Happy Husbands

Movie - Happy Husbands (Malayalam)

Director - Saji Surendran

Producer - Milan Jaleel

Cast - Jayaram, Indrajith, Jayasurya, Bhavana, Samvritha Sunil, Rima Kallingal, Vandana, Manian Pillai Raju, Suraaj Venjarammood, Salimkumar

Music - M Jayachandran

Cinematography - Anil Nair

Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Krishna Poojappura

Release Date - January 17, 2010

Saji Surendran may be one of the few directors who acknowledges where the idea for his movie has been taken from. Happy Husbands is based on the blockbuster Hindi movie No Entry, which in turn, was a remake of a Tamil movie Charlie Chaplin. Having seen No Entry several times and enjoyed it each time, I went in for this one, expecting nothing more than some timepass. And I must say that the movie was total timepass and had lots of hilarious scenes, even though it is a scene by scene remake of No Entry. I watched the film almost a month after its release and the theatre was still packed to its capacity and people were having a really good time watching the movie. The movie was declared a hit in the first week itself and is doing great business now also. Saji Surendran shows some promise as he was able to turn both his debut film and his second film into runaway hits.

The story, as we all know, is about marriages and extra-marital affairs. Jayaram plays Mukundan Menon, the MD of a popular magazine. He is married to Krishnendu (Bhavana), his murappennu, who obsessively keeps doubting him and his activities. She feels insecure that somebody else would snatch her husband from her. She has a friend Shreya (Samvritha), whose husband Rahul (Indrajith) is the ideal husband in front of her, but is actually a hardcore flirt and playboy. Johny (Jayarsurya) is a photographer who works in Mukundan's magazine and is like a brother to him. Johny slowly falls in love with a psychology student Serina (Vandana) and decides to marry her. But the trouble starts when Rahul introduces Diana Philip (Rima Kallingal), a bar dancer to Mukundan. His mind wavers for a while and is attracted to Diana. But by the time he realizes his mistake, he had already told a hundred lies to Krishnendu. The confusion that follows makes up the story of Happy Husbands.

The movie begins with a title song featuring the entire cast in Malaysia. The director and producer also walk in slo-mo along with the cast towards the end of the song. And the entire movie is saturated with loud colours. Be it costumes, sets, walls, accessories, anything. Everything is so bright and flashy. There are places where Indrajith wears lipstick and Orange pants and and all that. Jayaram also wears fancy outfits to his office. And when they go off to Malaysia, things become even worse. Only Bhavana, Samvritha and Jayasurya appeared in good costumes. The properties and set designs were also overflowing with flashy colours. A major part of the second half of the film is shot in Malaysia which gives them an excuse to show some more colour. These were some major turn-offs for an otherwise entertaining movie. They would have done it to make the movie 'colourful'.

Jayaram always excels in comic roles and here we see him in a full-blown comic role for the first time since his comeback through Veruthe Oru Bharya. He plays the part Anil Kapoor played in the Hindi version and adds his own comic touch it and comes out in flying 'colours' :P. It is a delight to watch his expressions when he helplessly begins to lie to his wife. Bhavana was really good as the nagging and doubtful Krishnendu. She is getting more and more beautiful with each film of hers. Indrajith tried to be the uber-cool Salman Khan of this movie and was partly successful. He was good in many scenes, but his costumes and accessories made him look like a wannabe. Not everyone can carry off flashy costumes like Salman Khan. And his comic expressions at times reminded of his brother Prithviraj's poor comic expressions. But on the whole, he was quite okay, but certainly not upto what is expected from a really good actor like him. Samvritha, as usual was looking really beautiful and played a docile wife who believes her husband is the purest person on earth. Jayasurya didnt get much scope to display his full comic timing in the first half, but he makes up for it in the second half. But one feels that he should have been give some more scenes, knowing how good he is with comedy. There is nothing much to mention about the newcomer Nandana. Rima Kallingal certainly suits the part of the seductress and is quite okay, considering that this is only her second full length feature film. Manian Pillai Raju as a horny minister and Salimkumar's double role as a doctor and a travel agent are just passable. Suraaj repeats his Trivandrum accent yet again and people who are still not bored of it, continue laughing at it yet again.

There is nothing much to talk about the music, which is way below the standards of M Jayachandran. Ivar Vivahitharaayal had a great music score, but this one has 3 boring songs, overflowing with colour. The set created for the bar song featuring Rima, looks straight out of the old CID Nazir movies. It looks like Joseprakash's dens where cabarets used to happen in those movies. I couldnt stop laughing seeing that set.

Cinematography by Anil Nair was very impressive. Keeping aside the overdose of colour, his framing and camera movements were really good. He is just 2 films old, and has already landed a huge multistarrer Joshi project (Christian Brothers), which shows that he is already popular in the film circuit. Editing suited the mood of the film. But the length could have been trimmed a little more.

On the whole, Happy Husbands is a fairly entertaining film for people who have already seen No Entry and would be a no-brainer laugh-riot for people who havent seen it. And thankfully, there is no vulgar or cheap humour in the film, just like Saji's debut film. It is hard to find movies like that in today's times when even the major respectful directors fill up their movies with cheap and vulgar jokes just to please the changing tastes of our audience. Saji shows a lot of promise and should soon become a prominent young filmmaker, provided he cuts down on the colour. So those who havent already seen the movie, leave your brains at home and go get a ticket, to have some good time laughing.

Rating - 3/5