Oneway ticket review

Cast: Prithwiraj, Bhama, Mammooty [Guest role as Super Star], Thilakan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Salim Kumar, Kalabhavan Mani, Prachot, Jagadish, Suraj Venjaramood, Govindan Kutty, Balachandran Chullikad

Director: Bipin Prabhakar

Cinematography: Vipin Mohan

Screenplay: Babu Janardhanan
Bibin Prabhakar's debut directorial venture Khakhi was a rather good film and showed promises of a good director. But his second film, One Way Ticket, which was an eagerly awaited film, fails to make that kind of an impact.

One Way Ticket tells the story of Kunjappu, a jeep-driver whose real name is Jahangir. He is a die-hard fan of Mammootty and is the General Secretary of the Malappuram District unit of the Mammootty Fans' Association. His family consists of his mother and three sisters, two of whom are married. They want to see him married and so a marriage-broker named Beeran is entrusted with the job of finding a match for Kunjappu.

Working as a cleaner on Kunjappu's jeep, is Chandran, who is the treasurer of the Mammootty Fans Association. Kunjappu has an uncle who has always kept himself at a distance from Kunjappu and his family. He has a young daughter called Sajira. To irritate this vile uncle, Kunjappu always goes about saying that he would marry only Sajira. The uncle takes it seriously and to prevent this from happening, he helps Beeran find more and more girls for Kunjappu, but he rejects all the proposals brought by Beeran.

In the meantime Kunjappu goes to attend a wedding and there he sees a girl singing the Oppana. He gets attracted to the girl and makes inquiries about her. He learns that the girl's name is Raziya and after getting the address and other details, he tells his family that he is in love with Raziya, and that he intends to marry her. His uncle learns about this from Beeran and is happy. Preparations for the marriage begin. And then one day Kunjappu goes to Raziya's college to meet her. And there he learns that it is not Raziya that he has been seeking to find. The girl that he had fallen for was some other person, whose name was Sunanda.

Now it so happens that Sunanda has an uncle named Karunakaran Ezhuthachchan. He and his son Sasi intend to grab Sunanda's property and assets. What all happens after this forms the rest of the plot.

Prithviraj's performance as Kunjappu is good, though not extraordinary. Bhama as Sunanda doesn't have much to do. Mammootty, who appears as himself in a few scenes, is his very usual self and is quite cool. Jaffer Idukki as Chandran, Salim Kumar as Beeran and Jagathy Sreekumar as Kunjappu's uncle fit well into their respective roles. Jagadeesh delivers a very good performance as Salahuddin, who is the accountant-cum-driver of Kunjappu's uncle. Classmates fame Radhika cuts a poor figure as Sajira, a character that has been rather poorly etched out.

It's really sad to see that director Bibin Prabhakar and scenarist Babu Janardhanan couldn't manage to etch out a more meaty role for a veteran actor like Thilakan, who elicits quite a few boos (maybe for the first time in his long acting career) playing the character of Karunakaran Ezhuthachchan. And this when the role would have suited the calibre of someone as versatile as Thilakan. Nishant Sagar as Sasi does nothing noteworthy.

There is nothing much to mention about the technical aspects of the film. Two of the three songs in the film seem out of place, while the Oppana song "En khalbile...", penned by actress Kavya Madhavan, is good. The main problem with One Way Ticket is that it bases itself on a weak plot. The script, penned by Babu Janardhanan (who has scripted many good films in the past), leaves much to be desired. The first half of the film is watchable, but post-interval it just drags on, with nothing much to say. To sum up, One Way Ticket falls far below expectations.