Monster review: An embarrassingly unimaginative show put up by a hit combo

Lucky Singh (Mohanlal), a Punjabi-Malayali, lands in Kochi to complete a business deal related to his flat. He has a few things to sort out in Kerala.

He takes Bhamini’s (Honey Rose) taxi from the airport. He asks her to accompany him, and she reluctantly agrees.

Soon, she finds herself in a mess. The story then slowly veers into thriller zone.

Mohanlal’s latest release Monster is from the team that delivered the blockbuster hit Pulimurugan (2016), directed by Vysakh and written by Udaykrishna.

The writer also worked for Aarattu (2022), Madhura Raja (2019), Aanakkallan (2018), and Masterpiece (2017) after Pulimurugan. So, that should set your expectations high.

And the shows begin!#Monster in theatres near you from today! pic.twitter.com/UajIuHGDlz

— Mohanlal (@Mohanlal) October 21, 2022

Poor script, obsolete twists

Monster has a nice-enough thought line, but Udaykrishna’s script is really poor, especially the fillers. The twists are 55 years old, to say the least. In fact, Prem Nazir’s Cochin Express (1967) had better twists!

The dialogue was grating and in no way exciting. Some of the scenes were unintentionally funny.

In a nutshell, everything — right from the beginning — goes through the motions of making yet another mediocre thriller film.

Vysakh makes it effective with a few “Mohanlal” touches. He made certain things work, like the ending action scene, and the interval portion.

A hodgepodge of nonsense

Monster talks about a topic that needs to be talked about in today’s society, but it doesn’t work as intended.

Society’s view on homosexuals, the reason for the protagonists becoming criminals, the result, etc., do not fall in the right places.

Indeed, nowhere does the script try to be clever or socially correct on the topic; even the minute points they thought of including are diminished by implausible, clichéd, and ridiculous scenes.

Comedy scenes were a hodgepodge of nonsense, just like the writer’s and director’s previous movies — vulgar, wildly unreasonable, and even cartoonish.

They are lame and unfunny dross. They don’t respect a grown-up mind. Acting, too, was not good in the scenes.

After all those intolerable “comedy” scenes and an interesting interval twist, just when the characters try to get serious and give the story some meaning and depth, the movie ends up becoming so lame.

An average show

The performances were above average, but not particularly great.

There are a few moments for Mohanlal, but sadly, even he fails to do anything with his character’s surface-level depth, and the farcical scenes in the first half. In fact, his show starts at the interval bang.

Honey Rose is decent, but not great. She sometimes looks stoned.

Ganesh Kumar is good and Lakshmi Manju is ok. The other actors appear like mannequins in a closed store.

The background music of Deepak Dev is quite good. The final action sequence is the best part of the whole movie. Stunt Silva choreographed the action scenes.

Verdict

As you watch Monster, you get the impression that you’ve seen all of it a hundred times before.

Apart from a couple of effective big-screen moments, the movie comprises worn-out scenes that are jumbled together.

It isn’t horrible; it’s simply embarrassingly unimaginative. To say the least, it is a great misuse of Mohanlal!