I have seen this movie a couple of times. Me being a non-malayalee, I couldnt understand the movie very much at first, but on repeated seeing I found it very funny.
The story is about a struggling assistant director, Udayan and his rise to fame inspite of hurdles from Superstar SAROJ KUMAR who himself became an overnight star by stealing Udayan’s script. Since I am sure most of the malayalis would have seen this movie, I am not elaborating on this movie.
Mohanlal is as usual himself, good. There are no punch dialogues or ’’ enda ponnu mone dinesha’’ stuff. But he conveys the helplessness on discovering that his script has been stolen and when his wife leaves him. But I wouldnt say that there is a lot of histrionics involved.
Meena is Ok. She doesnt have a great role. She is an actress introduced by Udayan and loves him. Frustrated by her moneyminded brother and father , she leaves them and comes to Udayan and they get married. Later they get separated and she goes back to films.
Jagathy is good. But he has become obese and jaded from the earlier movies. The scene where he teaches Srinivasan navarasaas is good. Likewise, Mukesh has also lent a good support. He conveys the hassles that a producer faces when he has to cater to the needs to a self centered star is well conveyed.The rest of the cast like Cochin Haneefa, Anand and Salim Kumar have also provided good support although there isnt much of a role.
The real hero of the movie is SRINIVASAN. He is absolutely hilarious in the role of the junio artist Rayappa who rechristens himself overnight as SAROJ KUMAR. Srinivasan as a script writer also scores well. He has taken digs at the entire industry even at bigwigs like Mammootty (Cooling Glass Fad) and Mohanlal ( Side Business - Parotta business) without naming any of them. The scene where Udayan and Mukash come to meet saroj kumar to narrate the story is absolutely hilarious as he keeps boasting about himself. In general he has conveyed the airs and the image consciousness that the leading heroes put on in the industry, not only in malluwood, but as far as I know in all southern languages. I am not able to give concrete 9instances of his acting in the movie, but he definitely carries the movie in his entire shoulder. After a very long time, I had seen a real comic villain, whom you despise but at the same time cant help smiling at his egocentric nature.
The climax of the movie was good. Although I have doubts about its feasibility, it was novel and well thought.
The songs of the movie were ok but Karale and Penne songs are my favourite.
On the whole , the movie is a nice timepass, where you can laugh for solid humour with no double entendres and poor jokes.