Magic lamp Malayalam Movie
An utter waste - that's how the Haridas-directed Jayaram-starrer Magic Lamp can best be described. Jayaram doing three roles (four to be precise) was news when the film was being shot a few years back. But now that the film has been released at least four years after its scheduled release, it seems to fade off without making any impression at all.
Magic Lamp begins as Anupama's story. Anupama, who is studying in Bangalore, dreams of becoming an airhostess. One day while she is waiting for the signal at a crossing, a photograph falls before her. She discusses with her friends about the person in the photograph. They give two different opinions. While some say that the person in the photograph is Sunnychan, a sports coach, others say that it is Nandakumar, a doctor.
Soon Anupama goes to her ancestral village in Kerala, to meet her grandfather Achuthan Menon. Anupama had lost both her parents and now her uncles are eying the property and assets that she has inherited. Both her uncles, who stay at the ancestral house, want her to be married to their respective sons so that the property would come to them. Anupama however, doesn't want to get married to either of her cousins and has no other ambition but to become an airhostess. To dissuade them she first says she is in love with a man named Sunnychan.
Anupama's uncle sends a goonda named Vikraman to locate Sunnychan. He finds Sunnychan and tries to assault him, but gets beaten up in the process. But Sunnychan's fiancée Alphonsa, believing that Sunnychan has another lover, leaves him. And then Anupama says that her lover is actually Dr. Nandakumar. Vikraman goes to Nandakumar and the result is that Nandakumar's wife Viji leaves him.
In the meantime, Anupama, with the help of the family lawyer Lalan, comes up with the story that she is in love with another guy named Chandrasenan. And then begins the hunt for Chandrasenan, who was actually a character made up by Anupama and Lalan. But there happens to be a person named Chandrasenan and he looks exactly like Sunnychan and Nandakumar. What all happens then forms the rest of the plot.
Jayaram is not bad, playing Sunnychan, Nandakumar and Chandrasenan (and another guest role at the end of the film) while Meena is OK as Anupama. Rasika as Alphonsa and Divya Unni as Viji have nothing to do. Late Oduvil Unnikrishnan as Achuthan Menon is his very usual self, while Janardhanan and late C.I. Paul play the roles of the uncles in their characteristic styles. Jagathy Sreekumar as Lalan is good. The rest of the cast do their roles well, but nobody in the film seems to make an impact.
There is nothing to mention about the songs or the background score. Cinematography is just average while editing is poor. Magic Lamp has some hilarious scenes that elicit laughter, but the film as a whole fails to work any magic at the box office. There's nothing remarkable about the film and it is the director who has to be blamed most for the film turning out to be such a bore.
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