Jayakanthan leaves you irritated...

Reviewing a 6 year old movie is nothing great. But when it is a movie which one was planning to watch for a very long time and made by a director as great as Sathyan Anthikkad, there definitely is a reason to watch the movie and to write about it, notwithstanding how old or new the movie is. Carlton Films' Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka scripted by Sreenivasan tries to look at the social and political scenario of Kerala using a remote hamlet called Paruthippara that serves as a microcosm of the state of Kerala, through the eyes of its protagonist Jayakanthan (Kunchacko Boban) who is entangled in his own personal problems. Confused? Not as much as Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad while they were making this movie for sure. This is a disaster from the word "go". To start with, Sreenivasan's script tries to address a lot of issues and look at a lot of things so much so that it completely loses focus of the story and characters. The effect is that you are treated to a lot of situations that evoke a few laughs in isolation but all through you keep wondering what has this to do with the larger plot and most importantly, where exactly is the scriptwriter taking us. The first half has a few entertaining moments, but post interval the film loses track completely or rather, it starts running on so many tracks that the audience is left clueless as to what is happening. Precisely for this reason, none of the characters attract you or stay with you- be it the protagonist, Jayadevan (Kunchacko Boban trying his best, but in vain), the idealist Panchayath President Priyamvada (Samyuktha Varma looking lost), the scheming Balakrishnan Nambiar (an over the top Janardhanan), his show off wife Sarojini (Bindu Panicker repeating herself for the umpteenth time), their clueless daughter Swapna (Asin, making her debut, looks equally clueless), the crafty politician Thomas Vellikkala (Innocent taking overacting to new levels) and the local money lender Bhargavan (Sreenivasan appearing on screen at the most inappropriate times). To add to these clonies, you have a special appearance by Tamil actor- director R Parthiban who plays Jayakanthan's friend from Kumbakonam. I have still not been able to understand why he was roped in to this mess. Vipin Mohan's visuals of the Valluvanadan country side reminds you of Sathyan's earlier films. (The mango orchard used in canning the songs of Thoovalkottaram have been put to use in this film too. Was it so difficult to find a virgin location?). There is no point blaming K Rajagopal. If he had his way, he would have chopped this whole film off at the Editing table. The Kaithapram- Johnson duo provide a couple of hummable songs that is the only saving grace of this film. Expectedly, the film did not even do decent business at the BO. Thankfully for themselves and the audience, Sathyan and Sreenivasan have stayed away from mistakes after this one! Not recommended to be seen even on DVD or Sattelite Television!