Cast : Sreenivasan, Dileep, Mamtha Mohandas, Lakshmi Sharma, Jagathy Sreekumar, Nedumudi Venu, Sona Nair
Direction : Renjith ShankarProduction : S P Pillai, Sankaran Kutty
I had prejudice about the film ‘Passenger’, even though I believed that it would have some thing different to offer. The film started slowly. It looked bad. The first part of film dragged through the needle in my watch. But 20 minutes before interval things started changing. The story gained momentum.Here comes some serious competition for seasoned thriller film directors. Passenger is a film which set standard for thriller genre in Malayalam. This film will be considered bench mark for the debutant directors for the coming years. There are no fancy shots. There is no song or a fight. There is a story which touches the mind of common man and the chapters in the story are so racy and are tied together so hard that viewer’s eyes get glued to the screen. If a second the viewer stop by and think why their heart is pounding so fast the answer is the brilliance of director Ranjith Shanker. He has done magic with minimum facilities. This first time director had brought freshness into storytelling that Malayalam screen lacked.Many films are considered better and made hit by viewers, because there is no tough competitor, there is no real leader. When the viewer’s eyes and mind were mud with seasoned filmmaker’s clichéd filmmaking style came the movie Passenger. Passengers being without any stylishness got directly into the mind of viewers and made them want the hero to win.Sreenivasan is the hero in this Dileep starrer. People are going to love Dileep and Sreenivasan for being the characters’ in this film. Nedumudi Venu had done justice to his role. The director was successful in extracting the best from Jagathy Sreekumar by seizing the overacting done by the actor for some years. Mamtha Mohandas looks nice and have acted well.The most important thing in the film is its natural look which makes audience believes that, this is happening in their life. We feel like reading a racy Dan Brown novel.The cinematography, the editing and other technicalities are ok. Nothing special to write about them other than it all added to the impact of the viewing experience.After the pathetic Moz and Cat here comes a hit for Dileep.This 1 hour 50 minute film is going to sweep you off your feet. The gung ho audience is all praise for director and the team which made this movie happen.A tight script like this was seen earlier in Hollywood film Phone Booth and in Bollywood film A Wednesday and Kollywood film Saroja which also talk about the common man. In A Wednesday the common man was done by Nassruddin Sha.After ‘2 Hariharnagar’ came the better ‘Bhagyadevatha’ but now comes the unexpected winner of all. The rise of director Ranjith Shankar starts here.Passenger is a must watch that no one should miss. It once again states that great films start with great stories. Ranjith Shankar has proved himself with his first film.
A fateful night that changed the lives of some people who almost belong to a cross section of the society! Perhaps a perfect premise for an edge-of-the-seat thriller and that is just what debutant director Ranjith Shankar offers in Passenger.Here is a film with a nice storyline that succeeds in keeping the intricacies of the narrative intact. The film begins by focusing on the life of Sathyanathan (Sreenivasan), who travels on a season ticket regularly, to his office and back. He is a nice soul, with a concern for the well being of others.One night, he remains asleep on his way back after a tiring day in his office and fails to get down from the train at his destination, Nellayi. That results in a chance meeting with Advocate Nandan Menon (Dileep), who also happens to be a fellow traveler in the same train, on his way to Guruvayur.Around the same time, Nandan's wife Anuradha (Mamta), a TV journalist, is all set to unearth a scoop involving the tainted defense minister of the state. Though he was a total stranger until some moments ago, Sathyanathan proves to be the crucial factor in the lives of the couple, after the minister and his goons start chasing them.The best thing about the film is its ensemble cast that puts together a fine show, without the bindings of any set images. Dileep never tries to impose his heroics and is riveting, Sreenivasan is superb as the ‘Good Samaritan' and Mamta for once, shines in a non-glamorous role. But the surprise package is the inimitable Jagathy Sreekumar, essaying an amazing performance as the corrupt minister, who in fact is a cold blooded villain.True, the film has its loose ends in the script and the director has gone for a conventional style rather than a modern approach, in the presentation. The dialogues are at times dramatic as well. But on the whole he has been successful in presenting the story as an engrossing thriller with a stunning climax.A considerable portion of the film happens inside the railway compartments and that has been handled with the expertise of a seasoned filmmaker. The visuals are quite good and the background score has been used in a highly effective way.It's the gripping manner of presentation that makes the film, a must watch. As one comes out of the theatres after watching the film, several questions arise in our minds regarding the various possibilities that the protagonists had, in the given situation. Now, that's exactly where the film succeeds. It makes you think about it for sure even after you're out of the theatres, perhaps unlike other recent films!Passenger, is a taut thriller, with gritty performances that keeps the mercury rising. It moves like a super fast express train, racy with a running time of 2 hours, and is worth a ride. Go for it!
Those who think the future of Malayalam films is bleak, watch Malayalam film Passenger starring Dileep, Sreenivasan and Mamta Mohandas. The film gives you hope that there are new filmmakers, who want to try something out of the ordinary.The film, written and directed by newcomer Ranjith Sankar, stays away from clich�s as far as possible.The gist of the film is simple: Any commoner with courage can take on the high and mighty and fight injustice. When that commoner is portrayed by redoubtable Sreenivasan, you are sure to be entertained.The backdrop of the film is a train journey and a group of people using the train daily to earn their livelihood. They become friends with the fellow travellers and pass their travelling time playing cards and gossiping.Sathyanathan (Sreenivasan) is member of one such group. His character is established as an activist with zeal; running a signature campaign for cleaner toilets in the trains and demanding more trains on busy routes. But this is looked down upon by his family and friends.Running parallel to this is the story of a yuppie couple Adv. Nandan Menon (Dileep) and his TV journalist wife Anuradha (Mamta Mohandas). They are also social activists in a way. They have locked horns with no less than the Home Minister, Thomas Chako (Jagathy Sreekumar) over an environmentally disastrous case of sand mining, which would displace a whole community. The Home Minister is also entangled in a sexual harassment case.By interval, all the three parallel stories suck us into its vortex.There are numerous things going for this film apart from the basic story and the structure. This may be the first Malayalam film where new age technology tools like 3G cell phones, laptops and webcams are shown in a positive light (maybe because the creator Ranjith Sankar is a former IT professional). And like his Guru Lal Jose, the narrative is not overly dialogue-driven.Sreenivasan is the pivot around which the film revolves. But thankfully, there is no overdose of self deprecatory humour.Dileep happily plays a role that may be termed as second fiddle. Mamta Mohandas' oomph quotient is used in minimum, which is a rarity. Veterans like Jagathy and Nedumudi Venu are judiciously used.On the whole, Passenger is worth your time and money.
Phew! Finally a film that puts the snap, crackle and pop back into the thriller genre! If you have for once gulped down a sigh, having sat through a tautly made Tamil flick, wondering why films of the sort are never ever made down here, head straight to the hall near you that plays Passenger. Ranjith Shankar's independent style flaunts a classic stratagem that pumps in the right amount of grit and intrigue into a film that's as spry and alive as it could possibly be.It all happens on a day when destiny throws in a bunch of people going on with their uneventful lives, together on a mission. Sathyanathan (Sreenivasan) is one of the millions of daily commuters by train, who having fallen asleep one late night misses his home town station. Waking up, he gets acquainted with Nandan Menon (Dileep), an advocate by profession who is heading to a hotel room where he would be alone for the night, since his wife Anuradha (Mamta Mohandas) is away on an assignment, covering up a news story that has been rocking the state. The men strike up a pleasant conversation before parting ways as the train grinds to a halt. Little do they realize that the TV journo has on her cards, a set of different plans - those that will change their lives forever.With any number of film makers out there obsessed with tradition, culture and even language, Malayalam cinema had almost begun to remind me of branded bottled water. Exactly the same size, manner and taste. And along comes the Passenger, that's packed with plenty of smart, fresh and welcome touches. Little wonder then that it injects a new verve into a medium that had been rotting away in a swamp of replications.Now this is what I would call smart film making. It doesn't climb up that high-and-mighty platform to look down on the masses who have gathered to receive those pearls of wisdom that would soon drop down in profusion. On the contrary, it has its theories firmly rooted in the ground, and it occupies a seat beside you and me and takes a look at the world around. And finally, lets us decide.Passenger respects the age and times that have witnessed its making. It's a film for today. And it smells of the real world from which you had taken a break. There is the new age grandmom who has cast aside the betel pot for the remote and who busies herself supporting her faves on the reality show. An entire generation that has mistaken an addiction for machismo isn't spared either. A popular sport rules the roost in living rooms. Hi-fi gadgets and gizmo occupy laymen pockets and mouths.There are any number of sequences that would make you feel if you haven't felt that sometime yourself. Such is the proximity that the film builds up in no time. There's a fantastic rejoinder that Sathyan puts forward, when he suggests that these days jokes are often restricted to dreams. Open your eyes and you see disasters all around. And when the station master admits that fear has almost become an ingrained emotion in man, we can only readily agree with a nod.Working up his way from a tight and real solid script, Ranjith extends the bristling style that he cooks up in the first hour, in new directions in the latter half, as he lives up to time-honored story expectations. He does the obligatory wrapping up without inflicting musty conventions upon the viewers. Songs for one, go for a toss. And so do the absurd stand-up humor tracks. Superbly planned and elegantly executed, there's rarely a dull moment in this adroit film.I am tremendously glad to see two actors breaking up the fetters that have been binding them down terribly. Sreenivasan brings in an ordinariness to his portrayal that's quite effortlessly endearing. Dileep effectively underplays his role to perfection and it's heartening to see him go for a role that offers him some meat with a vengeance. This should be a clean start for Mamta as well, whose choices have been nothing short of catastrophic till date.I have little doubt that I am gonna watch this one all over again. And I'm sure several of you would do as well.
CREDITS :4/5
