Praise The Lord
Joy, a typical Kottayam ‘achayan’ is having a pleasant life with his small family. In between he has to shelter two young lovers as a request from his friend. Their parents are behind them, and Joy must keep safe them till their marriage.
It is more like a one man show of Mammootty. As Joy he gets his recent best character and succeeds to entertain the audience. There is a charm in his character and that remains the biggest plus for the movie. Reenu doesn’t get enough screen presence this time as like Emmanuel, but the couple’s on screen chemistry works once again. Mukesh is fine as Joys friend. Ahmed Siddiqui reprises a nerd person who is full on divine ideologies, and he is fine. Akanksha Puri is okay but goes over the top in few places. Nobi comes in a couple of scenes, and he is quiet entertaining. Suresh Krishna, Joy Mathew, Shajon etc does their job.
As we know Praise The Lord is an adaptation of Zacharia’s story of the same name. The biggest challenge for the makers was that the story doesn’t have much scope for a film and the lack of emotional depth. The same can be seen in the film. Screenplay is entertaining at parts but lags in the second half, especially towards the climax. The comedies and characters are adapted neatly on the screen, but that’s not enough for a movies as a whole. Newcomer Shibu Gangadharan had put only less efforts, and that can be seen in most of the scenes.
Shaan Rahman’s music was already a Hit, and they are placed nicely. Pradeep Nair captures the typical Kottayam with the camera, and he does a fine job. Editing is improper in few scenes and could have been better towards climax.
First half is breezy with some feel good moments, and there is enough entertainment from Mammootty. Second half looks out of place, and there is a sense of repeatedness in few scenes. But again some humours and Mammootty are the saving grace here. Overall its not a bad film, but lacks the drama and emotions which a movie needs. Despite all these Mammootty and few comedies remains as plus.
