Late Light on Lucifer

 

   Lucifer is Satan.Lucifer could also be Venus that rises in the morning.Here it is a combination of both.I was struggling to watch this much talked about movie Lucifer,made by one of my most favourite Malayalam heroes,Prithviraj Sukumaran. Unfortunately this box office hit came into my access much late.I know I really missed the bus.But as the maxim goes "better late than never". Prithviraj is a special hero for me not only on account of his bold role play as a gay cop in Mumbai Police but also because of his impressive shows in several other films from his debut movie Nandanam. His Classmates, Sathyam, Celluloid,Indian Rupee,Arjunan Saakshi and Memories are in my wish list of Malayalam films.But why Lucifer is special?Is it because the film is made by him or because of its wide, positive reception?
  I am sure Prithiviraj scores high on his distinct style of narration with a few scenes matching any English film that would deal with drug lords and gangsters.But in this film Politics too gets blended to these underworld realities, because,today's politics happens more in the underworld than on a transparent stage,as events with in the purview of one and all.The presence of media seems to hide more than it could reveal.Even if it reveals the darker side,it strikes a note of smear campaign for a huge reward.
   Lucifer could be juxtaposed with Mani Rathnam's Chekka Civantha Vaanam in terms of its thematic content.Though both the films focused on the gangster world,in Mani's film it was a case of gangster rivalry among siblings and there was not much of political stint in its narration.But Prithviraj has seamlessly merged politics with it, besides bringing a stark contrast in narration.The contrast is in the form of a benign cancer formulated through the saving grace of a half brother,who saves his late{ done to death}father's daughter and another son,by his Lucifer touch of stemming the rot,that was silently eating into the vitals of family and society as a malign cancer.May be we can take this as Venus destroying Satan.That is,one Lucifer is destroying its evil other.
   In addition to Prithviraj's catchy narration,Deepak Dev's background score{let us forget the Tamil and Hindi numbers}and Sujith Vaassudev's cinematography deserve a special applause for their neat contribution to this chic show.Let us also ignore Mohanlal's facial module that reminds us of his Tamil film Jilla with Vijay.All have done their part very well. However, Mohanlal as the power packed lovable Lucifer and Vivek Oberoy{Bobby} as the fiendish and smartly tucked in, loathsome Lucifer,would both linger longer,in audience memory.Beyond all these positive notes,the most inevitable interjections are 1}What a gripping movie Mohanlal's Drishyam was from the start to the finish ! 2}How buoyantly Joshy began his media might in Run Baby Run and kept the audience grooved to their seats from the beginning till the end!.