As director Shafi is also turning a co-producer with his new movie `101 weddings' , it is unfair of him to expect an experimentation here. All he is back to, is to a regular masala fare, that is packed with every ingredients that has the potential to sell big. Though with its share of plastic characters, `101 weddings' may end up as winner, if it gets adequate support from the family audience. A movie that starts well and promises much till the intervals, it becomes predictable towards the final and ends up as an average flick .
The movie opens up in the childhood pranks of Krishnankutty, the son of famous Gandhian Munshi Shankara Pillai (Vijayaraghavan) who is repeatedly beaten up by Antappan, his big schoolmate. Antappan is taking vengeance for the Gandhian deeds of Munshi who has closed down the toddy shop owned by Antappan's father. And when a chance comes up, Krishankutty retaliates by placing the costly golden church arrow in the bag of Antappan, which makes him a thief and lands him in juvenile home for young criminals.
As they grow up, Krishnankutty becomes a TV producer in the name Krish, but is ready to play fowl games and make money by little frauds. But his father Munshi who has now become a much proclaimed Gandhian finds an able girl in Abhirami(Samvrutha Sunil), the only daughter of Abkari contractor Bhasi, to reform his son. Abhirami and Co who is running the Kasturba society is on the plans to hold a mass wedding of 101 couples in which she will also find a suitable groom and marry. The mass wedding is arranged in such a way that the interested persons are needed to stay in the picturesque resort like village for two weeks to get familiar with their probable future partners. Krish, is but reluctant to marry another girl with Gandhian principles and brings in Jyothi,(Jayasuriya) a dance teacher with all female mannerisms, gets him registered as Krishanankutty to make Abhirami move away from this alliance. Antappan(Biju Menon) and his gang who has now grown up as famous quotation gangs also registers for the marriage in the plans to grab the money and 5 coins of gold that are given to each couple. And as the day to the marriage comes up, more and more persons enrol into the mass wedding with their own interesting plans.
The movie that opens up slowly gathers pace and move in easy sequences till interval with plenty of oneliners, that works well. But by the later half, a lot of predictable twists spoil the game, though Shafi has been able to end up the messy affair as an above average film. The camera side by Azhagappan and other technical sides are good, though the art department seems to have overworked to give the movie an unwanted gloss and shine. And hence we see the Gandhian residing in a big bungalow like house, and the poor character of Rukhiya (Bhama) wearing designer clothes. The ending also appear forced for a positive note, as the police readily captures the culprit roaming outside scath free for all the days after the big heist, to get seized only at the time of `101 weddings'.
Though the basic track of `101 weedings' show plenty of promise , the writing by Kalavoor Ravikumar is far from convincing. But Kunchakko Boban and Jayasuriya have lent some believability to the roles. Biju Menon has got a good role too, but with little one-liners. The rest in the cast lines play to their roles. The songs by Deepak Dev are average, though pictured stylishly and with flourish.
All in all, this `101 weddings' can be a prescription for an onetime watch for family audiences. Don't look for logic or convincing story lines, but here is an escapist comic tale that is treated with fine colours.
Rating-6.5/10 |
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