What a film should not be? ’Greetings’ is a best example.
A father - son lives in a housing colony and they owe money to all in the city. A girl is admitted to the house as paying guest. The son gets close to the paying guest where the paying guest has her eyes set to reunite a couple in the colony. Rest is the suspense for one who cares to.
The film got a decent cast and nice locations (part). The film starts well with some comedy and the expectation bar reached to some height. Despite the initial feel of its similarity with Ishtam, I just hope for some fun and light entertainment. Sooner, the movie turned to the flavour romance with the introduction of the heroine and the love hate relation with the hero. Then, I thought ok, let me accept it as a romance movie with some comedy in the beginning and lo....the movie switched its flavour to family drama with the couple in the housing colony. The writer and director teased with a Gandhi Nagar Second Street and now it more turned to be a suspense drama where is the child. The child arrives and child no little but in his twenties or more!
The writer liberally borrowed subjects from many hit movies and failed to match to any one of them or anywhere near. The director with his inexperience didn’t help the proceedings at all. The actors are given complete freedom it seems and the veterans like Innocent and Salim Kumar did their best to keep the fun in place. Siddique and Geetha too did their roles well. Even Jayasurya and Kavya tried their experiments. Then, without the support from the writer and director they simply have to satisfy with their brain children.
The songs didn’t impress. That was a shock, where it carried great names for its lyrics and music. Then, what happened to it? I just wonder. How many can fail a film together? Lyrics by Gireesh Puthenchery and Music by Raveendran is a dream pairing which a good director will celebrate. True, some songs are note worthy but with its poor orchestration and choreography I felt the songs are too wasted.
Few dialogues in the film are noted for some funny lines. ’Kothukuthiri undengil kothukine kathichal mathi’, but I fear how far the fun reaches to the audience who must have been little taken aback by then.
Cinematography was weak with its odd angles and extra close ups. Editing was poor.
The only fresh feel about the film is that it is very colourful. Each frame is colourful, blue, yellow, red, orange...... Colourful costumes and the wall paints helped a lot along with the colourful city. Then, that was too short a reason to get noticed in the midst of so many minuses.
Last but not least, why the film got the name greetings? ...Because the hero got a job in a greeting card shop in the later part.
And, why o why I am reviewing a film which has released long back? Then, my thought is, why not? So, here we go with the long and short of the film: I am reminded of what a film should not be....if you want to learn that, take a DVD of the film and watch it....