A layman review of Koothara

A Common Viewer's Review of Koothara

Film Name: Koothara

Language : Malayalam

Director : Srinath Rajendran

Producer : Shahul Hameed Marikar

Music Director : Gopi Sunder

Cast : Mohanlal, Bharat, Sunny Wayne, Tovino Thomas

Release Date : 13 June 2014
Rating : 2.5/5

After reading a few reviews I watched the much awaited film, Koothara, with so much of expectation. I am writing this review not in the film language and not as a person who knows the nuances of film making. It is just a review in terms of a common film lover. 

The film is named Koothara (a local term in malayalam for referring to something which is bad or not up to the mark), from the characters played by Bharat (Koobrin) , Tovino Thomas (Tharun) and Sunny Wayne (Ram). 

The film starts with Tharun joining the engg college run by the Calicut University. In the college, Tharun gets the other two as his room mates and all the three is said to have joined for the Electronics and Communication Engg Course. They make friends with each other. The film then shows about their college life in the much cliched manner. As usual with drinking, smoking, playing cards, romance etc. I must say that there are a few instances which shows the engg college gimmicks very accurately and gives you a good laugh but, most of the time, the message given to the audience about engg is very negative. Here the film has to be rated differently by considering the first half and the second half separately since the approach of the film in both the halves are totally different. I feel the first half, despite many usual comedies and college scenes, went fairly well. That may also be because of the high expectation about the next half.

In the next half, the cameo role played by Mohanlal (Ustad Saali) appears. He plays a significant role in the lives of Koobrin, Tharun and Ram. The weird appearence of Ustad Saali was really appealing. Also the north malabar accent dialogues and the screen presence of Ustad Saali was also remarkable. But, altogether I felt the character very shallow even though the script demands a very deep character. Ustad saali appeared from nowhere and vanished into nowhere.

Bharat has done a good job and did justice to his character, while the performances of Tovino Thomas and Sunny Wayne are decent. The female artists in the film have simply nothing to do. And I think there requires no mention of them in this review. 

The visual impact of the film is good. But, the music and the background score by Gopi Sunder fails to create anything special.

There are so many loopholes in the script which could have been better since the story thread was actually good.  The over usage of alcohol and smoking was a bit annoying for me. 

As a bottom line, the film does not have anything in special, lacks a strong script, but is just watchable. For those who wish to see a good cinema, I suggest them to avoid this one.