The first thing you would notice about Jayaram’s latest offering Samasathakeralam P.O., directed by Bibin Prabhakar, is its storyline, which has a striking resemblance to Jayaram’s earlier hit Njaan Salpperu Ramankutty (2004) by director duo Anil and Babu Pisharadi. Njaan Salpperu Ramankutty was a complete comedy entertainer coupled with sentimental melodrama, whereas Samasathakeralam P.O., an effort to make a political thriller and a social drama, is disappointing to a great extent!
Samasathakeralam P.O. revolves around Prabhakaran (Jayaram), a hardcore Gandhian and a Panchayat member of a village called Thonnoorkkara. With his principled lifestyle and impractical wishes to make his village into a Gandhian utopia, he always becomes a headache to the ruling party as well as the opposition in the Panchayat. Obviously, his rich, mighty and corrupted opponents Avarachan (Jagathy Sreekumar) and Jagadeesh (Chandy) try to get Prabhakaran out of their ways.
Prabhakaran lives in his uncle Ramakrishnan’s house with his mother and Radhika, whom his late father had brought up and whom he sees as his own sister. Ramakrishnan, who later returns home from Mumbai along with his daughter Renjini after several years, doesn’t like their presence in the house. Prabhakaran finds it difficult to make ends meet, as he lives at his uncle’s mercy. Prabhakaran wants to move out of the house and to get Radhika married off. All these contribute to the development of the plot.
Samasathakeralam P.O. begins on a very good note and retains the mood till half-time. After its first half, it gets all messed up as the director has mixed up too many things and that too so injudiciously! The scenarist seems to be confused about the plot development. If the scenarist and the director had not resorted to clichéd scenes in the post interval section or at least they had gone on a straight track rather diverting into sub-plots, Samasathakeralam P.O. would have been a better film. The best thing about the film perhaps, is its music, but surprisingly even the songs have not been presented in an impressive way.
Performance wise, Jayaram is excellent as Prabhakaran, portraying the role in his usual style, while debutant Sera, as Renjini, is disappointing. Priyanka as Radhika is good. Jagathy Sreekumar as Avarachan and Jagadeesh as Chandy essay their respective roles with ease. It’s good to see Premkumar back as Mao Mohanan. The technical aspects are in sync with the mood of the film. All in all, Samasathakeralam P.O. disappoints and can be avoided.
Producer Howly Pottur
Director Bibin Prabhakar
Cast Jayaram, Priyanka, Sera, Jagathy Sreekumar, Jagadish,
Janardhanan, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Salim Kumar, Kalabhavan, Shaju, Prajodh, Ershad and others.
Script K. Gireesh Kumar
Music M. Jayachandran
Lyrics Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma
Camera Rajaratnam
Editing Ranjan Abraham
Banner Dream Team productions