Seniors Malayalam Movie
There is a Malayalam adage that you are reminded of, while watching Vaishakh's new film 'Seniors' - A calf frolicking around makes a sweet scene, but what if it's a bull? This could be the movie you are on the lookout for, if you find four middle aged men who are back on campus for a reason, gawking open mouthed at the lady lecturer's midriff, funny.
Now there is a reason why they are back to this 'stomach-churning' business. Pappu aka Padmanabhan (Jayaram) is just out of jail, having served twelve years for having murdered a college mate during the Annual Day celebs. The man was innocent of course, and his friends Rex (Kunchacko Boban), Philip (Biju Menon) and Rashid (Manoj K Jayan) welcome him to a brand new apartment at Kochi, that the trio has bought for him. Thank you, says Pappu, but he has other plans as well. And one of them, is going back to the college once again - the four of them together - as students of a PG course.
Isn't it obvious already that the characters in the film have nothing to do with the planet that we live on? The principal (Vijayraghavan) has an axe to grind with them, and the four devise a plan to get even with him. The ultimate intention it should be remembered, is to track down the original assassin, who Pappu believes is still on the loose among them.
Time flies, and students as Indu (Padmapriya) have turned lecturers. How convenient that instead of Lekshmi (Meera Nandan) who was murdered, there is Jeni (Ananya) on the campus now, who almost emulates the former in words and deeds. The scene for murder is all set yet again, and an elaborate trap for the slayer laid.
The writers Sachi and Sethu have thrown together every trick of the trade to give us a rollicking entertainer, and has cooked up a pie that is at once half-baked and burned. The saddest thing about it, is that for anyone who has paid some attention to the first few minutes of the film, the identity of the assassin is all apparent. This certainly isn't a situation that calls for elaborate mind mathematics.
In this '3 Idiots' (4 in this case) meets 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' flick, the need for a psychopath assassin is dire. We don't have a problem with that, but its unbearable to see a psychopath being brought to book in absolutely illogical ways that have no psychological base whatsoever. Pity the psychopath in Malayalam films who gets lured every time into a predictable climax aka the proverbial rats that followed the Piper and got drowned in the Weser river.
The humor in 'Seniors' ranges from crass to downright gross. The interactions between the father-son duo played by Biju Menon and the kid who plays his son, are offensive, to say the least. There are double entendres galore, and very few occasions, when the laughter arises out of genuine comic situations. On the contrary, there are any number of laughable instances, like the one in which an item number befalls you at the most unexpected moment, and you have no other option but to laugh at your misery.
All I would say at the end of it all, is that these Seniors were best kept far, far away from the campus. Period.
