Gold review: Alphonse Puthren’s comedy has the glitter but isn’t gold

Prithviraj Sukumaran in 'Gold'. (Image: Screengrab/Magic Frames)

Seven years ago, Alphonse Puthren struck gold at the box office with Premam, his coming-of-age romance drama. While there was nothing unusual about its premise – a young man falling in and out of love at various stages of his life – it was Puthren’s unique treatment that made the film stand out. There was zest and spontaneity in almost every frame of Premam, making it a phenomenal hit not just in Kerala but in other states too. The expectations from Gold, therefore, were through the roof.

The Prithviraj and Nayanthara starrer has Puthren’s signature all over it. The fun edits, the overlay text, the visuals of insects, the caricaturish characters, the urgency that the cinematography conveys with disruptive shots, the dialogues that sound unrehearsed, the energetic background score – it’s all there. Yet, the film feels strained and laboured, the opposite of what it wants to achieve.

Joshi (an adequate Prithviraj) runs a cellphone shop at a mall. His mother (Mallika Sukumaran) wakes him up one morning, telling him that someone has parked a Bolero blocking their driveway. The Bolero is loaded with speakers – or so it seems. This is an intriguing beginning. Who abandoned the vehicle there and why? How is Joshi going to get it out?

The Bolero is like a fishbone stuck in the throat, and Puthren, who also wrote the film, exaggerates the absurdity of the situation. The moment when Joshi discovers what’s actually in the Bolero puts a smile on your face. He’s listening to ‘Kanneer Poovinte’ from Kireedam (1989), a tragic drama about a young man who is forced by circumstances to become a criminal. In the film, the song appears when Sethumadhavan (Mohanlal) firmly turns away from the innocence and joy of his old life. Joshi, too, is on the brink of such a moment – except that he doesn’t know it yet. The zany ‘Thanne Thanne’ that follows his discovery is in sharp contrast to the poignance of ‘Kanneer Poovinte’, and plays up the film’s parodying tone.

Puthren clearly enjoys a great amount of goodwill in the industry because a galaxy of well-known faces walk in and out of the frames with very little to do (Vinay Forrt still leaves a mark). Cameos can be enjoyable but when there are too many of them, it turns the film into a parade. It appears as though Puthren dreamed up entertaining names for his characters – like ‘Baazigar’ without the ‘gar’ (the man’s name is Baazi) or ‘New Gen Gunda’ – and left the rest as ‘fill in the blanks’ for the actors when they turned up for the shoot.

The most disappointing of these is Nayanthara’s Sumangali Unnikrishnan. She plays the daughter of a rich businessman (Shammi Thilakan), and has less screen-time than the grasshopper that appears every now and then to lend metaphorical meaning to Joshi’s actions. Again, the joke is in her name – Sumangali means ‘married woman’ and this Sumangali wants to call off her wedding. Nayanthara plays the character with a wide-eyed silliness that borders on annoying.

Nayanthara in 'Gold'. (Screen grab)

In close competition is Lalu Alex as Idea Shaji. He walks around with bright clothes, a light goes on and off over his head when he speaks, and he delivers each line like it’s meant to make you ROFL. As a viewer, one gets the distinct impression of sitting through an amateur standup show where the comedian is trying too hard with weak material.

The film is deliberately farcical and has the depth of an Instagram reel. For instance, when Joshi calls an acquaintance for help, the man is on the verge of taking his own life. But the promise of money prompts him to run to a shop and buy packets of puttu for his family. You don’t ask any questions because Puthren persuades you to believe that he’s operating outside the realm of logic. Towards the end, though, he suddenly applies the brakes on the lightweight humour and delivers a lecture on doing your bit for society. The shift is abrupt and you feel as if you’ve been transplanted to a '90s Shankar movie or like the Bolero rolled over you when you weren’t looking. Did someone grab the steering wheel from Puthren and include this god complex ending?

At a runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes, Gold feels stretched and over indulgent. The inventiveness of Puthren’s storytelling becomes gimmicky and tiresome quickly. There is too much glitter – and you know what they say about glitter and gold.