Paresh C Palicha feels Kunjaliyan is a disappointing film. It is better to have zero expectations of a film. This is what comes to mind on watching Kunjaliyan.
The successful team of Jayasurya, director Saji Surendran, and writer Krishna Poojappura come together after Ivar Vivahitharaayal.
The film is a 'laugh a minute' with every scene aimed at making the audience laugh without really caring about the plot or anything else.
Jayaraman (Jayasurya), 30 years old, a school drop-out and somewhat dim-witted, is always being ridiculed by his three sisters and brothers-in-law. Unable to suffer more humiliation, he goes off to the Gulf where he gets a job looking after a herd of camels and sheep for a tyrannical boss.
Within a few months, though, he loses his job thanks to the economic slowdown and faces the dreaded prospect of returning home empty-handed to more ridicule. His co-worker and friend Preman (Suraj Venjaramoodu) devises a scheme for Jayaraman: he must act as if he has made it big in the Gulf. He writes anonymous
letters to his relatives claiming that Jayaraman has won a big lottery and will be investing in the film industry.
The whole village gets to hear of Jayaraman's good fortune and turns out to give him a royal welcome when he returns. As expected, they fall over each other to get into Jayaraman's good books.
From here on the ensemble cast, consisting of Vijayraghavan, Jagadeesh, Ashokan, Maniyanpilla Raju, are in competition to see who can overact the most.
Ananya as Maya, the female lead, has this angry look throughout the film and is labelled a Naxalite by the villagers as she opposes schemes that are meant for the development of the village.
Not much is demanded of Jayasurya in portraying Jayaraman and so banal is his character that we do not miss him even when he is absent from the screen for a long time.
The writer-director team of Krishna Poojappura and Saji Surendran base their winning formula on low-brow humour. But Kunjaliyan, Jayasurya's first outing after a strong performance-based Beautiful, is a disappointment.
Rediff Rating:
