A few years ago, a hotshot director said that the reason Mohanlal was stuck with the 'larger than life' persona was because writers and filmmakers had exhausted characters and storylines in his career, spanning more than 25 years.

So we were happy when Satyan Anthikad made Rasathantram a couple of years ago, presenting Mohanlal as a carpenter with a golden heart. The film gave us a reason to keep the faith alive in the actor that he is. Two years later, the actor-director duo try to repeat the magic with Innathe Chinthavishayam.

The film starts with marital discord among three couples. The first couple is Muralikrishna (Mukesh), a philandering dentist and his wife Tresa (Sukanya). Theirs was a love marriage; they had eloped defying their respective families' diktats and never reconciled with them. One fine day, Tresa gets fed up with their marriage, and Murali leaves home.

The second couple is Pramila (Mohini) and Pithambaran (Vijayaraghavan). Pramila's parents had married her off to Pithambaran thinking that he had a good job in the Gulf. But after marriage, Pithambaran becomes insecure of his wife's beauty and stays back. He follows his wife like a shadow; protecting her from male gaze. Pramila soon get suffocated of this life, and leaves her husband.

Rehna (Muthumani) is the wife of Noushad (Asokan). Rehna feels stifled, as she is not allowed to pursue her profession. Soon, she walks out of the marriage.

These three ladies are college friends and start fending for themselves and their children. Tresa takes up a job as an instructor in a driving school, Pramila starts a coffee shop and Rehna begins practising law.

Now the question is: how will we get our hero into the situation, as a marriage counsellor? This part is the weakest link of the narrative.

Gopakumar (Mohanlal), a garment exporter, buys Dr Murali's home and sets up his new office there, while the doctor's wife and daughter are still occupying the place. The doctor is not ready to take the responsibility of vacating the place. It is up to our man to the job. He discards conventional methods like calling in the police or getting legal help for this. He thinks the best method would be to unite the couple. So he gets involved in the lives of these three women and begins efforts to bring together the estranged couples.

This is done by lecturing on the subject of love, understanding and the like. The director seems to think that nuclear families are the bane for matrimonial harmony. Gopakumar is presented with superhuman qualities as he is never seen frustrated by any situation. He becomes the ideal man for the women by being sensitive to their needs and a father figure to their children.

In his 'Mission Unification', Gopakumar is helped by Emmanuel (Innocent), the broker, who helped him buy the home and Kamala (Meera Jasmine [Images]), the fashion designer-cum-textile engineer working for him.

There are few Anthikad touches, which we cannot miss -- one being Emmanuel's family with at least half a dozen kids (his justification being that his was a late marriage and they 'just happened'), shown as parallel to the nuclear families. His family is shown as happy even though his wife and mother always fight but cannot stay apart even for a day.

Mohanlal's performance is marked by 'what am I doing here?' kind of expressions. There are efforts to milk his spontaneity but it shows.

The three ladies Sukanya, Mohini and Muthumani do their part competently. But we wish they had more meat in their parts. Meera Jasmine's character is one we have seen many times before.

On the whole, noble intentions do not make Innathe Chinthavishayam an entertaining film.

Rediff Rating: