On the eve of Thiruvonam, Netflix treated the audience with the premiere of Shamzu Zayba's "Maniyarayile Asokan". After it being Netflix's first Malayalam movie release, it also made headlines as it was produced by Dulquer Salmaan's 'Wayfarer films'. The trailer certainly had a lively vibe about it & seemed liked the quintessential festival movie that would endear to the families. It reminded one of yesteryear hits, but somewhere down the line it failed to punch in the right notes.
Asokan (Gregory Jacob) eagerly waited for his bride to welcome her into their married life. But even before they could break the ice, she stumps him with the query as to whether it was true that it was his second wedding & that he fathered twins. So was he indeed married??? Our protagonist is a village office employee who has been in the wedding market for quite a while. Unfortunately for him, none of the prospective proposals that he met didn't quite click as they had either issues with their appearance or his problematic horoscope. However, unknown to him there was a girl in the vicinity who dearly loved him.
This is the directorial debut of Shamzu Zayba & he has certainly done a decent job in crafting it which was penned by Magesh Boji. However, Vineeth Krishnan's screenplay lets down the proceedings as it fails to add the required punch.It might not have been intentional but the manner in which Asokan was written clearly hinted that we were looking at a variant of Sreenivasan from "Vadakunokkiyanthram" & other such roles. There were quite a few sequences where the makers faltered be it the friend's back story though they gives us a glimpse of it that creates queries or the packing of way too many songs. The music by Sreehari K Nair & Sajad Kukku's visuals were fine while with regard of editing, they should have cut it short by atleast half an hour.
Due to the manner in which Asokan was created, it's inevitable that Gregory will be compared with Sreenivasan. However, the former has done justice to the role along with an able supporting cast that consisted of Vijay Raghavan, Krishna Sankar & Shine Tom. Anupama was pretty mediocre, Sunny Wayne was cringe worthy & cameos by DQ & Anu Sithara though interesting failed to inspire proceedings.
Verdict: There are certainly numerous sequences which will keep us amused but by the time, the movie gets over; we cant help thinking that the makers could have done a much better job. Essentially, it didnt have the content for a full fledged movie & hence it felt stretched significantly though it was less than 2 h. In short, give it a try but with reservations!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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