It's scary to think that a director who make an appreciably good endeavour in his debut movie `Out Of Syllabus' can make a comeback with such a scary silly one, in his second coming. Though you may not expect a great film, you will expect at least a warm, nicely made one. But here, director Viswananathan is back with this silly made movie, Dr. Patient, all about madness. If you are not ready to get an infectious bit from what is shown on screen, then you're best advised to leave this B grade farce alone and pretend it never existed. The only good things about the movie, that is the songs are regularly shown on mini screen. It is better to enjoy it and believe you have had the best from the movie.
The story of `Dr Patient', as the title itself suggests, is set against a mental hospital to which young and savvy Ruben Isaac (Jayasuriya) comes to work as a doctor. A doctor who had been successful with his patients at his Ooty sanatorium, he employs humanitarian considerations to emerge the favourite of "his patients", whom he calls as his "clients".
Rakhi Devadas(Radha Varma) with a hospital management degree from U.S is the Managing director of this hospital. Her strict ways in dealing with patients often creates clashes with the new doctor. Ruben Isaac, meanwhile is brimming with new thoughts and unconventional ideas, which he implements in the hospital. He shows love and care and offers more freedom to the inmates which itself invites much criticism from the M.D. The movie turns more than funny with the arrival of another person (Mukesh), claiming that he is the original doctor.
The makers could have noted earlier that in this age of innovate story lines and novel scripts, replaying this mistaken identity games which has been done to death in Malayalam, will definitely invite criticisms. Add to that the inane storytelling which even makes you doubtful about whether there existed any real scripts on paper, for the former half of the movie. And so the madness with the lead inmates drags on. And for the silly gags, continue to persist till the interval with the imbecilic routines they started the movie with. It is only in the last half an hour that the film falls back to the track and director tries to show that he can handle a better narrative.
From the synopsis of the thread, you very well could have pointed about its closeness to movies like ''Thalavattam'', but mind it, there is no point of comparison as this offers a bad tasted humour, mostly from the eccentricities of the deranged minds, and filling their mouths with text message wits.
In the acting front Jayasuriya has a different role in hand, but couldn't do any big thing to make it sufferable. Radha Varma is with a plastic face, with hardly any emotions to display. Mukesh and Jagathy are wasted, while Bijukuttan and Anoopchandran are insufferable. Suraj Venjaramoodu tries to bring in some chuckles with limited success.
The only positives of this movie seems to be the cinematography by MJ Radhakrishnan, art direction by Gireesh Menon and the music tracks by Bennet-Vithraag. The former is for the first time cranking the camera for a commercial films, which he manages with flair. The young musicians also have created some soulful melodies, especially the song "Mazhayil" rendered by Hariharan.
Dr Patient in every counts, needing several coats of polish to make it a healthy looking film. A movie that you can forgetfully wait to watch till it arrives on your miniscreen.
