Young director Saji Surendran's 'Happy Husbands'' impresses you in the very first frame where it acknowledges that its base story is adapted from the Tamil movie, Charlie Chaplin'. But this positive vibes don't last long as you almost immediately realise that the movie is just another caricature humour rollercoaster, which uses the plights of confused husbands to create fun on screen.
With an impressive cast and witty one liners, the movie will be quite appealing for the general masses, but lacks the soul of reality and humanness, as it tries all around to find a balance between the portrayed husbands and wives.
Happy Husbands as the title suggests is woven around infidelity and matrimony. Jayaram is Mukundan Menon, a media man running the magazine Kerala Today which writes more about the nuances of the society. But his wife Krishnendhu is always suspicious and finds every women whom her husband encounter as a seductress planning to destroy their happily married life. But Mukundan is a gentleman who never thinks of straying out.
Krishnendhu has a friend in Shreya (Samvrutha) who is naive wife of Rahul Velayudhan (Indrajith), a successful businessman, who cleverly hides his philandering life from Sheya. Then there is the photographer Johny(Jayasuriya) who is in love with Sareena, the daughter of a retired police officer. She is also a psychology student who finds him to be little schizophrenic.
The big turn in the lives of these three couples comes as Mukundan befriends Rahul, and is introduced to Diana (Rima Kallingal), a pole dancer in a night club. Rahul encourages him to get charged saying it will add some spice to mundane married life. The movie follows to tell how these three men gets confused enough, to keep themselves safe from their suspicious wives. .
The movie works in parts mainly due to the good chemistry between the lead players and the humour sprinkled in apt doses. The script by Krisshna Poojappura defies logic and is at least longer by half an hour than needed.
Worked out a bit pacy and with twists and turns, the movie has some very ordinary songs. BG tracks and mechanical performances are at times making negative impact. The movie seems to have depended more on the Hindi version `No entry'' for most of the sequences.
Jayaram manages to be at the helm, though the youngsters have made him work hard to maintain the dominance. But it is Indrajith, with the shortest role among the three, who receives much of the applause. With his interesting look with bleached hair, waxed chest and great timing in dialogue delivery and mannerisms, he is too engaging whenever on screen. Jayasuriya has another role of insignificance, which just takes much of the screen time. Bhavana does justice to her meaty role, mostly in later parts. Samvrutha looks lovely while Vandhana just remains as a part of the show. Reems's character is not well fleshed out and confused. Suraj Venjarmood and Maniyanpilla Raju maintain the interest in the show with loud attempts on comedy.
All together, Happy Husbands is an entertainer, that doesn't demand a lot of logic and intensity. Prescribed for those who like to have a clean, racy but average fun ride.
