Manju Warrier and Soubin Shahir in stills from ‘Vellaripattanam’
| Photo Credit: Manorama Music Songs/YouTube
Early on in Vellaripattanam, Okay.P Suresh (Soubin Shahir), a native politician who’s but to search out any success in his calling, tells his sidekick (Krishna Shankar) concerning the experiences he has gone by means of in the previous. “Should we go in for a flashback?” the sidekick asks him. “It might be a bit cliched, but we can still go for it,” replies Suresh. For the subsequent jiffy, we get a fast rewind of his campus politics days and a coincidence that led to his sister Okay.P Sunanda (Manju Warrier) turning into a profitable politician on the panchayat stage. All this whereas, the sidekick who has been with him since childhood listens intently to the complete story, simply in order that the viewers too will get this info.
This self-awareness of the makers, that they’re dealing in cliches whereas proudly going forward and showering us extra of the identical, is probably the most putting facet of Vellaripattanam, Mahesh Vettiyar’s debut directorial. It by no means strays from the template that has been set through the years for maybe probably the most over-exploited genres in Malayalam cinema — political satire. Shining by means of the complete movie is a surface-level understanding of politics in Kerala, which is then peppered with the type of political stereotypes that one will get in Whatsapp forwards.
Vellaripattanam (Malayalam)
Director: Mahesh Vettiyar
Cast: Manju Warrier, Soubin Shahir
Runtime: 140 minutes
Storyline: Siblings Suresh and Sunanda, a part of rival teams inside the similar political social gathering, compete for a seat in the panchayat elections
The occasions are taking place in the fictional Chakkarakudam panchayat — which the makers have seen as a stand-in for a typical panchayat in Kerala — with the standard mixture of competing political fronts. Siblings Suresh and Sunanda, a part of rival teams inside the similar political social gathering, share a love-hate relationship. Suresh is pissed off along with his fixed failures to safe a seat in the panchayat elections. He can be envious of his sister’s rise. Sunanda has endeared herself to the folks by actively engaged on the bottom and together with her personal bag of methods to realize an higher hand inside the social gathering. Suresh’s intense want to get a seat for himself makes him consider drastic measures, however not too drastic as a result of this isn’t that type of a movie.
The scriptwriter ensures that the sibling rivalry doesn’t turn into too antagonistic, sneaking in a scene exhibiting how they take care of one another each time issues begin getting robust between them. Yet, such care is just not taken in portraying numerous sections, particularly the employment assure scheme employees, who’re proven sleeping on the bottom the place they’re presupposed to be working. As for the way in which the political events are portrayed, among the issues that they’re proven to be indulging in appear too far-fetched even for a political satire. Not to overlook, Suresh even will get a love curiosity and a track sequence, just for him to virtually overlook her existence until the climax.
Vellaripattanam is a stale political satire that doesn’t attempt to do something new, ending up as a pale imitation of some previous hits.
Vellaripattanam is presently working in theatres