Gold Review: The same Alphonse’s style that elevated his previous films dampens his new film

Cast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Nayanthara, Shabareesh Varma, Chemban Vinod Jose
Music: Rajesh Murugesan
Direction: Alphonse Puthren

A mysterious truck loaded with speakers is parked in front of Joshi’s (Prithiviraj Sukumaran) house. He is expecting the delivery of his new Polo GT, which needs to be parked inside his house for which the mysterious truck becomes a hindrance. Who parked the truck? What’s inside the truck? Will Joshi park his car inside? Gold’s plot is very simple, similar to Alphonse’s previous two films, Neram & Premam. 

In this simple plot, we get a lot of characters with interesting names like Idea Shaji, Ghar illadha Baazi coming into the story. With lots of characters, no one has neither a proper character arc nor stay memorable. A few characters have some great scenes here and there like the Idea Shaji scenes, Vinay Fort in the shop. The protagonist character, Joshi, doesn’t have a character arc. Nayanthra as Sumangali Unnikrishnan has only a cameo role. The screenplay doesn’t utilize these characters well. 

The screenplay is stretched with Alphonse’s signature edits like the reverse slow motion, nature shots, food shots and brilliant use of music. This is the same for Premam too, but in Premam these edits and shots elevated the story narration whereas here it dampens the mood. I was excited and irritated at the same time watching the film unravel. 

Verdict: The same Alphonse’s style that elevated his previous films dampens his new film