Kunjaliyan Review

Even after being with disasters like 'Four friends'( A take on 'BucketList'), Saji Surendran and Krishna Poojappura are unable to suit themselves to the changing tastes of audiences, that was evident in many hits made in the last year. Still now depending on the loud action comedies and insane, caricaturistic characters are the duo in their latest outing 'Kunjaliyan', which takes 'comedy' entertainment to not so impressive lanes.

The movie set in a village Gopalapuram, with a lot of uneducated, dumb men have our protagonist Jayaraman, who has returned from Dubai after loosing his job due to economic recession. Being the youngest of the three sisters (Bindu Panikkar, Reshmi Boban and Thesni Khan), Jayaraman had been to gulf to prove himself to his brother -in- laws (Vijayaraghavan, Jagadeesh & Ashokan) who always made a mockery of him. But now back to his village, he has taken the aid of his friend Preman (Suraj Venjaramoodu) to make an impression, the later informing the family members that Jayaraman is now the recipient of 50 crore rupees in a lottery held in Dubai.

Now back into this fictional Gopalapuram, Jayaraman has literally everybody from his village showering love and affection, to get their share of the big fortune that Jayaraman had. The only person who seldom believes the stories is Maya, an activist who spearheads the resistance against an unethical development project that is soon to arrive in the village. She asks for the lottery ticket and realises the folly that Jayaraman is in. As days go on, Jayaraman has to make promises that could never be realised. But an interval twist comes in the form of lottery mafia that makes the rest of the story.

The trouble with Kunjaliyan' is that it never rises about the quality of some poorly made television skits in many of its sequences. Devoid of interesting plot points and believable life, the movie after a relatively better former half hams and lags on to immense predictability and little surprises. Moreover, an average viewer can realise the illogicality of the plots and the climax, made like that of an eighties Priyan flick with all the characters running around like a bandwagon, is another letdown. Also lacking in quality wits, the villains with harsh faces makes us snigger more than the planted comedies.  The acting side is not any exceptional with every artists just continuing in their roles that they had been to in most of their filmi careers. Even Jayasuriya really don't have scenes to treasure, while Suraj is loud at times, but also mouth some rare observations about obsession of Keralites to easy money. Ananya's serious look also doesn't gel well with the film. 

The technical side is better than the narratives, with Anil Nair providing some fine visuals. But the songs by M G Sreekumar are rhythmic but don't match the quality of any one that M Jayachandran had supplied the duo in their previous endeavours, and some songs like `Chembazhukka' even pop up at the oddest times, too. The editor Manoj could have trimmed the movie a little bit, as it stands overlong at 2 hours and thirty five minutes now.

This 'Kunjaliyan' will not offer anything special to Jayasuriya, who had hit a high with the recent 'Beautiful'. And for the talented director  Saji, who had shown his mettle as a quality creator of short films in television winning three state awards in a row, it is high time to move on to more demanding scripts and projects. As a viewer, if you want a real test of your patience, just have a seat in the nearest theatres to enjoy the few wits that spring up at times.

Rating-4.5/10