Cast: Mammootty, Nedumudi Venu, Rajan P Dev, Kalasaala Babu, Sai Kumar,Salim Kumar, Shammi Thilakan, Sphadikam George, Usha Uthup, Gopika, Bhavana
Direction: Joshy
Production: Lal
Music: Alex Paul
on the surface, ‘Pothanvava’ looks like a slick film, very fast paced and hilarious, but it suffers from one-upmanship of Mammootty that ultimately detracts from its theme and messes up the already weak scripted movie. It is also one of those rare films that director Joshi failed to make an impact. Pothenvava (Mammootty) is the son of Mariamma Vakkeel (Usha Uthup). His name is Vava but people nicknamed him Pothenvava, because he is rather stupid and carries out all the orders that his mother gives. His father Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri (Nedumudi Venu), who is a Brahmin, divorced his mother, when their families had fights on choosing religion for Vava. Mariamma Vakkeel won the custody of her son but she chose not to have him any religion. This caused problems in Vava’s life as he couldn’t go to school without belonging to any religion. Thus Vava ended up an illiterate. Mariamma Vakkeel represents the Vaddakkeyangaadi, who are in conflict with the Thekkeyangaadi, lead by Pulikkattil Vakkachan (Rajan P Dev) and sons Anto and Paul(Spadikam George and Manianpilla Raju), as to who will conduct the Palli Perunnal. Mariamma Vakkeel wins the battle but Pulikkattil family objects to Vava heading 
the festival as he is not baptized and thus not a Christian.Vava decides to get baptized but his mother tells him to ask his father’s permission first. Thus Vava set out to meet his father. With fate playing its part, he meets his father for the first time while rescuing him from an accident. It turned out Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri was very keen on meeting his son and father and son bonded instantly. Vava then tries to reunite his parents and succeeds in it for some period. But the Villain in their life had other plans. Neither Mammootty nor Joshi seemed to care about the plot’s weaknesses. But rather they tried to bank on the success of dialect that Mammootty successfully used in ‘Thuruppugulan’. Only saving grace is Bijukuttan (Manikandan), enacting the role of Marambal. Even though it is his first full-fledged role in a film, he has adapted to the big screen quite effortlessly. It is Joshi’s trademark hurried narrative that will keep you you from excruciated by the story, which was writtensolely to suite Mammootty’s new comic streak.‘Pothanvava’, coming after ‘Chandupottu’, is perhaps the worst script written by Benny P Nayarambalam. Most of Benny’s hits had been successful adaptations of his own plays. Songs by Alex Paul is good in patches. In totality, the film didn’t feature anything to write home about, but it won’t make you sick either.