Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi joins hands with debutant director B. Unnikrishnan for his Christmas offering, "Smart City".

The goings-on in Kochi furnish Malayalam filmmakers with ample ideas for their scripts. The real estate boom, involvement of mafia, greedy politicians and builders... all provide good material for directors trying to churn out mass entertainers.

And Unnikrishnan takes this route to make his first film. The title is derived from the ambitious Info City plan drawn up by the previous Kerala government in partnership with Dubai Internet City. But the plan was stalled by then opposition, which is now the ruling coalition.

The story of this celluloid city begins when the incumbent finance minister, played by Shammi Thilakan, tries to revive the project with the dubious intention of turning the land into a luxury housing colony.

But he has to face Shekharan (Murali), an aging mafia kingpin who had helped the then rulers to procure the land believing that an automobile factory will be set up there and generate employment for local youth.

Shekharan's activities are looked after by his trusted lieutenant Madhavan (Suresh Gopi), who is just like a family member.

Madhavan successfully stops the finance minister in his tracks. From here on things take a gory turn with blood smearing the screen at regular intervals.

The screenplay also has its emotional and sentimental moments with the two leading ladies, Lakshamy Gopalaswamy and Gopika, playing Shekharan's daughter and Madhavan's adopted sister respectively.

They provide the scenario to bring in few twists to the proceedings. The former is married to an honest town development officer (Jayasurya) who turns out to be the villain in the second half and the latter romances the brother (Siddique) of the city police commissioner.

For a change Suresh Gopi gives a somewhat subdued performance. He is believable as Madhavan, with emotions that don't look monotonous. But the sprinkling of English remains.

It feels good to see Murali in a full-length role. His character is an assimilation of roughness and smoothness and he carries it with ease. We wonder whether Shekharan was named to induce nostalgia as he has played Suresh Gopi's mentor in "Pathram" with the same name.

Manoj K. Jayan, in his villainous avatar, goes royally overboard. Siddique is his usual self. Jayasurya is reduced to a side character, but he can find solace in the fact that he has one song with Gopika that will be repeatedly played on television channels.

The debutant director deserves a pat for doing a decent job.