Oridathoru Postman Malayalam Movie
Oridathoru Postman attempts a rehash of familiar themes but doesn't entirely succeed in delivering the goods. For the most part, the film seems blandly proverbial and offers very few fresh insights into easily identifiable issues.
Raghu (Kunchacko Boban) has had it up to his neck with his lazy dad (Innocent) who is the village postman who refuses to go to work. When he misses his PSC hall ticket on account of his dad's lethargy, Raghu decides that enough is enough and threatens to go his separate way. It is then that he comes across a tale buried somewhere in his dad's past, of Yasin Mubarak, a wildlife photographer and a bunch of letters addressed to the man who had disappeared.
The main theme that the film deals with is terrorism, and with so many films dealing with the theme in all possible ways these days, the attempt needs to be real good for a film to stand apart from the rest. Unfortunately in Oridathoru Postman, nothing of the sort happens and it's a scaled down version that is presented before us, that fails to create an impact.
The father - son track takes the film down with all the situations looking and sounding very familiar. This story line is as familiar to us as the terrorist story line and with nothing much new to offer, it plainly disappoints. Coincidentally, there are at least a few sequences in the film that exactly look the same as in Kunchacko Boban's recently released film Elsamma Enna Aankutty.
The issues that it deals with are multifold, and hence the narrative runs through several small sub plots of which just one shows some promise. The sub plot involving the lottery business is the one that displays some verve, and with Salim Kumar and Ibrahim Kutty playing the victims of the lottery lure, Shaji manages to point his fingers straight at the menace that has been eating into several families in the state.
There are also several other themes that are dealt with in passing, mostly through satirical statements. One such is the comment about the Kudumbasree program that was originally instituted to uplift the women population being gradually relegated to nothing else but scavenging. There is also some thought being offered to the Postal Department that has seen better days.
Kunchacko Boban does a neat job of playing Raghu, and yet Sarath Kumar in a cameo impresses even further. Innocent for the umpteenth time plays the dad who makes it tough for his son, and is fast becoming typescast. Meera Nandan has nothing much to do except be the prop in Raghu's life and that she does decently well.
Oridathoru Postman could have done infinitely better with a bit more coherence. As such, it looks confused, and keeps its fingers dipped in too many broths at once, and ultimately isn't able to savor the flavor of not even one entirely.
