Paresh C Palicha reviews the Malayalam movie, Swantham Bharya Zindabad. Post YOUR reviews here!
Swantham Bharya Zindabad, the Malayalam film directed by Biju Vattappara is a film starring Guinness Pakru as Vettoor Sivankutty, a small time leftist politician who lives by his principles, come what may.
Sivankutty has a staunch opponent in the form his brother-in-law played by Harisree Asokan, the other extreme of the political spectrum. We get the feeling that this may be the modern version of Sreenivasan-Sathyan Anthikkad classic
Sandhesam. But this is a character driven film projecting Sivankutty as a simple man (bordering the ridiculous) who eats simple food, does not do anything that is extravagant and do not even spare his father, who is a land owning farmer. In short he is a respected politician. Things continue like this for a while unraveling the various aspects of the character and also a few other characters in Sivankutty's political setup.
Then the local body elections are announced but Sivankutty's constituency is reserved for women. Due to lack of suitable candidate to represent the party, it is decided that Sivankutty should get married immediately so that his wife can stand for elections. Sivankutty, who had resisted the pressure from the family to get married bows down to the party's diktat. From here onwards, the film's downward slide begins. Somehow politics takes a back-seat (there is not even mention of the elections).
Sivankutty's family had arranged a traditional wedding against his wishes and the surprise presence of superstar Pavan Kumar (Mukesh) spoils it further. The girl he has married is a star crazy lady. She likes to watch TV all the time. On top of that, she refuses to consummate the marriage saying that they should know each other better before they start their married life.
Pavan Kumar re-enters the scene for a film shoot, which doubles the trouble for Sivankutty as on the one one hand he has to woo his wife and on the other he has to chase the superstar away as she is crazy about him.
This could have been a good political satire but is made into an insipid family drama by a confused director.
Rediff Rating: