Money Ratnam

The feel of the Santhosh Nair film Money Ratnam is somewhat similar to that of Kili Poyi and Delhi Belly (except for the heavy drug usage). Following the footsteps of the new trend of focusing on that life changing one day’s events, the karma philosophy etc, Money Ratnam is that simple humble entertainer that has a lots of moments to laugh and a few moments for enlightenment.

The central protagonist of the movie Neil John Samuel works as a sales executive in a car showroom. One day after work a drunk Neil lands in to some trouble with a few men from the bar and during his efforts to evade them he ended up getting a bag full of cash. What all Neil wishes to do with that money and what all things he actually ended up doing with that money is this humorous situational entertainer showing us.

Well it has this Delhi Belly element as it places a common guy in the middle of an illegal deal involving diamonds. And also there are additional nuisance following him to create a climax chaos and also to keep him running. All these setups will surely awaken the script predictor in you. Even though it won’t surprise you with any mind blowing twists and turns, Santhosh Nair smoothly turns the film in to certain level of non cheesy preaching without losing the comic mood of the film. That kidnapping episode was a slightly predictable one and it could have been better.

Santhosh Nair has made the film nicely by keeping things funny and somewhat normal. Fahadh Faasil riding a two wheeler in his boxers and night gown is something that can go to the exaggerated level but the director made such things look good on screen. Screenplay has the required tempo and doesn’t really hang around on those melodramas to spoil the mood. Dialogues are okay. Good cinematography from Neil D’Cunha. Fitting music and good bgms. Fahadh Faasil is not known for his fighting skills, but some sequences in the movie might give you an impression that he can be good in that. And the credits should go to the cinematographer, editor, sound designer and the fight master for that final output.

On screen, Fahadh hasn’t disappointed me with his performance till date and Money Rathnam was also safe in his hands. The carelessness, fear, panic and the character change towards the end, all were fine. Niveda Thomas was okay in her character. Joju George was once again funny in his stereotyped character. Renji Panicker, Kochu Preman, Sunil Sukhada, Sasi Kalinga, Balu, Dinesh, Sudhhy Kopa and the rest did a good job.

Overall Money Ratnam is an enjoyable film that won’t bore you with its 125 minutes runtime. My rating is 3/5 for this Santhosh Nair movie. The 100^th film from Century films may not have a 100 days theatrical run, but it is worth spending 100 rupees.