Polytechnic

The latest product from director Padmakumar, Polytechnic is an unappealing recreation of the old Mohanlal hits like Midhunam and Varavelppu. Nishad Koya who earlier scripted Ordinary has took a lot of inspiration from Meesha Madhavan to create a canvas different from the Mohanlal films I just mentioned.

The movie revolves around life of Pauly. He is a communist party worker who doesn’t have any great goals in life (I am blaming the person not the party). His mother advises him to start a business from the money they got from Government after the sudden demise of Pauly’s father, who was in army. The complications Pauly had to face in his struggle to set up this company are what Polytechnic talking about.

From the plot description I hope you guys can figure out why I am comparing this movie with Varavelppu and Midhunam. Polytechnic is discussing the same issues without much change and every time when Pauly plans to do something, you as a viewer will easily understand what he is about to face. The level of humor was impeccable in Midhunam and Varavelppu conveyed the idea without losing the seriousness. But polytechnic continuously tries to take away the seriousness from the movie and the humor was limited. Because of that, the much required satire feel was missing in the climax.

Kunchako Boban played his part nicely. With a convincing timing in handling comedy, the actor managed to live as the limited Pauly. Aju Varghese was good as the typical hero’s friend. The character of Vijayaraghavan is a recreation of Krishnavilasam Bhageerathan Pilla. And that part of the movie involving Vijayaraghavan, Bhavana and Kunchako Boban reminded me of Meesha Madhavan. Hareesh Peradi repeats his Kaitheri Sahadevan in colour shirts. Suraj Venjaramood, Ponnamma Babu and many more are there in the star cast including a cameo appearance by Innocent.

Padmakumar who hasn’t tried his hand in comedy tries it for the first time with all the clichés we expect. Nishad Koya manages to create some really good humour, especially in the middle of the second half melodrama. Some direct references about party leadership is there in the movie and I hope they won’t get banned (like the unofficial banning of LRL). Songs aren’t impressive in terms of tune and visualization. There is nothing much to say about cinematography and other technical aspects.

Polytechnic was just a watchable film for me. With other iconic films already made with the same theme, I don’t think you are going to remember it for a while. The rating is 2.5/5. It’s not unbearable, but a forgettable one time watch.