Kappal Muthalali Malayalam Movie
Some films turn out to be an embarrassment for all involved. Thaha's 'Kappal Muthalali' is one such film that has a highly impressive star cast that has been assembled together to produce a comedy that isn't even mildly amusing.
When the remnants of an old yacht are discovered on Bhoominathan's (Ramesh Pisharody) land, his hopes of setting up a holiday resort there are blown away in the wind. And to add fuel to the fire, the Archaeology Department Director (Mukesh) who is in charge of the excavation has fallen in love with his junior, who is none other than Bhoomi's sweetheart (Sarayu).
So what's funny in the film? Very little, though there is plenty that's funny about the film. Like Bhoominathan himself, whom we are told is an employee at the Passport office, and who looks like a door to door salesman, clad in a ridiculous tie, that his lady love knots around his neck.
What do you say about a movie that has an elephant that gets stuck because it gets fed on cement? It's a bigger joke when the same creature swims across a flooding river to save its torturer since the giant animals are usually said to have a good memory.
Or there is the psychiatrist who gets fed up with his patient not falling into a sleep during hypnosis, and starts shouting at him. There is Chitragupthan (Thilakan) in the Yamaloka uttering total nonsense in an equally nonsensical scene. Or there is a scene when a group of policemen run around beating up people who have gathered around to see the excavation for no reason whatsoever.
So this is how horrible the writing is. And the story isn't any good either. The logical loopholes in the script are too many that one would soon lose count of them. There is an unintentionally hilarious scene when someone tries to explain to us the history of the yacht. The story of a Polish princess and prince destined to perish on a yacht that had been caught in a torrent does evoke plenty of laughter.
Ramesh Pisharody makes a decent debut, I should say. He has a good sense of comic timing and makes ample use of the opportunity that he has landed on. Jagadeesh and Mukesh have traveled back a good fifteen years, and make a mockery of themselves on screen. As for Suraj Venjarammood, too much of banalities in too little a time would be an apt way to describe what he does in the film.
The choreography is infantile. The art direction that is monstrously awful. The music is ear splitting. I would just bite the bullet, and tell it straight. This is a dross of a movie, that would have had me heading for the exit in no time, if only I had a choice.
