Madhura Naranga Malayalam Movie
The overall sense of familiarity that pervades all through, is the primal weakness of 'Madhura Naaranga'. Exploring a long standing cinematic preoccupation - a love tale with few surprises in store - 'Madhura Naaranga' is certainly not the judicious viewer's cup of tea.
Jeevan (Kunchacko Boban) works as a cab driver in the middle east, and shares an abode with friends Salim (Biju Menon) and Kumar (Neeraj Madhav). He runs into a Srilankan girl Thamara (Parvathy Ratheesh), who is on the run after having hit her boss at the dance bar on his head. A victim of human trafficking, Thamara finds herself alone and abandoned in the alien country, when Jeevan decides to take her under his wings.
It's a very ordinary love tale that 'Madhura Naaranga' tells, and writer Nishad Koya has tried hard to bring in some freshness into the narrative by placing his lead characters on untried soils. Which is perhaps the only reason, why Thamara hails from Srilanka, and also why the three leading characters are based in the Gulf.
The film would perhaps be best remembered for the few light moments that it has on show in the former half. Especially noteworthy are a few scenes that involve Salim, who is by far the best of the lot. But regrettably, it's not a laugh riot that 'Madhura Naaranga' aspires to be; rather it has intentions of turning into a romantic drama.
And thus it is, that the lead pair in the film, meet, fall in love and separate, only to meet again. The traversing that they undertake is one that we have seen in many love tales before, with plenty of musical interludes liberally splattered all over. In fact, there comes a point when the musical score of the film starts appearing as a real impediment.
The writing isn't as sharp as in Koya's former films, and wavers between the appealing and the plain dull. There is a superfluous charm that the film works out in its visuals, but the theme that lies in its core is very much archaic.
There is a bit of amateurishness in the plot that comes to the fore, especially when Thamara gets ready to bear a child. And then, things get worse as it races towards the climax, as the efforts to further set hurdles become apparent. Whether all these contribute to fostering the dramatic tension remains questionable.
Parvathy Ratheesh is the best thing about 'Madhura Naaranga' , and the crystal eyed girl with a naive smile proves that acting is very much there in her genes. She comes across as no wonder eyed actor aspirant, and delivers a knock out performance as Thamara. Kunchacko Boban and Biju Menon reinvent their much talked about chemistry, and have the vivacious Neeraj Madhav for company this time.
For me, 'Ordinary' is very much Sugeeth's best as yet. And the 'Madhura Naaranga' that he has put on offer this festive season, might not be a total write-off, but there is little outstanding in it either.
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