In the movie Mr. Fraud, there is a scene where a bunch of goons verbally praise the entry of the hero before getting beaten up by him. B Unnikrishnan is someone who likes to glorify his heroes verbally and because of his grip over the language, he always manages to make it less like a Telugu film kind of hero-
Balakrishnan is a struggling advocate. Because of the stammering issues, he is unable to excel in his profession and is always sidelined and made fun of. At one point, he gets involved in a case when he sends a legal notice against a powerful government official. This hasty action lands him in a mess of legal troubles and how Balakrishnan manages to solve all that is what Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel showing us.
In the climax of the film, there is a bit where the antagonist sort of explains the blueprint of the master plan and how Balakrishnan and other people who got trapped in the case got chosen. I must say that the basic idea on which B Unnikrishnan built this script was kind of impressive. But then he has his own style (or clichés) of making things into a cinema. He likes explaining heroics. There is a scene where a woman comes to file a divorce case and Balan Vakeel identifies it in the most Sherlock way possible. And in another scene, he talks about how he can understand when someone is lying. And such an efficient guy wasn’t able to understand the fraud nature of someone who trapped him in a case; cinematic liberty I guess. Instead of making it an engaging thriller, B Unnikrishnan tries to make it a
Dileep gets a character that uses his abilities in the comfort zone like the comedy and the movie also offers him a space to perform emotional scenes too. The stammering was depicted neatly by the actor. Mamta Mohandas was fine as Anuradha who had some space and relevance in the story. Aju Varghese after a long gap plays a full-length role and was occasionally funny and sometimes he was too much on the eccentric slapstick tone. Suraj Venjaramood also goes back to his old style gimmicky comedy. Siddique as the father of the hero was perhaps the most entertaining element in the whole movie and with his effortless performance, he manages to make the character likable. Renji Panicker, Lena, Harish Uthaman, Priya Anand Bheeman Raghu, Bindu Panicker, Rajesh Sharma, Ganesh Kumar, Saiju Kurup etc. are the other prominent names in the elaborate cast.
Like I said above, the intention here is largely to make a film that will please the fans of the actor. And there is also this deliberation to make it a festival kind of film with that item number song where even the hero shakes a leg. Just before the interval and soon after the interval there are fight sequences and I really felt bad for Baahubali Villain Prabhakar whose sole purpose in Malayalam movies is to get hit by the hero in a pointless action sequence. Whenever the thrilling part of the script sort of gets the grip, there will be one exaggerated heroism bit which will kind of ruin or reduce the impact. And one will have to be way too naïve to not understand the off-screen references and criticisms the movie makes about events happening around the lead actor. The cinematography was impressive. And the combination of camera work and sharp cuts have definitely helped the fight sequences in generating that mass appeal. The background score wasn’t that great and the songs were kind of okay.
To those who scrolled down all the way to check the ratings and to those who might abuse over the rating, Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakkeel is a movie that is pretty much in the zone of a movie like Ramaleela. This B Unnikrishnan movie will be an enjoyable one for those who loved that Arun Gopy cinema.
Rating: 2.5/5
Instead of making it an engaging thriller, B Unnikrishnan tries to make it a fan movie for Dileep and that’s where the movie loses its possible charm.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
