Olappeeppi

The land reformation act that put an end to the feudal set up existed in our state had repercussions in the socio economical terrain of our society. The film Olappeeppi from cinematographer turned director Krish Kymal is an attempt to shed light on the various aspects of that act. Even though the Karma based theme gives the story a proper structure to its credit, the excessive dramatics that comes in those flashback sequences affects the feel of this tale.

Unni Menon comes to his native place Nedumbram after spending many years in various other places. The nostalgic NRI has come back here to know the whereabouts of his relatives and friends and also to perform the last rites of his Grandmother. The movie also takes us back to the childhood of Unni where he stayed with his grandmother and shows us the aftermath of the land reformation act.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, the theatrics is the main villain here. The way Krish Kymal has captured the 60/70’s (hope I am correct) has too much of that stage drama feel (somewhere similar to the same awkwardness we feel while watching Adoor’s latest movie Pinneyum). There was this excessive dominance of dramatic dialogues to convey the miserable scenario and that seriously causes problems to the movie in being emotionally gripping.  There is this “sweet revenge”, hidden inside this story which ultimately gives Olapppeeppi a shape. That thought and the relatively less dramatic rendering of the present day gives the movie the attire of an okay movie.

It is not a difficult character to pull off for someone like Biju Menon. He portrayed the role of elder version of Unni neatly. Two main characters in this movie are Unni (small boy) and his Grandmother and these roles are played by Dev Prayag Hari and actress Kanchana. In comparison to the other portions in this film, the flash back sequences that had this combo lacked the realness one would expect in conversations. The dramatics was a bit too excessive in those portions and some of the actors in that segment of the movie also lacked the flare. Reina Maria as the mother creates an impression. Anjali was okay and there isn’t much for Paris Laxmi to do in this film. Sreejith Ravi even within limited number of scenes delivers a quality performance.

Krish Kymal has chosen this off beat style to depict the misery our main protagonist had to go through in his childhood. But the conversations and the lack of genuineness takes it away from being a heartening episode in the film. If that relationship was etched out perfectly, the conclusion would have made a better impact on the film. Mr. Kymal occasionally teases the Communist movements that happened during that period. Cuts and frames are configured in a way you sort of get familiarized with the main locations in the movie. Usage of BGM was quite less and the one song sounded like an average one. The production design was done impressively.

Olappeeppi has a story that visualizes many practices and socio political equations that existed in the 60’s and 70’s. But because of the miss placed drama in the scripting, the movie can’t really move you emotionally. It is just an Okay film.

Rating : 2.5/5