Mammootty in a still from ‘Christopher’ | Photo Credit: @mammukka/Twitter
When a film proudly proclaims ‘Biography of a Chowkidar Police’ as its tagline, one certainly expects some encounter killings. However, any B. Unnikrishnan’s encounter does not add up to the number of murders Christopher, which are often preceded by gruesome scenes of rape or attacks on women, which are filmed in a graphically disturbing manner. The events leading up to the encounter killings have been scripted by screenwriter Udayakrishna in such a way that even those demanding a fair trial will not blame the policeman for shooting these people dead, as they all with their custodial behavior have caused such deaths. Looks demanding like a well. All this contributes to the compilation of this “biography”, which is not fundamentally critical.
Trigger-happy cop Christopher Antony (Mammootty) is facing a departmental inquiry after he shoots dead a group of men allegedly involved in a gang rape. Investigating officer Sulekha (Amala Paul) goes beyond the case, almost reconstructing her life history, which is marked by multiple encounter killings. Well, the history of encounters is the better part of the film; It soon brings in an arch-villain (Vinay Rai) with some dangerous lines, which will look strange seeing how it all pans out in the end.
Christopher (Malayalam)
director: B.Unnikrishnan
moldCast: Mammootty, Amala Paul, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Sneha, Siddique, Vinay Rai
Order: 150 minutes
StoryTrigger-happy cop Christopher Antony is facing a departmental inquiry in a case of extrajudicial killing. The film looks at a series of encounters during his career
after that heavy loss Aarattu, the B Unnikrishnan-Udayakrishna team attempts some improvisation here. Most notably, we are spared a prime obscene double entendre in Udayakrishna’s scripts. The script mostly sticks to the encounter police story without telling anything new and never tries to surprise, not even in the climax. It is the familiar cycle of ‘attack on women media-encounter-encounter-encounter-social media fest’, with each cycle creating a new justification for encounter killings.
Apart from those who are being shot, and apart from a few signal workers on the television screen, there is no one Christopher Universe feels that encounter killings are wrong. Even the investigating officer and even the chief minister sometimes praise the reasons given by Christopher to justify his actions. The origin story of Police Officer is written around one such murder by a police officer himself, which young Christopher observes with admiration.
What the film lacks in substance, it makes up for in the swagger of the star and a peppy background score that numbs with its repetition. The screenwriter’s boundless imagination is evident in the punchline of the protagonist to the villain named Trimurti, “If you are Trimurti, then I am Samhara Murti (Destructive Lord).” It certainly trumps the other, “justice delayed is justice denied,” common saying to justify murders.
For Mammootty, who has been doing well in recent months, it is same old again. Amala Paul and Sneha get longer roles, while Aishwarya Lekshmi has a minor role. Shine Tom Chacko reprises his infamous interview persona on screen for the second ongoing film.
Christopher One long, unfortunate festivity of encounter killings. Bad scripting is a far lesser crime.
Christopher is currently playing in theaters