In fact the backdrop of the story itself is reminiscent of films like Makkal Mahatmyam released in the early nineties. And believe it or faint, the same hero Mukesh played almost a similar role in that film as well!

The whole first half of the film is devoted to establish the rivalry between step brothers Vijayan (Mukesh) and Madhavan Kutty (Kalabhavan Mani). The relevance of the sport in the film’s title is the excitement in winning the trophy given in their father’s name.

With a pair of idiotic cronies each by their sides, who are devoid of common sense and gets beaten up by virtually everyone in their attempt to cook up some laughs, the story moves on without a definite direction.

Here comes Rambha then, full of oomph, in a double role. The two girls, played by Rambha herself, come to the village with their dad, a retired judge. The girls are evidently desperate to get hitched or why should they fall in for the two heroes, who barely suit them in any way, almost at the first glance itself!!

The judge is soon targeted by some unknown men and once, he even manages to evade a bullet by a whisker. Perhaps this twist in the tale was needed to add some more suspense and action to this slow paced saga.

If you thought the surprises in the story ended there, you couldn’t be more wrong. The two heroes now get posted as sub-inspectors, simultaneously. As Kabadi Kabadi comes to a close after some more confusion, high voltage drama, song n dances and the routine tamashas, you heave a sigh of relief.

Still, in all fairness, it may be a watchable film for its target crowd. And perhaps it could have been even better if it had two younger heroes. Suraj Venjarammood often takes over as the key factor and he manages to do a pretty good job with his funny one-liners and mannerisms.

It is perhaps a role that would have suited Mukesh perfectly a decade or more before, but by now he looks older and clearly not at ease. Kalabhavan Mani, who had carved out a niche for himself in some notable roles playing the lead, shows how he lost out on the glory after a while. Rambha has to look like a svelte temptress and that she does, quite easily

. The old fashioned jokes, choreography and even the music are pointers that give a clear inkling about the problems with Kabadi Kabadi. That it has come out at least some twenty good years late.

Movie
Kabadi Kabadi
Director
Sudheer Manu
Music
Nadir Shah
Cast
Mukesh, Kalabhavan Mani, Rambha

Coming to the story, Saidhai Sathya (Sundar C.) runs a workshop in a suburb in the city. Posing as a busy businessman, Sathya works part-time as a thug for mighty gangster Annachi (C.M. Kumar). Annachi’s closest ally, an ex-minister (Manivannan), is the key criminal in the gang. Sathya is the gang’s underling who executes orders and eliminates Annachi’s enemies. His association with Annachi’s group gives Sathya an air of superiority and power. Immersed in such high spirits, one night a fully drunk Sathya, accompanied by his friend Constable Kandasamy (Vivek), sleeps in their car parked in the middle of a road, blocking all traffic. Witnessing this arrogant act, lawyer Udayamoorthy (Vijayakumar), a straightforward gentleman, files a case against him. Irritated by his action, Sathya nurtures a vengeance against Udhayamoorthy. Soon, while on a task for Annachi, Sathya gets an opportunity to extract his vengeance on the lawyer; but unfortunately, Udhayamoorthy gets killed in the incident. The dying honest lawyer’s last words leaves a significant blessing for his killer and keep on lingering in Sathya’s mind.

Meanwhile, on the basis of Udhayamoorthy’s complaint, Sathya and Kandasamy spend a term in a Gandhian rehabilitation centre in Madurai. There, their friendship with a freedom fighter (Nasser) reforms the arrogant and unruly Sathya. Sathya steps out of the centre transformed into an individual who has imbibed the non-violent principles of the Mahatma. The change soon begins to work; Udhayamoorthy’s death pricks Sathya’s conscience. With a determination to find out the truth behind the issue, he splits from Annachi’s group and embarks upon the mission. Soon, his probing leads Sathya to some shocking truths. He comes to know about his master’s hypocritical existence, his wily ways of misusing his power and influence. Sathya’s investigation also revives the murder investigation of an honest District Collector (Sukanya).

With a strong will, Sathya progresses to expose the criminals. Will he persevere till he achieves success? Will Annachi’s men spare him? How does Sathya approach his band of enemies? Does he also adopt the same violent route to teach them a lesson? The ensuing twists and turns lead us to the satisfying climax of Aayudham Seivom! Amid this scorching tale of revenge and revelation, Sathya romances with a sauve beauty Meena (Anjali). However, the romance gets suitably linked with the lead story.

Aayudham Seivom is Sundar C.’s next bid to stardom. In this film too, he continues in his established style. As the rowdy action-hero Sathya, through his performance, the good-looking hero certainly makes a mark in audiences’ minds. The performances of veterans like Nasser, Vijayakumar, Manivannan and Sukanya are first-rate. Heroine Anjali too has put up a fitting feat in her small yet significant role. Udayan’s dialogues are crisp and impressive. Srikanth Deva’s music and Selvaraj’s cinematography keep pace with the action theme.

Director Udayan has tried to offer us an example of how Gandhiji’s non-violence can be applied in everyday life. Particularly, when the rowdy decides to observe a fast in front of the massive Gandhi statue, the story takes a swift turn in a really appealing direction. All the psychology and the grand climax are indeed intriguing.

Aayudham Seivom, the first Tamil film produced by the Pyramid Saimira banner, is certainly a worthy production. Propagating a time-honoured philosophy, the film is simultaneously riveting and entertaining to

Cast:    Sundar .C, Anjali, Vivek, Napoleon, Nazer, Vijayakumar,
Suganya, Manivannan, G.M. Kumar, Ponnambalam
Direction:    Udhayan
Production:    Pyramid Saimira Production
Music:    Srikanth Deva

Mammootty has to be appreciated for trying to break the mould or his do-gooder super hero image, by portraying the role of a ruthless ‘blade mafia’ chief with élan. Sad, for though you could applaud the actor’s attempts at innovation, you can hardly savour the film in its totality.

Purushothaman (Mammootty) is a moneylender in Kozhikode town and runs his own blade mafia. He is like the proverbial ‘Parinthu’ (hawk) with a sharp eye who looks up from the skies to sweep down on his prey. Purushothaman has no human emotion as he was a born a bastard and his mother had abandoned him at a young age.

His only form of entertainment is eating ‘Nadan’ Chicken fry and watching football matches on television, and whenever he outsmarts his rivals, his favourite punchline is- Adichu Oru Penality.

Purushu occasionally spends the night with Seetha (Lakshana), whose property he has taken over after her husband ran away as he defaulted on his loan!

Those who have taken loan from him pledging their property at cut-throat interest rates normally end up committing suicide or are driven out of their property by his thugs.

Purushothaman celebrates by bursting crackers whenever he takes over the defaulter’s property. His biggest rival is Kallai Azeez (Jayakumar). They were together in blade business, but are now competitors gunning for each other.

Puroshothaman’s associates are Vinayan (Jayasurya), trapped in a ‘Hawala’ case by Azeez, and now protected by him . Kunjachan (Cochin Haneefa) a defaulter becomes his cook and Poojapura Mahendran (Sooraj Venjaranmoodu) a small time blade.

One day Purushothaman takes over the house of Hemant Bhai (Jagathy Sreekumar), a business tycoon who lost heavily and has taken a loan. Parinthu goes to Hemanth Bhai’s house on his daughter Rakhi’s (Lakshmi Rai) engagement day and makes a scene which results in the marriage being called off.

A shattered Hemanth Bai and his daughters Rakhi and Bhuvana (Kalyani) meet Azeez and borrow from him to pay back Parinthu leading to a dramatic twist in the tale.

The trouble with the film is that in commercial cinema you have to show the hero with negative shades turning over a new leaf for the better to justify his early villainy. Here Parinthu in the first half is completely black, with no redeeming features.

But in the second half, writer T.A Razzak and director Padmakumar makes the character have a change of heart, and in the last scene he becomes too sentimental. Purushothaman tells Azeez in the climax fight- Nammal randuperum villain mara. Villain jayakuna charithrame illa….

The makers’ justification for turning a rock hard guy with no emotions suddenly into a emotional wreck is the film’s major flaw. The climax is jerky and loses the razor sharpness required of an action entertainer.

However Mammootty’s performance, makes the film compelling. He brings about a savvy freshness to the negative role he does in the first half. The rest of the star cast does their usual job, Jayakumar a TV serial actor as the villain Azeez is a revelation.

Cut out the tuneless songs including an embarrassing ‘Kavadi’ song of Mammootty, Sooraj and Haneefa, the tendency to tilt towards slapstick, prune away the jagged edges Parinthu ,would have been a far better film. Still it is worth a dekko.

Banner:    Dream Team
Cast:    Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Cochin Haneefa, Jayasuriya,
Devan, Sreelatha, Sabitha ,Saiju Kurup, Mamukkoya, Abu Salim, Kalyani, Lakshana, Jayan
Direction:    M. Padmakumar
Production:    Howly Pottoor
Music:    Alex Paul

Welcome to the world of eight young techies who work in picture perfect offices and live in trendy apartments. The story is mainly focused on the love affair between Charulatha (Meera Jasmine) and Abhilash (Narain), who work in the same IT Company. It’s amazing that their on-off relationship seems to be the only major concern in the lives of their friends as well.

The married couple in the group, Sidharthan (Indrajith) and Mumtaz (Samvritha Sunil) almost always play hosts to their get-togethers. The third pair of lovebirds in the group, Mani Kunju (Jayasurya) and Rose Mary (Roma), prefers to fight even when they share a special fascination for each other. Tamilian Parthasarathy (Anoop Chandran) and Kalyani (Radhika) complete the eight member gang.

No IT company will ever employ these couples as they never work. Surprisingly none of them seems to be even remotely thinking about their jobs at any point of time and have all the time in world at their disposal!

The main problem of this film which drags big time is the absence of a strong storyline. The script is a kind of a mangled mess with trifle issues getting more space while some of those interesting events are being told in a hasty manner. The unending squabbles between the lead pair drive you crazy. Finally by the time there is a genuine issue that makes them move apart, the audiences lose interest in the proceedings.

Meera Jasmine and Narain share zero chemistry on-screen. Meera is often predictable with her repetitive diction and mannerisms, while Narain raises questions about his acting credentials, especially in the drunken scene. The saving grace of the film indeed is its supporting cast like Jayasurya and Roma who are lively and steal the thunder while Indrajith and Samvritha look thoroughly convincing in their respective roles. Sai Kumar, who has played Meera’s father, has come out with a matured performance as well.

A sizeable amount of time is lost as we endure up to the ridiculous tiffs before the story gets some movement. It is quite annoying that the supporting cast get sidelined as events that evoke little interest in the minds of the viewers start unleashing one after the other. By the time that the film reaches its climax, you feel like being caged to your seat for ages.

Among the best things about that film include Manoj Pillai’s cinematography that shines but music director Bijibal does not quite live up to the promise that he showed in his initial films like Arabikkatha. Music, one of the highlights in a Kamal film is a total let down here.

Though the film is based on the lives of a group of techies, there are nothing that connects them to their profession in the film, except for the plush offices, restaurant, laptop and their identity cards. That remains true for the whole film as well, in which things are being told only from a superficial level.

With a hackneyed script which is highly predictable and painstakingly unimaginative, Minnaminnikkoottam shows glimpses of promise, but that is not enough to sustain your attention.