Director Kannan Thamarakkulam’s Achayans is a crime-comedy. This genre name might sound baffling. The crime is that the makers call this two-and-half hour long video a movie. And the comedy – the audience are tricked into watching it for its star-studded cast.
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Four upper-class Christian brothers, Roy (Jayaram), Rafi (Sanju Sivaram), Tony (Unni Mukundan) and Aby (Adil Muhammad), embark on a journey to booze, fornicate, and party. Their family members are under the assumption that they are in an alcohol rehabilitation centre run by a christian priest, Father Jose (Ramesh Pisharody). Tony, a staunch alcoholic, lazy and unemployable guy, is soon to be married to Jessica (Shivada), a rich girl who is head over heels (and unreasonably) in love with him. Roy is a bachelor whose business empire is built on marijuana cultivation, illegal timber export, and other crimes. Another strong addition to his job resume is his strong network of female friends who run brothels in nooks and corners of the country. Most of the women you come across in this film are either former or practicing sex workers who are friends with Roy. Aby is a member of a local political party founded and led by, wait for it, PC George! The latter even makes an appearance and turns it into one of the few watchable scenes in the entire film.
The four brothers come across Prayaga (Anu Sithara) and Reetha (Amala Paul), two women on a Harley Davidson bike, at a disco bar. The women clash with a bunch of sexual predators, and the brothers interfere to save the duo. Weird enough, in a preceding scene, you see the brothers visiting a brothel run by an acquaintance of Roy. Tony, the only virgin in the group, hopes to learn some tricks on bed from a young prostitute, but in the process, he breaks her spine. It is in this bunch of men Prayaga and Reetha confide in. A night later, Reetha is found dead, and police commissioner Karthi (Prakash Raj) lands to investigate the case.
For anyone who was under the impression that Fazil’s Harikrishnans is the clumsiest crime-drama ever made in Malayalam cinema, Achayans is a shocker. The investigation part is utterly inane, and you couldn’t care less about the twist in the plot. To make it worse, Achayans is homophobic and lacks any understanding of human psychology or criminology. Reetha is an alcoholic, and the scenes of her with a bottle in hand are shot like it is apocalypse – with dramatic settings, lights and dialogues. The men are rarely seen sober, and their drunken banter are celebrated as ‘bromance moments’.
In the background, there is a steady track of what the film believes to be comedy. Most of the film’s jokes involve leching and passing lewd comments at women. Jayaram enthusiastically hams it up, while the rest of the cast awkwardly take part.
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The saving grace in this mess is Siddique who plays Fernandes, Reetha’s grieving father. The level of poignancy in the scene where he tells Prakash Raj that Reetha was his only daughter must have left even Mr. Thamarakkulam stunned, for a performance as superior as this just doesn’t belong to the mediocre film Achayans is.
Achayans is a movie that instigates horror on audience’s senses. It doesn’t display the slightest hint of cinematic value or a meritorious content.
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