Relevant theme, but stretched beyond scope

Joy Mathew made quite a statement against fake morality with Shutter, his script-writing debut. It seems he had much more left to talk on the same subject, for Uncle, his second outing as a writer, also woven around the same theme. But, leftover ideas can turn out to be inadequate to be stretched to feature length, as it becomes quite evident in this film.

Directed by debutant Girish Damodar, the film happens over the course of a road journey from Ootty to Kozhikode.

An unexpected strike at her college, located in the hill station, forces Shruthi (Karthika Muraleedharan) to travel back home. Krishnakumar (Mammootty), her father’s friend, who is on a business trip there, offers her a lift home in his car, which she gladly accepts. But for Vijayan (Joy Mathew), her father, who knows Krishnakumar inside out, this means living through tense moments.

The first half of the movie manages to kindle some interest in the viewer with a simple conceit, which is used to plant doubts in the minds of the viewer about Krishnakumar’s character and his true intentions. Interspersed with the road journey of the duo are conversations of his friends about the various escapades of the ‘still single’ man, and scenes of a worried Vijayan using various methods to ensure his daughter’s safety.

Baggage of virtue

But it simply does not work beyond a point because you know that the star playing that role will, in the end, predictably turn out to be a paragon of virtue. A non-star, with no baggage of virtue, would perhaps have been a better choice. Of course, there is more than a hint of his many negative shades, which look obvious attempts at misleading.

The content of the script, even otherwise, is so sparse that there is a visible struggle to fill the screen time. A hundred phone calls are made between the parents and the girl, most of it repeating the same lines, on where they have reached or when they will reach. The exchanges between Krishnakumar and Shruthi, though engaging initially, soon begin to tire you out, with some of the jokes falling flat. The real ‘message’ is retro-fitted at the fag end of the movie.

Uncle has an important message to deliver, but the script has only enough meat to sustain a short film.

S.R. Praveen