Buddy Review

Coming from a debutante Raj Prabhavathy Menon, Buddy is a light hearted family flick which talks about emotional bonding between a son and his `biological' father , who realizes about each other only after eighteen years. Though with liberal doses of paronomasia, and a light, simple storyline, `Buddy' may not  offend you as many other new generation movies do.

Buddy has Midhun Murali as Vishnu, who is born out of artificial insemination to one of the ladies among Meenakshy(Asha sharath) and Padma(Bhumika), whom he considers as his mothers though he resists knowing who among them is his biological mother. Meenakshy is a famous writer while padma is doing research on classical  dances.  One the day when he turns eighteen, Vishnu  is disclosed about his unknown father. But the adventurous guy he is, Vishnu with the help of his friends, Diya and Govind finds clues about the man who donated the sperm. They track him up in Ooty where he is living as Manikunju,(Anoop Menon) the millionaire who is celebrating life as a detached man who doesn't want to keep any solid relations. He has a gang in Rtd Dy S P  Shankaran Namboodhiri (Balachandra Menon), Chandran Singh (Babu Antony), Biju Pattambi (Arun) and Kurisu(Josutty) who lives with him in his magnificent bungalow and does everything according to the whims and fancies of Manikunju.

When Vishnu introduces himself as his `technical and biological father `, Manikunju is hardly in a mood for sentiments, but asks Vishnu to consider him as a buddy than a daddy.Vishnu soon gets into a college in Ootty and starts living together with Manikunju and his friends. But within days the detached father sees himself getting more and more attached to his biological son

The highlight of the movie is a very fresh theme, never ever discussed in Mollywood. It passes through plentiful of twists and carefully avoids melodrama and cliches in most of its reels. This effort is quite evident, just as the lead character of Anoop menon who proclaims himself to be the one who hates sentiments and tragedy.  But the flick suffers many times with the average viewer unable to connect with a movie that is emotionally plain, especially in the former half. The insemination and associated stories are hastily placed in the plot without any detailing. Moreover, overdose of double entendre's  and buddy comedies spoil the quality of the first  hour. But the second half gathers meat and propels the movie to an acceptable finale.

The dialogues by Bipin chandran are something that stands out in the movie , that but is delivered much in an uniform tone in the former hour. The director depended mostly on uncut lengthy shots and lesser close-ups  to craft his sequences, which failed in establishing sufficient emotional buildups. The flashback of Anoopmenon featuring T G Ravi is also unconvincing with a plastic feel through out..  The movie is a little over lengthy at 154 minutes, as sequences comes out in a relaxed edit by Dileep Dennis. Some  of the songs are unwanted  and appear as speedbreakers.The technical standards are but top notch with prakashkutty capturing the best of the exotic locales and interiors in finely toned visuals  , setting up the mood of the film.

The performances are fairly good with Anoopmenon checking his flexibility in a role that seems to have written with Mohanlal in mind. He can also  be seen flexing his muscles for a lengthy slow motion action sequences in  the later half. Balachandramenon excels in his comeback as Shanku bhai.Midhun Murali is appropriate in his role while Asha sharath has a decent role that she does with flair. Bhumika, Sreekanth and the rest of the cast play their parts without resorting to any big melodrama.

The music by Navaneeth Sundar is ok, with `Kadalil' emerging a feel good song, while the rest of the beat filled songs  are marred by  average lyrics. The BG scores by Gopi sundar, a usual are good.

In the final analysis, 'Buddy' at least makes an attempt to tell a new tale, though it is draped in the regular bottle..Fine dialogues and sequences are there, but few and far in between.

Rating - 6.25/10