Geethanjali Review

Coming after the big modern day classic 'Manichithrathaazhu', and taking its lead character of Dr Sunny as the protagonist, it is a real herculean task to impress the viewers while attempting more of a sequel to the original film. Here, Priyadarshan, one of our most known commercial film maker, succumbs to the related pressures and presents us with a movie that is half good as the expectations. With a very average, predictable screenplay, which is a rip off of threads of ' Alone', 'Charulatha'- the priyamani flick and the hit movie 'Nadhiya Kollappetta Raathry', the movie suffers big time to please you.

Here the problem is again with a lady, the young Anjali (keerthy Suresh), who has a recent shocking history of her sibling Geetha committing suicide. She is already betrothed to  Anoop(Nishan) from a prominent family. But when her mother suddenly falls down from the staircase ending up in paralysis,  Keerthy and Anoop proceed to her  Arackal house. Once they reach there, they are into more mysteries as the spirit of Geetha starts to haunt Anjali, which even physically disturbs her. Within days from a series of horrifying incidents arrives our old Dr. Sunny (Mohanlal) with his style of wit and wisdom, to treat Anjali and to help her out of the crisis that she is presently in.

The biggest drawback of the movie is its inconsistent screenplay and dialogues credited to Abhilash Nair and Dennis Joseph , which tries to be in the lines of the original, but pathetically fails to create at least a single scene that match the finesse of the original. Its biggest shortcoming is that it incorporates a lot of shocks in the narrative, but no real surprises. Conversely, the love story is far from persuasive, the hate story looks fake and the flashback  strictly okay, while the songs that keep showing up add to the woes. The first hour barely moves, while the post-interval portions work partially.  The songs in the narratives by Vidhyasagar fails to get noticed. Ideally, this should've been a songless film. Yet another inadequate aspect is its resolution, which, ideally, should've been the highpoint.

Mohanlal is the sole saving grace of the entire movie who but appears 55 minutes after the start. Even his attempts to create comedies, like in the hospital sequences, are of lesser impact. Innocent also cracks some wits in the second half , but the rest is a mayhem. Keerthy Suresh is just ok, when considering her as a debutante. But Nishan overacts, spoiling any chances of believability in the climax. Priyadarshan also seems to have lost his touch, though the technical crew of cinematographer Thiru and editor T S Suresh try their best to make this film technically better. The background score is strictly okay, while the makeup and prosthetics deserve strong mention.

On the whole, `Geethanjali' stands on a weak script, which scares and shocks in bits and spurts. The film rides on lal's brand value, but its writing plays the spoilsport. Disappointing!

Rating - 4.5/10