‘Gold’ Review: Alphonse Puthren-Prithviraj Combo Is Wacky But Lacks Luster

Alphonse Puthren’s classic Malayalam hit Premam, starring Nivin Pauly and Sai Pallavi was released seven years ago.

As a result, expectations for his next film, Gold, starring Prithviraj and Nayanthara, were even higher than the all-time high price of gold. With just one trailer and no promotion prior to the film, the anticipation skyrocketed.

Was the film worth the hype? Let's see.

The story revolves around Joshi (Prithviraj), who has an abandoned truck parked outside his doorstep. The vehicle is loaded with what seems like hundreds of bluetooth speakers, however, there's more to it. Meanwhile, there’s Sumangali’s (Nayanthara's) family, who arrange a marriage for her. How are the lofty dowry demands from the groom’s home connected to Joshi’s situation? What follows next is an amusing cat-and-mouse chase-filled heist-like thriller.

The film aims to teach a moral story about human greed and selflessness through a quirky narrative.

Visually, Gold is youthful and eccentric, targeting the new-generation audience. It has a fun mega-serial thriller vibe with lots of slow-mos and build-ups, which mostly works effectively as intended. For instance, the classy fight sequence when Joshi thrashes a bunch of thieves in his backyard is electrifying.

Using nature effectively as metaphorical images, the close-up shots of ants, grass-hoppers, squirrels, birds, and butterflies were both aesthetic and meaningful.

The film has an interesting variation in camera angles, which provides a 360-degree view of a scene and plays a significant role in providing the audience with an immersive film-watching experience. 

With recurring cinematic themes, quirky characters, out-of-the-box edits, and interesting visual storytelling, the 'Alphonse Putheran-touch' is quite evident in Gold. However, unlike his previous films such as Neram and Premam, it is visible only at certain high points and not throughout the film.

Rajesh Murugesan’s high-tempo music and background score become the savior of the cluttered screenplay by trying to keep it alive and kicking. The Peppy dance number in Gold with animated facial expressions, ‘Thanne Thanne’ is almost on par with the forever-superhit ‘Pista’ from Neram.

The film scores every time it sets us up with suspense and tension, but not all the revelations are satisfying enough. It just leaves us feeling deprived of a powerful punch.

The Prithviraj Sukumaran-starrer is loaded with stellar talents like Nayanthara, Roshan Mathew, Sharafudheen, Saiju Kurup, Ajmal Ameer, Lalu Alex, Vinay Fort, Krishna Sankar, Mallika Sukumaran, and Chemban Vinod Jose. I still haven’t mentioned a few but I’m sure you’re panting while reading this list.

Though every actor has performed adequately, their scope was extremely limited, which felt like it restricted them from unleashing their fullest potential. Except for the lead star Prithviraj, the rest of the cast appears and disappears without much significance, including the short cameo by director-editor Alphonse himself.

Having said all this, there is no doubt that Gold is an earnest attempt. It has several interesting ideas and nostalgic references. But it would have been more exciting had the writing been stronger, simply because Alphonse has already set the bar high for himself.