Quite late in Ajai Vasudev’s ‘Masterpiece’ we get a one of a kind chase sequence that involves our hero ‘Edward Livingstone’ ( Mammootty ) and the entire Kerala Police squad. The camera for a while tracks the hero’s car and then it turns upside down, the car being on top and the ground at the bottom. Why bother for such a shot ? But the fans would say “Why not !!! ”

‘Masterpiece’ is basically another one of those trashy movies just to get the star’s fans in an orgasmic mode. Every scene after a point is written just to praise the hero and after a while we start to forget that there are other characters in the movie. Eddy also known as ‘gunda-maash’ is no ordinary lecturer. He can bash up a thousand goons, he knows how to solve a case, he knows how to be popular among students ( a long standing student rivalry between the laughably named ‘Real fighters’ and ‘Royal Warriors’ is solved by our hero ) and of course he tips a nod to Modi. Even Smitha ( Poonam Bajwa ), our female lead is present just to gawk at the star. The screenplay ( if there was one ) by ‘Udaykrishna’ could be read as “Star-Star-Star”. There’s a nod to ‘The King’, ‘Pazhassiraja’, ‘PokkiriRaja’ and countless number of the stars films that we’ve come to adore.

The editor opts for some racy cuts, not the kind of racy that you see in the Bourne movies. He cuts scenes in the most bewildering way possible, everything happens in a flash. So at one moment you have the star investigating about a crime and cut, you move onto a song sequence and cut, you get a chase. You can’t blame him really, had it not been for him there wouldn’t have been a movie in the first place.

Which brings us to the most important aspect for these kind of movies- the star. Mammootty looks the part ( he romances a woman half his age and it still doesn’t seem awkward ) and can surely act the part but some of the fight scenes seems awkward. ‘Kasaba’ was another underwhelming masala movie of the star but over there the fights was precise, it didn’t seem perplexing. But the fans seem to be having a jolly good time, so why should we care. If nothing else, ‘Masterpiece’ acts as towering response to the stars detractors who says he’s lost his power and charm, but what could we say about the people behind the camera ?

Rating : 2 stars ( out of 5 ).