Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval’s movies have always had this dry humor, which made them pretty unique. While most of those movies had a grounded setup, he experimented with a little bit of eccentricity in two of his ventures. One was Kanakam Kamini Kalaham, and the other was Sureshanteyum Sumalathayudeyum Hridayahariyaya Pranayakadha. Personally, I have loved Kanakam Kamini Kalaham for the way it blended visual style with deadpan humor. In his new film titled Oru Durooha Saahacharyathil, Ratheesh is trying to blend both rooted and quirky humor. The setup of the movie has a simple premise that mocks the system. But the final act of the movie is so messy that the first one and a half hours of the movie might feel like an entirely different film.
Sethu, an assistant in a Government hospital, is our central character. He has a brother named Madhu who is paralysed below the waist. Madhu has hallucinations, and he often talks to his dead uncle. Into the daily life of these two brothers enters this new guy named Rajendra Prasad, who is being hunted by the police for his alleged Maoist connections. What all happens after the entry of Rajendra Prasad is what we see in this movie.
As I said, the signature humor we see in Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval’s movies keeps us extremely entertained in this film as well. Through interesting characters and their quirks and limitations, the writing manages to sustain the humor. From taking sarcastic jibes at the way the system functions to showing how materialistic human relationships are, there is an active layer of satire that is running parallel to this investigative comedy. While the movie is not trying to be plot-heavy, the incidents Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval has managed to design to show the nature of all these characters will make us laugh out loud.
If you look at the beginning and ending of the movie, it can be perceived as a weird, emotional journey of Sethu. The basic format of the movie can be easily structured as a sad and ironic story of someone. It can induce the pain we experienced while seeing something like a Thaniyavarthanam. But Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval decides to take such a concept and pamper it with dark humor. While we do enjoy the comedy the film derives from hilarious back-and-forths between characters, as the film progresses, we would be interested in knowing how it will all culminate. That’s the area where the film crumbles. The tone of the movie switches dramatically at one point, and it shrinks into the mental space of Sethu, and that makes every other character a mere background artist.
The only major takeaway, in my opinion, from this movie is the way it utilizes or pushes Kunchako Boban as a performer. Kozhummal Rajeevan was one character who pushed Chackochan as an actor. And this time Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval offers him a character that has two entirely opposite shades. Dileesh Pothan, as the impulsive and hallucinating Madhu, was really good. Sajin Gopu’s character is somewhat an extension of the funny, tough guys he has been playing for a while now. Chidambaram as Armiyas was surprisingly effective. Sharanya Nair as Mini has very little to do here. I loved the performance of Jaffer Idukki in this movie as the shape-shifting social worker. Divya Vishwanath, a prominent name in the TV industry, was perhaps the most surprising casting choice in this movie, and that character and the backstory were hilarious.
When I saw that grin on Sethu’s face at the end, seeing a message, it made me wonder maybe Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval may have had some sort of a full circle concept in his head when he set out to make this film. He took a jibe at the US in the film by using the slogan Make India Great Again in this movie. And looking at the way the film has panned out, I was reminded of America’s situation in the current West Asia war. Great ambitions but vague exit plans.
