KL 10 Pathu is a film that is set almost entirely in Kerala's Muslim majority district of Malapuram (though a substantial portion of the film does take place in Kozhikode as well).
The film is largely about the politics, friendships, football club rivalries and inter-caste love within the Muslim community of Malapuram.
There was a good film inside there somewhere. Unfortunately, the interesting parts are in the background. Like the atheist son clashing with a devout Muslim mother, Muslims taking on Muslims who support Pakistan in cricket matches, life in a boys only college in Malapuram, the RSS interrupting the screening of a controversial film and a Communist Party worker taking on the burqa etc.
But most of KL 10 Pathu is wasted in repetitive slapstick comedy and jokes centered around food. One of the problems with Malayalam cinema over the last few years is that they trivialize serious or interesting issues by tempering it with comedy.
Like the part where a group of young Muslim men stop at a mosque (like if a group of Hindu or Christian men stop off at a bar on a journey) to pray on their way to meet a friend. This stuff is not really examined. The director seems to want to make us think that such behavior is normal. But what does he as a modern Muslim man think about such excessive religiosity? There is a trend in Malayalam cinema where such excessive religiosity is treated as normal. This is my highly subjective and possibly bigoted view of this scene.
Another major gripe is that the makers hit you on the head with the terrible background score.
After a certain point, the film seems to go around in circles. The parts where Aju Varghese and his friend walk around sampling different kinds of food become repetitive.
The idea of inserting a Djinn character providing a narration was interesting. But he was around all the time. He became a distraction in some of the scenes.
Anyway, this film was an above average effort by a first time director - Mushin Parari. I will definitely watch his next film.
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