Utopiayile Rajavu Review

Today on the auspicious Uthradam day of Malayalees, the much awaited Kamal-Mammootty film named Utopiayile Rajavu has been released in Kerala around 70+ theaters. The film has come carrying a lot of expectations on its back for various reasons. The important factor is that Kamal- Mammootty team has given good films on the previous occasions they collaborated and so when they are coming together again after 8- 9 years, expectations are bound to raise. And another factor is that the trailer and the songs of the film has become a hit among the fans and film lovers when it was released and naturally the expectations has gone high after that.

The film touted as a satirical comedy with fantasy elements in it has Mammootty playing C P Swathanthran and Jewel Mary playing Uma in the lead roles. The story of the film revolves around C P Swathanthran’s effort to win back his property from the one who illegally took it from his father. At the same time, he is making efforts to create a public image of his own. Most of them ends in failure because of his companions. He puts so much effort in his village named Kokrankara. Later he shifts his centre of protest from his village to the Secretariat at Trivandrum and that kicks start the story.

The flick has been an experimental one as the satirical elements are mixed with fantasy elements. Even animals, birds and statues utter dialogues in the flick and in fact they are the narrators of the story. Kamal had done a decent job to hold together the different elements of the film like he always does. The screenplay by P S Rafeeq who made us pleased years ago with the screenplay of Amen has once again come up with a very different attempt. But at some places it had become dramatic and very predictable as well. Ouseppachan’s music joins the soul of the film as he managed to give a rhythm which was travelling along with the narration of the story in a smooth way.

There are many actors in the film including Joy Mathew, Sreekumar, Janardhanan, Indrans, Tini Tom, KPAC Lalitha, Sunil Sukhada, Jayaraj Warrier and if the performance is concerned all these actors had done justice to their characters and special mention has to be given to Sreekumar. Mammookka was at his best as C P Swathanthran and Jewel Mary had done really well with a matured performance.

In the first half, it has many scenes of social criticism in a humorous manner and most of them went quite well with the audience. But many of them feels repetitive as well because we had seen it in many skits in television programs. But the script failed to hold together in the second half and went without any direction. Even the comedy numbers seem mediocre at times. It ended on a feel good note but there was something missing somewhere.

Director : Kamal
Release Date : 27/8/2015
Cast : Mammootty, Jewel Mary, Sreekumar

Review : Abhilash Kiran