We always think that directors and writers should not stick one genre. Unlike Shaji Kailas or Priyadarshan, Renjith is a director who has tried various types of movies, but then he has a specialization in macho macho movies, like Ravanaprabhu and Black. Thus comes the problem. Unless you are extremely creative, these movies will look alike and scenes and dialogues from one movie will remind you of another. This is what seems to have happened with Prajapathi.
Mammootty takes a break from his comic – dancing capers and does a serious role. As per the trade reports the movie is a slow starter and the reviews give a mixed verdicts.
Sify writes:
Director Ranjith too seems to have been inspired from the great epic for his new film Prajapathy. Kaliyar Madom and Devarmadom are very similar to Kauravar and Pandavar in the epic. Kaliyar Madom is headed by Kunhambu Nair (Nedumudi Venu) the scheming old man with wife Indrani (Seema) and four evil sons and a good hearted daughter (Sandhya). The eldest son Giri (Siddique, a la Duryodhanan) has all vices, is always jealous of his cousin and nemesis Devarmadom Narayanan (Mammootty)
Narayanan is an epitome of righteousness and dharma (a la Yudhisthira) who rules Perumalpuram, a perfect village where he is the law. Enter Ali Raghavan (Sreenivasan) the illegitimate son of Kunhambu Nair (a la Karna) who wants to be recognized by his father. Narayanan vows to help Raghavan and in a bloody climax the good triumphs over evil. Then there is Manianpilla Raju who is a sort of Sakuni who turns against his master in the end. [Review Prajapathi]
India Glitz writes:
The second half of the film is more moving with the “Renjith” in sequences of distorted relationships worked out with perfection. And these best worked out sequences show cases every actor with meaty performances. But the film falters at times when it try to equate the star quotient instead of character development .And Often you feel you had seen this scene or its prototype in some other movie in Tamil or in South.
Mammootty as usual excels in the proceedings throughout making a promenade. The film comes as a big relief for die hard fans of his serious characters as he don’t ponder over on his recently acquired lighter comic images. He appear is variety outfits and emotions, exotic vehicles with punching dialogues and fiery action sequences by Anal Aras. Nedumudi as Moopil Kunjambu nair and Siddhioue as giri pass through with grace. Adhithi Rao is reduced to an eyecandy performance. But the revelations are Sandhya(kadhal fame) , Seema ., Abu Salem, T.G.Ravi and Raju who exhalts and thrills with their performance. [Prajapathi - Clashes of the multitudes]
Rediff.com writes:
What wins the day for us are the actors. Mammootty is a towering presence in the whole scheme of things. Nedumudi Venu in a villainous role with a peculiar getup is seriously interesting.
Sreenivasan’s presence in this film was hyped as being important, but he is just reduced to be his own caricature.
On to the females in the cast. Seema, who plays Nedumudi Venu’s wife, is made to look and act as a witch from the fairytales. Aditi Rao, who plays Mammootty’s love interest, has nothing to do with the overall plot. Sandhya, who plays a supportive cousin from the enemy camp, lightens up the screen with her presence.
There are plenty of stylistic flourishes. The firebrand dialogues, Narayanan’s persona and a couple of other Ranjith trademarks — like illegitimate sons and their wayward lifestyles — make the grade, but are repetitive. [Prajapathi: Just another Ranjith flick]
(Picture coutesy: Now Running.com)
Related posts:
I think the guy who wrote the Sify review needs a crash course of Mahabharatam… When was Karna the illegimate son of Dhridhrashtra????
Unnikrishnan – he can be excused for making that mistake. But by and large, the movie seems to be inspired from Mahabharatha – Kauravar vs Pandavar.
[...] In Prajapathi, Mammotty played Devarmadom Narayanan, a righteous person who is the law and law enforcer of a village. Suresh Gopi plays a similar role in this movie. Actually Suresh Gopi’s entire career was built on playing a man who enforces his own law and so this movie will not reveal any new facets in his talents. IAS officer, IPS officer, life and soul of Vazhamatom village – it is like – been there, done that a thousand times. [...]
[...] While writing the preview for Ashwaroodan, we wrote that the movie had similarities to Prajapathi and Jayaraj is not predictable. Seems like Jayaraj has turned out one boring movie. [...]
Prajapathy picks up collections after a month.
it has been reedited and looks deadly now.
the theme is very good flamboyant monarchy Vs corrupted Democracy!
[...] Mammootty’s unstoppable juggernaut seemed to slow down a bit with lukewarm response for Prajapathi, but the star provided a big hit with Thurppugulan and a decent show at box office with Balram Vs.Taradas. None of these three movies provided anything that Mammooty could be proud of. The star seems to have made a conscious decision to stay away from these mindless movies for a while and have signed up for a bunch of family or performance oriented movies. [...]