Movie Review : Chocolate - Strictly for youngsters.

History repeats. Last year, if Prithviraj had Classmates, this year he has got Chocolate. Though the success of the Classmates belonged to lot of aspects like the script, songs, cast etc,; Chocolate owes its success only because of his presence. Director Shafi, who had a successful track record with his movies is back again with his brand of film making – comedy.

The movie has a very thin story and is very predictable. Our hero here is no good guy. He drinks, fights and has a track record of 7 police cases and 9 suspensions from his college. Worried about his future, his mom succeeds in getting an admission for him in a womans college, where she is a lecturer, so that she could have a constant watch on him. Motivated by his group of friends headed by a middle aged loud mouth, he joins the college. Equally notorious is our heroine and her gang who is a part of that college and who is against guys entering their campus. They are hell bent on making our hero’s life miserable right from the day he joins, and the first half of the movie is all about this. In the second half, love blossoms, obviously between the once arch rivals. But their love is not revealed to each other due to their egos but relax, you know what is going to happen in the end. The climax is however very unique and once the movie ends, its all smiles again.

Prithviraj,as the spoiled brat suites the character to the T. He simply rocks in the movie. Be it comedy, emotional or the fight scenes, he does it with such confidence. The entire movie rests on his shoulders and there is absolutely no one in the industry today to perform the role this way. Roma, who plays opposite Prithviraj has also done a commendable job when compared to her previous dismal, ‘July 4’. What Joshiey couldn’t do, Shafi did - make Roma emote! The movie also has stars like Jayasurya, Samrutha, Ramya, Salim Kumar, Shaari, Rajan P Dev, Lalu Alex, Bindu Panicker and each of them does their part perfectly. Salim Kumar is simply brilliant as the matured friend of the hero. He has the best one- liners in the movie although his tone and dialogue delivery is now getting monotonous and equally predictable.

The songs of the movie should have been taken care as it’s a complete youth entertainer. The script and dialogues, by debutante Sachi-Sethu is good. Check out those one-liners by Shaari; though delivered on a serious tone, it would make you smile for sure. However, some of the dialogues in the movie are vulgar and double standard which probably only the young crowd could digest. Also, in the second half, there is a misunderstanding plot between the lead characters which only adds to the length of the movie. But guess what, right from Shafi’s debut, ‘One Man Show’, his movies revolved only around misunderstandings in the second half and so such a plot was predicted.

The screenplay has its own share of flaws too. The script doesn’t show us as to when cupid struck Samrutha. Also, towards the end, why does Samrutha have to panic so much to find Prithviraj? Theres always a mobile phone for emergency, and also the hotel in which he stayed would have definitely had a phone. There are a few messages in the movie too, but they are completely overshadowed by the comedy elements.

Totally, the movie, minus the double standard dialogues, the flaws and the dragging second half manages to make the audience split with laughter in parts. This attempt of Shafi is definitely not for the old hearted. But if you had a terrific college life, some of the scenes would make you atleast nostalgic. And also watch the flick for Prithviraj, the next superstar in the Malayalam film industry !!!