101 weddings

Mere one time fun is the only thing that you will get after watching hit maker Shafi’s new movie 101 weddings. Lack of clarity in the goal of the movie and a script that goes too much after cliché formulas to find grip makes this movie a not so special movie. Apart from the enjoyable comic scenes, there isn’t much in this multi starrer.

The plot revolves around the character Krishnan Kutty aka Krish. He is the only son of a Gandhiyan. Unlike his father who calls for hunger strike to make people obey, Krish is a bit crooked. His social worker dad gets associated with a mass wedding for the poor ones and he decides to set up his marriage with Abhirami who is a social worker, organizer of the mass wedding and of cause one of the brides of the wedding. With his dad forcing for the marriage, Krish is forced to marry Abhirami, the daughter of an Abkari whom Krish was aiding to get money by leaking his father’s moves. Story turns around when Antappan, the childhood enemy of Krish comes for the wedding. In the same time Krish tries to bring a ‘famine’ male dancer Jyothi to the wedding in disguise as Krish to make Abhirami reject him. Death of one of the bride’s father, Antappan’s revenge, Jyothi’s hard stand and robbery makes things tough for Krish by all means. How this mess is cleared is the basic plot of 101 weddings.

The basic problem I felt was with the story itself. It tries too much on a very narrow plot and in the end becomes a bit confusing in terms of its final destination. Apart from the Jayasurya part, there is a lot of cliché in the other stories in the movie. Not just cliché, some level of exaggeration that kind of fails to sync in. First half of the movie is really enjoyable with some descent jokes from almost all the artists. But as the movie moves into the second half, the script gets tangled because of its side stories. The lack of perfection in execution of melodrama also adds insult to injury.

The only area that scores for the movie is the performance. Kunchako Boban handles Krish smoothly. He fits into the role nicely. Biju Menon continues his rocking form in this outing also. His long hair makes him look more dashing. Jayan did his character as Jyothi smoothly, but the cooked up character is slightly disturbing. When compared to on screen performance scope, 101 Weddings offers more to Samvritha when compared to Ayalum Njanum thammil. Bhama was smooth. Salim Kumar impresses with his small innings. Suraaj comes back with his usual overacting pranks. Vijaya Raghavan is satisfying. Rest of the cast also delivers a descent performance.

In the making, didn’t felt that much problems in the direction when compared to usual Shafi style of making. As I mentioned earlier the story from the director was a bit scattered and doesn’t suit the commercial entertainer format. Kalavoor Ravikumar was surprisingly good in handling the fun part but as usual he fails in connecting with the audience in the intense or pivotal parts of the movie. The script gets clumsy towards the end with too much things trying to fall in place. Music by Deepak Dev is typical and enjoyable. All the songs in the movie failed to sync with situation and lyrics. Cinematography helps the movie in giving it a happy mood.

On the whole 101 Wedding is just about satisfying. A better second half could have changed its faith. If you can keep your expectations low, this one may please you. I am giving this Shafi movie a 2.5/5.