It seems that Sreenivasan is in an effort to open a third front in Malayalam film industry virtually ruled by the two big Ms -- (Mohanlal and Mammootty)
The talented multi-tasker who is an established writer, director and actor has had two releases as protagonist in the last one month; the first one was Makante Achan directed by V M Vinu, a conventional family drama dealing with generational gap, which had his own son Vineeth Sreenivasan playing the same role in reel life too. And, then there's Kadha, Samvidhanam, Kunchacko directed by Haridas Kesavan.
Kunchacko (Sreenivasan) is a self-made entrepreneur. He has a private bank, an engineering and a medical college. He has come up the hard but not honest way. He will go to any extent (that means even murdering someone) to protect every dime he has earned. He has been shown as a 50-year-old bachelor, who has sacrificed his youth for his siblings. There is a novelty in this to begin with but it wears out slowly.
As far as the story goes: Kunchacko decides to marry as per the advice of the priest of his church played by Jagathy Sreekumar. Kunchacko chooses Ann Mary (Meena), who is the daughter of his former employee. She has been finding it hard to repay the loan taken by her late father. The plot meanders after this point, and that is putting it mildly. The hero has a change of heart after marriage which is unconvincing and predictable to the hilt.
Performance wise, Meena has not much to do. She is very subdued as the software professional who has to marry a man almost twice her age. Sreenivasan is sober up to a point. We can make out that he is restrained in the beginning. But after a while, he reverts to his typical self. It is pleasantly surprising to see forgotten actors like Prem Kumar and Sudheesh in full length roles as Kunchacko's siblings.
On the whole, Kadha, Samvidhanam, Kunchacko, maybe a few notches above the trashy stuff being churned out in recent times. But that does not make it good either.
Rediff Rating: