De, Ingottu Nokkiye
Film Review:
Cast: Sara, Jagathy, Jayasuriya, Thilakan, Edavela Babu, Mala,
Aravindhan, Nedumudi Venu,Salim Kumar, Indrans,
Kochu Preman, Rajan P Dev, Kollam Thulasi, M R
Gopakumar, Lena, Sukumary, Kaviyoor Ponnamma
Direction: Balachandra Menon
Production: A.V. Anoop
Music: M Jayachandran
In Mollywood, Vishu films normally have their share of highlights, mostly being the time of well made flicks.
After watching one of this year’s entries 'De, Ingottu Nokkiye', I wonder what this dreary and misguided film is doing in the little crowded filmi market, when every one was waiting eagerly for the comeback movie of Balachandra Menon as the director.
Menon had failed miserably, this time attempting to create a romantic farce, a black comedy or a morality tale. The attempt for a funny satirical film just turned out into a night mare reminding its surprising catch line about 'an idiotic film’, made with the least intelligence. From a versatile performer of several parts, a national award-winning actor, a director, a scenarist, a lyricist, a music-composer and even a singer who proved many times before, this is an unpardonable act. You can very well stay away from this poor excuse for a film, without much regret.
As said, it's little away from being horrible. You can watch the film without being submissive, and tolerantly try to figure out where it is going wrong and ascertain how the real joke might have sounded if worked well. The plot is all about an youth, Vettikkadu Sivan, who is all set to teach his uncle and Chief Minister of the state, Vettikkadu Sadasivan, a lesson by importing his occasionally moronic twin brother who is a banana vendor at Gujarat and placing the look alike as the puppet C M of the state. To accomplish this, Sivan kidnaps the original C M with the help of his friends and presents the second man in power, closely guarding and assisting the puppet CM, who is here only to find his long missed sweet heart, Ammu.
This plot though seemingly linear and promising, is dealt in the wildest stage bound way without clarity and doesn't make plausible points in its exaggeratedly loud cynical outbursts. The ludicrous screenplay hallmarked with inconsistencies and irregularities could be the worst from the director who had been an icon in the eighties. And as a director too, Menon with his disjointed treatment fails to stand up to the need of the hour, drawing bizarre pictures of tad superficial thoughts. He seems to have a got a lot of points of social criticisms to make in every alternative scenes, but fail to draw in skillful sequences to air them. Not surprisingly the plenty of one-liners have an off-the cut, improvised feel. Interesting observations can be found as the film skims its roster of issues: the numbing effects of voting, the problems with political anarchism and increased alcoholism in the state.
As far as performances are concerned, Jagathy Sreekumar in dual roles desperately tries to deliver something different with limited success while Jaysuriya is in his usual self. The new girl Sarah seems pretty and promising. Salimkumar, Nedumudi Venu and Co is wasted in roles that demand nothing of their caliber. The cinematography by Jibu Jacob is average, while Bhoominthan in editing couldn't do any thing to lessen the distortions and the total mess up. M Jayachandran's songs and Sanjeev Lal's background scores adds cacophony to this failed project.
The result can be summed up as a satire without sting, which is the same as no satire at all. If you have more choices, don’t waste your time on this one.
