Once in a while along comes a movie that makes your spirits soar and helps you forget the mediocrity that this medium often serves. That is does it without seeking recourse to any manipulative tools, that we are all too familiar with, makes is even more remarkable. It solely depends on unalloyed storytelling skills.
Director Ranjith's latest offering Pranchiyettan and the Saint, starring Mammootty, is one such effort where the viewer is drawn into the story to experience the sheer joy of it. This film just tells the story of a rich but uncouth simpleton, C. Francis -- popularly known as Pranchiyettan. As his family has been into rice business, he is also known by a nickname Aripranchi, and this pains him.
So, he makes serious efforts to get rid of the nickname -- and his efforts include diversifying into other businesses and supporting worthy charitable causes. But, as fate would have it, the nickname that has troubled him since school days, never leaves him.
What works for the narrative of this film is the simple humor, which is continued till the fag end of the film.
The film depends heavily on Mammootty's histrionic skills to be convincing and it works. It is this effortless and natural performance that gives Pranchiyettan the lifeblood.
Mammootty as an actor has resorted to slapstick comedy to prove his credentials too, but in this film it is quite different -- the middle aged character that he plays here possesses a natural sense of humor and does not require any help in the form of slapstick situations.
On the whole, the success of Pranchiyettan and the Saint rests on the shoulders of Mammootty and Ranjith.
