Swarna Kaduva

Babu Janardhanan is a script writer who is known for writing films that has contemporary relevance. Even his flop films were based on news that we have seen during those times. With the movie Swarna Kaduva, he along with director Jose Thomas (Jos Thomaas) creates another satire which looks like a fusion of Babu Janardhanan’s Vaasthavam and Biju Menon’s Vellimoonga. It is a funnier version of Vaasthavam and it is almost like screen writer replaced Balachandran Adiga with Mamachan.

Riny is the central protagonist of our movie. He is the driver, secretary and an all in all of a major Jewelry owner cum film producer Lonappan. His childhood experiences have molded him in a particular way and he is obsessed about making money in any way possible. The film is actually that journey of Riny from nothing to a huge brand and the series of events that teach him how wrong he was.

The pace with which the story moves forward is so smooth that you won’t feel any sort of lag in the proceedings. The structure of the script builds that greedy lower class man nicely. But the similarities with Vaasthavam sort of take away the unpredictability from the content and with a treatment that is somewhat old school you won’t get that clap worthy climax moment. The satirical digs at many prominent business men and the connect those subplots have with the present socio political scenario gives the overall movie a relatable feel, but the lack of novelty in presentation eliminates the charm.

Biju Menon easily handles the slang and the callous attitude of the greedy Riny. Innocent on the other hand repeats his typical performance and at times it was a bit over comical. Ineya was good as one of the female lead. Poojitha was disappointing. Suresh Krishna and Sudheer Karamana were okay in their characters. Harish got a character that is slightly beyond the usual hero’s tail kind of role and he made an impression.

The unappealing making style of Jose Thomas is one element that takes away a possible attraction from the film. From frames to dialogues there isn’t much of a directorial craft you get to see in Swarna Kaduva. Like I said, the pace of the screenplay is pretty nice, but the structure has similarities. Cuts occasionally lack continuity and the cinematography is pretty average. Music was fine while the background score sounded insensitive at certain areas.

To sum it up, Swarna Kaduva is a watchable average film that has a properly structured story to its credit. The ultimate one liner is quite similar to the 2006 M Padmakumar film and that in a way is the merit and demerit of this movie. When compared to the last films of the hero, director and writer, this one is definitely a better one.

Rating : 2.5/5