The very evident intent is to craft a wild and crazy run, but the character development in ‘Lava Kusha’ renders it a routine endeavour. The fleeting moments of humour aren’t enough to retrieve this middling enterprise that makes you forget even the odd smiles that it generates by the end of its agonizingly extended running time.
Gireesh Mano’s ‘Lava Kusha’ has Neeraj Madhav and Aju Varghese playing two young men who seem to have absolutely no clue as to where they have landed from or where they are headed to. Pretty much an ominous reflection of the spirit of the film that they are a part of, these men make you zealously wish amidst all the bedlam that they had a sensible tale to tell.
‘Lava Kusha’ thrives on the farce that life is, and the shambles that it could end up in. Lava (Neeraj Madhav) and Kusha (Aju Varghese) try to get their focus glasses right, and when Joy Kappen (Biju Menon) makes a mystifying entry into their lives, the stage is set for a series of inexplicable instances that are stained with obviousness.
Empathy could go for a toss, and given the manner in which with the characters and their psychological profiles have been drawn, there aren’t many moments when the viewers reach out to them. At best, Lava and Kusha strike you as two madcap men who convince you to join them on their journey that vacillates between the mildly amusing to the slightly annoying and finally the plain exasperating tones.
‘Lava Kusha’ is an excruciatingly lengthy film, and the kind that makes you glance at your watch every once in a while. One fifty minutes in a cinema hall is quite a long time, and you better have something really absorbing or even plain wicked to have us hooked, if you even have a remote intention to keep us in there for as long as two and a half hours. ‘Lava Kusha’ does not rise up to the challenge, and you find yourself resignedly gaping at a screen, watching a film that hardly convinces you to keep your gaze fixed.
All said and done, there are the witty moments that are sparsely scattered over the film, that ignites a smile here or there. But these aren’t simply enough, and ‘Lava Kusha’ consistently maintains the feel of a lightweight experience on wobbly legs, with the jokes scattered hither and thither, and the pace uneven.
Perhaps it isn’t the best of tales that Neeraj Madhav has chosen for his writing debut, and there is none of the intensity or charm in it that he so effortlessly otherwise displays on camera, as an actor or a dancer. The script that he has penned is more of a scattershot clutter that attempts a combine of comedy and crime to minimum effect.
The silver lining on the cloud in a film as this has to be Biju Menon, and as much as it remains that this is a role that hardly demands the actor in him, he brings in a sparkle to the proceedings. Neeraj Madhav and Aju Varghese fervently attempt to raid the franchise pantry of daft cops and there is barely a moment when the actors throw you a surprise. Deepti Sati deserves a better deal than what has been meted out to her in ‘Lava Kusha’.
The very evident intent is to craft a wild and crazy run, but the character development in ‘Lava Kusha’ renders it a routine endeavour. The fleeting moments of humour aren’t enough to retrieve this middling enterprise that makes you forget even the odd smiles that it generates by the end of its agonizingly extended running time.
Verdict: Middling Affair