Oru Black & White Kudumbam - SAD!!

Movie - Oru Black & White Kudumbam (Malayalam)
Director - Shaiju Anthikkad
Producer -Sunitha Productions
Cast - Jayasurya, Kalabhavan Mani, Vinaya Prasad, Bhama, Lalu Alex, Suraaj, Anoop
Release Date - 2nd September 2009


I went in for this movie because I had nothing else to do. I had heard that this is a watchable movie. But the movie was completely a sad attempt. The director's earlier movie Shakespear MA Malayalam was at least watchable. But this one doesnt create any kind of response from you. You just feel bad for the sad state Malayalam Cinema is in. 


The movie is about Antony played by Kalabhavan Mani and his son Antony Aditya Varma played by Jayasurya. Kalabhavan Mani had eloped with Vinaya Prasad (Lakshmi), who was a descendant of some royal family and got married. But he has got a huge complex that his skin tone is pitch black whereas both his wife and son are extremely fair. This complex forms the major part of the story and comedy in the first half, which of course, is very boring. Jayasurya has plans of going abroad and convinces some others and give their money to Sudhish, who, as usual, cheats them and gets away with the money. This is so repetitive in our cinema. In fact, it has become a cliche now. Movies like Chotta Mumbai made fun of this cliche when it comes as part of the story itself in it. So the whole family is under debt and they need to get jobs and give back the money to all the people. 


They go to the city and both father and son get employed under the same company called Minnu's group (hahaha). A lot more characters come in like Bijukkuttan, Suraaj Venjarammood, Janardhanan, Lalu Alex and the heroine Bhama who plays Minnu. Mani joins as a driver and Jayasurya gets a job as the General Manager in the firm. But the employers dont know that these two are father and son. Vinaya Prasad also comes there and joins work which adds to more confusion. The director has tried to include funny situations and make the situation better. In fact, the second half is a lot more better than the boring first half. But still, its extremely silly. The twists and comic situations are heavily inspired from Kamal Haasan's Avvai Shanmukhi. A lot of ideas for confusion are taken from that classic comedy. I heard Jayasurya saying in some interview that the second half is like Priyadarshan's films. Its a desperate attempt to create jokes like that and the movie fails miserably in that attempt. There are some 2-3 songs which I dont even remember now. They werent significant at all. 


The jokes by Suraaj were all crude, crass and vulgar. Most of his jokes were of the below-the-belt kind. It was disgusting to hear them while watching along with friends itself. Wonder how a family audience would react to them. But to my surprise, most of the people were enjoying it and one of the most vulgar jokes got the biggest round of applause. SAD!! This is what the taste of the Malayali audience has come to. Its a success for the makers as they achieved what they wanted through those vulgar jokes. Why should we blame them as the audience are ready to accept such crap?? Suraaj is going from cheap to cheaper levels with each film. He had done some good decent comedy in films like Madambi, Annan Thampi, Veruthe Oru Bharya, etc. He is able to do it pretty well also. Yet he is made to do stuff like this. Totally disgusting. A very big turn-off for the family audience for whom this movie is supposedly made for. Bijukkuttan, Anoop Chandran and Kochupreman were equally irritating. Jaffer Idukki should be killed for the kind of stuff he does on screen. Why do these people think that shouting their lines would make them sound funnier?? They are just successful in creating a headache for you.


Kalabhavan Mani, Vinaya Prasad, Lalu Alex, Janardhanan, etc. are all good performers. But they are all wasted in such a poorly written script. And they can perform well only under the control of a good director. Otherwise, they tend to ham it up and overact. That is what exactly happens in this movie. Jayasurya is a better actor among the young crop of actors. He is ok throughout the movie. Nothing good. Nothing bad. He should be more selective with his scripts. In fact, you can sit through the movie just because of the presence of Kalabhavan Mani and Jayasurya. They try their level best to at least take the movie to a watchable level. Bhama was also ok. She didnt have anything much to do. Her role was just written for the sake of having a heroine. And she should use her own voice instead of a dubbed voice. 


The most depressing fact is that this movie is an Onam release. Onam used to be the time where the best films used to release. Look at the kind of films that have come out this year for Onam. Pathetic!! But if the audience is ready to accept crap like this, people would make more and more such films. I seriously hope that doesnt happen. 


Rating - 1.5/5 (That too for Kalabhavan Mani and Jayasurya alone. Nothing else)