Sagar Alias Jackie

Eighties was the golden era of Malayalam cinema for me. It was a time when I was old enough to watch movies and coincidentally it was also the time they produced good movies in Malayalam. After being through the nineties and noughties I can vouch for that. Many movies that came out during the time was subjected to mutilation by sequels later on because the first one was so successful. This is a point of note when you consider that unlike in Hollywood making sequels is not an oft-engaged past time in regional Indian movies.

Sagar alias Jacky, one of Malayalam super star Mohanlal's latest outings owes its existence to an eighties Malayalam movie, Irupathaam Noottandu. Sagar alias Jacky was the name of Mohanlal's higly successful role in that movie and now we have a movie cashing on that character.

It is another of Mohanlal's "boot-series" of movies. This is my personal classification for Mohanlal movies in which the superstar's boots (usually heavy workman type) boots make an appearance before the hero himself appears on screen. But this is is one of the better ones. It is a slickly made film, comparable to new Hindi movies in its technical brilliance - fast editing, cutting edge cinematography, costume and art direction sets it apart from the run-of-the-mill boot series crap.Story, no surprises there, it is the usual gangsta image Mohanlal portrays these days with painless ease.

Shobana, Nedumudi Venu, Manoj K.Jayan and a host of other actors play important roles in this Amal Neerad film. If this film stands out in the crowd, the credit goes to the director, Mr.Neerad.