'Oridathoru Postman' is the first independent directorial venture from Shaji Azeez, who had done the movie 'Shakeshphere MA Malayalam' together with Shaiju. A movie which suffers from a focus less script, Shaji manages to end up the movie as a watch-able flick. A decent baseline and topic on persecution, which could have been a great experience if treated differently, is wasted by going through predictable lanes to appeal to the regular family viewers.
The movie has Innocent as Gangadharan, a lazy postman in a remote village, who in the last four years had been at the one end of every complaint for not delivering the stuff on time. He is shown as dumb enough to make paper boats with the letters, and then to debate on work ethics with those who comes up to complain. His only son Raghunandan (Kunchacko Boban) is a hardworking youth, now into multitude of private jobs, aiming to end up as a gazetted officer in state government service. One of his students, Usha (Meera Nandhan) at the P SC coaching centre where she is working as a part-time teacher, has an open crush on him.
Due to his father's attitudes, Raghunandhan misses his PSC hall ticket for the post of PRD officer, which makes him decide to part ways with his irresponsible father. Ganagadharan but take it to his heart, attempts a suicide and on return mends his ways as a decent postman, but soon lands up in hospital following a massive heart attack. It is only then he discloses his final wish to his son, that is to find a wild life photographer named Yassen Mubarak, who is mysteriously disappearing for the last ten years following his branding as a terrorist responsible for a bomb blast in a school killing many.
Gangadharan wants his son to deliver Yaseen, a bunch of letters sent by his adopted daughter who is currently facing a fatal operation within weeks.
Shaji tries to weave an emotional tale of father-son relationship in the former half ala Sathyan Anthikkad movies but fails to stick to his task mainly due to his depending on silly comic scenes and insipid melodrama set on familiar sequences. The later half is more engrossing and better than the former with the introduction of Sarath Kumar, who is once again in an impressive cameo.
The main theme on terrorism and prejudiced attitude towards Muslims, are quite relevant but is never posted in a powerful way. The scriptwriter K Gireeshkumar has instead tried to critic the contemporary social scenario and there are strong, appreciable track about men who waste their life on fake lotteries. Similarly there are interesting satirical suggestions about Kudumbashree to the local football clubs and postal departments.
In the acting front, Kunchakko Boban once again plays a memorable role as Raghunandhan, a Mr Nice Guy. Though not an exceptional role, he really fits into the demands of the scripts, except in the few fight sequences, in between. Innocent, though in his umpteenth time, succeeds in giving a different life to the role of a playful dad. Meera Nandan in a short role looks decent while Suraj and Kalabahavan Mani are in their usual roles. The technical side of the movie is ok with Anand Balakrishnan showing big promises behind the camera. His lighting patterns are the interesting highlights of the movie, but V Sajan, the editor in an attempt to race up the proceedings to just 120 minutes, fails to give needed space in between sequences to register the emotional punches.
Another biggest negative is the BG scores, which hardly suits the movie. Liberally lifted from Hollywood cinemas like 'Van Helsing' to Malayalam flicks like 'Currency' and Raapakal, the BG scores appear odd most of the times, adding very little in generating the needed feel. We do feel that the musicians in their attempt to lessen the costs have never attempted to record anything fresh for the movie. Also the three songs by Mohan Sithara and the lyrics by Anil Panachooran hardly appeal. All in all, 'Oridathoru Postman' ends up as a pretty average fare, which may find it difficult to sustain in theatres for more than a month. Go with little expectations and chances are that you may not find it much distasteful.
