The Priest (2021) is a Malayalam paranormal thriller starring Mammooty. It got released today on Amazon Prime Video. Reading the description of “A priest and a police officer are trying to solve a set of mysterious suicides”, I expected an engaging detective, instead, it was a run-of-the-mill ghost revenge film with an identity crisis. It gets a Mangoidiots rating of ‘Raw’ because of Mammooty.
The film starts with a young lady bringing to the attention of Fr. Carmen Benedict (Mammooty) the series of mysterious suicides that happen in a millionaire family. He joins with the local Deputy Superintendent to solve the crime. It was a good detective film till this point. Then suddenly it takes a turn to become something else. As an afterthought, the Post climax had one extra element. I like Nikhila Vimal from her appearance in Kidaari (2016), in this film she plays the main role of the Teacher in a Christian mission school, and, she has done the role well. Manju Warrier has a limited role but she manages to leave a mark.
Fr. Carmen seems to be everything – he is a detective, a strongman, he is a man of God, a Priest, a person who can talk to the dead as easily as dialling a phone number, an engineer who uses modern gadgets to deduct and even pull-out Ghosts from the living body, and, so on.
Overall, it felt like the debut director Jofin T. Chacko, got overwhelmed by having the “Mega Star” that he decided to make three disjoint stories in one single film.
The Priest (2021)
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