Ittymaani Made in China movie review: The laughable jokes are very far and few between because basically Ittymaani: Made in China is a message film.Ittymaani: Made in China movie cast: Mohanlal, Raadhika, Aju Varghese
Ittymaani: Made in China movie director: Jibi, Joju
Ittymaani: Made in China movie rating: 1.5 stars
Ittymaani: Made in China was wrongly marketed as a comedy film. I went into the film hoping to see a hilarious performance from Mohanlal. I thought I would laugh so very hard that my abdominal muscles and cheeks would be in pain by the time I left the cinemas. But the opposite is true. It is all the fault of the filmmakers who claimed that this film would rival the likes of Mohanlal’s Kilukkam (1991) and Chandralekha (1997).
Ittymaani (Mohanlal) is an infamous bootlegger in Kunnamkulam. He runs a catering service as a front to cover his illegal business. In addition to that, he would go above and beyond to earn a commission from everything he does in life. In the opening moments of the film, Ittymaani is told that his mother needs an operation to remove kidney stones. The surgery costs Rs 2 lakh and Ittymaani had the cash at hand. And then he asks the doctor what is the ‘cut’ if he allows his mother’s operation to happen at that hospital. After a hard bargain, he gets about 25 per cent commission for allowing the hospital to conduct surgery on his mother. Later, he asks brokerage from a marriage broker should he get married to a woman that he showed. The peculiarities of Ittymaani and his methods are promising in the beginning but as the narration goes on, his antics get repetitive and dull.
And then there is Ittymaani’s father (Mohanlal, again). When we see him, he is doing a Kung fu routine at a monastery in China. He sports a hairdo, goatee and moustache that has written Chinese all over it. We think he is a noble person making a living the right way. It happens that he is a master at making duplicate products. He was thrown out of China because his duplicate goods lasted longer than authentic products made in China. With such a goofball setup and an actor like Mohanlal, the directors could have done a better job. While the script has no originality or fresh ideas, it is Mohanlal who gives everything to make even a dull scene tolerable.
The laughable jokes are very far and few between because basically Ittymaani: Made in China is a message film. This film is about grown-ups abandoning/ignoring their parents as they get busy with their lives and making money. And, directors Jibi and Joju take their own sweet time to make this point. The film doesn’t approach the problem from a new angle nor has something new to say. Like its jokes, the lessons that it wants to impart and its plot are all too familiar.
