Review: Naku Penta Naku Taka disappoints

Naku Penta Naku Taka is a disappointment considering the promise it carried, writes Paresh C Palicha.

Naku Penta Naku Taka, the Malayalam film directed by Vayalar Madhavan Kutty with Indrajith and Bhama in the lead tries to cash in on the cliched impressions of Africa. 

Written by Jeyamohan, the Tamil-Malayalam writer who has been very prolific in churning out scripts for Malayalam films in the recent times, begins the story interestingly by showing a naive young girl Shubha (Bhama) who is fooled into marrying someone who is working in Africa saying that the groom is working in the USA.

Her husband Vinay (Indrajith) is an engineer working in Kenya for a company based in America. And, this fact is revealed to her only after she lands in Kenya believing that she and her husband will catch the next flight to USA after a brief stopover. Next, she witnesses gruesome act of domestic violence among her Malayali neigbours.

All these things make us believe that  the story will progress to show us the various pros and cons of marital life. The just married couple consumate their relationship in a jiffy. And in no time, they are shown to be deeply in love. 

The next twist in the tale comes when the new bride tries to stop her abusive neighbour(Sudheer Karamana) from hurting his sweet looking wife( Anusree). From here begins a spate of murders, abductions, horrific tribal rituals combined with corrupt cops, deceitful well-wishers and to top it all, a stylish looking hit-man, Murali Gopy pops up in the second half.

The story then moves to a situation where our couple has to escape from the country (bringing the memories of Escape from Uganda, which was released late last year) by the end of the first half. This film turns out to be a disappointment as it does not break away from the myths and misconception about the place as promised in the initial stages of the story.

This film was marketed as a comedy telling the story of a new bride experiencing shock of living in Africa instead of her dream destination USA. But, the humour vanishes after the first few minutes when Shubha says that she will return to India next Sunday (why or how she chooses this day remains a mystery) and immediately files for a divorce. Her plan is to marry someone who is really based in the US of A. Yet, everything between the couple becomes okay the next morning.

This is the third film written by Jeyamohan releasing in less than a year after Kaanchi and 1 by two having the same fate of disappointing the viewer and making one wonder, is this the same person who wrote Ozhimuri?

The actors here cannot do anything substantial to lift the lackadaisical script and direction. Indrajith and Bhama try to be bubbly and vivacious in the initial phase and tensed and worked up in the latter half as the story changes colour.

Murali Gopy who appear in the late second half as a terrorist with psychopathic zeal seems to be short-changed, with Kohl lined eyes and exaggerated mannerisms as a cruel killer .

Naku Penta Naku Taka  is a disappointment considering the promise it carried. 

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