‘Adios Amigo’ movie review: This Suraj Venjaramoodu, Asif Ali starrer is a tedious, over-stretched film

In ‘Adios Amigo’, directed by debutant Nahas Nazar, nothing happens for extended phases, leaving us wondering about the film’s intentions

Everything is in your face right from the beginning in debutant Nahas Nazar’s Adios Amigo, especially the running theme of the contrast between the haves and have-nots. So much so that one would expect something more to this never-ending and aimless journey of over 160 minutes with two aimless men. But, all we are left with are the few things the film repeatedly throws at us right from the beginning.

Two men from different backgrounds and situations meet at a bus station and begin an impromptu journey, the destination of which keeps shifting as they go along. The makers, for some mysterious reason, choose to reveal their names only in the end. While the poor man (Suraj Venjaramoodu) is trying desperately to get some money to take care of his mother’s hospital expenses, the rich man (Asif Ali) has left home with a pocketful of money to go around on yet another aimless trip of non-stop drinking and banter with just about any random person he comes across.

Right from the setup, it was inevitable that these two men would travel and stick together till the end. But, just to keep the journey going, the poor man who inexplicably goes on this trip even as his mother is in the hospital, does not reveal his need to the moneyed man until late into the day. All this, despite being with him even as he throws his money around to anyone he meets on the way.

Thankam, who wrote the screenplay for Kettyolaanu Ente Malakha, comes up with a script in which nothing happens for extended phases. There are long bus journeys, boat journeys, and a long night’s stay at a hotel, but nothing crucial occurs in any of these, even as the attempted humour lands only occasionally. The only substantial event amid all this is their meeting with a textile shop employee (Anagha), which sheds light on the rich man’s past and adds the rare emotional touch in a movie free of any such thing. Other than this, the only thing we know about him till the end is that he has been quite a headache for the entire family, splurging all the money he got from his father.

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By the end, we wonder what the film was trying to convey as the director stretches a short film material. Adios Amigo could have been a humourous and profound work on inequality and its manifestations in real life. However, despite such aspirations, it ends up being a tedious, over-stretched film that fails to excite.

Adios Amigo is currently running in theatres