Malabar Wedding Malayalam Movie
Malabar Wedding is a feel-good kind of movie, but it has lots of shortcomings and leaves much to be desired. Still, subject-wise it is interesting and hence the directors (there are two of them in fact) deserve to be encouraged and appreciated. Malabar Wedding has at the centre of its plot a group of guys who still practice what is known as Sorakalyanam, a popular tradition in some areas in Malabar that allows people to play all kinds of pranks and practical jokes on would be bridegrooms just before marriage and even on newly weds.
The film begins with the depiction of such incidents involving a gang comprising of Satheesh (more popularly known as 'Pookkatta'), Sadu and Abubacker (called by everyone as Avookkar). The leader of the group is Maanukuttan, who dabbles in real estate. Pookkatta's marriage is about to happen and he wakes up dreaming how they all had played pranks on Avookkar. He knows that he will be the object of the same kind of pranks. Much as he wants to evade it, he knows very well he can't. Sure enough, he and later his wife too come to be at the receiving end of all kinds of practical jokes played upon them by friends, led by Maanukuttan.
And then comes the turn for Maanukuttan, who is engaged to be married to Smitha, a girl brought up outside the state and hence unaware of such a custom. Smitha also has some kind of mystery tagged to her, something from her past that keeps haunting her. Maanukuttan and Smitha become the butt of their friends' pranks after the manner of Sorakalyanam. But Smitha is not able accept their taunts sportingly. All this leads to the building up of a climax.
Indrajith as Maanukuttan is good, though not outstanding. Gopika as Smiths doesn't have much to do; in fact she doesn't even have much dialogue to deliver. Suraaj Venjaramoodu as Pookkatta, Mamookoya as Avookkar and Bijukuttan as Sadu carry the film forward, forming a hilarious team. The plus or the minus of the film (depending on the way you look at it) is that there is not much importance given to the hero or the heroine. It's a sort of group affair and the directors have done a good job of the casting work.
There are two songs, but neither of them is impressive. Technical aspects are in tune with the theme and mood. The main highlight of the film is the freshness of the subject and the liveliness of the cast. It's definitely worth a watch if you don't expect too much out of a film. Considering that the directors are debutantes and that thy have tried a subject with an element of freshness, a little amount of concession can be made from our part. But it has also to be pointed out that the subject that they had chosen had much scope for the making of a wholesome commercial entertainer, but the directors have failed to exploit this potential. A director like Shafi or Rafi-Mecartin or Priyadarshan (to whom the debutante directors had been associates) could have come out with a far better movie based on this same subject.
The script too is not up to the mark. And Malabar Wedding has one of the major flaws that many such light-veined entertainers suffer from. It begins in a hilarious way, continues to be so for some time, but as it nears the climax, the script writer and the director seem to be deviate to familiar paths and lose grip over the subject in an attempt to make it come to an end. Plusses and minuses aside, just go and watch Malabar Wedding for the freshness of the subject, not expecting much on the directorial side.
OTHER REVIEWS
