Review: Hello Namaste is average

The premise of the film may be very old but the sincere effort of the entire cast makes it watchable, writes Paresh C Palicha.

A constant complaint that we hear from filmmakers is that there is a dearth of new stories.

So what do they do? Plant old stories in the new world.

Jayan K Nair's Hello Namaste stars Vinay Forrt, Bhavana, Miya and Sanju Sivaram borrows an old template of family dramas, where two brothers are separated when their wives enter the picture. 

Today, there are no joint families, so scriptwriter Krishna Poojappura does the next best thing: he makes the two leading men thick friends Madhav (Vinay Forrt) and Jerry (Sanju Sivaram).

Both are RJs working at an FM station whose fortunes are flagging. They are the heroes of the station hosting a morning programme titled Hello Namaste, where they take up issues relevant to the city. They also carry on a fund-raising campaign for treating a little girl with a severe heart ailment.

Madhav is married to a baker named Priya (Bhavana).

Joju George, plays the MD of the station and Abu (Soubin Shahir), works as an errand boy. They provide the comedy.

The establishment of the premise takes only a little while. The actual story begins when Madhav, Priya and Abu attend the wedding reception of Jerry’s ex-girlfriend Anna (Miya).

There they realise that the groom (a comical cameo by Aju Varghese) is a good-for-nothing fellow and they entice Jerry to elope with Anna.

The two couples live together in a small house, and the going seems good initially.

They late move into two identical luxury villas in a posh colony and become next door neighbours. The ladies begin to have minor issues and they pass them on to their men.

Priya is very conscious of hygiene and her neighbour has a jackfruit tree that makes her porch messy.

So, the jackfruit tree becomes the bone of contention between the two families, and the fight on whether it should stay or not continues till the end.

The premise of the film may be very old but the sincere effort of the entire cast makes it watchable.

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