Currency Malayalam Movie
It looks like we are getting a whole lot of new, talented filmmakers. After 'Passenger' it's now 'Currency', a film that stands apart against the backdrop of the mediocre stuff that's being churned out in the name of cinema. It's not that 'Currency' is without flaws or that it couldn't have been made better. The director, who is also in charge of the script, could certainly have done better in both the departments. But having said that, the film is still worth a watch, and a lot better than the stuff that has been hitting the screens for quite some time.
'Currency' tells the story of a guy called Keshavan Nair or Keshu (Jayasurya), who works in a photostat shop, owned by one Indrabalan (Suraaj Venjaramoodu), a government employee. Keshu's mother Subhadra (Seetha) had brought him up by working hard and undergoing a lot of hardships. Keshu wasn't much when it came to studies, but he dreams of learning animation and becoming an animator. In the meanwhile he develops skills to make counterfeit notes, but on a very small scale. It's after his meeting with an antique dealer named Danny D'Souza (Mukesh) that Keshu's life takes a new turn. He is slowly lured by Danny into making counterfeit notes on a large scale. But it isn't going to be smooth sailing for Keshu.
Jayasurya sports a totally different and a bit unkempt look as Keshu and delivers a very impressive performance too, though it may not go down well with his avid fans who like him for the light and humorous kind of roles that he has for the most part been doing. Mukesh is good as Danny D'Souza. Meera Nandan of 'Mulla' fame is OK as Rose, an orphan girl who works in a shop and for whom Keshu has a soft corner. Anoop Menon, who appears towards the end of the film, is impressive and does justice to his role. Kalabhavan Mani, who comes in only in the second half, is his usual self as a goonda nicknamed 'Iruttu'. Others like Seetha, Suraaj Venjaramoodu, and Mamookoya etc have also performed well.
Technical aspects sync with the mood and the tempo of the film. The background score by Mohan Sithara enhances the mood. But the songs composed by Sidhdharth Bipin fail to make any kind of impression. An interesting thing about 'Currency' is that there aren't too many characters in the film. It's mostly the key players and just one or two minor characters.
Coming to the negative aspects, the end of the movie is a kind of dampener when compared to the rest of the film. If Swathy Bhaskar, who is the director and the scenarist rolled into one, had paid more attention to the execution of the final scenes and had also taken care about the over-all mood which is rather bleak on the whole, 'Currency' would have been a far better movie. An appreciable venture nonetheless.
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