Kayamkulam Kochunni Review
In Aithihyamaala, we all have read about Legend of Kayamkulam Kochunni. Infact Legendary Actor Sathyan Maashu once mesmerized us with his awestruck performance. It laid a template for Robinhood based movies. After that when miniscreen revolution took over Malayalam audience, we have seen Kayamkulam Kochunni in TV from our drawing rooms which made Kochunni a household hero among kids born post 2000 AD. Manikuttan who enacted young kochunni became a hero among masses,thus laying his entry to Malayalam film industry as an actor.
Now coming to this movie which was made on a whooping budget of 45CR, expectations were skyhigh when we heard Ace Director Roshan Andrews helming the project. Along with Roshan, we had his buddy set of Bobby-Sanjay scripting the movie. The team of Roshan Andrews -Bobby Sanjay were famous for socially relevant movies. Producer Gokulam Gopalan is known for producing All time classic named “Pazhassiraaja”.
Plot
Movie starts with young kochunni and his struggles to survive under cruel feudal system which existed during his era. Brahmins used their cunningness to keep poor people at bay. Fathered by a thief, Kochunni has to go through n number of struggles in his childhood. Movie carryforward with his love with Janaki, the dalit woman. For next 1 hour the story was getting buildup with Brahmins on wrong side. Funny fact is all fat guys in Malayalam film industry enacted as Brahmins in this movie. Movie drags through till Interval punch when Mohanlal arrives as “Ithikara Pakki”. Though introduction was good with Clint Eastwood style , Mohanlal was not used by Director. But Director tried to portray Mohanlal with mass elements, though it didnt suit the genre. Mohanlal training Nivin pauly parts are just the same we saw in karatekid movie or even chandnichowktochina movie. Just copied those portions from those movies. Once Mohanlal is off the screen, movie drags till the end where we can witness a fight which resembles old Rajnikanth movies.
Performances
Nivin Pauly as Kochunni tried hard but fell short of expectations. Must acknowledge his hardwork though. In my personal opinion, Manikuttan would have enacted Kochunni well. Even Prithviraj would have done justice to the role of kochunni.
Mohanlal as Ithikara Pakki was just okay with his expressions. He didnt had much dialogues. His intro was good. Comparing to his skills he possess this role is nothing.
Priya Anand as Janaki looked more like an Urban girl and doesn’t even suit role of janaki. Amala Paul who was first casted for role of janaki must have been better.
Babu Antony was real surprise of this movie. He showed glimpse of his action sequences very well.
Sunny Wayne did his part well.
Direction
Roshan Andrews has been a good director who used to make socially relevant and quality movies. He proved that its tough for him to do historical based movies. He tried his best but didn’t met expectations. Hariharan sir and Santhosh Shivan were proven Film makers on History genre. So When we compare Roshan was not able to keep that standards which Hariharan and Santhosh Shivan kept while making such Big Budget history based movies.
Finalcut
To be frank, I am not satisfied with this movie which didnt met the standards of historic based gems we had in Malayalam film industry. Movies like Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha & Pazhassiraaja was the historic classics we saw in our lifetime. In black and white era also Marthandavarma and Sathyan sir’s “KayamkulamKochunni” amased us. Movie named “Urumi” was much better than this movie. Making a historic based movie to a mass masala movie will only defame Malayalam film industry and demote our Quality of Filmmaking which was famous all around India. Roshan Andrews failed in ensuring the quality of movie and script looked much weaker. The telugu style inspired scenes in climax portions may not go well with most of audience .I will go ahead with 2 stars out of 5.
AB George