Smart City

Language : Malayalam
Banner : Seven Arts International Pvt Ltd
Director : B.Unnikrishnan
Producer : Vijayakumar
Story : B.Unnikrishnan
Screenplay : B.Unnikrishnan
Dialogue : B.Unnikrishnan
Lyrics : Shibu Chakravarthy
Music : Manikanth Kathiri
Distribution : Seven Arts Release
Release : 2006 December 15
Cast : Suresh Gopi, Murali, Manoj.K.Jayan, Lakshmi Gopalaswami, Gopika, Jayasurya, Siddique, Shammi

Suresh Gopi is finally in a role of substance in the new flick Smart City. Debutant director B.Unnikrishnan has managed to make the film quite absorbing with a racy narration and twists at regular intervals.

Even though Suresh Gopi repeats himself the umpteenth time as Madhavan, this time as a real estate mafia king, the film offers a little more than usual with little gimmicks including a new hairdo.

The film revolves around the real estate boom of the recent years that the state has witnessed. The growing involvement of the mafia in the building business, the nexus between builders, the underworld and greedy politicians and the recent fully wired smart city plan of the government which met with lots of resentment and opposition sets the premise of the plot defined in the film.

Shekharettan (Murali) is an ageing powerful kingmaker of Kochi underworld and his trusted lieutenant is now the new don of the city-Madhavan (Suresh Gopi). They control the real estate business and they share a bitter rivalry with the deadly Kotooran brothers (Rajmohan Unnithan, Saddique and co.) and the state finance minister Raghuraam.

Shekharan's daughter Sharada is married to Sharath Chandran, who is the Town Planning Officer. Sharath is honest and doesn't like his father-in-law or Madhavan for that matter, and is averse to letting his wife or son go visiting them.

The finance minister, played by Shammi Thilakan, tries to revive the project, with intent of turning the land acquired for the Smart City project into a luxury housing complex. In the meantime, a daring City Police Commissioner Arun Nambiar (Siddique) takes charge and sets out to eliminate the mafia. Madhavan's adopted sister Devi, who doesn't know what exactly Shekharan and Madhavan are doing, is in love with Varun, the younger brother of Arun Nambiar.

While Shekharettan and Madhavan wants to help those who lost their land to the real estate mafia, Kotooran Brothers come in the way, leading to frequent skirmishes.The real battle between the Kottooraan group and the Shekharan-Madhavan syndicate is what follows in the film. One day all hell breaks lose as Madhavan avenges the killing of his close buddy which leads to a blood bath followed by an absorbing climax.

Suresh Gopi relatively subdued than his usual fares, but stylish is the grace of the film. He emotes much better than he is known to in such action oriented films. Then again, those occasional English outbursts not only by the hero remain, as it has become the character of every Suresh Gopi films.

Murali in a full length role as Shekharan effortlessly portrays the character with ample mix of toughness and gentleness, Siddique as Arun Nambiar, Manoj K. Jayan as Sharath Chandran, Shammi Thilakan as Raghuram , Rajmohan Unnithan as Joseph Kottooraan , Jayasurya as Varun don't make much impact, even though they are adequate in their roles. Mandatery sentiments rollers are found in Gopika as Devi and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy as Sharada respectively, who has nothing to do at all.

Even though there are many loose ends in the scripting of B Unnikrishnan, he does a decent job on debut as a director. The technical crew also show promise with the debutant editor Manoj sticking to the basics than on opening the effects pandora box. The camera work also stands a class apart. Smart City has given Suresh Gopi, a film that is a few notches above the actor's recent films such as Pathaka and Bada Dosth.

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