Monday, February 28, 2011

Pranchiyettan and the Saint

Finally , finally, one of the most well received malayalam movies of the last year became available online and we didn't think twice before watching it on TV. I for one , had been eagerly awaiting the release of this movie on the internet because the story is based in my home "Thrissur" and all the characters were said to be speaking in typical Thrissur slang. The movie did not dissappoint. It showed yet again , that Mammootty is becoming a master of situational comedy.(From Trivandrum slang in Rajamanikyam to Thrissur slang in this movie).


The movie has Mammooty playing "Cherammal Francis" an uneducated , but rich businessman in Thrissur , who is trying different ways to change his image and name from that of "Ari pranji" to something more respectable.He is very often bested by his childhood nemesis (Siddique as Dr Jose) who incidentally also stole his childhood sweetheart Omana(Khusboo) through nefarious schemes as well. Many hilarious situations that ensue in the process.

He shown trying to contest for "Regency Club" president elections ,organize a welcome for an oscar winner(an obvious take on Resul Pookutty) and even get a padmashree award.Innocent , tinyTom, Jayaraj warrier, the new face as Eyappan the cook and TG Ravi give ample support to his schemes. It is right after the failure of the last scheme (the one to get padmashree) that a lady with the very same name comes into his life.Priyamani as the smart modern girl changes not only the colours of his house , but the colours of his heart as well, as he falls in love with her,only to hear that she has already had enough of relationships and men from her experience with a failed marriage.Pranji is too busy to be dwelling on his heart break for long and takes it as another one of his failures. He now conentrates his attention on getting a weak student(Master Ganapaty as Pauli) in his friend Anthony mash's school to pass the SSLC exam,but fails at that too inspite of finding out that the boy was brilliant.But he finds out that Pauli is dealing with unimaginably huge personal problems and decide to adopt him as his son.

It is at this juncture that he goes to his church to have a talk with the Saint Francis of Assisi.
The whole movie is shown as a series of conversations between Pranji and the Saint , and hence the title.The movie is simple to the core and the uncomplicated narration style make it a pleasant watch.

Pranji thinks as every one does that his problems are huge and that he is always losing , when in the end , the saint shows him that life is not as we think and that he infact has everything that he needs.

A very endearing movie and one that evoked a lot of nostalgia of my favourite place "Thrissur" and its people.

2 comments:

  1. A class movie and an aesthetically made one. Watched it today. Your review is really appreciable. Keep writing. :)

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