Katha parayumbol , the new srinivasan movie is based upon this fascination. This immensely enjoyable movies is set in a village of melukavu and follows the life of Balan the local barber played by srinivasan himself. Balan who has had a monopoly over the "heads" in melukavu is quickly losing ground to the new barber in town. Sarasan (Jagdeesh) , the new barber has opened a modern shop next to Balan's shop and is aggressivley trying to run balan out of business. Balan is trying hard for a loan to modernize his shop. But his straight forward approach and his acid tongue ensures that he does not get one. Balan's family (wife played by meena and three kids) although affected by his money problems seems reasonably happy and always have a joke to crack about their troubles. The elder daughter especially ..She has some of the best lines in this movie.
melukavu is home to some interesting characters. Salim kumar plays the town poet Laurette whose creations are unintentionally hilarious. (I don't know if sreenivasan reads Astrix but this character reminded me of cacaphonix .. ) . Mukesh play's a struggling parallel college owner who is constantly hatching plots to collect long overdue fees from his students. Innocent plays Eechapayn err.. sorry Eepachayan the local moneybag who roams around with his henchman played by kottayam nazeer.
The film picks up pace when a movie crew lands up in the village. Villagers are all excited that the reigning super star Ashok Raj (Mamooty in a movie stealing cameo) of the time has come to their village. Around this time a news spreads through Melukavu that Balan is an old friend of the super star. This makes the villager see Balan in a whole new light and his life is changes overnight. The rest of the movie is about the question of Balan's and Ashok Raj's friendship. The director and script writer does a good job of not giving too much away and keeping the viewers guessing on that question the climax of the movie.
And it is come climax ..The whole movie revolves around the question of Balan's friendship with Ashok raj. So the scenes where these questions are answered are the core of the movie. That is when you realize why mamooty was needed as ashok raj. Mammoty delivers a knockout finale to this movie showing that you don't need hours of screen time to make an impact if you have the talent.
Overall a well written,acted and directed movie. But i wonder where in kerala would you find a village like melukavu now? I think since the advent of TV (especially cable) we have been bombarded with images and stories of movie stars. This has definitley destroyed the aura that surrounded movie stars earlier. I don't think a movie shooting would bring life to a standstill anywhere now ,maybe in can see this happening in the 80's or earlier.
I realize that this was not directed by Srinivasan but any movie which he writes no matter who the director is, get stamped a "srinivasn movie". He again proves that he is the best writer of movies in malayalam. He movies tell you that you don't need complex plots to make an enjoyable movie. A wafer thin plot when told using interesting characters in interesting situations make an interesting movie.
