In an interesting turn of events in Mollywood, the hit directors of the nineties are now nowhere near their creative best. Rajasenan is an interesting case to ponder on, with his latest `Oru Small Family' ending up as a possible worst in his directing career which included such noteworthy films like `Meleparambil Aanveedu', `Aniyan bava Chettan Bava', and `Aadhyathe Kanmani'.
Widely publicised as a movie that is made as a firm declaration against increasing alcoholism in the state, the movie is a patch work of many irritating scenes and louder performances which don't even have any stand on alcoholism.
Rajasenan also plays the lead role in the movie as Viswanathan, an idealistic sub registrar who likes to have everything perfect around him. His biggest problem is the presence of a beverage counter in front of his house. He and his wife Kausalya (Seetha) has a daughter Ammu (Ananya) who is in love with Kishor (Kailash). But when Viswanathan learns about his daughter's love interest, he is upset to find that Kishor belongs to a 'Small' family where everyone including the grandfather, mother and uncles are certified drunkards and is into liquor business for long. Finding it hard to digest the realities, Viswanathan immediately takes to drinking which starts to create further problems in his family life.
The director in Rajasenan tries to make the viewers interested with age old tricks and gimmicks like naming the small family members as Caesar, Bejoyce, and Hercules, to depicting all the antiques of drunkards. But he fails miserably to strike a chord with the viewer. After a point you don't react to any on-screen pandemonium.
The script is packed with plenty of rubbishes and the performances are also weaker than ever. It is high time that the filmmakers must realise that substituting a cohesive script with witty one-liners and funny situations in not a shortcut to success and never will be.
In the acting front, Rajasenan like his previous film fails to make any impact. Kailash once again fails to impress with his acting abilities while Ananya's causal approach doesn't look fine and seems like going through the part mechanically. The technical side of the film is also ordinary .The songs and their visuals are also mediocre.
On the whole, this `small' family is neither entertaining nor enlightening. If you want to be in theatres for this small family, simply don't tax your brains, just sit back, watch and laugh if you can. At the box-office, a poor fate seems inevitable for the movie!
