Karmayogi

Karmayogi, the Malayalam adaptation of Shakespear’s Hamlet is a movie that has some content which has relevance in these days, but due to the making style it fails to reach the audience.

The plot has no great difference from the classic, only the backdrop changes. Indrajith plays the role of Rudran (Prince Hamlet), Thalaivasal Vijay plays the role of his crooked uncle (Claudius in Hamlet), Padmini Kolhapure plays the role of Rudran’s mother.

As the plot is exactly the same as Hamlet, I dont want to discuss too much about the plot of the movie. As a one liner it can be said as a “Revenge story of a son who loved his father for his values”.

In the performance side, no one has given a bad on screen appearance. Indrajith has done the job neatly. Thalaivasal Vijay, Gopakumar, Saiju Kurup, Ashokan, Nithya menon, Padmini Kolhapure, Vinay fort and many more in the movie has done justice to their roles. For me Saiju Kurup is a surprise performance in the movie. He executed the role of Kanthan very much impressively.

In the making side, Karmayogi has its ups and downs. Direction style is good. But I felt some unevenness in the script. There wasnt much smoothness between scenes especially in the first half. Each scene felt like a separate chapter. Cinematography was good. Music of Ouseppachan is the main bonus of this movie. Fight sequences were quite ordinary. I expected a much better technically perfect flick from V K Prakash.

Most of the emotions in the movie has its significance in these days also. Thats why Hamlet is is considered as a timeless classic. Presenting the Hamlet story with the backdrop of the new age could have been a better idea to communicate with all type of audience.

I am giving 2.5/5 for director VK Prakash’s “Karmayogi”. Soul is there, but just soul is not enough.

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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