POKKIRIRAJA

POKKIRIRAJA

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 14-05-2010
Status : Balcony Almost full, FC 35-40%

Many won't have seen Mammootty's first release in 2009, the box-office disaster, LOVE IN SINGAPORE. Those who haven't seen that movie, take a look at the scenes featuring JAYASURYA, who speaks English with its literal meaning in Malayalam ,next time when you get a chance.  Mammootty clearly lifts the same talking style here.
POKKIRIRAJA is a movie on the lines of Rajamanikyam, Thuruppugulan, Annan Thambi & Chattambinaadu, all the previous Mammootty flicks. This one is a mixture of many previous malayalam flicks, especially the above said ones in story line. Also with variety in talking style of Mammootty. The making of the movie is strictly inspired from many Tamil & Telugu mass masala flicks. If the question is whether the movie entertains ultimately, my answer is NO.

Story
The story begins with childhood of Raja(Mammootty) & Surya(Prithviraj), sons of a schoolmaster(Nedumudi Venu) who belongs to Kunnathur family & rivals of PuthiyaTharavadu family featuring Kalashala Babu, Johny & Santhosh. Vijayaraghavan plays brother of Nedumudi Venu, who is a handicap because of the rivalry between the families on the matter of which family to conduct festival in the temple. In mistake, Nedumudi Venu kills the grandson of Kalashala Babu. Inorder to save his father, Raja surrenders to police. After five years, Raja comes back to his village from juvenile home. There he faces problrems from rival family and forced to leave to to Madurai. There he saves the son of a goonleader, which helps him to be leader there.  The story proceeds 15 years after from there. Surya is now conducting the festival in temple & the rival family now tries to kill Surya. To avoid problems following that, Nedumudi Venu asks Surya to stay with his sister(Bindu Panicker) & co-brother Idivettu Sadasivan(Suraj Venjaarammood), a useless police officer. Inorder to handle a problem, Sadasivan asks Surya to wear his uniform & go there as a police officer. He meets Shreya in the college and acts as her bodyguard. Riyaz Khan, the son of Home Minister(Rizabava), is mad of Shreya. Siddhique plays police commissioner and stepfather of Shreya. Surya falls in love with Shreya. Siddhique traps him and plans to kill him. For that he gives quotaton through third party to MaduraiRaja. At the sametime NedumudiVenu comes to Madurai to request Raja to save his son. Raja comes to Kerala to save his brother and to solve problems.

Performances
As I said earlier, Mammootty imitates Jayasurya of LOVE IN SINGAPORE in dialogues &  Tamil Actor Suriya of upcoming film SINGAM in looks. Other than looks, nothing was there in the movie for him specially. Prithviraj as Surya has nothing special other than he did in Puthiya Mugham in action sequences and imitates some other actors in certain scenes. For the very same sequence he does different at different parts of the film though no particular reason.  Shreya was just to increase the star value of the movie & nothing else was offered in the csript for her. Nedumudi Venu was usual, Vijayaraghavan was wasted. Rest of the cast was just to make the scenes rich & nothing else. Thesny Khan & Bindu Panicker were just OK. Even the child artists were directly the same character as they do after 15 years from opening shot, especially Mammootty's child character did person with AAI. Siddhique's character is not new for him, but still scored in certain scens with his unique style.

The major plus points of same genre previous Mammootty flicks was comedy and Suraj & Salimkumar did a major part in that. In this one both were irritating & intolerable.


Songs
Music by Jassie Gift was average. BGM was too loud. Song picturisation was colourful bat lacks the thing for repeat watch. Dance steps were pathetic.

Technical
Cinematography by Shaji was good for a mass masala film. Editing by Mahesh Narayanan was good at parts, but action sequences were endlessly going especially the first action sequence featuing Prithviraj. Action choreography lacks novelty & on the air rope sequences were over the board after a while.

Script & Direction
Script by Udaykrishna-Sibi.K.Thomas team is just a rehash of many malayalam, tamil & telugu flicks.  Salimkumar-Suraj scenes makes us think of Vadivelu sidetrack in Tamil movies. Lot of scenes & dialogues seems unwanted. Certain dialogues makes us remember tamil flciks VETTAIKKAARAN & DHEENA. Direction by debutant Vaisakh offers nothing new & not that promising compared to the directors of above said previous flicks. Also the director failed in keeping the characters look as if 15 years had passed. Paravai Muniyamma was looking the same for 15 years. Many tamil artists and dialogues were there in the movie. I think producer has plans to dub to Tamil.

Overall a strictly one time watchable in parts masala film on the lines of 80s & 90s tamil cinema in DVD.

Verdict : Below Average
BO Verdict : As there are no big opponents in BO, viewers first choice remains as this because of the rich starcast. And vacation is helping the movie a lot as the movie got a lot of a family audience.
Movie should become a flop or maximum average for the goodness of Mammootty and future Malayalam Cinema.

Mammootty(both in childhood and as MaduraiRaja) says AAI a lot of times. Not even Sarathkumar had said "AAI" this much times in his well-made mass masala entertainer by A.Venkatesh, AAI.