Before catapulting himself into stardom with a film named Thalasthanam. As an actor Suresh Gopi tried to gain recognition by acting in supporting roles, family dramas, multi-starrers and low budget male leads as well as villian in films such as News, Kouthuka Varthakal, Witness, Innale, Parampara and many more.Ulsavamelam is a rare Suresh Gopi film which has a dose of comedy, drama, action & mystery.
The plot involves a feud between two branches of a aristocratic family who fight over the rights of hosting the temple festival in a village. When a dominant family wins the right over the hosting. They call the protagonist who is a seasoned performer in festival functions but he has his ulterior motives as he comes to investigate his father's death. The rest of the film deals in how the protagonist solves the dispute between the two families and solves his father murder with the help of an outsider, who has a mysterious link with the two feuding faction, from the fringe elements of the village.
Ulsavmelam as a film defines the very essence of a low budget Malayalam film (i.e Substance over Style) that dominated in its Golden Age from mid 80 to early 90s. Main leads featuring Suresh Gopi, Urvashi enact their parts well. But the star performer of the film is Narendra Prasad, who enacted his part with perfection. And in years to come we see him establishing himself as a prominent villian of Malayalam Cinema with films like Thalasthanam, Sthalathe Pradhana Payyans & Aaraam Thamburaan. Actors like Sankaradi, Jaganatha Varma, Jagathy, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha enact their roles in their usual manner & the direction of Suresh Unnithan was quite good.
The few drawback that the film had was its wafer thin plot and the second of the film especially towards the climax was unnecessarily stretched.
Overall Ulsavamelam is a must watch for those who prefer the scenic films that dominated Malayalam cinema in early 90s.
