Movie Review: Vande Maatharam

Movie: Vande Maatharam

Director: Aravind

Music: D.Imman

Cast: Mammootty, Arjun, Sneha, Naseer

There is a dated and jaded look about director Aravind T’s Vande Maatharam. It was four years in the making and it shows. The film follows the pattern of 90’s formula films where an investigative officer brings down a terrorist network single-handedly. Reference point- Vijaykanth films of the 90’s and early 2000 where he plays a cop.

Gopi Krishna (Mammootty) is the southern chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) who lives a happy life in a posh seaside bungalow with his wife Nandini (Sneha). We assume she works as a pilot as she is shown getting into a call taxi wearing a pilot uniform! One day IB big boss (Mohan Sharma) calls Gopi and tells him a major terrorist with Pakistani connections Malik (Deepak Jethi) has slipped into the country and is planning a major terrorist strike in south India.

Gopi ropes in local cop Anwar Hussain (Arjun) to track down Malik, which takes them to Kochi and later to Thengapattinam near Kanyakumari, where they get the lead. It seems the terrorist want to blow up the Prime Minister (Nasser), who is coming to inaugurate his pet project named ‘Grand Canal Project’, which would link all rivers in the country between Kashmir and Kanyakumari. Our heroes come to the rescue of the nation.

The film lacks focus and rambles all across. The way the investigation unfolds does not have enough twists and turns. Making the terrorist believe that after his jail escape and capture that he is living in future is highly farfetched. And then making the chief of investigations wife (Sneha) pretend that she is his daughter has the audiences hooting. Towards the climax it becomes preachy and unbearable

There are two item numbers and a melody song by D Imman, which is loud and is thrust into the narration. Sneha appears in one song and two scenes. Mammootty sleep walks through the role as he has done similar investigation officer in a dozen Malayalam films. Arjun is there for all the action scenes including absurd jumping from one tree to another tree fight scene with the villain, to avoid stepping on landmines!

On the whole the film is a big letdown and waste of time.

Verdict: Forget it!