Rakshakan Malayalam Movie
Even though one goes to see Rakshakan expecting nothing but a typical Kalabhavan Mani film, on coming out after the film, one is likely to mumble: "It's high time Kalabhavan Mani stopped doing such films". Yes, it is time that Mani stopped doing such stereotyped roles, which simply bore us to death, and which could do more harm than good to the actor's career.
Rakshakan tells the story of Mukundan, who runs a garage and has a large family to look after, and a lot of financial liabilities. The debts that his late father had incurred from one Panthaykkal Lazar can be paid off if Bhaskaran Nair, who was his father's partner in business, gave the ten lakh Rupees that was their share of profit from the business. Bhaskaran Nair promises to repay the amount, but cheats Mukundan at the last moment, giving him just Rs. 10,000. Mukundan and family (his mother, three sisters and a brother-in-law who is a drunkard), are evicted from their house by Lazar and they have to live in the garage.
Bhaskaran Nair's daughter Ashwathy, a journalist, is against her father ways, and offers to give Mukundan and his family the house that is her share of the family property. But Mukundan refuses to accept it. In the mean time Mukundan's friend Podimon does something that makes Bhaskaran Nair rush to Mukundan and repay the whole amount in the form of a house. Thus the issue is resolved.
And then one day, under certain unexpected circumstances, Mukundan is forced to clash with Vedimara Zakir, who is a criminal dreaded even by the police. They clash more than once and at a stage it is the newly appointed Circle Inspector Sugathan who rescues Mukundan. The two become close.
Mukundan in the meantime marries Ashwathy, whom he saves from the clutches of her evil step mother following her father's death. But some totally untoward and unexpected things are in store for Mukundan and family. As the story of Rakshakan moves on, these things unfold.
Kalabhavan Mani is his usual self as Mukundan, and repeats himself for the umpteenth time in this stereotyped role. Mannyah as Ashwathy doesn't impress much and is even boring in certain scenes. Others in the cast like Riyaz Khan as Vedimara Zakir, Harisri Ashokan as Podimon, Kalasala Babu as Bhaskaran Nair, Jagathy Sreekumar as the police constable Kaarvarnan who dresses up and behaves like a woman, Suja Karthika as Mukundan's sister Indu, KPAC Lalitha as Mukundan's mother Sharadaamma etc are just passable and don't impress us in any way.
Venjaramoodu Suraaj as Mukundan's brother-in-law Kusumakumaran elicits some laughs in the initial scenes, but later turns out to be unimpressive too. One just wonders why Asheesh Vidyarthi, the immensely talented actor who had delivered a powerful performance in Govind Nihalani's Drohkaal, is wasting himself and his acting skills playing characters like Sugathan. The character is indeed poorly etched out. Saikumar as Professor Narendran, a character who pops up towards the end of the film, is good. Nothing much to mention about the technical aspects or the music or the songs. In total the film is simply avoidable.
