S Shyam Prasad
Director Raghu Shashtry’s Lineman starts with a flicker of potential – a quirky premise with a village electrician at its center. But what could have been a quick, captivating spark of a film gets stretched into a long, dull meadow of a movie. Clocking in at a grueling 121 minutes, Lineman tests the audience’s patience like a bad cell phone connection.
The story meanders like a lost cow. We meet the Lineman, the village’s electricity guardian, just as they’re preparing to celebrate a local legend’s 100th birthday. But here comes a twist that feels more like a child’s tall tale than a believable plot point – the Lineman throws the whole village into darkness with a power cut! While his reasons might hold some water, they’re delivered with the finesse of a cartoon villain.
The script, unfortunately, follows suit. It descends into simplistic territory with characters as flat as cardboard cutouts. The movie reaches a halfway point that feels more like an arbitrary pit stop than a natural narrative break, leaving the second half dragging its feet. Even the first stretch is littered with forgettable scenes and characters whose personalities could be summed up in a single emoji.
The trailer promised something deeper, something that resonated. But Lineman falls flat. It prioritizes hammering home a moral message with a sledgehammer instead of weaving it into an engaging story. The message itself might be worthwhile, but its delivery is clumsy and condescending, pushing viewers away from both the film and the cause it champions.
In the end, Lineman disappoints. The weak script, uninspired acting, and sluggish pace create a forgettable experience. The thin plot gets weighed down even further by unnecessary musical numbers and subplots that go nowhere. Lineman is a film you can easily skip without feeling like you missed anything important. It’s a long, drawn-out walk through a field with nothing but the occasional tumbleweed for company.
