Director: Martin Prakkat
Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Parvathy
Rating: 3.5 stars
R Unni tells in an interview that his story for ‘Charlie’ had been dark. But then they decided to make it a happy film. There is happiness oozing out of the corners of Kochi, on the faces of characters and in the insides of buildings. And if there isn’t, the hero will make sure he pours it, drop by drop into the lives he walks into or more likely, barges into. This hero walks nameless for most part of the movie, just the way Unni intended him to. He is built into the charming Santa Claus of a man through the stories a girl first finds and then traces. Parvathy is a subdued version of the hero, playing Tessa, a gypsy girl who rebels without making a noise about it – in a quiet, adorable kind of way. Dulquer the hero is not the same. He is loud, in his clothes, expressions, and especially in his laughter. A little too loud, perhaps.
In an attempt to paint an extraordinary character who wanders off from place to place, and person to person, Martin Prakkat, the director, may have perhaps gone a tad too far. A wee bit of normalcy and Charlie would have come closer to the viewer, not appeared a fairytale hero. He doesn’t appear to have a job, a phone or an address. But he touches the lives of people he only spends a day or night with, making their wishes come true. These people then become the caricatures he sketches back at a house that he leaves on yet another whim. Tessa walks into this house, finding incomplete stories off his sketches. She’s intrigued, trying to find at first the rest of the story and then the storywriter. New characters keep popping up to tell her about this man. In all their tales, he is mysterious, comes with the artificial loud laugh and tells them to be happy.
It is also a happy place we see, full of colours. The house is in a beautiful location, there is ghazal music from the opposite terrace, there are old women walking around in frocks. It has the perfect setting for a fantasy, only it is not. Parvathy, by now accepted a gifted actor, has not a lot to do here. It is Dulquer’s movie, out and out. And while he has done justice to his subtle roles before, Charlie’s loudness somehow looks like a wrong fit. But he is crawling out of his typecast nice guy roles, and the one way to do it is to do it. Charlie will help him there, the storyline keeps one hooked, for Tessa’s quest is exciting and endearing.
