Kuberan (Malayalam - Video)

Another unfunny comedy

Kuberan
Starring: Dileep, Mohan, Jagathi Sreekumar, Kalabhavan Mani, Harisree Ashokan, Indrans, Samyukta Varma, Umashankari
Lyrics: Girish Puthenchery
Music: Mohan Sithara
Editing: L Bhoominathan
Cinematography: Saloo George
Story, screenplay and dialogues: VC Ashok
Direction: Sundardass
Thomsun Video

DILEEP must be having all the luck on his side. To act in a film like Kuberan that makes a tease of your sensibilities, especially at a time when his star-status is on the ascent, and get away with a hit, needs ample doses of sheer luck. Probably, here is a film that fetched house-full audiences thanks to Dileep. One that offers an explanation for all the hue and cry the film industry makes about labelling actors as super-stars.
A hotch-potch of yesteryear Malayalam film hits, Kuberan has very little humour. If you like to laugh at crude, over-the-top comedy, here is your kind of film - one that throws all logic to wind, and banks heavily on the star-value of its actors. Director Sundardass, whose sole credit to fame and credibility is still his debut film (scripted by Lohitadas), Sallapam, has roped in such 'rib-tickling' names as Jagathi Sreekumar, Kalabhavan Mani, Harisree Ashokan, and crowned it with the antics of Dileep, but hey, where did all the laughs go?
Siddharthan (Dileep) is a kind soul, who has adopted three little children, who were left on the wayside by their mother. They hire out a big bungalow for one day every month, and live life king-size. Possible, if rich men hire simpleton domestic helps like the ones portrayed by Harisree Ashokan and Indrans. Sid has a lover in Uma Shankari, and every things is fine until Samyukta Varma makes her appearance. She plays the daughter of the household, and immediately Dileep and Varma find themselves at loggerheads.
It turns out that Varma has a serious domestic issue, and to escape from the unpleasantness of it all, she feigns to have chipped her marbles, and decides that Sid makes a good husband. The cat-and-mouse game continues, there are the customary dream-songs and stale jokes. To cut a long (meaningless) story short, a villain (the umpteenth version of Mohanlal's Narendran in Manjil Virinja Pookal) makes his entry, and the customary climax fight follows.
So who gets who? Will Dileep marry Shankari? What happens to Varma? And what happens to the bungalow? These form the rest of a film that tries and tests your patience in no mean measure.
Cashing in on the new-found super-star status of Dileep, Sundardass adorns him all sorts of costumes. Dileep goes through the grind and offers nothing exciting. He plays the typical I'm-meek-but-I-can-fight back hero with the customary innocence and vulnerability, which is growing a bit too jaded. Samyukta Varma hardly makes an impression, and Uma Shankari has little to do but smile and carry around her pretty face. The horde of comedy actors makes no impact, and if you laugh at some of their antics, count yourself lucky.
Coorg makes for a beautiful location (remember Innale?) but is hardly put to use effectively except to can the now-routine Minsarav Kanavu and Sound of Music frames. Mohan Sithara's music is pleasing on the ears but the less said the better of the choreography.
Kuberan is a contrived, laboured comedy, and if comedy in Malayalam cinema takes this track, before long the state would be what a wise soul decried it to be many years back. Well, probably, our film-makers have already reached that level of absolute nirvana.