Alamara

What they are trying to convey through Alamara about the marital relationship, is the very same thing Saiju Kurup’s character says in the trailer of the movie; “Relatives and neighbors will be there only for the marriage. After all it is you two who have to live together.” Midhun Manuel Thomas who earlier made films like Aadu and Ann Mariya Kalippilanu comes with a new film titled Alamara and the movie lies in the same zone of the other films of Midhun. But this time the humor quotient got reduced to dialogue jokes and thus it is entertaining only in bits.

Arun is this bank employee working in Bangalore. Even after going through several matrimonial sites and other ways, his marriage wasn’t happening. After a series of interesting events, he happens to meet this girl named Swati and he decides to get married to her in the usual arranged marriage way. But with many egoistic issues happening between the two families, the atmosphere wasn’t that great. After marriage, the issues just got even worse because of an Almara gifted to Swati by her parents. What all things happens because of this and how it eventually teaches many things to our main protagonists is what this film all about.

Midhun Manuel Thomas as a writer and director always favored humor as his comfort zone. Here also the aim is to capitalize on that kind of treatment. Unlike the other films of Midhun (barring Aadu), the humor isn’t situation oriented. It just appears in the dialogues. Even though the character of Shetty played by Indrans has a role in the way they have written the story, that whole real estate episode doesn’t have a solid grip on the basic story. Towards the end of the film we get to see that predictable back and forth love drama which wasn’t that moving.

Sunny Wayne struggles in those scenes that needed emotional outbursts. His usual dialogue delivery helps the dialogues in being humorous but that tone wasn’t matching when the character had to be serious. Aditi Ravi looks perfect for the part and her acting was also tidy. As always this Midhun Manuel Thomas movie has an elaborate cast. Renji Panicker, Seema G Nair, Manju Satheesh and Sadiq played the part of the parents. Manikandan Achari was offered a role that teased the saffron nationalists and the beef scene was apparently that one scene were majority of the audience laughed. Aju Varghese, Sudhy Kuppa and Saiju Kuruppu portrayed the roles of Arun’s friends and they were all fine.

Midhun Manuel Thomas depends too much on the on screen developments to create humor. The caricature kind of characterization wasn’t working that effectively because of the lack of really funny writing. The intention of the story was to preach about the fact that couples need to know how to live together by understanding each other rather than having ego driven fights. But that aspect only comes in the last leg after too many events that look a bit unwanted by the time you reach the climax. The improvised dialogues are the ones which sound funnier. Cinematography was fine and the music wasn’t that catchy.

The expectation was to get a fair enough comedy entertainer somewhere in the zone of Om Shanthi Oshana or Ann Maria Kalippilanu. But with a less exploited plot, Alamara wasn’t that satisfying. You will laugh for the occasional minimal counter dialogues, but on the whole this Alamara is mostly empty.

Rating: 2/5