expected twists, the usual flashback, an illogical climax and an even more idiotic epilogue add to our woes.

On a general note, it must be said that whenever an Indian movie attempts to show technological advancements, we know we are in for good humour. The same holds true here too. Watch out for the scene in which Electro-Magnetic waves from an ATM is captured by an antenna which is placed in a car strategically parked by the roadside. Ditto for some of the sequences involving the designing of fake ATM cards out of used Mobile Recharge Coupons. The word 'scientific' is overused in the dialogues, if only some thought on those lines had gone into the heads of the writers.