Oru Naal Varum
By Cine Critic | July10th, 2010| 22:30:15

'Oru Naal Varum' is one of the highly anticipated movies right from the day of its launch because of the deadly Mohanlal-Sreenivasan combo after a long time. Has it lived up-to the expectations is a big question? Well, to an extend it is YES for the first 90 minutes. Post interval, it lacked consistency and ended up just as an ok attempt.

Getting into the story part, it is all about GopiKrishnan(Sreenivasan), a town planning officer, who does not approve anything until money is offered to him. Sukumaran(Mohanlal) tries to approach Gopikrishnan to get his plan approved, but all his attempt fails. Now, there is a twist in the tale and what follows is a cat-and-mouse game between Sukumaran and Gopikrishnan.

The movie started off on a promising note with some rib-tickling hilarious moments where we could see few glimpses of old Mohanlal in the play. Except for a few scenes between Mohanlal and Sameera Reddy, the first half was neatly taken letting out a suspense element to keep the viewers hooked on. Director TK Rajeev Kumar tries too hard to make an average script in second half, but falls flat and at the end the climax turns out to be a total mess.

What makes the movie watchable is the combination scenes involving the magical pair- Mohanlal and Sreenivasan, even though it is nowhere near to their earlier movies. Mohanlal was in full form in the few initial scenes, but had nothing much to do in the later part. Sreenivasan gets the maximum screen space and delivers another typical Sreeni act with slight negative shades. Kottayam Nazeer, Nedumudi Venu, Devayani puts up a good show while Suraj, Siddique, Maniampilla Raju were just ok. Sameera Reddy looked wooden and lacked expression throughout. 

It is the technical side that forms the biggest negative and the real villain is none another than Director TK Rajeev Kumar where someone like Satyan Anthikad could have made this another fine movie. Sreenivasan's script does not live up-to his standards even though the theme generated interest. MG Sreekumar's fine musical score was neglected and only one song was included in the movie. Editing could have been better as the movie lacked continuity in between.

To sum up, Oru Naal Varum has its moments and takes on a relevant issue, but the way it has been executed forms the culprit. Nevertheless, it is a one-time watchable affair just for Mohanlal and Sreenivasan.
Verdict: Watchable

Reviewed By KN