Chemban Vinod Jose has written one of the finest gangster dramas in Malayalam cinema in the form of Angamaly Diaries. Even though it had a very chaotic space and pace, it was a movie that smartly did world-building, character-establishing, etc. in a subtle way, eventually leading to a dramatic finale. He has openly talked about his admiration for filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, and when you look at the new script Chemban Vinod has written for his brother Ullas Chemban to direct, somewhere one can see this Scorsese aspiration as the idea is filled with characters and subplots in an intertwined space. But the process of adding flesh to the bones of this idea is becoming exhausting because the making is more interested in showing off style than what is required to elevate the drama.
In a seaside town, we have these two gangs, one led by Ousu and the other by Darling Marty, doing their share of crimes. At one point, a rift arises between these two gangs, and Ousu’s uncle Vethiyamu intervenes and introduces a partnership. The uncle proposes a shortcut plan that would give them enough to stop all these crime dealings and settle down in life. The execution of that plan and its repercussions are what we see in Ullas Chemban’s Disco.
The movie is A-certified, and frankly, it doesn’t make sense to criticise it for simply having bold scenes, violence, and profanity. The setting of this story is such that such language and bloodshed match the milieu. The problem is how they chose to use it in the movie. While I was mostly okay with profanity and intimacy, what felt unnecessary or underwhelming was the use of violence. It was almost like the agenda was set that they would show insanely brutal killings and stuff in the movie, but how they would land on those scenes was decided later. Because of that, almost all the violent action blocks in this movie feel very forced. The climax fight that happens inside a dance club just goes on and on as if the director was getting a kick out of showing various body parts drenched in blood.
The flow-chart of the screenplay actually makes sense, and it gives a proper structure to the multiple events happening in this story. But the issue with the movie lies in adding flesh and blood to this skeleton. Ullas Chemban is adding these vibrant, EDM songs to the narrative to set the mood. But most of the time, when these songs happen out of the blue, the rhythm they had set gets lost, and the movie gets way too indulged in these diversions. You end up questioning the purpose of certain songs, the need for certain romantic subplots, and even the duration of certain action blocks whose execution feels more tiring than exciting.
In the second half of the movie, there are these patches of humor where we see Chemban Vinod’s Vethiyamu talking finance with his sister, nephews, business partners, etc., and there are even scenes of him talking to his daughter about her love life, and all those scenes had a specific kind of humor which made me think that Chemban Vinod should actually think about writing a gangster comedy. There is a shocker moment in the second half of the film, and Ullas Chemban has staged that scene in a riveting way. But his overenthusiasm in showing stylized visuals is leading to scenarios where a scene is getting stretched far too long, and you just lose interest in the plot development.
In natural settings, the cinematography of Armo that uses these extremely wide-angle lenses combined with slow-motion attains a stylistic production quality. But when it comes to a completely controlled environment, the climax fight, for instance, the overall look feels cheap. The movie is a festival of jump cuts, and I understand how it helps the film gain some pace. But when you add jump cuts even to a scene where only one character is speaking in a static frame, it is very distracting. Manikandan Ayyappa’s music is mostly in that techno EDM space, and it pretty much serves its purpose. The movie’s sound design is done neatly, while the sound mixing will give you a very tough time inside the theater. And when I checked the credits, the mixing was done by Kannan Ganapat, the man who was infamous for his mixing in Kanguva.
Chemban Vinod is pretty much the face of this movie, and his uber-cool rendering of dialogues and comedy timing will crack you up. Even when he shifts to that intimidating tone, the swagger is never lost. Dev Mohan gets to switch to this rugged guy avatar with this film, and I hope Amal Neerad is noticing him. Lukman Avaran plays the role of Darling Marty in this movie, and he was able to deliver what the movie demanded from him. Antony Varghese plays the antagonist Yoyaki in this movie, and whenever he used the F word or tried to say the dialogue in English, it reminded me of those early days of watching English films and trying to say those F-word-filled dialogues; it was that artificial. Meera Vasudev and Femina George are part of the cast playing the sister and daughter of Vethiyamu, respectively. Balan fame Sandra Chandran is paired opposite Dev Mohan. Gayatri Suresh’s makeover might give a new direction to her largely trolled career. Arjun Ashokan, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, and some of the forgotten faces from Angamaly Diaries are part of the cast in roles with relatively less screen time.
Disco is a movie where the crowded directorial vision pretty much ruined the idea for a competent gangster thriller. The screenplay had the flavors that were needed to make it engaging. But the priority given to style and loudness makes it look like a chaotic scream, rather than an exciting gangster thriller. Barring one death, no other killing scene in this movie manages to create an impact on us, as the proceedings looked very cliched. If seeing pointless brutality with good sound design on a big screen gives you a high, Disco will definitely satisfy your expectations.
