A daring experimentation

Film: Chirakodinja Kinavukal

Director: Santosh Vishwanath

Cast: Sreenivasan, Kunchakko Boban, Rima Kallingal

A few years back, someone posted online a comprehensive list of all the clichés in Malayalam cinema, inspired by a similar popular list from Hollywood.

Even now, a majority of the films released here cannot escape from having scenes which easily follows some of the items from that list. Chirakodinja Kinavukal is an attempt at making a movie out of this list and be the definitive inside spoof on the Malayalam film industry.

Director Santosh Vishwanath and writer Praveen S starts off the spoofing right from the word go, with a creative opener reminding people to switch off their mobile phones. Then, their credits roll in after a short sequence of school exam copying, in an open reference to the conventional wisdom that many of the new-age writers are ‘inspired’ from elsewhere.

Forming the core of the film is the story narrated by Sreenivasan’s character Ambujakshan in Azhakiya Raavanan , the love story of Thaiyyalkaaran and Sumathi, played here by Kunchakko Boban and Rima Kallingal. Sreenivasan himself plays Ambujakshan, who is still running around to find a producer for his old script, which has now got a new-gen makeover.

The script is replete with spoofs of our popular clichés, from ‘Varikkasseri Mana’ to doctors mouthing complicated names of non-existent rare diseases.

There is much work to be done for film buffs, recollecting all the references to old films in the script. Malyalam cinema’s most famous PRO Vazhur Jose also gets his first-ever on screen acknowledgement, when a failed director calls him up asking for help to float positive news about him.

The film artistes association, Amma, also becomes the butt of jokes when a side character is ‘banned’ in the middle of the film, for ‘starring’ in his brother’s wedding video. The replacement actor makes it quite an inside joke. Another delightful sequence uses the government’s ‘no smoking’ ad to tell the back story of a character. But, the spirit of spoofing is not maintained through the film, especially evident in that item song sequence which is treated as a regular full-length item song. Also, some of the sequences look like the writer trying a bit too hard to be funny.

While walking out, the feeling that one gets is that of having watched a long set of gags in YouTube.

As standalone pieces, some of the jokes are brilliant, but as a full-fledged film, it comes out lesser than the sum of its parts.

Even so, the team deserves full marks for the daring experimentation.

S.R. Praveen