Gold Movie Review: All that glitters is not gold!

Review: Like Alphonse Puthren's Neram and Premam, Gold too takes place in the lush, green banks of Periyar in Aluva. Joshy (Prithviraj Sukumaran), who lives with his mother (Mallika Sukumaran), is a mobile store owner in a shopping mall in Kochi. One morning, his mother who is always doing household chores finds out that an unknown vehicle filled with Bluetooth speakers has been parked in their compound. It's also the day Joshy is set to get his new car delivered to his home. So he goes to the police station to inform them about the vehicle, to find the cops too, are in a similar situation with a truck of wood in their police station compound.

While the cops ask him to adjust for a few days, a parallel story appears on track. Jewelry shop owner Unni (Shammi Thilakan), out of his 'love' for his daughter Sumangali (Nayanthara), offers 99.9 percent pure gold to her prospective groom and father. Meanwhile, as Joshy's Bluetooth speaker conks out, he decides to pick one from the vehicle, putting it down to the parking charge. But instead of a speaker, he finds a block of gold painted like a speaker. Soon he realises that the vehicle has 200 such gold chunks. The movie proceeds on how 'wisely' Joshy uses this fortune without informing the law. According to the writer cum filmmaker, it isn't greed but intelligence, or maybe generosity!

It looks like the movie is packed with several in-film advertisements from Joshy's brand-new car to the mobiles that he sells. Who would not want actors like Prithviraj Sukumaran and Nayanthara endorsing products? The movie with an interesting one-liner has tried to explore some latest editing techniques and non-linear narration. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to really work, as it feels more of the same as filmmakers’ previous mass-appealing films.

The thumping music, abrupt cuts, and visuals of insects and nature serve more to disturb than enhance the film's mood. The ensemble cast that flashes onto the screen and disappears, including Nayanthara, and also Soubin Shahir, and Ganapathy among others, appear for no reason other than as a power play by the maker to show his brand value.

Women, except Alphonse's wife Aleena Mary Antony who showcases a repetitive dance sequence, are portrayed as humans without brains. If Joshy's mom fails to notice what her son has been doing inside her home for four days, Sumangali's mom expects her daughter to elope at any time. The songs and the lyrics have tried their best to be funny but fail.

when the movie finally ends without much surprising 'twist', it looks like both Alphonse Puthren and the viewers appears confused on screen! In total, one may compel to feel that all that glitters is not gold!