If you guys have been following us (or social media in general) regularly, you might have seen the release of the highly anticipated Malayalam thriller ‘Malik‘, around a week ago. The historical gangster drama got some brilliant reviews from critics and movie watchers alike and we too became a fan of the film. Fahadh Faasil and Nimisha Sajayan’s acting performances were eye-catching, the cinematography and music kept us watching and the story was well-thought-out.
However, the movie still had a few issues. The movie dragged a little unnecessarily (thanks to the 160-minute runtime) and there were a few parts that complicated the film. Most of them were minor issues, but we found four major plot points that go unanswered in this movie; check them out below:
David
Did anyone actually understand what made David betray Ali? We are seriously asking here. This man stood with Ali, his best friend, the man he grew up with for many years. He even decided to stand by Ali when they decided to go up against Chandran – who, by the way, was his employer and could have killed him if things went south. But when he meets a smooth-talking sub-collector, – all of a sudden, he forgets the character of the man he spent nearly all his time with? What?
We understand that the Christian community was suffering. But if David believes that it was Ali’s fault, or that Ali couldn’t have helped him – then this character is either blind (again then why did they take down Chandran?) or badly written.
The Riot Sequence
There is nothing “wrong” in this sequence per-say, but the dual perspective of the riot was shown to us badly. We understand that the movie was trying to go for the cool multiple vantage point sequence in this movie AKA the Rashomon effect – but it falls flat on-screen. We think that the director didn’t want us to know that we were getting a second perspective of the riot scene (can’t imagine why), but when we get dropped into the said scene without having any basic understanding of what was happening – it becomes confusing. It’s only when the entire sequence ends – when David gets shot, we finally understand that we were looking at the riot scene from a different vantage point.
If only it was mentioned (even subtly) prior to the scene or at least during the scene, we would have understood what was going on.
Peter’s Role
What was Peter’s role in this movie exactly? He was one of the biggest plot holes in the movie. He kept an eye on what David was doing – like when he went to talk to Aboo and Anwar before the riots, which he then told to Roselyn. Then he would go and whine about Ali and the Ramadapally Muslims to David. And before all that, he was still working for Ali, years after the huge fallout between Ali and David (finding the automatic weapons in the van scene). Which again doesn’t make sense. If he was working for Ali, he would have been making a lot of money, which he could have used to help his community. So, why didn’t he?
Aboo’s Betrayal
Aboo was probably the true antagonist of this film. Worked together with Ali, became his business partner, shared equal power within his community, ran for office & won the election, betrayed Ali and will probably be the new defacto community head now that Ali is dead. But what we didn’t understand is that how did Ali not see this coming? Especially after the whole riot scene where he got confirmation from Peter and Roselyn?
Well, one could argue that Ali kept Aboo around because it is better to keep the devil you know closer but that doesn’t make any sense with Ali’s character. He killed Chandran for killing the children who worked in his storage facility, but he lets one of the main perpetrators of his son’s death AKA Aboo, get off scot-free? No freaking way. Even Anwar doesn’t escape his wrath. And with Ali’s influence, there is nothing that suggests that he didn’t know what Aboo was up to for years because this betrayal was always coming.
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