Valliyum Thetti Pulliyum Thetti

The latest Kunchako Boban starrer Valliyum Thetti Pulliyum Thetti somewhat felt like a fused version of Meesamadhavan and Amen. I am not comparing the movie with the above mentioned movies or making allegation that it’s a copy or something. The film has the similar premise of the Lal Jose movie (and a few more films which we have seen 10 years back) and the treatment occasionally had that visual uniqueness which we saw in Amen. Having said all that, Valliyum Thetti Pulliyum Thetti isn’t an entirely entertaining cinema. The lack of a convincing main plot sort of makes this entertainer a watchable average cinema.

Well there were too many names and I don’t really remember all of that. It is presented as a conflict between two groups in one village. Vinayan who belonged to one of the groups is our hero and he is a theatre projector operator. His love interest Sridevi by the way belongs to the rival side and the movie in a way focuses on this love story through the various events occurring in that place.

It is one of those movies where you see potential in the director and the absence of a really unique plot disturbs the flow we expect in the movie. Like I mentioned in the beginning, there is a good effort in the movie to give the visuals more emphasis. And they have somewhat succeeded in making the movie a musical comedy. But occasionally that typical Malayalam cinema tries to dominate and that mix of old and contemporary style may not work for all. The absence of a clear plot is evident and it is more like a series of connected subplots.

On screen, Kunchako Boban doesn’t have much of a challenge in presenting this character. We have seen similar characters in his second innings. Shamili in her debut in Malayalam as a heroine was okay. She doesn’t have much of a screen time in the movie when you compare it with other characters. Her dubbing sounded awkward at a few instances. Suresh Krishna in terms of looks and emotions looked perfect, but the dialogue delivery fails at some occasions. Manoj K Jayan was impressive and Renji Panicker played the role of the theatre owner nicely. Aneesh G Menon got a lengthy character and he was good. While Saiju Kuruppu’s role was tidy, Sreejith Ravi’s character was a bit too comical. A special mention to Krishna Shankar for his timing in those second half humor parts. A lot of actors are there in the movie including Nandan Unni, Seema G Nair, Muthumani, Sudheer Karamana and many more.

As a film maker I really feel that Rishi Sivakumar has the potential to be a good director. It is not a mere visualization of what was written in the script. In an interview I read that he is trying to present this as a story of a village. Yes! There is definitely an effort to do that by giving us a lot of character details and some enticing visuals. But as I said, it depends too much on these subplots and to be honest the kind of dramas and conflicts of interest we see in the movie are quite familiar through movies. The quirky humor that happens especially in the second half was pretty catchy. If I am not wrong, this is Kunjunni S Kumar’s third movie as a cinematographer and I would say this is his best. Edits were okay and I liked the choreography of the song Kannukal Kaalidari. Well the real find of this film in my opinion is the music director Sooraj S Kurup and I have to say that almost all the songs were really good. The guy seems to have the potential to deliver more atypical catchy songs.  BGMs were also fine.

So to those of you who are less bothered about the marks awarded to the movie, I would say Valliyum Thetti Pulliyum Thetti has pluses in departments like direction, music and cinematography. Content is the king in cinema they say and the writing here needed a little more freshness and elegance.

Rating : 2.5/5