In his new family drama, Prince & Family, Malayalam star Dileep, named a co-conspirator in a serious sexual harassment case, does a whitewashing job. And as far as agenda-driven cinema goes, this is not completely dismissible. Although Prince & Family demonises the female lead by showing the social media influencer as a bloodthirsty opportunist, it is not a pointless film.
Dileep plays Prince, a character closer to his age. He takes the potshots on the chin and is not afraid to look smaller than life. He is his brothers’ caretaker and has been unable to find a suitable match on any App while his siblings are happily married.
The debutant director Binto Stephen treats the earlier sections of the plot as a family comedy, and not a very amusing one. Unless you think the protagonist’s purported wife thrusting her mother on him as a suitable bride is funny.
The arrival of Chinju (Raniya Raanaa), a ruthless social influencer, a spiritual cousin to Babil Khan in Logout, takes over Prince’s life. She is a phone and reel-churning addict filming every mundane domestic activity as though it would change humanity. She has lakhs of followers, and she hungers for more.
This is an easily identifiable character. I wish the director had spent more time giving shape and thrust to Chinju’s character rather than demonising her to a repugnant degree. Yami Gautam’s Pari Mishra in Bala was a much more rounded influencer.
Also, Chinju’s journey from vamping to revamping is sudden and unconvincing. We never know where her conscience comes into play. Nonetheless, as far as cinema with a (whitewashing) agenda is concerned, this is not a washout. There are moments when I actually felt Dileep’s character reaching into the storm of rhetoric to make sense of the obsession with shooting videos.
At one point in the film, Chinju announces her pregnancy to Prince’s family and then dismisses it as a prank, recording each family member’s fallen face for a few extra ‘likes’.
For a film with conscience as its backup plan, Prince & Family does fairly well for itself. Yes, it could have been a lot better than what it finally is. But I don’t think the director had a loftier intent in mind than to show his fallen hero in a bright light. In that endeavour, the film goes slightly further than intended.
