The whole time I was watching amateur comedy man Ramesh Pisharody's debut directorial Panchavarnathatha I was wondering about his motivation behind making such a mindless and incomparably dumb film. Over the 150 minutes, I couldn't think of one good reason as to why he wrote and directed this film, even if he meant it in good faith. Failing actor Jayaram plays a mysterious man with a bald mane and a wide belly who moonlights as an animal charmer, a real estate agent, and whatnot. He is shown as a righteous man who influences the lives of bad people around him in a good way. If the previous statement does not make sense to you then you already know what watching Panchavarnathatha is like. Apart from one or two laughable jokes and at least a dozen cringeworthy sequences reminding you of those nauseating comedy night skits on Malayalam TV channels, this comedy drama fails like no other film does at least in 2018 so far. To see veterans like Kunchacko Boban and Premkumar to fool around in the name of slapstick is disheartening to see, especially wen you cannot assess the point. Panchavarnathatha has the power to make even an easily entertained person go bonkers and exasperate in anger for it is made like those short films you find on YouTube that is low on content and filmmaking. Director-writer Pisharody uses slapstick like it's his comedy skit that he currently plays on TV with Mukesh, but the problem is that there you have people who are forced to laugh and clap at his dead jokes. Here the audience yawn and fall asleep. Even at the end, Panchavarnathatha does not make sense, and all you feel good about is that the film finally ended. TN.
