Movie: To Hariharnagar

18 years and countless reruns after, Mahadevan(Mukesh), Appukkuttan(Jagadeesh), Govindankutty(Siddique) and Thomassukutty(Asokan) are back. The foursome made us laugh like kids as the laidback, aimless and lazy youth In Hariharnagar.

The movie starts with an epilogue giving us a insight into the incident where the foursome embarked on the road to friendship. Then the movie cuts to the present. Mahadevan is a personality development consultant now. Appukkuttan is a dentist while Govindankutty is a builder.

All, except Thomassukutty, are married and are not living in Hariharnagar anymore. After years of leading a carefree life, Thomassukutty decides to get married. All three friends comes back To Hariharnagar. Since their spouses are joining them after a gap of 10 days, they decide to relive their younger days – by acting 10 years younger. Jolly days come back and so does trouble.

Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Siddique and Asokan looks jaded. Lack of flexibility is evident from their dance steps and chase scenes. They make us overlook this factor with one-liners and comic timing. Of the lot, Jagadeesh is noteworthy with his acts of stupidity. As Appukkuttan aged, he has become more stupid.

Salimkumar is wasted in an insignificant role. Lakshmi Rai is okay.

The voice of Freddy(the villain) is provided by Anoop. Since Anoop is a successful actor known for comic roles, this acts against the villain. First you have get Anoop out of your mind before concentrating on Freddy.

This is Lal’s first directorial venture after split from “Siddique Lal” duo. He pens the script too. Unlike retelling the story on new landscapes like Sagar alias Jacky, Lal decides to take the story forward by telling a different episode in the life of foursome. At the same time, he brilliantly connects us to the characters in the first part giving us a chance to laugh remembering the past and the present. The inspector and Govindankutty’s servant are some of the instances.

Lal had provided us scenes to roll out laughing in the initial part of the movie. Towards the end, the movie focuses on emotions. While coming out of the movie, I wished it was Siddique(the director) who was handling the emotional scenes for Lal fails to raise levels of intensity (from the scene and from the audience). Lal fails only on this count.

Watch it!

Comments