From the very beginning of the film, you get a feeling that the story looks a bit too much like Mahabharat, the greatest epic of India. The characters put your doubt to rest by confirming it in some of their dialogues themselves!
The film mainly revolves around the rivalry between two families- the righteous Devarmadom and the scheming Kaliarmadom family. Devarmadom family rules Perumalpuram, a tiny village. The family is headed by Narayanan Devarmadom (played by Mammooty). His guru/advisor is Vellodi (played by Thilagan).
The Kaliarmadom family is headed by Kunhambu Nair (played by Nedumudi Venu) and his evil and conniving wife Indrani (Seema, with excessive makeup). The couple has five children- four sons and a daughter. Giri (played by Siddhique) is the eldest son and is the epitome of evil. The daughter, played by Sandhya, is a good soul.
Giri hates Narayanan.
The already tense situation gets more complicated when Ali Raghavan (played by Shrinivasan) surfaces. Ali Raghavan is the illegitimate son of Kunhambu Nair. His biggest aim in life is to be acknowledged by Kumhambu as his son. Narayanan promises him that he’d make the old man acknowledge his paternity. Things head for a bloody climax when Kunhambu’s sons decide to build a tourist resort in the village. Narayanan objects to it. Verbal arguments eventually ends in bloodshed and finally everything ends well.
Adithi Rao is a dancer who falls madly in love with Narayanan. She has nothing much to do in the film. Neither does Sandhya. They come and they go. There is no onscreen chemistry between Adithi and Mammooty. Just another married actress making her debut in Malayalam…she looks good and is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer.
If the story reminded you of Mahabharata, then the background scores in some of the scenes would have reminded you of ‘Anniyan’ and the freeze-frame technique in the stunt sequences would have reminded you of ‘Ghajini’.
Comedy track wasn’t amusing. You would have hated it more had you been a Suresh Gopi fan because often it looked as if it was aimed at him.
It would have been a stylish and sleek entertainer if the director had paid a little more attention to the story instead of making the characters sound superman-ish. The film had opened badly at the box office mainly due to the raging football fever in the state. Now, its collections are slowly improving.
Azagappan has handled the cinematography brilliantly. There’s nothing remarkable about the film’s music.
The film entertains, but it could have been a lot better!
Cast- Mammooty, Nedumudi Venu, Shrinivasan, Siddhique, Seema, Adithi Rao, Sandhya and others
Music- Tej Mervin
The Good
• Performances by Mammooty, Nedumudi Venu and Seema
• Cinematography
The Bad
• Many clichéd characters
• Forgettable music
• Female characters weren’t presented properly
• Absolute lack of chemistry between the lead pair
The Ugly
Nothing
- 01.07.2006
Feedback
