MEGA HIT OF 2011--VELLARIPRAVINTE CHANGATHY

Malayalam cinema is in retro mood these days. In the last couple of months, we have seen films digging into the history of the industry or setting the story in the past. The latest attempt of this kind is Vellaripravinte Changathi directed by Akku Akbar with Dileep, Kavya Madhavan and Manoj K Jayan in the lead.

In the beginning it feels like a film within a film. Then it goes deep into the history of the industry. And, in the end it just becomes a love story of yesteryears with a tragic end.

At the outset we are shown how technology and digital stylisation are taking over, a fact rued by the top honcho of Gemini Lab, played by safari-suited Vijayraghavan. He employs a youngster, Manikunju (Indrajith), who has a reference letter from his home state, Kerala [ Images ]. The young man wants to make a living in the film industry and there is some philosophising about how fate plays an important part in making it big in films.

Manikunju is posted in the 'ghost house', a place where unclaimed or unreleased films are stored. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Malayalam cinema, and arranges to see one such unclaimed film.

The film he watches is the sepia-tinted inter-religious love story typical of the seventies, where two neighbours, Ravi (Dileep) and Sulekha (Kavya Madhavan [ Images ]), who have grown up together, realise they are in love when they become young adults. The third angle in the story is Basheer (Manoj K Jayan) who is Sulekha's elder brother and considers Ravi to be his best friend.

The reel of the old film breaks around the interval point. Post-interval we come to know that the path-breaking film that never saw the light of day was directed by Manikunju's father Augustine Joseph, who had committed suicide due to financial difficulties.

The script by Anil G S goes haywire after this point as it tries to put together the story of the people behind this film. All of them were newcomers at a time when stars like Prem Nazir and Sathyan were at their peak. As the film moves to a climax, Manikunju realises that the actors who had played the roles, Shajahan (Dileep) and Mary Varghese (Kavya Madhavan) were in love as well, and had eloped into obscurity on the last day of the shoot.

Vellaripravinte Changathi has a rather implausible ending when the film that has been in the cans for nearly 41 years is formally released.

Dileep does his best mimicking the leading men of that era. Kavya, as the overly made-up heroine of those days, has nothing impressive to do. Only, Manoj K Jayan as the loud Basheer does have something that keeps our focus on him.

On the whole, Vellaripravinte Changathi THE BIGGEST HIT OF 2011