With Oru Yamandan Premakadha, Dulquer Salmaan would have put behind one complaint he has been hearing a lot – that he is always doing the same kind of role, either the sophisticated young man or the new age lover or the tough one that doesn’t talk much. In Yamandan, Dulquer is none of the above. But that’s perhaps the only appreciable point you can make about the film.
He has been away from Malayalam cinema for a while, so there would be the natural curiosity of what he’d choose after so long. He chose to be a man who likes to hang out with a bunch of friends, quite the stereotypes of what the hero's 'friends in movies’ are like, a man who makes his income by painting houses, and who is generally the helpful happy-go-lucky types and who is adored by every young woman who has seen him. If it rings a bell somewhere, it is probably because it reminded you of the umpteen such characters Dulquer’s dad Mammootty has adorned before him, and still does.
Nothing wrong in doing a mass entertainer, especially if Dulquer is looking for a change. He has ditched his typically stylish clothes and wears lungis and long shirts throughout the film – even in the ‘love songs’. He adopts a strong Kochi accent that he doesn’t use all the time. He has obviously taken a lot of effort to do the dappan koothu dance. You can tick off all the mandatory elements of a mass entertainer, one after another, including the stunt scenes rich with background music when the villains fly to all corners.
No, what is wrong is the poor story line. And poorer characterisations. Dulquer’s character Lallu is only a sad replica of several such we have seen before, and the actor doesn’t seem comfortable pulling it off either. He forgets he had started with an accent, his emotions just don’t get conveyed the way it is supposed to. In a scene where Suraj Venjaramoodu – an actor who is really good at pulling off emotional scenes – cries his heart out, you barely notice Dulquer’s own plight.
You can’t conclude mass entertainment is not Dulquer’s cup of tea, he might do well in another script. But it didn’t click in this script written by Bibin George and Vishnu Unnikrishnan, who have earlier co-written the scripts for Nadirshah’s films Amar Akbar Anthony and Kattapanyile Rithwick Roshan. Debutant director BC Noufal gets the mass elements right, but fails to package them neatly.
Both Bibin and Vishnu have important characters to play as well – Bibin as a drug-addicted villain and Vishnu, as the visually challenged and badly-singing friend of Dulquer. The other friends are played by Salim Kumar and Soubin – Salim as Pranchikuttan, who gets all the painting contracts, and Soubin as a man who has the soft spot for the ladies. The villain also seems to have some haunting memories about his mother but the movie does not really explain it.
Each of these characters is a sad combination of several stereotypes and what is offered as comedy is a poorer version of all you have seen before. There are more. Two men -- one of them played by Dharmajan Bolgatty -- refuse to go to work and sit at a corner all day. Hareesh Kanaran plays a tea shop vendor who doesn’t know to add numbers and there is the familiar background music of the old Mohanlal film Sukamo Devi played in the background whenever someone asks him for the bill. You get the picture. The movie is packed with a bunch of such senseless sequences that you can’t figure out but is expected to make you laugh.
Somewhere you get that the director and team wanted to give a taste of the simple joys of life, of becoming close to people of all walks, like villagers once used to. So Lallu likes to eat yesterday’s fish curry from his visually challenged friend’s home and joke with old women about their mobile phones. Lallu is also carefully shown as the teetotaler in his messy group, even as he does all the mischiefs in town.
Quite a few of the brilliant cast is sadly wasted - Soubin especially, since he has often proved what his strengths are. Poor comedy is not his thing. Renji Panicker has by now become a stereotype dad, tough but full of love. There is also Arun Kurian, Lallu’s studious brother, to aid Dulquer’s character.
Dileesh Pothan and Suraj in their short roles are the best performers of the lot, Dileesh the ruthless policeman and Suraj, a loving dad.
Women characters are not so prominent even with a title like Oru Yamandan Premakadha – one big love story. From the time he was a child, every little girl would be attracted to Dulquer’s character Lallu, but he would tell them to see him as a brother because he is waiting for the one who will give him ‘a spark’. Jesna (Samyuktha Menon) tries hard to give this spark but it doesn’t work – and that’s all she is there for. Nikhila Vimal as Diya gets a song and a couple of scenes in all.
The movie also underlines another fairytale notion – that love is entirely skin deep – that you fall for someone, looking at their picture, without having to know anything about them.
The next time Dulquer chooses a mass entertainer, let’s hope he tries his hand at something a little less tried before, and with a little more content.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film's producers or any other members of its cast and crew.