Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan

Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan clearly shows you how the desperation to be a comedy entertainer can mess up an entire film. In the movie, there is a moment when Dileep’s Keshu suddenly gets possessed by Meledathu Raghavan Nair and lectures about his hardships. And you will feel like telling the character how annoying he was a few minutes ago. After scolding his wife throughout the film, towards the climax, Keshu goes, “Have I ever said anything harsh to you, my darling?” This contrast is because of the movie’s detour on a treatment level. Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan wants to be many things. But the only thing it could become is an outdated dud.

Keshu, our hero, owns a driving school, and he is a miser. One day his mother tells him to take the ashes of his late father to Rameshwaram. Keshu’s plan was to go alone and do the rituals. But his opportunist relatives decide to make it a family tour. During the tour, Keshu knows that he has won a lottery ticket. Knowing the nature of his relatives, Keshu had to make some plans before telling them. What all happens in the aftermath of Keshu winning the lottery is what we see in Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan.

The script of the film is written by Sajeev Pazhoor, who wrote the classic Thondimuthalum Driksashiyum. It is extremely difficult to believe that both films came from the same writer. Yes, Keshu is a different genre altogether. But the level of outdated feel one gets to witness in Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan is unbearable. It seems like the movie was trying to tick certain checkboxes. Show the vintage comedy avatar of Dileep, show some family sentiments, and work hard on making the hero worthy of the Janapriya Nayakan tag by making the character a saint. If done with subtlety, one would have even appreciated these agendas. But here, everything is on your face, and trust me, it was the least creative image boosting I have seen.

The major drawback of the film is the structuring of the screenplay. Looking at the final story, I can’t even say that the story had the potential to be a compelling entertainer. They are squeezing in these murmuring humor lines at every possible point, and it kind of exposes the creative incompetency of Nadirshah. Nadirshah is not bothered about the whole picture. His emphasis is more on creating 2-3 minutes long comedy clippings. Cinematography has no real aesthetics. Some shots in the film that have no relevance have tilted frames. As I already mentioned, the shift from humor to sentiments in the movie is jarring. You can’t even tell whether Nadirshah is being serious or being spoofy while watching certain sequences.

Dileep has tried getting into different attires in his prime, and Keshu is yet another attempt to do that. I don’t wish to discredit the effort of the actor, but the kind of comedy Keshu was forced to do on screen could only make me do a facepalm. Urvashi, on the other hand, showed how quality actors can reduce the level of annoyance asserted on characters by directors. After Churuli and Madhuram, Jaffar Idukki bags a mediocre role to ward off the evil eye. Kalabhavan Shajon and Kottayam Naseer play the roles of the stereotypical buffoonish brother-in-laws. Naslen is there because he ate a lot in Thanneer Mathan Dinanagal.

There is an entire segment in the film where we have characters sending paper rockets to find out the possible location of the lottery ticket. Once you finish the movie, you will realize how pointless that track was for the film and how that track added nothing to the whole plot. Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan is a terribly written film that gets even worse by its “humorous” treatment. Just like the makers of Kaaval, I think the team behind Keshu also feels that bringing back the vintage version of the star will please the audience. Well, somebody please tell them to Google the word reinvention.