The team behind Mohanlal’s latest magnum opus got what they wanted and more in terms of creating the hype around the movie L2: Empuraan (Overlord) and translating it into the much-needed pre-release revenue.

From initial reports the advance collections were humongous, shattering pre-sales booking records of recent biggies starring Shah Rukh Khan and Prabhas.

As expected social media was in overdrive with impatient fans, online reviewers, and stock marketing initiatives spurring narratives of the storyline, characters and how Mohanlal’s character would probably segue into the planned final part of the trilogy.

Well, all that is history now as we dive into whether the much awaited Empuraan delivers what it had promised to the avid cinemagoer and the hordes of insatiable Mohanlal fans

The second part of Lucifer (2019) had a lot going for it in terms of a redux, what with the several neat threads the story wove around the different facets of its lead protagonist Stephen Nedumpally/Lucifer (Mohanlal) in part one. A godfather like political figure and Chief Minister passing away, leaving his children to probably take over the reins of his political party, with unseen enemies cavorting as friends, well-wishers and fellow travellers. The children as political heirs trying to craft their own pathways, burdened with their father’s popular legacy.

All this pivoting around the key character of Mohanlal, the guardian black angel spreading his wings, protecting them as well as looming large over the larger body politic of the state of Kerala. Sadly in Empuraan, the director (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and writer (Murali Gopy) simply lose the plot and this becomes evident within the first 20 minutes into showtime.

Mohanlal in a still from 'L2:Empuraan'. 

Clearly distracted big time, the film zooms around the globe as different underworld mafia cartels assert their power and hegemony over diamonds, gold and arms. The narrative fails to settle down, trying to cover too much without really getting the audience invested in the proceedings. The screenplay looks to set the core of Empuraan’s story in Kerala’s currently evolving political milieu as the scion and chief minister Jathin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas) decides to forge an alliance with another political party, one that was despised by his late father.

This could have been an interesting premise, but the film soon loses interest in this arc and zips to establish the why and how of Khureishi Abr’aam aka Stephen Nedumpally who is busy doing is own thing in style, busting rival cartels and zooming off in helicopters and long cavalcades of luxurious SUVs. The story forcefully pulls the character of Mohanlal into so many different directions, as Lucifer/Stephen Nedumpally/Khureishi Abr’aam/Empuraan that the writing fails to back these portrayals, leaving it vacuous.

Even the main antagonist played by Abhimanyu Singh, is a one-dimensional character, no match from any angle to even begin to give a good fight or match-up with either Mohanlal or Prithviraj.

Abhimanyu Singh in a still from 'L2:Empuraan'. 

At least in Lucifer we had an excellent Vivek Oberoi essaying a well-etched-out role against Mohanlal leading to the trite confrontation scenes between them; here someone like Oberoi is sorely missed. To bring in a contemporary, realistic feel topical themes are thrown in - communal politics, radicalization, hounding by central agencies - but sadly none of it sticks, and to cap it all most of the characters of Empuraan including Mohanlal are given lines, lazily referencing the punch dialogues from the first part of the movie.

The first half takes pains to establish the backstory of a key character played by the director Prithviraj himself and this itself takes its own sweet and literally bloody time. What is worse is that with all the time and effort taken to establish the motivations of the key characters, when Mohanlal does eventually make his entry, the audience has lost interest in the proceedings.

The slow motion shots are a dreary repeat of the first part; but at least Lucifer had Lal oozing style with his native ‘mundu’, here dressed up in dark jackets and glares we give up after a while. The turn leading up to the interval is on expected lines and we fervently hope the film delivers from then on. The first half could get the statutory claps and whistles from diehard Mohanlal fans but even they know deep down that it’s a lost cause. The problem with Empuraan is it fails to build on the potent screenplay and possible character arcs that Lucifer offered. Its biggest vacuum is that for the audience the story and the writing is simply not rooted enough.

Tovino Thomas in a still from 'L2:Empuraan'. 

The various strands it tries to hold onto have been done to death a thousand times before and especially a discerning Malayali film-goer will really wonder what the whole fuss was all about.

If hope is a good thing, then praying that the second half will redeem Empuraan is sadly wishful thinking. We are again whisked away to foreign locales, despite our lame protests with more mafia confrontations and mashups. The only time there is a glimmer of hope is when Manju Warrier’s character Priyadarshini comes out of her shell and decides to oppose her own brother Jathin Ramdas and lead her late father, PKR’s party on her own terms. But this too is short-lived as more screen space is given to Prithviraj’s character to exact his revenge in the company of Mohanlal.

At the end of it all Mohanlal and Prithviraj fanboys and girls are left to ponder as to why on earth were they left to endure a goat’s life (only Malayalis will get this reference) during the three long hours of Empuraan.

The performances are nothing to write home about and the same can be said about the dialogues, all pretty tame and straightforward. Even the music fails to liven things up as does the background score, leaving us to wonder what the whole point of the IMAX release was. There is nothing Mohanlal or Prithviraj have to do except look dapper and cool and strut around lashing and piercing their adversaries as the camera moves around catching their every move in super slo-mo. It is only Tovino Thomas and Manju Warrier who make some effort to deliver anything credible.

Manju Warrier in a still from 'L2:Empuraan'. 

Sadly none of the strong characters from part one are seen here apart from Thomas and Warrier doing anything impactful. Simple lesson here: blaring background score and ingenious close-up shots of movie stars do not a movie make. Also lesson number two, a smattering of foreign actors delivering predictable lines in exquisite locations with digital keyboard clacking sounds alerting us of their exact locations also do not a movie make.

Well, despite being a disappointing watch Empuraan may do wonders at the box office and even recover its investment for everyone to splurge on the third part. But given the intent and possibility with the end-reveal of Mohanlal’s younger avatar set in Bombay, circa 1981 his fans pretty well know what to expect in the last part of the trilogy.

Team Empuraan, producers Aashirvaad Cinemas and everyone concerned will really have to get their act together if they have to deliver a credible third and final part. With the Malayalam film industry in the news for a proportionately higher number of Malayalam films flopping in recent months, filmgoers in the state and even film lovers outside strongly backed the consistently strong scripts and stories that came out.

A still from 'L2:Empuraan'. 

Rekhachithram, Ponman, Narayaneente Moonanmakkal, Officer on Duty were some of the notable ones to release in the first quarter of this year, some were box office hits, while the others earned rave reviews after their OTT premieres. Many will want to forget Mohanlal’s latest as a bad dream and move on, hopefully looking forward to his next.

There is a telling scene from Empuraan that stayed though, where Prithviraj’s character in an all-black savvy get up is standing in the swirling desert sand peering intently through his binoculars; desperately looking for some neat script writers for his next directorial, probably!  

(The writer is based in New Delhi and writes on films, art and contemporary issues.)