Prathichaya Movie Review : A mellow Nivin Pauly anchors this dense political thriller

Story: When the media hits Chief Minister KN Varghese with a scam that there's no coming back from, his techno-entrepreneur son John must do what it takes to save his father's image

Review: B Unnikrishnan’s Prathichaya puts data protection, corporate control over information and its access, and related current real world issues in the thick of Kerala party politics, corruption, topped off with sexual assualt allegations. It feels like a screenplay made from political conspiracy theories and apocryphal stories, but the writer-director manages to pull it off. In fact, this political drama could be one of his better films.

The film opens with seemingly suspicious digital activity in St Petersburg and then moves to the centre of the capital city’s politics, right outside the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. Here, the Left is protesting the government’s liquor policy and KN Varghese (Balachandra Menon), the chief minister proposes a bold ‘no liquor in hotels' policy.

While Varghese is known for his unpredictable masterstrokes, in Bengaluru, younger son and IT entrepreneur John Varghese (Nivin Pauly) had made a deal, for an undisclosed sum, on his data protection company with a Russian firm. But nothing is what it really seems in a B Unnikrishnan movie.

When John returns to his family at Cliff House briefly, before he and his wife get ready to head out to St Petersburg to pursue their professional lives, father and son discuss politics and all its collateral aspects. Is Varghese corrupt? Is he a good CM? Everything is conveniently grey; even John’s politics!

And while politics is grey, the corporate control of the media is shown as merciless, with entrepreneur Ravi Madhavan’s (Shararfudeen) newsrooms telecasting news according to his business and other interests. The film is keen to show that a big corporate manipulates the status quo on political and social outlook and change.

The thriller aspect kicks in towards the end of the first half with a scam, when John is forced to take centrestage. KN Varghese has been shamed by the media and John must clear his father’s name. Will he also step up to stop corporates from having a grip on our information, thoughts and choices?

While in the hands of another actor, John might have been a more massy character, Nivin underplays his part, and the film is better for it. Otherwise the issues that Prathicharya was looking at would have been lost in loud dialogues and twirling moustaches. His acting instincts once again shows that he knows how to shine in a heroic role, as he does in an emotional one or a cameo comedic part. Sharafudeen, too, plays it cool and complements Nivin’s vibe.

The audience is sure to try to draw up real-life likenesses. Is that Oommen Chandy and is there a Rajeev Chandrashekar? There is a certain lack of energy in the film, because there are too many things brought together, and things pick up in the second part. It's a relief that the foreign location politics are kept to a minimum. The cringe factor is reduced, thanks to this.