Spoilers ahead…
The film, starring Prithviraj and Nayanthara, never takes root in the head, and the effort to put together the links is exhausting.
Gold marks Alphonse Puthren’s return to the screen after seven years, and to talk about the flavour – or rather the vibe – of the film, let’s look at the stretch where a man needs a gold furnace. The easiest thing may be to have the man Google it up, but this is how Alphonse does it. The man calls a jewellery store. No luck. He calls another jewellery store. Again, no luck. Then he calls someone who is about to hang himself. Bingo. He gets it. This entire series of scenes is not about “logic”, but about a certain approach the screenplay takes. It rambles with scenes you think can be cut out, but without those scenes the punch with the suicidal man would not work.
The man looking for the furnace is Joshy, and he’s played by Prithviraj in a somewhat one-note manner – but that is also because the character is one-note. Like many in the film, he has no shades. Gold takes off when Joshy discovers a truck full of, well, gold, and there’s a parallel track where the phone store he owns in a mall is about to slip away from his hands because the owner of the mall has asked him to vacate the premises. Now, this is a classic situation about a desperate man and the easiest route the screenplay could have taken is to first establish the desperation, the need for money, and then have Joshy come across the gold, which could solve all his problems. But Alphonse – thankfully – is not your typical filmmaker (or writer), and he does not link these two pieces of information in a “dramatic” way: that is, in the way a typical cause-and-effect drama would. He keeps them separate. Instead of using the “gold situation” to make us pity Joshy and root for him, he uses it to build a series of obstacles for the man.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/malayalam/movie/review/gold/?a=1
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2022 GALATTA.
Senthil S
December 6, 2022
Well that’s one off of Alphonse’s review checklist. The other two reviews he was “urgently waiting for” were Maneesh Narayanan’s and Blue Sattai’s.
I’ve always liked directors who are proud of what they’ve made, no matter how hated the final film is. I’m not minding his recent slew of Facebook posts.
That being said, the WOM on this is really abysmal. Probably the most negative vibes I’ve seen around a decently hyped film in recent times. Some people are (wrongly, imo) blaming his editing style, saying that it’s become outdated in 8 years.
I personally think that Gold just lacks the emotional appeal that Premam so strongly had. Most people I talked to said that they didn’t really feel invested in anything in 3 hours, that there wasn’t anything to latch onto. This isn’t plot. Premam didn’t really have much in the way of plot. The vibes in that movie were beautiful though. The vibes in Gold feel artificial, almost non-existent.
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Vikram s
December 7, 2022
Such an au-some last line BR 🙂
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Jay Krishnan
December 7, 2022
Alphonse : Baddy Assemble
BR : Yes
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Jay Krishnan
December 7, 2022
But haven’t all his movies had wafer thin plots? I sometimes read his musings on FB and wondered how this immature guy made movies with such good craft. The truth is it seems that many new gen malayalam directors are only discovering themselves. I don’t think there is a single director in malayalam that you can put your money on to say that his next movie will appeal to the majority .
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SorenKierky
December 7, 2022
@JayKrishnan
But haven’t all his movies had wafer thin plots?//
Absolutely, but nothing has stuck out so much like this, it’s just a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t come together at all. I mean there’s even a random dance sequence with Soubin and Alphonse’s wife – or the weekday band or whatever – what was the point of that at all, in an already overlong film?
I sometimes read his musings on FB and wondered how this immature guy made movies with such good craft.//
It’s not mutually exclusive though. And his FB self kinda makes a ‘guest appearance as well with that godawful epilogue.
//The truth is it seems that many new gen malayalam directors are only discovering themselves. I don’t think there is a single director in malayalam that you can put your money on to say that his next movie will appeal to the majority .//
I think Dileesh Pothan has a pretty decent and consistent track record. Joji might not have been as outstanding as his first two films, but it was really good. Apparently, he wants to make a masala movie, should be fun! Besides that, there are none – Malayalis have an aversion to “mass” or even masala movies in their own language now. The movies churned out by so-called “mass” movie makers have crashed (and they’ve been awful anyway, so).
Lijo has been increasingly garnering mainstream appeal, I mean he’s got decent theatrical run for Jallikattu and really good reach for Churuli as well. People are looking forward to his couple of ‘superstar’ films. Especially the one with Mohanlal as Mammotty has been increasingly doing different and interesting non-starry/hero roles (although the films might not have been as satisfying) and Mohanlal has had a really poor run (barring Drishyam 2 on Amazon).
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anony
December 8, 2022
Not giving up on malayalam films because of 1 gold and Alfonse.
Malayalam still is the industry that I am looking forward to surprising me with different/original content.
Malayalam directors whose work I am looking forward to..
Khalid rahman who did thallumala.
Martin Prakattu who did nayattu.
AnJali Menon after the magical koode (I cant even explain how precious this movie is. The brain that came up with the mood and visuals of that film must be protected at all costs). I am going to pretend like she never made wonder women.
Basil Joseph after minnal murali.
Dileesh Pothan’s next.
I feel like PrithviraJ is planning something pan Indian ,maybe with AaduJeevitham or something bigger.
Tovino really surprised me with Thallumala and Minnal Murali. Expecting more surprises from him.
Fahad as usual is going to come up with good stuff.
Not surprised that Alfonse is out of touch. His last film came in what, 2015?
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