Minnaminnikkoottam: Not engaging enough

Some directors are able create an image for themselves by the body of their work accumulated over the years. Director Kamal is one such man. His films are usually about young campus stories with songs shot in foreign locales.

However, his latest Malayalam film Minnaminnikkoottam sees Kamal graduating from campus to the IT industry. The story is about seven friends working in a new age IT company. They earn money and have a good time as a group. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they gel well, even having romantic relationships at various degrees of fruition.

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We have Sidhu (Indrajith) and Mumtaz (Samvrutha), a married couple who are expecting their first child. They had eloped with the help of their friends. Another is a bickering couple Charulatha (Meera Jasmine) and Abhi (Narein). Charu is raised by her father played by Sai Kumar while Abhi's father is a high-flying bureaucrat posted in Delhi, who does not approve of this alliance. Kalayani (Radhika) is awaiting the marriage of two elder sisters. Manikunju (Jayasurya) is in love with Rose Mary (Roma), whose only obsession is the construction of her dream house for which she would go to any extent.

The story and screenplay (credited to the director) throw up couple of interesting incidents in the first half that we hope will loop the story intriguingly. However, he conveniently lets go of these subplots and just follows the love story between Charulatha and Abhi into the second half. We wonder why the negative character of Manikuttan that appears in the first half is not carried into the second half.

The characterisation of the main cast seems to be frivolous as if they are college kids and not professionals. The only indication that they are working people is the formal attire and the ID cards hanging from their necks. Otherwise, their attitude is that of immature lovers. We do not see the pressure that people go through in this field. We only see them conversing among themselves using instant messaging service during work hours.

Performance-wise, the lead players suffer because of lacklustre writing. There is no element of surprise or unpredictability. Meera Jasmine is the typical 'angry young woman' who cannot suffer injustice or insult. She reacts fearlessly and stubbornly in adverse situations. And that is it; her intensity seems to be made up and artificial. The rest of the cast goes through the motions.

With a bunch of young actors at his disposal, the veteran director still disappoints as he has not been able to weave a plausible story around them or even create lifelike characters for them. He begins the tale with a tense premise and then takes us back (using the flashback technique which has become cliched after the success of Lal Jose's [Kamal's protege] Classmates).

In a nutshell, Minnaminnikkoottam fails to involve us despite being a typical Kamal film.

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