Madambi review

Cast: Mohanlal, Kavya Madhavan, Jayasurya, Bhama, Jagathy Sreekumar, Rajan P.Dev, Siddique

Director: B. Unni Krishnan

Producer: B.C. Joshi

Lyrics: Gireesh Puthencherry and Anil Panachooran

Cinematography: Venu

Editing: Joseph Nellickal

Art Direction: Manoj C.S

Story Writer: B. Unni Krishnan


After his debut directorial venture Smart City (which was rather unimpressive), scenarist-turned-director B. Unnikrishnan delivers a much better film in Madambi, that could very well be hit material.

Madambi tells the story of Puthenveettil Gopalakrishna Pillai, a man of many faces. The story begins 25 years back when Gopalakrishnan's father, who was a man with artistic temperaments sells off everything and goes away. Young Gopalakrishnan goes in search of his father and comes back to find that his mother and younger brother Ramakrishnan, seeing no future, are on the brink of suicide. From then on he takes charge.

Everything, including their ancestral home, had been lost and it's just an elephant that remains. Gopalakrishnan begins with that and gradually picks up in life. In the course of years, he becomes a financier who gives loans to people at low interest rates; but he is rather demanding when it comes to taking back the capital or collecting the interest. He also runs a tuition centre, which is managed by his younger sibling with able help from Divakaran Nair and Kumaran, both of whom had always been their well-wishers.

In the meantime Parameswaran Nair, (who had long ago cheated Gopalakrishnan's father), and his two sons Sreedharan and Reghu continue to make moves against Gopalakrishnan. Things take a new turn when Ramakrishnan falls in love with Shyamala, who is Parameswaran Nair's daughter. Though Sreedharan and Reghu oppose this, Parameswaran Nair supports and encourages this love. He has his own motives in doing so. As the plot develops we find Gopalakrishna Pillai pitted against his mother (who had always been against him) and his brother Ramakrishnan in a legal battle for the property. There is also Jayalakshmi, the manager of a newly opened bank, who is kind of a competitor to Gopalakrishna Pillai in his financing business. All these lead to the climax of Madambi.

Mohanlal gives a good performance as Gopalakrishna Pillai. The other two artists who impress us are KPAC Lalitha as Gopalakrishna Pillai's mother and Jagathy Sreekumar as Mohankumar, an advocate. Kavya Madhavan as Jayalakshmi hasn't got much to do, while Innocent is his usual self as Divakaran Nair. Ajmal Ameer is unimpressive as Ramakrishnan. Siddique as Sreedharan is OK while Vijayakumar has hardly anything to do as Reghu. Sreeraman is good as Parameswaran Nair and Suraaj Venjaramoodu as the funny 'Keedam' Vasu delivers good comedy. Saikumar is good in a cameo role as Gopalakrishnan's father.

Script for Madambi is well-constructed, but there are flaws in characterization. The scenarist (here the director himself) seems to have neglected the supporting characters, perhaps intending it to be a one-man show by lead actor Mohanlal. Anyhow it appears that if more attention had been paid to the character of Ramakrishnan and if it had been some other actor who had done the character, it would have come off better.

Dialogues are good and intended to satisfy the fans of Mohanlal. The songs seem to have been deliberately put in and the tunes appear similar to some of the older tunes of M. Jayachandran. There's nothing much to be said about the technical aspects, which though they jell with the theme, are not spectacular in any way. The way the film is moulded is typical of a Mohanlal-starrer and even the stunts by Thyagarajan, appear to be of the stereotype kind.

To sum up, though Madambi is for the most part a one-man show by Mohanlal, the film is not too bad and is watchable. While it may not send the producers laughing all the way to the bank, they certainly won't be crying.