Simple & Good - Kadha Parayumbol - Malayalam movie review

Movie : Kadha Parayumbol (Malayalam)
Credits:
M. Mohanan (Direction)
Sreenivasan (Story, Screenplay, Dialogues)
Sreenivasan & Mukesh – Lumiere Pictures (Production)
M Jayachandran (Music)
Anil Panachooran, Girish Puthencherry (Lyrics)
P Sukumar (Cinematography)

Simple, Good!
Sreenivasan and Mukesh – two stalwarts who have contributed a lot to the development of Mollywood, coming out with a movie scripted by Sreenivasan – This statement would be enough to sky rocket your expectations. This good team work from a group of experienced movie professionals doesn’t disappoint you in any way. In retrospect, if you ask – Have they done their best? The answer is “Good Question!”

The audience is taken to Melukavu – a remote village in Kerala where the protagonist – Balan (Sreenivasan) is fighting hard with life to take it forward. He runs and old-style saloon, “New Kerala Barber shop”, but faces a crisis as Sarasan (Jagadeesh) starts a modern saloon with a revolving chair, new cutting tools, and new hair styles. The idealist in Balan prevents him from bribing the Government to get any loans for improving his shop. As he is unable to remit the fees for his kids, kids are denied education by the school headmistress (KPAC Lalitha). Though Balan finds a temporary solution for it by sending his elder daughter to “Excellent tuition Center” run by Venu Master (Mukesh), Balan’s life is still unhappy. Things get worse, as he finds it difficult to run his family – Sreedevi (Meena), and 3 kids – Sona, Seena and Satyan (named after Balan’s admiration to the erstwhile Malayalam actor).

For the first time in the history of Melukavu, a movie unit lands in their neighborhood. To add to the excitement, the movie has none other than superstar Ashok Raj (Mammootty) in the lead. The villagers come to know about one more news – Ashok Raj and Balan used to be friends. All of a sudden, Balan and his family become important, and the entire village look up to them; for they are the only and the best way to get in touch with Ashok Raj. Demands coming to Balan never end - The greedy moneylender Eapachan (Innocent) wants to prove that he is the only one capable of hosting a celebrity in that area, and try if he can sign up the star for a movie. The poet – “Pothusalyam” Das Vadakkemuri (Salim Kumar) wants to be a lyricist for movies, while the headmistress wants Ashok Raj to come for the jubilee function. Balan is scared to show up in front of the actor and ask for any favour. He gets annoyed as more and more favors backed up by unwarranted interests come to him, and even thinks of leaving the place. Balan does make some attempts to reach the hero, but fails. Before long, the entire village and even his own kids, suspects the credibility of his claims and go against him. Balan is in a fix.

Does the village get a chance to see the star at all, and will Balan be able to prove his innocence and credibility – these are answered in a much expected climax that relieves Balan from his short-term issues and leaves him with hopes for a brighter future.

Sreenivasan quite convincingly essays the role of Balan in all his neutrality, though the make-up given to him looks a little odd. For the role of superstar Ashok Raj, Malayalam industry could not have had a better cast other than Mammootty. He does it well, though he has not many scenes to do. As time goes by heroines improvise – be it looks, or acting – Meena is fabulous as Sridevi. The rest of the crew, are all experienced actors and there is hardly anything that can go wrong from them. Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Innocent, Kottayam Nazeer (as Innocents henchman who never gets the name of his master right), Suraaj Venjaarammoodu (who introduces himself as Pappan Kudamaloor – production controller), Mammukkoya (running the tea shop at the junction), Salim Kumar – all have done their parts well. KPAC Lalitha, giving a class touch to the role of the school head mistress is a treat to the eyes. Even other minor characters like the Politician, Sivaji Guruvayoor (as the PTA president), and a few who come as villagers – are quite natural.

To point out the negatives, there are not much of happenings in the movie. Balan and Ashok Raj’s meeting was quite predictably to be at the end and the script had to be live till that time. For that sake, there are many scenes that are repetitive (Venu coming up with a trick to make his students pay the fees), and some are placed wrong in the sequence (the money lender’s interference to the. Dialogues that happen in Balan’s family – the son being darker, the wife looking better – We have heard the same in many previous scripts – Vadakkunokkiyanthram, Chindhaavishtayaaya Syamala, and more. What Sreenivasan as a script writer, could have improved is the climax – which is fine, but was not even a millimeter different from what was expected. The story of the acquaintance of the two lead characters could have been made a bit more convincing.

Cinematographer Sukumar has captured the scenic locations pretty well. M Jayachandran’s work on both the songs and the background music are good. The comedy song – Vyathasthanaayoru……featuring Salim Kumar is different in all respects and well rendered. The second song “Maambulliikaavill…” doesn’t justify its existence, other than Vineeth Sreenivasan getting a song to sing. It is better if listened with eyes closed – thanks to the excessive amount of chemistry between Mammootty and the item girl, and their efforts to dance!

Verdict: Good effort, nice way to pass time and would be a hit with the masses. A little more of thought and homework, would have been made it better!