Malik movie review: It’s Fahadh Faasil vs Vinay Forrt in a grand, gripping saga on tricky communal ground

“This is a work of fiction.” This sentence opens the disclaimer at the start of Malik, but it might matter little in the face of the raging speculation in Kerala that this hugely anticipated FahadhFaasil-Nimisha Sajayan starrer is based on the Beemapally shooting of 2009 that left six people dead and a trail of distrust in its wake.

Director-writer-editor Mahesh Narayanan has nixed this assumption on the record, but a reading of available reports suggests that Malik could be his off-the-record interpretation of this embittering episode in the history of modern Kerala. If this is true, setting aside how the communities involved – the state’s Muslims and Christians – might react, here is yet another example of Indian cinema other than Bollywood confronting a government (in the case of Malik, the present governing coalition of Kerala which was in power in 2009 too) while Bollywood currently cowers before the Centre. You will know what I mean once you cross the very final minute of Malik.

Courage is not the film’s only qualification. In an India where running times are getting increasingly shorter to accommodate falling attention spans, I am happy to report (and pleasantly surprised to note) that I sat through Malik’s 2 hours and 41 minutes without my interest waning for a moment.

Malik is grand, but its grandeur is not soulless or over-stylised in the manner of that other recent larger-than-life Malayalam political thriller, Lucifer. It is star-studded, but its stars do not overshadow the storytelling. Its leading man is at present a pan-India rage, yet each actor in the ensemble is allowed to hold their own and several spearhead the plot at different stages in the story.

The narrative begins with law-enforcement agencies taking an ageing Ahammadali Sulaiman (Fahadh Faasil) into custody while he is leaving Kerala on a Haj in 2018. This graying man who walks with measured steps is being picked up for a case related to a police firing that took place in Ramadapally several years earlier. It has already been established by then that Sulaiman Ikka is an overlord of sorts in this Muslim-dominated coastal town where he is revered and known as Malik (Master). The police are hoping for testimony from his estranged mother Jameela (Jalaja) to put him away.

In Jameela’s voice we are taken back to the 1960s when she first arrived in the region, at a time when Christians and Muslims lived harmoniously. Through a flashback, we learn of how Sulaiman and David Christudas (Vinay Forrt) became friends, their entry into the world of crime that caused Jameela to cut ties with her son, Sulaiman’s romance with David’s sister Roseline (Nimisha Sajayan), the manipulations by external forces and misunderstandings that tore the friends apart, and the machinations that led to the alleged rioting and police firing.

There are wheels within wheels in Ramadapally, where allies may well be enemies in sheep’s clothing, pawns will never guess how their actions might be supplemented by the main players in the game or even who those main players are, and gaining control over land overrides all else among some who claim to act in community interests.

Sulaiman rises amidst this muck to fight for the local Muslims against political apathy and vested political interests, and acquires the status of a quasi-chieftain of the area.

In Mahesh Narayanan’s vision, Ahammadali Sulaiman is a somewhat romanticised figure whose criminal activities are overshadowed by his commitment to his community’s welfare. He often appears benign but that façade camouflages a menacing core. With David, what you see is what you get: there is greater clarity in his actions, his fears, his fury, his frustrations, his shock when he realises he is being used and his ultimate helplessness.

Roseline gets most space as a combustible, enterprising youngster who rages at inequity and unfair commercial practices. She is engaging then, less so later on as an older woman in Malik.

The universe of the film is entirely Muslim and Christian, which is both its weakness and its strength. The point being made, that enemies and well-wishers can both come from within minority communities, is well made, but there is a larger system holding all the puppet strings in the film and while on the plus side, unequivocal accountability is demanded from that system, on the downside, the facelessness of that system is frustrating.

The tendency while analysing a film of this nature is to liken it to Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series. This tired comparison is, however, an injustice to the engrossing detail in the politicking portrayed in Malik, and the illustration it provides at every turn of how an unintended spark may set off a communal fire or a single mindless misdeed may set off a life-long avalanche beyond the control of anyone involved.

Sulaiman is not the protagonist of this story, the protagonist is the journey.

Mahesh Narayanan’s stupendous Take-Off starring Parvathy remains my favourite of his three directorial ventures. Malik with its intricate account of community relations and top-notch acting performances is an excellent addition to his filmography.

(A longer version of this review will be published shortly)

Rating: 4 (out of 5 stars)

Malik is streaming on Amazon Prime Video