‘Aadu 3’ movie review: Flogging a dead goat through multiple timelines

How can a cinematic idea, which has been milked to its limits, be stretched further without seeming like the filmmaker is flogging a dead goat, er, horse? Bring in multiple timelines, make the same characters do the same things but in different time periods and maybe let these characters from various eras collide. Well, that is exactly what writer and filmmaker Midhun Manuel Thomas does with Aadu 3: One Last Ride: Part 1, the third instalment of the spoofy satire Aadu Oru Bheekara Jeeviyaanu (2015).

Curiously, the goat itself does not appear in a movie named after it; instead, we have a donkey. The popularity of the Aadu films has something to do with the nature of fame on the Internet. Right from the first instalment, which was a failure at the box office, the quirks of the characters carried the film rather than the plot. So much so that the films always conveyed the feeling of having been written as a series of character-introduction scenes rather than as a story.

Vinayakan and others in a still from ‘Aadu 3’
| Photo Credit:
Friday Film House

In later years, most of these characters, from Shaji Pappan to Arakkal Abu and Dude, took on a life of their own as the face of popular memes. This online popularity fed into a cult following for this not-so-great series of films, which pales in comparison to the many comedy classics the Malayalam industry has witnessed over the decades. Yet, the first part had a whiff of freshness that went with it.

In the bloated third part, which runs close to three hours, Midhun attempts to expand and upgrade the franchise by setting it in three time periods — the late 18th century, the present and the 2300s, when a corporate entity rules the world. In the period timeline, Shaji Pappan is a local king attempting to stand up to Tipu’s forces, while the Dude is the general leading Tipu’s army. But let no one be fooled by the period setting and costumes, for inside, they are still the characters prone to goofy, self-destructive behaviour.

Although this also provides the possibility of ample doses of humour, only a handful land well. Much of the humour is in the form of repartees, which gets tiring after a point. Towards the end of the film, the crossing of timelines throws up some interesting encounters, but not consequential enough to elevate the film, which aimlessly meanders for a good part of its runtime. Perhaps the only advantage of multiple time periods is that the filmmaker gets an excuse to play new theme songs for the familiar characters in these time periods.

Jayasurya in a still from ‘Aadu 3’
| Photo Credit:
Friday Film House

For a film which has character introduction scenes and their distinctive theme songs as its USP and a cover for its lack of a coherent narrative, this is perhaps fitting. But, the goat appears to be set for some more flogging, as the film ends without a resolution — and the promise of a part 2 for the sequel, a commercial rather than artistic choice which most filmmakers resort to now.

Aadu 3 is currently running in theatres