Are directors like Lohithadas outdated?
After seeing Chakkramuthu, his comeback flick after three years, one gets the feeling that he is a relic of the past as he has tried to rehash a film of the 70's with a cliched story and a predictable climax. There is nothing more novel in this love story of a simpleton village tailor, than that Lohithadas has decided to start his movie with a trendy dancing song.
Chakkaramuthu could be classified as a romantic film with no romance. Except for the dream sequences and songs, the lead pair offers no scenes in love. When the film ends on a tragic note, viewers will probably be relieved from another rehash of various old Lohithadas films. The highlight of the movie is that many of the characters are well-etched out, reminding us about Lohithadas's creations of his good times.
The film is all about a dimwit, Aravindakshan ala Aravindan (Dileep) who is a ladies tailor in a village. People call him `Pottan' as his values and maneuvers always reminds of someone who is a little nonsensical. His world and fancies revolves around Anitha (Kavya Madhavan) who is his childhood sweetheart. He hangs around her house and does all sorts of domestic help to Anitha and her mom, Devayani teacher as they are alone.
Aravindan is like a body guard to Anitha, following her everywhere, whom he calls unnimol. Even though he never had the nerve to tell her about his infatuations, he continues with her as her best friend and just like a member of her family. Aravindan was in distress, when a marriage proposal comes for her from Dr.Rajeev and gets relieved only when he founds that Anitha has no interest over the proposal.
Aravindakshan keeps his deep love for Anitha in his mind though he never realizes her feeling for him which is just a consideration and sympathy. One day when his friends Santosh (Kalabhavan Nawas) and Bombay Kumaaran (Cochin Haneefa) instigates him, Aravindan tries to kiss her which comes as a rude shock to Anitha and she dumps him out of the house. By then appear Jeevan, (Jishnu) in a queer looks, who within a short span captures Aravindan by his collar for touching his lady love. In the course of events, Anitha uses this bad act from the simpleton, as a way to blackmail him to cover up her love for Jeevan George, who happens to be the son of a wealthy builder from the metros. Her mother is very strict and wants her to marry a man of their wish. Aravindan soon becomes the bodyguard of Anitha to her secret ways of meeting her love and even accompanies her to far off distances to make rendezvousing.
But soon Anitha's uncle (Sai Kumar) a DSP of the police and her mom comes to know about her affair and fixes her marriage. As she is kept in house arrest without phones, she decides to make an attempt to reach Jeevan who is in Bangalore. And in the penultimate day of the betrothal Anitha elopes to Bangalore with the help of Aravindan. However, only then she realizes that Jeevan was a renegade cheat, who was taking her for a ride. The film which goes predictable long before the interval then moves off to a cliched climax, which is the most unbelievable part of the film.
Dileep as a simpleton dimwit Aravindan, once again excels in this type of roles which has got inconsistencies in behaviours. He, as usual has worked hard on his body language and dialogue delivery, and grips us within a half an hour from the start. Kavya Madhavan gets another role of substance which she does with ease. But the real performer of the film is Saikumar who make another role of lifetime, which differs much from his routine stuff of villainy. While Sarath shines in a cameo, the newcomer Lakshmi Iyer is very impressive. The film has got four songs by M Jayachandran of which two are hummable. Choreographer five star Ganesh does a decent job with the ste
