This Vishu saw a plethora of movies hit the screens among which there were a couple that caught the eye coz of the cast & crew that were associated with those projects. The movies in question are Sudheesh Gopinath's "Madanolsavam" & Prasobh Vijayan's "Adi". Both of them belonged to different genres & certainly has elements that should work with the audience. But the question is whether it managed to live upto the expectations that was generated by the trailer???
Madanolsavam
Based on E Santhosh Kumar's short story, Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval has drafted the script as a contemporary political satire. However, unlike his previous ventures, the director's hat is donned by the debutant Sudheesh Gopinath. The terrain continues to be Kasargod except that this time around we get to see the luscious green region of that district unlike the dry arid landscape that we are used to. Coming to the plot, the protagonist is Madanan Mallakara (Suraj Venjaramood) who made a living selling dyed chicks. By an unexpected twist of fate, Alice (Bhama Arun),a widow & her daughter comes into Madanan's life. But even before he could set step into a married life, he gets embroiled in a political tug of war coz of his name. This was just the beginning of his troubles as it seemed like he was stuck in a quagmire from which escape seemed improbable.
The highlight is undoubtedly the clean situational humour which doesn't stoop down to vulgarity as is the case in many of the movies. There are some genuine hilarious sequences especially the track that involved the Namboothiri kidnappers. Ratheesh hints at the traits of the two major parties and the choice of some names was pretty funny like BDF (presumably, beef dry fry), Porali etc. The movie certainly keeps us engaged in the first half but after that there seemed to be an undeniable lack of content in the second half & that does affect the entertainment level. On the technical aside, Christo Xavier's music was average while Shehnad Jalal's cinematography was good.
The USP of the movie is definitely the performances as pretty much all of them have done their roles really well. It's been quite a while since Suraj has featured in a role that handled humour, as he showcased his skills in the portrayal of vulnerability, naivety & helplessness convincingly (kind of like a different version of the character he portrayed in 'Varnyathil Aashanka'). Rajesh Madhav & Ranji Kankol were an absolute scream & the primary reason why the second half didnt turn out to be a tad too amateurish. P P Kunhikrishnan (as Chindaleppan), Chandrika Madikkayi (as the aunt) did their parts well along with Bhama, who gave glimpses of his abilities along with the kid who was really natural. Babu Antony has performed his part reasonably well after all it isn't quite a role that we usually associate with him though I felt he had very limited screen space though the promotions seemed to indicate otherwise. . As for the rest, Sumesh Chandran impressed in a brief appearance, the porali character & even Ratheesh as a politician all did justice to their roles.
Verdict: One of the clean humorous entertainers that has released in a while & it has the elements to work with the audience. In short, give it a try!!!
Rating: 3/5
Adi
Helmed by Prasobh Vijayan & scripted by Ratheesh Ravi, the core subject that they talk about is the fragile male ego. The movie unfolds with the wedding arrangements for Sajeev (Shine Tom) & Geethika (Ahaana Krishna) in full swing. Finally the day arrives & on their way to the temple, they meet with an accident as a bike barges into their car. An argument breaks out between Sajeev & the biker, Joby (Dhruvan) which eventually leads to the public humiliation of the former. With his self esteem bruised, the rest of the movie is about Sajeev looking for a chance to have his revenge.
This topic has been explored in movies like "Maheshinte Prathikaram", "Ishq" etc. with reasonable success. Incidentally, Ratheesh had scripted "Ishq" as well but unlike that this one fails to engage the audience since there is an evident lack of content to take the movie forward after the initial engaging 20 minutes. Hardly anything worthwhile happens in terms of the plot & no effort to build on the tension/ thrills that could have interested the audience. Eventually the climax turns out to be extremely lame to the extent that it turned out to be comical & showcased the utter lack of thought in conceiving that section. As a matter of fact, it kind of felt like an inferior version of a movie that was made from the combination of "Ishq" & "Kali".
At the same time, Govind Vasantha's music & BGM deserves praise while Faiz Siddik's visuals were also fine. Ahaana has done reasonably well (except in the climax where her dialogue delivery lacked the punch) while Shine was fine in the portions where he showcased his insecurities. However, the moment the situation demands a high decibel; he falters while the inverse was true for Dhruvan.
Verdict: There is no doubt that there was an evident lack of thought gone into the script due to which it fails to engage the audience after the initial segment. To make matters worse, in the hope of making the climax different it turned out to be comical & pretty unrealistic. In short, DQ's Wayfarer movies might have to depend on the OTT platforms to recover the costs!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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