A pattern is visible in some of Dileep’s movies in recent times, the pattern of a grand plan or conspiracy by the powerful against the innocent, good-at-heart hero. The police and the media hound him, while the real players in the game watch from behind the curtain.
Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakkeel, directed by B. Unnikrishnan also follows this pattern, with of course the necessary cosmetic changes. Balakrishnan (Dileep), the protagonist here, is an advocate who struggles to move ahead in his profession due to his stammer. He gets catapulted into the spotlight when he sends a legal notice to a top police officer, after being misled by a woman’s fake testimonial. His travails are inter-linked to that of Anuradha (Mamta Mohandas), whose father has died in an accident.
Balan’s character is written in such a way that we are confused whether he is an advocate or a detective, as his expertise seems to be in the latter profession. He is someone adept at deducing clues about a person from their behaviour and appearances. Some of those sequences seem to be aping better-executed ones in the popular TV series Sherlock. Only that, here the hero refers to the method as ‘neuro-linguistic programming.’
The investigation itself does not provide any exciting moments.
The past
He has a background story, set in a college campus, which conveniently explains his stammer and his ability to smash 50 goons to pulp, alone. The two lengthy fight sequences and a needless item song with laughable lyrics dampen the pace quite a bit.
The crass humour, typical of Dileep’s movies, is executed by other characters, including his side-kick (Aju Varghese) and his pot-smoking father (Siddique).
The character of Anuradha, it seems, has been created just so that she would look visibly impressed by the hero’s actions. Her father, knowing her intelligence, leaves behind a real-life puzzle for her to solve, before his untimely death. The fact that it is the hero who solves it, and then explains her father’s brilliance to her, tells quite a lot about the intentions of the film, which is an unabashed celebration of the male hero, so full of intelligence and innocence.
S.R. Praveen