‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’ is a dismayingly frivolous affair that should disappear into oblivion much faster than it probably thought it would. Quickly running out of charms, it’s a disposable cinematic experience that is peeled and tossed away, the moment you walk out of the theatres.
Gopikrishnan (Deepak Parambol) and Lal (Aju Varghese) set out for Cochin, on the lookout for Sam (Bhagath Manuel) in Rajesh Kannangara’s film ‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’, a flavourless movie that finds itself shackled by a dusty plot. A lazy, undistinguished comedy that falls flat on its face, this is the kind of film that sends you hurriedly scampering out of the halls with its ironical tagline – ‘Nammalentha Ingane’ – ringing against your ears.
More than the film, it’s perhaps the nonexistence of a reasonable script that needs to be analysed in any discussion related to ‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’. For starters, there is the severe dearth of a robust plot that could have saved the film makers from many a trouble that follows. With not much of a story in sight, the script goes ahead and commits the unforgivable error of knitting together a few jokes around a flimsy thread that looks ready to snap any moment.
As much as I am pretty certain that I was supposed to laugh out loud at some point, that moment never arrives in ‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’. This severe absence of good humour is what makes the film appear as a botched affair, and even its best gags serve little but to churn out some half-hearted grins.
Brownie points are on offer for those guessing where these bits and pieces of a tale are finally going to be pulled together and wrapped up once and for all. The optimist in you refuses to give up, pops up his head and frantically looks around for possible openings to grant a score or two, but is hammered down time and again by the parade of inconsistencies that continually keeps flowing down his way.
When they decide to roll in some romance, in sashays Tharushi (Leema Babu), and while it does little to perk up things, it even serves the opposite – it drags the film a few notches further down from where it already was. One of those strange instances where even love seems to backfire, ‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’ strikes it quite low in almost all the threads that it lays its hands on.
A funny line here or a witty moment there are in all probability not enough to craft a feature film these days, especially when cinema is witnessing an influx of gifted film makers who dare to cross lines that had been hitherto left uncrossed and gallantly explore expansive realms that lie beyond the conformist plains.
And as much as ‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’ might manage to earn an occasional smile, it would remain a downhill ride sans any purpose for the viewers who then slam the brakes and realize that this vehicle had no such thing in the first place. Sadly this is a film that doesn’t even strike you as half baked, since there is something gravely wrong with the batter itself.
The occasional clicks that the film manages to make are courtesy the earnest performances from its cast, be it that of Deepak Parambol, of Aju Varghese, of Sudhi Koppa, of Bhagath Manuel or of Hareesh Perumanna. Leema Babu makes a delicate impression as the female lead, while Manoj K Jayan does his very best to hold it all together.
‘Vishwa Vikhyatharaya Payyanmar’ is a dismayingly frivolous affair that should disappear into oblivion much faster than it probably thought it would. Quickly running out of charms, it’s a disposable cinematic experience that is peeled and tossed away, the moment you walk out of the theatres.
Verdict: Tiresome