College Kumaran Malayalam Movie
The Thulasidas-directed Mohanlal-starrer College Kumaran is in all respects a film for the fans of Mohanlal. And if making films for such die-hard fans is no crime, then director Thulasidas has almost done a good job, though there isn't anything new on offer in the film, which has shades of some past films by the same actor.
College Kumaran takes us to Mahatma College, where Sreekumar, called by all as Kumaran and also as Captain (because he had earlier been a Captain in the army), runs the canteen. But he is not just the proprietor of the canteen. He is there with the students in everything that concerns them. The Captain is there when an unwanted strike is brewing on campus. The Captain is also there when someone needs his advice on personal matters. He can negotiate with politicians and make the impossible happen, while he can also beat to pulp notorious goondas on the streets.
It is while he is thrashing a goonda on the road that our heroine Madhavi, who comes to join as a lecturer in the same college, catches her first glimpse of him. And she begins to hate him from then onwards. Anyway, while the Captain earns the goodwill of everyone on the campus, he earns the enmity of Education Minister Sethunathan, who is actually an alumnus of the college and who is plotting to wrest the management of the college, something his late father too had desired. But Sethunathan's plans are always foiled by the Captain and it is thus that Sethunathan starts seeing the Captain as his biggest enemy.
And when Sethunathan tries to get a student of the college to satisfy his lecherous desires, the Captain decides that enough was enough, and engineers the end of Sethunathan's ministerial stint. The ex-minister plans to finish off Captain and grab the management of the college too. What happens in consequence and how the relationship between Kumaran and Madhavi progresses forms the rest of the plot.
Mohanlal is cool as Sreekumar alias Kumaran alias Captain and plays well to satisfy his fans in all ways. Vimala as Madhavi fits well into the role though she hasn't got much to do. Siddique as Sethunathan plays his part perfectly well, in his usual style. Suraaj Venjaramoodu as Bhargavan, who is Kumaran's assistant, elicits laughter only in a scene or two and doesn't impress us in the rest of the scenes. Harisri Ashokan, who plays Valsan, who too is Kumaran's aide, has nothing at all to do.
Nedumudi Venu as the college manager Sivaraman Nair and Janardhanan as the college Principal Narendranath are OK, but one doesn't understand why someone so gifted as Nedumudi Venu was necessary to do the role of the college manager, a role that does not have much prominence in the film. Balachandra Menon and Vijayaraghavan too seem to be wasted in their respective roles. Although everyone in the cast plays his or her part well, the focus of the film is on Mohanlal and Siddique all the way and no one else seems to matter.
There is nothing much to say about the technical aspects or the songs, both of which are just average fare. The film, which has shades of Cheppu at some places and Sarvakalasala at others, fails to create the ambience and colourfulness of a college campus, which the director as well as the scenarist should have paid attention to. The film is an entertainer that will go down well with Mohanlal fans, but you may tend to yawn or even boo at some places at least. The director and more so the scenarist could have made a better film of the theme - that's what you feel when you come out of the theatre.
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