What happens when you take a large rectangular sheet of white paper, find its centre and name it 'plot', and then make a pattern of intersecting lines that run helter skelter, all towards some delusional dots that seem to be keeping the story intact? Well, Loham happens.
Director Ranjith seems to have taken up the rather serious subject of gold smuggling in Kerala as that centrifugal force, and dispersed from that initial pitching, the story seems to be finding little solace in its narrative structure and a lot in the presence (the mere presence is enough apparently) of Mohanlal.
The story starts with a death. And we know it's a murder. Then we meet an unassuming taxi driver, Raju (Mohanlal) who drives a passenger, Jayanthi Ramesh (Andrea Jeremiah) around Kochi, who is on the lookout for her missing husband. And we know he isn't just a taxi driver. There are many such situations wherein the scenarios aren't as craftily conjured to keep up with the genre of a thriller—a dearth of jaw-dropping, eye-popping sequences leave us in a mid-movie crisis. (how you're half-way through a movie and realize there is a crisis).
Loham essentially glorifies gold smuggling. That didn't sound right, let's try this—Loham glorifies gold smuggling when Mohanlal does it! It's okay to organise a large-scale scuffle to secure the gold, as long as you empathize with the people who were killed intentionally for this! If only the bad guy remained a baddie with no regrets or excuses for what he's doing, we still would have made peace with the structural flaws of the scenarios. The uncertainty of Ranjith to place this heist story on an altogether grave setting is evident when we see funny tracks running alongside.
Mohanlal, dashing by sheer force of habit, sprinkles his charm here and there. And even though the multiple con acts slightly tip the balance of the already precariously perched storyline, he is a pleasure to watch. Siddique as Mohammad Unni maintains great comedic timing, the reason why this actor has always been sought out. Soubin Sahir makes for a splash with his Fort Kochi slang. Andrea Jeremiah is passable.
To add to an exhausting story is the motley cast, wherein characters either pop out of empty script spaces, or make short appearances that do nothing in the long run. From Renji Paniker to director Shyamaprasad who does a flash appearance, it's hard to keep count of the number of characters in the movie, both utilised and under utilised.
Loham has Mohanlal, reminiscent of Captain Vijay in Pingami, with the twirling of his ever-famous mustache, but that's as far as it goes. If Ranjith hadn't made a batting side with 20 instead of 11, and not gone overboard with the star adoration, maybe the metal would have at least looked spray painted.
Rating: 2.5/5