Writer: Anjali Menon
Cast: Dulquer Salman, Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Fahadh Faasil
Language: Malayalam
The plot revolves around three cousins from Kerala who hangs out together in Bangalore. One of them (Dulquer), a rebellious biker, was already there. The second one (Nivin Pauly), a typical village type Malayalee, gets a job in a software firm and moves to the Software capital of India.The third one (Nazriya Nazim), Nazriya playing a typical Nazriya role, gets married to a very reserved guy (Fahadh Faasil) with a high-salaried job in Bangalore. It is intended as a coming of age romantic comedy drama film and was hugely successful at the box office and stands now as the third highest grosser from Malayalam, not adjusted for inflation. It even had some crossover success with people from other south Indian states watching it, God only knows for what.
I was never compelled to watch this film as I found Anjali Menon's previous effort, 'Ustad Hotel', to be terrible manipulative bullshit. I finally decided to give it a go today as my broadband FUP limit is up and this one came on TV. It is marginally better than 'Ustad Hotel' but that is not saying much. It is quite watchable for about first hour of the film as it introduces various characters and their interactions. After that, it tries to shoe-horn sappy manipulative story arcs for all the three characters in a typical Indian fashion aimed at brain-dead Indian middle class audience, who tend to get inspired by 'Obvious' philosophical musings from Robin Sharma and are susceptible to shit like 'Art of Living'. We have Dulquer falling for a disabled RJ, Nazriya having difficulties in her marriage (seems issues like sex life can be brushed under the carpet for the film to be in the non 'new-gen' mould) and Nivin Pauly's story-line is supposed to be comic relief. He is supposed to be a middle-class guy with an entry level job in a software firm and he has got a house all for himself in Indira Nagar. That in itself should prompt you to call bullshit on it. Film is around three hours long and it is quite an excruciating watch. Occasional laughs manages to take you to the end which features a dirt track bike race in a typical sports film fashion with the cliched setback in the middle of it, only for the protagonist to comeback against all odds and win it in a photo-finish.
Overall, it is a non-offensive watchable shit but the success of it itself is offensive. It doesn't go to the terrible level that Ustad Hotel manages to get, and for that, I will put it as marginally better. As far as performances go, Dulquer and Nazriya are playing their usual selves and rest of them are alright. I can't stand Anjali Menon's films which I find to be terribly manipulative, having an artificial sense of sophistication while being very old school.
Rating: 2/5
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