Samastha Keralam.P.O Malayalam Movie

'Samasthakeralam P.O', is disappointing to a great extent. Apr 13, 2009 By Thomas T

Director Bipin Prabhakar seems to have run out of steam after his debut film itself. 'Khakhi', Bipin's first venture as an independent director, was a film worth watching, but his second one, 'One Way Ticket', belied expectations. And now we have this latest offering 'Samasthakeralam P.O', which again is disappointing to a great extent.

It wouldn't be fair to call the film a total disappointment. It's like many other Jayaram starrers - some good, some bad - that failed to make an impact at the box office. Scenarist K. Gireesh Kumar delivered a hit in his last film, the Akku Akbar-directed Jayaram-Gopika starrer 'Veruthe Oru Bharya'. It gave Jayaram a fresh lease of life at the box office, leading us to expect a similar hit in 'Samasthakeralam P.O.' His earlier films, namely 'Amritham' and 'Alice in Wonderland' - both of which incidentally were Jayaram starrers - hadn't fare well. But with Bipin Prabhakar doing the direction, we had reason to expect that Jayaram and Gireesh Kumar would repeat the success of 'Veruthe Oru Bharya'. Our hopes are largely belied.

'Samasthakeralam P.O.' begins with an interesting voice-over by Jayaram's character Prabhakaran, about the little village of Thonnoorkkara and the main characters that we are to come across. Other than Prabhakaran there is Avarachan, the corrupt Panchayath president; Chandy, Avarachan's nephew who aspires to follow his uncle's footsteps; Subramanian, who works in Prabhakaran's book stall; Reghu, who is Prabhakaran's friend and works in a milk society; the miserly Abdu, Prabhakaran's friend and auto-rickshaw driver; Mao Mohanan, a Maoist who goes about speaking of revolution etc.

Prabhakaran himself is a political idealist who desires to follow the footsteps of Gandhiji. He is often a headache to the ruling party as well as the opposition in the Panchayath. He lives in his uncle Ramakrishnan's house with his mother and Radhika, whom his late father had brought up and whom he sees as his own sister. Ramakrishnan, who had been in Mumbai, returns home after years, along with his daughter Renjini. Prabhakaran, his mother and Radhika have to move out, since Ramakrishnan doesn't like their presence in the house. Prabhakaran has to get Radhika married off. Radhika's yearnings are rather different. In the meantime Avarachan and Chandy want to get Prabhakaran out of their way. All this contributes to the development of the plot.

Jayaram is excellent as Prabhakaran, portraying the role in his usual style. New girl Sera, as Renjini, is a let-down. Priyanka as Radhika is good. Jagathy Sreekumar as Avarachan and Jagadeesh as Chandy essay their respective roles with ease. Salim Kumar as Subramanian, Kalabhavan Prachod as Reghu and P. Sreekumar as Ramakrishnan are also good. Suraaj Venjaramoodu doesn't have much to do as Abdu, but it's a relief that he doesn't resort to his usual gimmicks, which has become quite irritating of late.

Poet-turned-actor Balachandran Chullikaad is good as Balagangadharan, a teacher-turned-politician. It's good to see Premkumar back in form as Mao Mohanan. Sivaji Guruvayoor and Irshad don't have much to do in the film. The technical aspects are in sync with the mood of the film, with songs of the kind that you'd expect in a Jayaram starrer.

The problem with 'Samasthakeralam P.O.' is that it begins on a very good note and retains that mood till half-time. After that it gets all messed up. The proceedings leave you guessing where it's all heading to. The scenarist seems to be confused about the plot development. He mixes up too many things, and that too so injudiciously, we are not only confused but exasperated and irritated as well.

If the scenarist and the director had not resorted to clichéd scenes in the post-interval section, or at least if they had gone on a straight track rather diverting into sub-plots, 'Samasthakeralam P.O.' would have been a better film. As of now it is rather a let-down. But given today's fluid situation where big names don't necessarily mean success, and where films that were expected to gross at the box office have simply fallen flat, Jayaram may prove to be lucky yet.