Cast: Fahad Fazil, Indrajith, Swathi.
Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery.
When you go in for a Lijo Jose Pellissery film you expect something different and different is exactly what you get, well, to an extent.
A
good film generally catches your attention in the first ten minutes. Though
that does not happen in the case of Amen, you know there is something different
about the whole thing.
Solomon(Fahad)
is the son of a famous clarinet player who wants to follow the footsteps of his
father and play for the Church band. Soshanna(Swathi) who hails from a wealthy
family is his love interest. Vincent Vattoli(Indrajith) comes as the Father of
the Village Church when the whole scene changes.
Right
from the beautiful title song you know that you are in for some nice numbers
and Prashanth Pillai does not disappoint except for one or two songs. The songs
fit very well into the wonderful screenplay by P.S Rafeeque. Most part of the
first half you would be laughing your butts off mainly because of the
screenplay ably supported by some nice dialogues. The single shot song sequence
and the Vattoli song would delight you with their humor and creativity.
The
2nd half is where the screenplay falters a bit dragging the film at
times presenting a few clichés. It is doubtful if the final scenes involving
the music competition would be enjoyed by the commoner as the tunes of the
clarinet is not something very familiar to him. This truly tarnishes the
excellence built up in the first half. But then with an unexpected twist in the
final scene(a different version of Nandanam) the director shows why he has
earned the name that he has.
Fahad,
Swathi and Indrajith have given really good performances but even the other
actors in the film amuse you equally well. This is one of the best roles of
Swathi till date. It’s such a delight to watch her in Amen; in her scenes with
Fahad and otherwise.
The
stand out features of Amen apart from it’s screenplay are undoubtedly the
beautiful frames, with an amazing sense of lighting(especially the indoor
scenes and those in the dark), of Abinandan Ramanujam and the excellent
direction of Lijo. With a better second half it would had a fair chance of getting
into the top league.
Iam
giving a 3 to 3.25/5 for Amen. Get ready for a visually amazing divine comedy
with some beautiful romance.
Rating
Scale (Out of 5)
Less
than 2
-
Unwatchable.
2
to 2.25
-
Below average.
2.5
to 2.75 -
Average.
3 to
3.25 -
Good.
3.5 to
3.75 -
Really Good.
4 to
4.25 -
Great.
4.5 and
above -
Extraordinary.
