A potential one-liner, but poor writing and tacky situations. Add to that some very shoddy direction and routine performances.. There ends the chances of a film, particularly one that features old names like Mukesh and Jagadheesh.
`Advocate Lakshmanan, Ladies Only' is the latest movie which suffers with all these causalities to end up as a below average fare. Had the movie on a same plot line, but with inspiring writing and direction made on a more crowd pulling hero, it may have worked well with the audience. But given the present situations, there is no chance.
The film revolves around an advocate named Lakshmanan, quite famous for `liberating' women from the clutches of evil husbands. `A divorce case'' specialist, Lakshmanan sees to it that once the divorce is sanctioned, he even helps them to live an independent life by offering them jobs in his Pickles factory named `Ladies Only'. A man with number of fans among the fairer sex, for his cunning ways to secure divorce for hapless women, he always comes with loggerheads with his own brother -in -law (Suraj Venjaramoodu), another advocate who is destined to fail in every situation.
After establishing the premise in not so funny ways, the real turn happens in the life of Lakshmanan when an `Aaradhika' started calling him regularly for his big deeds. After some days she reveals herself to be `Annie' a college lecturer in a city college. She has her share of problems with a former lover `Alex' following her. Lakshmanan who had already started admiring her decides to jump into the case which further complicates the life of the protagonist. The rest of the film is all about some twists in tale, revenge stories and finally the advocate is destined to turn a new leaf, realising his problems in accessing behaviors of others.
Among the stars Mukesh is on another routine role with nothing special, not even much funny dialogues that could have saved the movie for a reasonably better opening. The lady lead played by Mallika Kapoor need to better herself many fold to shine in a Mollywood flick. Others in the movie like Ashokan, Jagadheesh and Suraj Venjaramoodu are in familiar territories trying to be in the same mould of what they had been for quite some time. Many sequences, involving Harishree Ashokan and other comedians fail to impress.
The directorial side by Pappan Payattuvila is a major letdown, particularly in the former half. He seems to have given little care to check for continuities that may catch the eyes of even an ordinary viewer. Writing by K S Padmakumar remains half baked. Though the camera side is better, most of the times it seems to settle some where in a moving crane.
All in all, `Advocate Lakshmann: Ladies Only' is a movie which doesn't start off as a hilarious comedy nor ends as an engaging suspense mystery. A half-baked attempt in all counts, the chances of the movie at the Box Office is really dismal.
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