The first half of Oru Kuttanadan Blog made an impression that Sethu, the scriptwriter who is making his directorial debut, has an intention to reinvent cliché. But from the moment the interval is revealed you can identify where the movie is heading to and after that it’s just a series of predictable underwhelming moments that deliberately glorifies the actor rather than the character. From one dialogue from the trailer, it was clear that it is that script which follows the old trend of the hero getting misunderstood and all the other characters apologizing to him at the end and to my disappointment this movie was exactly that.
So Hari is our central protagonist. He was an NRI who has come back after settling all the business abroad to live peacefully in his hometown Krishnapuram. He is this elder brother figure to all the young lads there and is notorious for doing all kinds of crazy stuff. At one point he gets cheated by one person and also gets accused by another person for two different things. And Hari now has the moral responsibility to come out clean from these accusations. How he does that is the content of Oru Kuttanadan Blog dealing with.
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Now the question in my head is why an actor like Mammootty is not getting the point that this is a story structure that has failed miserably in the past. And also this level of narcissism in the script is something only fans would enjoy. Hariyettan is a phenomenon in Sethu’s writing. He is super supportive, he is generous, and he takes care of everyone and even the police officer who came to investigate ends up being his fan. It is so excessive that even if you are a fan of the actor you might end up saying “don’t push it too hard”. The first half of the movie was pretty engaging. Even though the jokes weren’t adding up, Sethu managed to create some genuine laughs. The usual drill begins around the interval and after that, it is just wayward writing that wants to make the hero flawless and shining.
Mammootty chooses one more script that barely challenges his acting caliber. The looks are the obvious demand here. The natural humor in some of the dialogues in the initial portions is perhaps the only area where we would sense an effort taken by the great actor. Raai Laxmi is there in a glorified glamour role which was there just to make the hero a smart guy over a woman. Anu Sithara has an important role with very less screen time and she was fine. Shamna Kasim was an effective choice as the police officer. Sanju Shivaram was also fine. Everyone else in this huge star cast comprising of people like Nedumudi Venu, Lalu Alex, Ponnamma Babu, Jacob Gregory, Jude Anthany, Sohan Seenulal etc. were just okay with their typical portrayals of characters. Oh yeah, I just forgot. Sunny Wayne and Ananya were there who got a foreign trip offer just to read the script.
In his directorial debut, it seems like Sethu was excited in creating the first half. The way he builds the character of Hari through his deeds was interesting. The pretentiousness of the screenplay along with its muddled condition in the second half makes it a really dull movie. The whole Raai Laxmi track was placed just to add half more hours to the movie without doing much to the plot. I was wondering why Hari wasn’t taking any effort to prove his innocence in the first case (well, maybe there were a few more villagers who were yet to blame Hari). The fact that an experienced writer just can’t understand how outdated certain ingredients are in a script is truly an alarming thing for the industry. Sreenath’s music, by the way, was a plus for this movie.
Oru Kuttanadan Blog is excessively hero-centric making you almost hate the hero for his goodness. Freshness is definitely not a term I would associate with the script of this movie. This one also belongs to that line-up of lackluster Mammootty films that came out in the recent past.
Rating: 2/5
Oru Kuttanadan Blog is excessively hero-centric making you almost hate the hero for his goodness.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
