Charles Enterprises movie review: Urvashi and Lord Ganesha take a backseat to listless storytelling

Cast: Balu Varghese, Urvashi, Kalaiyarasan, Guru Somasundaram, Abhija Sivakala, Manikandan Achari, Bhanu, Mridula Madhav, Geethi Sangeetha, Rajesh Sharma, Sujith Shanker, Harish Pengan Director: Subhash Lalitha Subrahmanian Language: Malayalam with Tamil A young man with declining vision, relatives coveting a prized antique statue of a Hindu deity in his home, an unlikely friendship with a petty criminal from another community in the same city … these are among the multiple themes with promise in the new Malayalam film Charles Enterprises. Actor Balu Varghese plays the protagonist Ravikuttan, a café employee in Kochi who feels his life is going nowhere. An encounter with the pickpocket Charles (Kalaiyarasan) leads to an unexpected bond blossoming between the two men, the former a Malayali, the latter a Tamilian. Ravikuttan’s parents are estranged and he lives with his eccentric mother Gomathi (Urvashi), who is extremely religious and guards the Ganapathi shrine in their house with her life. Guru Somasundaram plays the other half of the couple. Doctors can tell us whether the film’s writer knows his genetics and has correctly understood the science of retinitis pigmentosa, Ravikuttan’s hereditary eye disease, but it will take more than a medical professional to diagnose the reason why, with so many potentially exciting elements on which to pin itself, Charles Enterprises does not settle into any one of them. Written and directed by Subhash Lalitha Subrahmanian, Charles Enterprises is packed with interesting actors and ideas that fade into the background in the face of a rambling script and listless direction. The writer mistakenly assumes that piling people on to a story amounts to layering and depth. And so, instead of going somewhere with the bitterness and despair of a youth who knows he is likely to be completely blind someday, or Gomathi’s extended family faking reverence for Ganapathi when in truth they are devoted to financial gain, or Ravikuttan’s relationship of trust with Charles in a metropolis that views its Tamilian poor with suspicion, Charles Enterprises floats over each of these threads. Satellite characters come and go without enriching the proceedings, their individual sense of humour and/or sharpness blunted by the script’s overall lack of focus. The disused Fiat that Gomathi protects as fiercely as her Ganapathi, the mythology around the divine figure, her husband’s evident feelings for her, the married neighbour making passes at Ravikuttan, the colleague who is soft on him, the community that is a typical mélange of intrusiveness and concern, rising crime in the locality, a shooting crew in the area, the police station with an image of Dr Ambedkar on the wall, a policeman with a nose for greedy kin and dubious antique dealers all appear in the film as separates rather than as a well-blended ensemble. Urvashi’s comedic talent needs no introduction to Malayalam film followers, but the shallow characterisation of Gomathi makes this beloved veteran one of Charles Enterprises’ primary casualties. Balu Varghese’s filmography is dominated by small supporting parts but we know from the likes of Operation Java and _Jan-E-Man_ that he has the acting prowess to pull off larger roles when steered by a skilled director with a solid script. He is not yet, however, at a stage in his evolution as an actor where he has it in him to rise above the level of sluggishness that Charles Enterprises is guilty of. He is unmemorable although he gets the most screen space and is the fulcrum of the film. Geethi Sangeetha is noticeable even as a marginal player in Ravikuttan’s circle, but the two actors who stand out despite the sagging writing are Kalaiyarasan and Abhija Sivakala. In its best moments, Charles Enterprises sets out to challenge stereotypes and call out social prejudice through the titular character. The undeniably attractive Kalaiyarasan fashions Charles into an easygoing, likeable chap while simultaneously lending a comical touch to the man’s penchant for casual crime and injecting earnestness into his commitment to Ravikuttan. The inspired casting of Abhija Sivakala as a sophisticated, sexy smuggler of antiques reveals a streak of imaginativeness from the team of Charles Enterprises that goes missing in the rest of the film. Abhija is a fantastic actor who has so far been typecast in supporting roles as a member of oppressed communities – a rebel, a victim, a survivor. She has excelled in all her films, and was especially brilliant in Sanal Kumar Sashidharan’s _Ozhivudivasathe Kali_ (An Off-Day Game), but Charles Enterprises gives her a chance to spread her wings further, and oh boy, does she deliver. She is hot, she is cool, and she astutely summons up the expressions and body language required to create the polished, dangerous criminal that she plays here. As with everything else in the film, Charles Enterprises does not know quite what to do with Abhija after a while though. As if the script’s ordinariness is not bad enough, basic issues like continuity in the shoot have been neglected. The comedy and eye for detail in the initial portions also gradually dissipate. The time spent on Ravikuttan’s eye problem may suggest that Charles Enterprises will delve into the deeper meaning of sight. What exactly does it mean to “see” someone? Why doesn’t Gomathi see what the audience can: that a former partner is still in love with her? Why is Ravikuttan’s vision so clouded by the rejections he has faced that he does not see the friend who is drawn to him? Any hope that the script will address these questions withers away as Charles Enterprises ambles steadily down a road to no-place. Rating: 1 (out of 5 stars)  Charles Enterprises is in theatres

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial