Malarvady Arts Club reviews

Singer and actor turned writer-director Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Malarvady Arts Club narrates the story of friendship between five youngsters. It is a simple story that unveils at a leisurely pace and often, in a disturbingly and predictable way.

Prakashan, Praveen, Purushu, Santosh and Kuttu are members of the Malarvady Arts Club, in a sleepy village near Thalassery. They fool around doing virtually nothing much and at times takes up fights for a political party. Their mentor is Kumarettan (Nedumudi Venu), who runs a tea shop and treats them like his own children.

Sometime later, the friends convince Santosh to try his luck as a singer in a TV reality show. As you would have guessed by now, he wins the competition and becomes an overnight sensation. The story takes some obvious twists and turns from then on.

The main problem with the film is that though music plays quite an important role in the story, it turns out to be the weakest link as well. The script never really takes the viewer along with its flow and looks fractured with cooked up situations, boring comedy and dramatic dialogues, in the absence of a solid storyline.

Of course, the film has its moments and the honesty with which the debutant director has made his film is to be seen at times. Certain scenes and the climax have evidently been inspired from the 2008 Bollywood hit, Rock On!! The visuals by P Sukumar look pretty okay. Even at two hours and fifteen minutes, the film looks a tad too long.

The five new heroes, who were selected after talent hunts and rehearsal camps, have performed quite well. The actor who plays Purushu is the best among the lot, if you have to pick a favourite. The two girls, who were also launched in the film, have nothing much to do. Nedumudi Venu has a brief but relevant role but the comedy gang of Jagathy Sreekumar, Suraj Venjarammood, Salim Kumar and Kottayam Nazeer repeats their usual mannerisms and buffoonery.

If you go to the theatres without much expectation, it could turn out to be an okay one-time watch. Yes, there are certain nice things about this film but it requires some patience to figure out what all. With the kind of hype that the film generated, it does not live up to the expectations!