Alamaara

Alamara might be the most underrated film I've seen in a while. Didn't have much expectations for it the first time I saw it back in 2017 mainly due to the average to below average reviews. But oh boy was I wrong! Back then, I never knew that I'd go on to watch this movie 14 more times! It's such a fun ride with humour sprayed throughout. Sunny Wayne and Aditi Ravi kick it out of the park with Alamara and are complement each other really well. All the supporting actors like Aju Varghese, Renji Panicker, Manikandan, Saiju Kurup and the rest of the crew were fantastic! The music department was handled extremely well by Sooraj S Kurup. Poovakum Neeyen is still a personal favorite of mine. On a whole, I absolutely loved the film! If you want to chillax on the weekend with your wife and kids, this is the perfect film for you. A cute little light hearted entertainer!

'Alamaara' had a pretty interesting premise. It attempts to narrate the events that take place in the life-span of a tree (which later gets converted into a cabinet and is voiced by none other than Salim Kumar), and a bank employee named Arun (played by Sunny Wayne) who is about to get married soon.

As you'd expect things don't go as easy as they are supposed to and the cabinet seemingly has a role to play in all of this. Midhun Manuel Thomas treads the path of 80s/90s family comedies but the result is less than overwhelming. Firstly, the endeavor to portray the dysfunctional parents and relatives of both the partners end up looking like damp squibs. While the performances of the supporting cast (Manikandan, Aju, Saiju, Renji and co.) is indeed the sole redeeming factor of the film, the lead pair are just about okay. The viewer indeed expects some rollicking situational humor in a film such as this but what we get is just a few good one-liners and chuckle-worthy moments.

The below-par writing is to be blamed for this fiasco. While there's no adulteration in the comedy as such, one tends to feel this flick could have benefited quite a bit from the addition of the same. (Predictability is yet another villain). Nevertheless, the final product is again a half-cooked bundle of clichés. Watch only once you have exhausted all other possible options!

Alamaara sounds a lot better at a conceptual level. But it's John Manthrickal's writing which make it a very average movie. Arun(Sunny Wayne) and Swathi(Adithi Ravi) has no personality in this movie. Arun has majority of dialogues but there's nothing which defines him as a person. Sunny Wayne is a good actor but his performance looked terrible. Especially when he gets angry. Adithi Ravi's acting looked decent but she has almost nothing to do in this movie. She doesn't even have much lines. Most of the characters are stereotypes. The married couples reminds me of the couple we get to see in Indian TV serials. Manipulative wives and innocent husbands. Husbands doing household works are treated as a joke at several instances. Most of the jokes falls flat and it felt like they were trying too hard. Like the phone call with the photographer. It had no purpose and it wasn't even funny. The villian's characterization was so inconsistent. It worked in Aadu but here it fails terribly. The characters had no reason to act the way they were acting. Despite all these flaws, it somehow manages to be watchable. Just once.

I think Alamaara is an underrated movie that deserves much more attention than it gets. There's loads and loads of humor, a quite clean entertainment and also there's a nice message too. It has a story that has some resemblance to that in Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol where a couple faces issues after marriage although I agree the plot in the latter is much more than that but at least Alamaara does not stumble on that thin line between decency and vulgarity! Sunny Wayne as expected gives a subtle performance and as his love, Aditi Ravi(in her first movie as a lead) is very good. Rest of the cast are commendable too notably Renji Panicker and Seema Nair as Sunny's parents, Aju Varghese, Saiju Kurup, Manikandan(excellent) and Sudhi Koppa as his loyal but crazy friends and Sonu Jacob as his younger sister. Indrans makes a hilarious appearance as a villain here. What I didn't like about the story is how some shady people seem to get away with what they did to Sunny's character and his friends in Bengaluru which felt odd in a movie that is otherwise funny and ends on a positive note.

It is still a very watchable movie. Thumbs up!

The portrayal of ridiculous marriage customs of Kerala felt authentic at some moments. Though the overall execution of the premise (which itself may seem a bit ridiculous unless you've actually seen it in real life) and performances by actors which were either over the top or too bland made it an average film. There were many scenes which felt so realistic and funny but the inconsistencies killed the fun for that too.