Pranchiyettan & The Saint (2010)

Country: India

Language: Malayalam

Director: Ranjith

Actors: Mammootty, Jesse Fox Allen, Siddique, Kushboo, Innocent, Jagathy Sreekumar & Master Ganapathy

The film revolves around the conversation of a god fearing Thrissur based rice merchant, Francis and Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis has a long history of being ridiculed / mocked upon as Ari Pranchi or “Rice man” Francis by his friends and acquaintances. He tries desperately to shake that “Rice man” image and move up the ladder of high society. A loss in the local club election, failed attempt to take center stage during the felicitation of a Malayalee Oscar winner and money lost trying to buy Padmashree (An Indian government civilian award) award out don’t help his quest to become a celebrity. Most of the times he loses out to his childhood nemesis who also happens to be the husband of his childhood sweetheart.

His inability to buy the Padmashree award makes him withdraw into a shell of loneliness. And then comes the cinematic bait of a young woman (Priyamani) who manages to cheer him up. The story comes to a climax with Francis trying to help his school’s headmaster to achieve 100% results in 10^th grade. There is one boy who stands between his dream of 100% results who according to him will surely fail. Francis takes it on to him to give special care to the boy and ensure he doesn’t fail. And predictably the boy fails in turn making Francis fail again. These are issues we see Francis discussing with the Saint. What comes out of it is the movie.

Every single actor in the cast has done his / her little bit to make this an entertaining movie. Mammooty is magical playing a middle aged rich man who does quixotic things in his quest to become a celebrity. Innocent who plays the rich man’s friend who assists him in his quest, Kushboo & Siddique who play the hero’s childhood sweetheart and nemesis respectively and the young boy Master Ganapathi are simply superb.

I am not someone who is very conversant in Malayalam, I can understand the language with some difficulty. But I can say that the director / screenwriter Ranjith has done a great job. There are a few dialogues that will linger in my memory for long. Like this one where the protagonist tells the Saint, “Our guys from Thrissur can call any one Yettan (Brother), even Eshu (Jesus Christ) they will call Eshuettan (Brother Jesus)”. There is only one song in the movie, but still the music composed by Ouseppachan is among the highlights of the movie.

I would surely put this a must watch comedy movie. Most recommended for anyone who can understand a bit of Malayalam. A sure Super Watch !!

Trivia: This movie features 5 national award winners. Mammooty, Priyamani, Director Ranjith, Cinematographer Venu and the Music director Ousappachan