Goodalochana

Goodalochana is Dhyan Sreenivasan’s debut as a writer. The main issue with this Thomas Sebastian movie is the script by the lead actor. It is not that there was no scope for a movie in that thought. But the script of the film Goodalochana over blows an element that should have been kept really simple. With the central plot changing constantly, Hareesh Kanaran’s jokes are not enough to keep this movie as a memorable one.

Varun, Prakashan, Ajaz and Jamsheer are four close friends who live in Kozhikode city. All have various financial backgrounds but the joblessness part unites them. The desperation for money makes them do something that can be considered as an extreme option. But soon they regret it as they knew that they got fooled in that process. Their attempt to revoke what they did and how that goes is what the film all about.

Hareesh (Kanaran) has a typical style in delivering jokes in that famous Kozhikode slang. And there is no doubt that you will laugh seeing his performance. The issue with Goodalochana is that beyond these jokes there is nothing significantly good in the content to make us invested in the story. And the constantly changing plot makes it even more difficult for the viewer. What I said in the above paragraph is one conflict of the film and the movie goes on for almost an hour even after solving that conflict.

Thomas Sebastian who earlier made films like Maybazar and Jamnapyari isn’t really trying much to engage the audience in a story telling that’s more sensible. There are many areas in this Dhyan Sreenivasan script that needs to be summarized more effectively. A lot of the jokes in the first half to establish the jobless, aimless nature of the central characters don’t make much sense when you backtrack the whole story – the duration of those phases is what I am talking about. Even when that new character played by Vishnu Govindan is added to the script, there isn’t anything happening in the content other than some pointless comedy scenes. The cinematography was somewhat good. Edits aren’t giving any particular boost to the story telling process. While the two songs were kind of good even though there wasn’t any necessity of those songs, I found the lyrical BGMs slightly annoying.

Dhyan Sreenivasan is playing the character that we can assume as the hero and there isn’t much there for him to challenge himself as an actor. Aju Varghese on the other hand has got a role that has shades of the typical side kick character he plays, but also of an independent artist and he was okay as that character. As I already mentioned, even though Jamsheer becomes an annoying character towards the climax, Hareesh manages to add life to this film through that character. Vishnu Govindan was also good. Sreenath Bhasi is okay even though his occasional attempts to grab the slang wasn’t working that well. Niranjana doesn’t even have the space Mamtha has in this movie, and the later is there in the movie in an extended cameo role. Bhagath, Alencier and a few more are there in the film.

Goodalochana needed a lot of trimming on the script level and it also needed an essential central conflict. Without these two factors this movie is trying too much to be a package rather than being a story that has been told in an entertaining manner.

Rating: 2/5