~~~20:20 Twenty Twenty Movie Review 20:20~~~. Review on Twenty Twenty Movie

.  Yes, Twenty Twenty is simply that.    A movie for a cause by the stars of a film industry – 20:20 is already applied for it's place in Guinness Book of World records.     It is a film made to help the financially struggling film actors and actresses who had to struggle in their later life.    Showing our face in a cinema is something everybody takes pride of.  However, after some time - from the moment you are not in current films - your shadows will be forgotten by the people.   We cannot blame the audience where they got new set of shadows.   Once out of shadow, each actor/actress has to live own burden.   TV channels brought many sympathetic pictures of silver screen idols virtually starving and living in sick conditions - without getting proper food, shelter or treatment.     May be the families they forgot when they dedicated themselves to the shadows must have forgotten them.    May be that is part of society's lifestyle.  In any case AMMA, the organization of Film actors/actresses of Kerala made a film to support such helpless people.   I would have endorsed this cause with any stupid film for its cause.  However, 20:20 proved its merit in presenting a commercial story involving the maximum number of casts in it, including the rivals Mammootty & Mohan Lal.

The story is around a rape, murder and revenge.   I cannot give a plot where the leading stars make their entry very late and without connecting their characters there is no story.

Mammootty played the role of Advocate Ramesh Nambiar and gave his usual style and charisma to the character from his entry.  Mohanlalas Devaraja Pratapa Varma on the other hand kept a low profile in the beginning which gave him an edge where he made a grand come back later.     Suresh Gopi as Inspector Antoney Punnekkadan got an equal space with the leading two.    His performance matches many of his successful police roles.  Jayaramand Dileep are reduced to small roles but they tried their best in the limited screen time.   Saikumar, Vijayaraghavan, Siddique, Indrajit, Manoj K Jayan etc. had small but important roles.  Actresses however had to settle with guest appearance.   Bhavana got the only romantic role and that too in last part of the movie.     Kavya, Gopika etc. were there only for namesake.

The script writers need applauds for coming up with a plot which satisfies most of the star fans.   All the combination scenes between Mohanlal and Mammootty were superb and their verbal duals are the highlight of the film.  One to one, Punch to punch, word to word the writers utilized the audience sentiments.   Mohan Lal, Jayaram & Dileep combination scenes and Mammootty with Suresh Gopi combination scenes…all of them are well written and beautifully executed.   The dialogue writers played an important role there.  In some places the dialogues did reached to the ground level but when we consider the film in its totality, it is forgettable.   Director Joshi tried his best to accommodate as many as possible giving due importance and need praise for shoring the project as a good entertainer.  It is not carrying a typical Joshi stamp, but his role as an unbiased mediator worked very well.

Cinematography was quite good.   The film is more than 3 hrs in length, obviously the editor could have done something better.  Then in a film like this he will be given less freedom.    Within his boundaries, the editor did an ok job, though not great.   The first song was good to listen and those scenes from golden era supplied with the song actually made the audience nostalgic and it worked in a big way.  Otherwise songs and choreography was pretty average.

Meera Jasmine's & Thilakan's absence was noted.     It is sad that even when we organize for good purpose we cannot include one and all where wounds of words survive many consolations.     Prithviraj had to settle with a guest appearance in the Nayan Tara dance.

On the negative side the scripting lost some of its logic in the second half.  There is no way a Criminal Lawyer ignores who is behind his sister's sad situation.   Also the way the lawyer asks the criminal to shoot in front of the most daring police officer is a joke.      Suresh Gopi's action is limited to his words.  He should have given some good action scenes to match the image.     However, once the film entertains, who cares the script?  (That is the situation in almost all language films).   With a good number of heroes and a lot of villains around the film could have accommodated some good fight scenes, but it is limited to 2 or 3.

Overall, the film is very entertaining.  For the fans of Mohan Lal, Mammootty and Suresh Gopi, the film must be a treat to watch.  For all those who love Malayalam commercial films, it is a good watch.    If however, you are one who looks for quality (read perfect cinema/Art cinema) everywhere there is not much in this film.   A must watch for Mallu movie lovers.  For all others, they may wait till a possible remake to other languages.