Beauty of story telling & & & & & & & & & . Review on Katha Parayumbol Movie

Do the good in the world vanish?   What is the reward for a person who does selfless duty?  How far he can wait for the reward for our good deeds?   Can good people live with the corrupted system surrounding us?   One day, when everybody start cursing and go against us can we hold on to the truth and stare at the fate?

Versatile actor director Sreenivasan's Katha Parayumbol is in news for one reason it is a good cinema and for the other, Superstar Rajnikanth has selected this movie for his next venture (tentatively titled as Kuselan).

The movie is all about Barber Balan (Sreenivasan) who found happiness in his small living circumstances but didn't allow the outside world to corrupt his mind.   He was a helping friend, a loving husband and father.    He maintains his family with the small income from his barber shop.   Even though his income is quite low he wishes that his children should grow wise and try his best to teach them in the city schools but find it difficult to maintain.   The children love their father, but they are always demanding.   The barber is simple, but he has a cunning tongue which often throws strong arrows which disturb others.   When another Barber shop with modern facilities arrived to the village, the existence of Balan and his shop fall into danger.  His various attempts for recovery failed miserably.   He realized that the only way to compete with the other barber is to modernize his shop with a revolving chair and equipments.  He approached all the sources and tried all his tricks including reducing the prices…but without much success.  He was not ready to

bribe or to take money for high interest.

The village and people were excited with the news that the Superstar Asok Raj (Mammootty) is arriving to the nearby village for shooting.   Interestingly, the superstar was classmate of Balan.   His wife (Mena) and children start demanding that they have to meet the superstar, where the news spread like wildfire that Balan is classmate to the superstar.   Everybody is in a pleasing mode to Balan and their family where Balan is not ready to use his friendship.  Still he tries to meet his old friend, but it is not easy to get in touch with a Super star.  From here on, Balan spend disturbing days and sleepless nights.   Does he succeed in his attempt to meet his school friend?  What will be the reaction of the old friend?   Whether Balan's good deeds will be returned? …See the film to have the complete story.

Like Sreenivasan's other films, script is the master for this too.   The story starts around a beautiful hilly village and lead us to the warmth and struggles of a village life.  It moves in the same pace most of the time, but the climax was brilliantly penned and well executed.   The entire scenes got a meaning and the end scenes added more than value to the film to make it different from a light entertainer.   The script writer succeeds in his attempt to spread the value of friendship.

He also use the film to spread his observations about movies, script writers, the crisis film industry faces etc. too in sidelines.   At the end of the day we can observe that it is the success of the script writing which was pictured to frames by the newcomer director M Mohanan.    Here the merit of the director may be shadowed by the presence of Sreenivasan, but it is natural for any one who stands near a big tree like Sreeni and his multi-talents.  The central message the film gives around the movie industry is that don't blame the audience for the genre of films they like, but the writers and directors should go with their convictions and it is their duty to present the film for the entertainment and enjoyment of the audience.

As an actor Sreenivasan was quite average, nothing exceptional.   (I wish Rajni is playing the role played by Sreenivasan and not the one played by Mammootty.)   The role of Mammootty was limited but he shown his class in the climax and he did an excellent job.    .  It was pleasant to see Meena again as a smart village lady but nothing much to perform.   The character of Meena was artificial than real.  Here the writer failed for sure but he did it for the central theme.  The 3 child artists were good.   The entire comedy lobby of actors tried to do their best where Innocent, Salim Kumar, Jagatheesh, Sooraj & Kottayam Naseer were brilliant but Jagathy and Mamookoya were wasted.  KPAC Lalitha as School headmistress did justice to her role.

The poetry - song "Vyathyasthanaamoru barbaraam..." was good only because of the vyathyasthatha brought by it, otherwise the music department was not that good.   The only other song "Mambilli Kavil" was below average.

Cinematography of the film is superb.  Normally we could see the beauty of Kerala from other language films, especially Tamil films.  Only few directors manage to stamp the beauty of Kerala in their films.   In this film the cinematographer P Sukumar gave eternity to few good scenes.    Very good work there!

The movie is produced by Sreenivasan along with another actor Mukesh and surely laughing loud with money and fame.

Overall, the movie stands different for its variety in theme selection and top class climax.   It would have easily ended up as a light entertainer but a genius gave his touch and the touch was sufficient to make it as a good one.  There is a lesson for one who wish to learn….but did they learn?

At the end of the review, the question remains…does good deeds INC pay its dividends well?  I am sure one who see the movie will find the answer is easy where I can see you guessed it right…still watch it if you get a chance…otherwise wait for a remake to Tamil and probably to Hindi on another day…another year…