TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

ദിലീപിന്‍റെ നാട്ടില്‍ നിന്നൊരു പൃഥിരാജ് ചിത്രത്തിന്റെ റിവ്യൂ
Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 11.20am, 30-08-2011
Status : Balcony around 50%, FC 55%

After the runaway hit CRAZY GOPALAN(a good revenge story with a good second half), Dipu Karunakaran is back in tinsel town with his new movie TEJA BHAI & FAMILY which was promoted like the image makeover of Prithviraj as a comic hero sadly fails in almost all departments to entertain.

Story
Teja Bhai(Prithviraj) is a highly paid underworld don in Malaysia who falls in love with a social worker Vedia(Akhila) without revealing his real identity & meets her as Roshan Varma. Things change when her father Damodarji(Thalaivasal Vijay) decides her marriage as per priest(a comic baffoon character) Vashyavachas said(Suraj Venjarammood) whom in which Damodarji strongly believe.With the help of Vashyavachas, Teja introduces himself as Roshan Varma who is from a reputed family. Damodarji asks Vashyavachas to be with Roshan & get his family details. Roshan aka Teja, by the time with the help of Vashyavachas himself tries to find his lost parents at the age of three ending up with a group of fake relatives to be with him to make the marriage happen. The rest is whether Vedika & Damodarji comes to know about Teja & whether they unite.

Performances
Prithviraj, though marketed as his comic role didn't delivered a single scene which will make us laugh. As a don in malaysia episode too, he looks bad(His look in Thanthonni was perfect for this role). When Suraj enters the movie, Prithviraj was seen in few scenes only. His intro scene was horrible. Suraj as Vashyavachas tried his best to save the movie. Sadly he too fails. Except a very few oneliners, nothing worked. The best scenes in movie belongs to him - the final shot & the scene in which he imitates Mohanlal in Chithram. Salimkumar had a Mahabharatham storytelling episode & one dialogue to make us laugh. Bheeman Raghu in his cameo imitating Mammootty of Rajamanikyam didn't work. But the scene in which Suraj imitating Bheeman Raghu in his presence was good. Akhila was just a showcase item in the movie. Thalaivasal Vijay was ok. Suman as baddie was just another routine role for him. Asokan was just ok in his role. Nedumudi Venu, as usual, eventhough a cameo role scores. Shobha Mohan had no dialogues & just 2 shots in the movie. Shakeela couldn't make in any impact in his cameo. Rest of the cast - Jagathy Sreekumar, Kochu Preman, Premkumar, Nandulal, Indrans, Kollam Thulasi, Bindu Panicker, Manju Pillai, Manka Mahesh & a set of kids were there to fill the screen only.

Songs & BGM
Deepak Dev disappoints this time. Except Shishiranilavil, nothing worked. Remix of Oru Madhurakkinavin didn't work as expected. In BGM, you can find lots of Hollywood, Bollywood, Tamil & Telugu movie BGMs.

Technical
Cinematography by Shamdath was OK. Art direction was fine. Action sequences lacked freshness & picturised in an ordinary manner only. The real villain of the movie is the editor Manoj. I think he was sleeping for the first 15-20 minutes. Editing was bad as a whole.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Dipu Karunakaran. Basic story had all the elements to be a mass entertainer. But the screenplay lacks the punch to make it entertaining. Everything was predictable & many scenes looks similar to rehash of old Priyadarsan movies like Boeying Boeying. Though the movie was marketed as comedy movie, comedy was too old fashioned & artists tried their best to make us laugh, but without proper script & bad dialogues, what they could do. Director seems to be unclear of how he could present the movie before the audience. Teja Bhai as don was presented very badly on screen as a not at all serious one. Many scenes looks like a TV serial at times. Climax was just rehash of Pokkiriraja climax. Direction lacks experience & many frames & shots look repeated & a copy of some other language movies. Dipu Karunakaran did an OK job only.

Verdict : Strictly a one time watch if u have nothing else to do or no other movies left on theatres
BO Verdict : No competition for 9 days & wide release might help this one to enter safe side, but whether budget of 6.5c will be covered is yet to be watched.

The hardwork in script & execution seen in CRAZY GOPALAN was absolutely missing in this one. This one eneded as just a movie to project Prithviraj among family audience, some dialogues in the movie too tells that.

If u watch this movie on DVD, you can finish it in just 1 hour