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Release date:
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Kerala: May 19, 2017. Delhi: June 9, 2017.
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Director:
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Rohith V.S.
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Cast:
Language:
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Asif Ali,
Bhavana, Aju Varghese, Saiju Kurup, Siddique, Kalabhavan Shajon, Rahul Madhav,
Srinda
Malayalam
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A young man called
Omanakuttan works as a telemarketer in a firm that has attracted the suspicions
of a Karnataka police officer played by Kalabhavan Shajon. The cop tries to get
his seniors’ permission to investigate the alleged wrongdoings of the owner
(Siddique) that have resulted in the stupendous success of a haircare product
called Clintonica.
Omanakuttan (Asif
Ali) may be a sales wiz but he is terribly socially inept. One day when a
colleague cruelly rejects his romantic overtures, he goes into a slump. His
boss’ effort to boost his morale by telling him to “market” himself better has
an unexpected effect on him.
He begins having
telephone affairs with a string of women, hiding his true identity, adopting a
different attractive persona and interesting backstory for each one. Turns out
sweet, simple-looking Omanakuttan with the facial twitch has a shadowy side to
his personality that you would never guess at from looking at him.
So you think, okay,
this looks like it could turn out to be something intriguing about the workings
of a troubled human mind. Maybe what we are seeing here will later be revealed
as a figment of Omanakuttan’s imagination? Maybe he used Clintonica on himself
and ended up scrambling his own brain? Maybe the entire film is taking place
inside his head? Who knows. The possibilities at this point seem endless.
After a while
though, it becomes clear that Adventures
of Omanakuttan is far from being the edgy thriller it promises to be. It is
more trying-to-be-trippy than trippy.
And it is long.
Gawd, it is long!
The plot recounted
so far in this review accounts for just a milli-fraction of the proceedings in
the film’s 2 hours and 46 minutes running time. That is 166 minutes of
stretching. That is 9,960 precious seconds of my life that I will never get
back because my congenital optimism persuades me to forever hope that perhaps
the next scene in a film will throw up a twist so breathtaking that the journey
up to there would have been worth it, or perhaps the next scene, or the next.
Nothing of the sort happens here.
Adventures of Omanakuttan has a fair share
of twists and turns, but the arduous storytelling style robs them of their
sheen and in time, kills all suspense.
You get the feeling
that somewhere in debutant director cum co-writer Rohith V.S.’s maze of ideas
is the seed of a good, quirky, experimental concept that could have been
something. The film ends up being nothing much though because of its endless
wanderings.
Asif Ali is as
earnest here as he always is. He works hard to immerse himself in Omanakuttan’s
character, managing to effectively portray the man’s diffidence and evolution
without caricaturing him. Supporting cast members Aju Varghese and Saiju Kurup
brighten up the proceedings with their comic abilities, but they get too little
screen time.
The brightest spark
in this dreary film is Bhavana playing Pallavi, a para-psychology buff and
freedom freak. The ease with which Omanakuttan enters her life makes no sense,
but I am grateful she stayed on, because Bhavana – who makes even plain cotton
jumpsuits look swish in this film – is such a sight for sore eyes, so
wonderfully easy before the camera and born to comedy.
A passing reference
to homosexuality in Adventures of
Omanakuttan indicates that this is a thinking team with potential as yet
unfulfilled. At one point, we discover that a significant character is gay – it
is an amusing moment yet the joke is not on him but on the situation. It takes
writing and acting finesse combined with intelligence and basic human decency
to derive humour from a social group that others routinely stereotype without resorting
to stereotyping yourself. That the actors cast as the gay men in this scene are
not camp, but fit very much into prevalent notions of ‘masculinity’, reveals
volumes about Rohith V.S. & Co’s atypical mindsets.
These are rare
qualities and the reason why it is important not to write off the team of Adventures of Omanakuttan despite this
rant. The congenital optimist in me hopes that next time they will ditch
self-indulgence and develop focus. Lack of focus and discipline are what make
this film a meandering misadventure.
Rating
(out of five stars): 1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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166 minutes
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
