My Dear Kuttichathan - 3D Malayalam Movie
It's been a good twenty five years since Kuttichathan first came around, and if My Dear Kuttichathan still manages to entertain its target audience, namely the kids, its proof enough that the magic is still alive.
The story still remains the same (it's a digitalized version of the original film that has graced the theatres this time). There is Lekshmi, Biju and Binu, three kids whose lives are changed when they befriend a Kuttichathan, whom they release from an evil sorcerer's (Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair) captivity.
Its great fun being with Chathan who has supernatural powers, and he could make you climb up walls and dance on the ceiling. Chathan would make your wishes come true as well, be it gifting you with a thousand balloons or a mound of chocolates.
There are so many films being churned out these days for children, and yet very few of them manage to entertain. But Kuttichathan still has a few smiles in store for us, precisely because it's quite sure of what children really want.
The classroom sequence for instance, that has a skeleton chasing away a teacher (Rajan P Dev) is a blast, and the kids would love it. So are the scenes that involve the bully at school being at the receiving end from Chathan.
The script has been reworked considerably to incorporate new characters, and over the years, the focus has gradually shifted away from the sorcerer. He is no longer as deadly as he first seemed to be, and the dread that his black robe had cast over us, as kids, has vanished.
What has worked against the film are the add-ons, including inanimate ones as the computer and animate ones as Prakash Raj and Urmila Matondkar. Mostly they look and sound out of place, but it should be admitted that all these could be discerned only by viewers who have been with Chathan a few times before.
How I wish the 'Aalipazham Perukkan' song wasn't remixed though. The song has totally lost its charm in the process, and those of us who have grown up hearing Janakiamma rendering the song, badly miss her voice.
Kuttichathan would always be remembered as a film that had four awesome child artistes doing the lead roles. Sonia, Suresh, Arvind and Mukesh had wowed us with their performances then, and they continue to do so a couple of decades later. And Kuttichathan would never be the same without the phenomenal feat put forward by thespian actor Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair.
Even in the wake of hoards of 3D films that have flooded the screens, My Dear Kuttichathan in its digitalized new avatar remains as magical as ever. It badly makes you want to go back to your childhood once again - the kind of film that you had fallen in love with as a kid; the kind of film that your kids will certainly fall in love with!
