July 4

Language : Malayalam
Banner : Aalvin Cinemas
Director : Joshi
Producer : Aalvin Antony
Camera : Shaji
Story : Uday Krishna, Sibi K Thomas
Screenplay : Uday Krishna, Sibi K Thomas
Dialogue : Uday Krishna, Sibi K Thomas
Lyrics : Vayalar Sarathchandra Varma
Music : Ouseppachan
Release : 2007 July 05
Cast : Dileep, Roma, Devan, Siddique, Cochin Haneefa, Salim Kumar, Lakshmi, Mangala, Riaz Khan, Santhosh Jogi, Anil Murali, Innocent, Pavan, Sarath.

Dileep has made the American Independence day (July 4), the new festival season in Kerala. This year with competition peeking, Dileep has come out with an action adventure July 4. It is a clean entertainer told in the action format by director Joshy and is breezy while it lasts.

Like all Joshy films of the 80�s, this one two starts in a prison, where the protagonist Gokuldas (Dileep), is brutally beaten up by the Superintend of the jail, former ACP Ramachandran (Siddique). Das actually is due to leave the prison for his good conduct on July 4 (hence the title) but Ramachandran is determined that he will not leave the jail alive! In a flashback Gokuldas, narrates to the good jailor Potti (Innocent), his life and times and why the bad cop Ramachandran is after his blood.

Gokuldas as a child witnessed his mother being brutally raped and killed by a cop, while he and other children accused of being thieves was in lock-up. Later he and the other children kill the cop and run away to Mumbai, where they join the underworld. But the death of an innocent taxi driver and close friend Gopalettan (Vijayraghavan) in a police encounter, makes Das change his attitude. He opts for a peaceful life in Coimbatore as a taxi driver, and also takes a decision to look after his friends daughters.

One day he picks up Sripriya(Roma), daughter of the Palakkad business tycoon Viswanathan (Devan) from the Coimbatore airport. He later becomes close to Viswanathan and his family, and soon becomes their driver. One day Das finds out that Sripriya�s marriage has been fixed with Unni(Sharat), the daughter of the Palakkad ASP, Ramachandran, while actually he is in love with Shilpa(Mangala), Sripriya�s younger sister!

Later Das while taking Sripriya for an examination in Coimbatore are chased by a gang of three toughies, who the previous night had tried to break in to her bedroom. They have to abandon the car and are on the run in Valayar forest, with toughies after them.

After spending a night together in an old abandoned house, Das slowly falls for Sripriya. Next day he alone ventures out and abruptly meets up with the toughies and soon they are hugging each other! Well that is the interval twist in the story. Post interval it is revealed that the three toughies- William (Riaz Khan), Danny, and Feroz were Das�s buddies in crime from his younger days, and they had planned Sripriya�s kidnap drama. And they were working for ACP Ramachandran, who now wants Sripriya dead! There are more interesting turns as the story unfolds, with a cracker of a climax twist.

Joshy and his script writers Sibi-Udayakrishnan has made it racy, giving you no time to think, as twists in the story takes place at every turn. The writers have liberally borrowed the plots of many Hindi and Tamil films of the 80�s and 90�s, to give the chills and thrills to the narration.

It is an out and out Dileep film, where he flexes his muscles more than making you laugh, as Gokuldas,the guy with some negative shades. However without any crass comedy, the actor has done a decent job. Roma has only one expression throughout the film, and has to check her weight if she is here to stay.

Siddique as the bad cop who is asthmatic (inspired by Big-B of Khakki) is very good. The rest of the cast of Innocent, Devan, Cochin Haneefa, Riaz Khan and Salim Kumar have all done their walk-in roles adequately. Ouseappachan�s music is average.

On the whole July 4 is a 2 hours 15 minute rollercoaster ride with some thrilling moments.

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