Underworld Movie Review: The film tries to be stylish political gangster film but falls flat.

Cast:  Samyuktha Menon, Asif Ali, Srikant Murali, and Mukesh

Directed By: Arun Kumar

Underworld is one such film where the lines seem written only to be delivered with attitude, with that background score, with a smirk. The story itself, while it has some content, is all too superficial and the film, directed by Arun Kumar Aravind, tries too hard to create some ‘star’ moments.

The film begins with Stalin John (Asif Ali) in hospital, and the opening credits take you back to his younger years, growing up as a teen getting into trouble and becoming a Communist. Two other young men’s tales are also shown, one falling in love with a girl while also beating up others, the other going to the sea after some smuggled goods. Boy 2 Majeed (Farhaan Faasil) grows up to become a goon who beats up people for money and who still has the same girlfriend (Ketaki Narayan). Boy 3 is Solomon, played by Lal Junior, a ruthless fellow who’d kill his own dog if it came in the way of his hunting.

In the first half, there are a lot of scenes that are not needed for storytelling; Exceptions. But when it comes to laughing scenes, there seems to be a lot of people at the end of the film, including the director, who wants to finish the film within two and a half hours.

The main character, Stalin John (Asifali), runs the gamut from the rented out-of-town talkies to the money-sheets. But the party's owner, Stalin, is put in jail by the police. In retaliation, Stalin has blasted the theater with gas. Former minister Padmanabhan Nair (Mukesh), who was arrested in a bribery case, has taken his own right. 

Padmanabhan Nair also joins Majid (Farhan Fazil), another prisoner. Their main responsibility is to get the money back when they find out that Solomon (Lal Jr.), who was handed over to save the five hundred billion dollars he had received as a bribe, was cheating himself. The film's theme is the fight for it. Like many of the director's previous films, the film has come up against the CPM in many instances. 

In the present Kerala scenario, many of these issues are something that Malayalees face on a daily basis and often do not give the viewer much of a glimpse. Padmanabhan Nair, a former minister in the underworld, is one of the most powerful characters in Mukesh's acting career, which has not been seen much since MLA. 

Mukesh is a character who sees things with humor. Jean-Paul Lal's Solomon, who took his acting role after the directorial debut, has filled himself in with a brutal protagonist.

The film should have been written with being creative rather than giving homage to other language films in the name of stylish and sleak.