MAGIC LAMP

taruni · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: MAGIC LAMP

In Jayaram starrer Magic Lamp, he appeared in four different roles. The film was in the cans since eight years due to financial issues, and now, it has finally seen the light of day. But the response to the film has been lukewarm, possibly because audiences look at it as an old film and even confuse it to be a rerun! The makers too have not bothered to modify it to make it more contemporary to suit current audience tastes. Though efforts have been made and the movie released, it would have been better had it remained in the cans.

The film opens with Anupama (Meena), an orphaned heiress living in Bangalore, who aspires to be an air hostess. Her rich aristocratic family in Kerala is against this decision of hers, as they consider the job below their status.

Anupama, who lost her parents at a very young age, has been brought up by her doting grandfather (Oduvil Unnikrishnan). Her grandfather has only one dream - to see his beloved grand-daughter married. Anupama has two wicked uncles who aspire for her wealth as well as getting their sons Mohanakrishnan (Baiju) and Omana Kuttan (Kottayam Nazeer) married to her. But Anupama has no such intentions and keeps avoiding the marriage issue.

To avoid getting married to either of her cousins, Aupama quickly spreads a number of lies about her fictitious lover whose photo also she circulates. Actually, she has never met the person of the photo. She also cooks up another story about being molested by the same man at Goa. To put an end to this relationship, her family members send goons to search the man in the photo so that the issue can be permamently settled. This leads the family members to Sunny Kuruvila (Jayaram No. 1), a coach in a women's college about to be betrothed to Alphonsa (Rasika), to Dr. Nandakumar (Jayaram No. 2), married to Viji (Divya Unni) and to Chandrasenan (Jayaram No. 3), a macho guy with a upturned bushy moustache from Peruvannapuram. As a result, each of them faces unexpected problems. Now Chandrasenan, like a typical Malayalee hero, decides to unearth the real problem-maker. What happens subsequently forms the rest of the plot.

Jayaram does his best to impress with his roles and tries hard to give a different look and accent to each character. But the story continually confuses, dealing with different characterizations of mismatched identities, all played by Jayaram. Surprisingly, the hero (version 4) appears on screen only towards the end of the first half.

Meena looks gorgeous while retired stars Divya Unni and Samyuktha make refreshing appearances. Rasika and Divya Unni provide glamorous eye candy in a few scenes. Jagathy does his comedy bit; the others just about deliver their performances mechanically.

Regarding the technical aspect, director Haridas could have extracted more from of his technicians. Camera work by Vipin Mohan is just average; costumes and sets are (naturally) just outdated. Almost every scene reminds you of Rajasenan's movies of the nineties. The script had many loose ends and the screenplay lacks finesse; all five songs tuned by Ouseppachan and written by Ranjit are average.

sanils · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:46 am Post subject:

i like jayarams coedy!!! Very Happy

taruni · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 9:13 am Post subject:

enikkum

Rajappan · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject:

Ithu irangi flop ayittu kalam korachayille. d'oh!

rahul0471 · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject: