Back in September, when Param Sundari released, many Malayalis, including me, found its portrayal of Malayalis and Kerala in general problematic. We even claimed that, of late, we are extremely aware when it comes to depicting different cultures. Cut to December, we released a movie named Khajuraho Dreams. A film that feels like an unintended tribute to the Vinayan era when it comes to showing other state characters. Initially ready for a release back in 2023, and finally getting a release after almost two years, this movie, written by Sethu of Sachy-Sethu, is an unbearable travel movie that even the 2023 audience would reject without any hesitation.
Goutham, Job, Ishan, Surya, and Lola are a group of close friends who occasionally get together in Job’s cafe. During one such meeting, Surya, the avid traveller of the gang, narrates to them about Khajuraho and some of the ancient customs in that part of the world. Getting excited about all that, the group decides to go to Khajuraho as a road trip. What happens when the gang reaches there is what we see in this movie by Manoj Vasudev.
Sethu is the man who wrote films like Salaam Kashmir, Cousins, and Achayans, and when you watch this movie, you will feel that he is proud of all those creations. The way he has shown the blogging of Lola shows how ignorant he is about the newer generation, much like what he wrote about military intelligence in Salaam Kashmir. There is a pointless Daba sequence in this movie that has zero contribution to the story, with a caricature depiction of a Singh and one other state guy (Kannadiga, I guess), which reminded me of the big-budget debacle cousins. Then, some of the unplanned and spontaneous adventures of the gang in many areas in the second half, with obsession over alcohol, gave me flashes of the nightmare he wrote, named Achayans. Khajuraho Dreams is like wanting to make Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, but creative limitations forced the writer to mix his three flop films.
Arjun Ashokan is trying to show the ignorance of the character with that geek-like smile. Other than being in each scene with a minimum of three actors in every frame, there isn’t much for him to do. Aditi Ravi is playing the bold girl who rides a bullet. Sreenath Bhasi gets to do this irreverent fun dude character. Sharafudheen, along with Bhasi, is trying their best to save this movie with a lot of dubbing booth counter dialogues. Dhruvan is delivering easily the worst performance with that poorly written character. The writing and the portrayal make Surya look more like a creep rather than a romantic. Poor Chandunadh, whose bass voice and Malayalam diction are very attractive, is playing a half Malayali, and just like how Bhasi’s character says in the film, it is tough to bear with his Malayalam in this movie. Raj Arjun is the Renji Panicker of this counter-Param Sundari, who adds some authenticity compared to the rest of the cast, who look like glorified junior artists with Hindi dubbing done by Malayalis.
The frames of this movie are extremely dull, and almost from the word go, we are getting bombarded with background score that pretty much asks us to feel the emotion they intended, and we never felt. The orchestration of the background score would make you wonder whether Gopi Sundar got underpaid. Except for one song sung by Vineeth Sreenivasan, every other song in this travel movie felt half-hearted. The fundamental problem of this movie is the writing, which is just adding scenes to extend the runtime rather than adding value to the story. Like the Daba scene I mentioned, we even see an accident scene in the first half of the movie, and it has absolutely no significance in the main story. One of the silliest tracks is the villain part, which is evident from the moment it is introduced to us. And the villain character is played by someone with zero expressions.
While I was watching Khajuraho Dreams, a few audience members who decided to watch this movie since tickets weren’t available for Kalamkaval were giggling at certain dialogue humor. I have a feeling that some writers and filmmakers look at these reactions and assume them as their success in creating something good. Khajuraho Dreams is a mess that thinks the audience it is catering to is only watching the kind of movies its writer has written previously.
