Cobra Malayalam Movie
When you sense that the film you are about to see, plans to tell you a story of twin brothers separated at birth, the warning bell goes off. Lal's latest cinematic outing 'Cobra' is a misadventure of two brothers who have been born together, but whom nobody believes to be twins, since one happens to be fair and the other a bit too dark.
Raja (Mammootty) and Kari (Lal) were raised at Kottayam, and hence have been called 'Cobra' (short for Kottayam Brothers) ever since. Their ultimate dream in life is to lend some further meaning to their pet name, by marrying two sisters, thereby turning out to be co-brothers.
Ahem. Now that isn't the kind of tale that you expect from a film maker like Lal, and even then you hope that he would managed to keep you engaged by the film's proceedings. With the two sisters Sherly (Padmapriya) and Annie (Kaniha) arriving on the scene, you start wondering about character development in this fragile plot that seems to be getting thinner by the minute.
These Cobras aren't the venomous kind, we are told. These are men with golden hearts, as the girls and their dad (Lalu Alex) soon realize. How exactly they come up with conclusions as these is something that I couldn't decipher. Perhaps all that infantile talk and spiked hair might have helped.
There are some deliberate attempts at humor, and looking back at the heap of unsuccessful gags, most of which have been rendered by the two security officers of the Cobras, played by Salim Kumar and Maniyanpillai Raju, one can only shake one's head in disbelief. Comic relief isn't the term that I would use for this twaddle.
There is so much of talent in front of the camera, and so much of it behind it as well, that it's a shame that none of it has been made use of. There are a few set pieces of jokes and situations that might catch your attention if you happen to be in a real lenient mood, but otherwise, these are two serpents without the sting!
I was trying real hard to pay attention to the dialogues, especially in the first half of the film that sounded absolutely contrived. Most of the exchanges between the two brothers feel like an incoherent banter, sometimes making you wonder how two adult men, a bit more than adult in this case, could mouth such gibberish.
Mammootty looks charming, and that's all that he manages to do as Raja in this film, that should easily be one of the most immaterial roles that he has done till date. 'Cobra' makes you fervently wish to see the actor in fine roles yet again, and Lal plays the darker co-brother pretty well. Padmapriya and Kaniha who play the sisters are adequate.
Somebody call Vava Suresh right now. There is a silly 'Cobra' on the loose, and the earlier he grabs this frighteningly unfunny serpent the better.
