Mannar Mathai Speaking 2 Review

It is quite difficult to make one workable sequel to Mannar Mathai Speaking, which has already become a cult classic in the genre of comedies. Director Mamas is his attempt to make a sequel to Mannar Mathai Speaking, tries one blending the important characters of the past two flicks which manages to keep the lovers of the original, engaged to a decent level. But it lacks the punch in the final reels, missing that innate life and charm of the original.

This time the three central characters of Mannar Mathai (Innocent), Gopalakrishnan (Mukesh) and Balakrishnan (Sai Kumar), are lodged in a much better house, running Urvashi Tours and Travels, with a driver Koshy(Shammy Thilakan) and cook Manjulan (Vijeesh). Mannar Mathai who still considers him as the important masters of Malayalam drama history is trying hard to revive his troupe and create one play based on the life of `SnapakaYohanan' as the 25th anniversary drama from the troupe. Gopalakrishnan and Balakrishnan has lost interest in the acting and creating a new drama and they are now into openly criticising Mathai for all the loses in their life .

One fine day when Koshy gets into a fight with some foreign clients, Mathai gives a classified ad looking for a driver well versed in English and a female lead for their new drama. In comes Unni  (Basil) as their driver  and a beautiful girl Nithya (Aparna Gopinath) who has originally come for some research but agreed to act in the lead role of the drama. And as they move on with their daily chores they finds  Mahendra Varma (Biju Menon), whom they thought would have died in their previous encounter in the prequel. The movie follows how the life of MA Go BA(acronym for Mathai, Balakrishnan and Gopalakrishnan) goes awry with the arrival of more characters from previous films.

The movie has plenty of sequences that definitely ask you to grin and often into loud chuckles. But equal numbers of sequences are melodramatic with dialogues that fall flat and lacks needed energy. Mamas  had done a honest effort to portray some nostalgic characters but also needs much to improve in scripting departments , particularly in creating a believable frame for all the absurd pandemonium to happen . Innocent as Mannar Mathai and Mukesh as Gopalakrishnan manages with their prowess but Saikumar appears a bit tired and low profile here. Aparna Gopinath with a new hairdo appears beautiful but doesn't have anything to perform like in her debut film. Biju Menon as Varma brothers has worked best for the movie in its later half. Shammi Thilakan as Koshi, Kalabhavan Shajon (SI Babumon) and Vijeesh as Manjulan has got some fine one-liners. The characters from the original including Vijayaraghavan (RamjiRao), Janardhanan (Garvasees Ashan), Indrans (Ponnappan), and Co adds to the nostalgic appeal of the movie.

The technical sides of the movie are fine with some fine cinematography by Vishnu Narayanan. The editing could have been a little faster in some reels though the visual effects are good.BG Music by Rahul Raj is impressive while his songs remain average.

On the whole, Mannar Mathai Speaking 2 deserves an average rating for the making style and some original ideas which doesn't do much harm to the well remembered characters of the originals. Just grab a popcorn and think to find spaces to laugh aloud if you have 132 minutes of not so important time at your disposal.

Rating - 6.0/10