RAJAMMA@YAHOO MOVIE REVIEW

Rajamma@Yahoo by debutant Reghu Rama Varma is a film with a simple yet interesting premise. The story revolves around the characters of brothers Michael Rajamma (Kunchacko Boban) and Vishnu Yohannnan, also known as Yahoo (Asif Ali). The brothers are left to fend for themselves after the untimely demise of their parents and get by with the help of well-wishers and friends. Things take a deviation for the brothers from their carefree lives and go through a series of twists and turns after they decide to open up their house to a few tenants.

 

Although the premise sounds promising and the film does take of rather well too, but fails to hold the momentum after the end of the first half. The first half is quite breezy and introduces the characters in a rather quirky fashion. As far as performances go, Kunchacko Boban has stayed true to the character of Rajamma and delivered a full and boisterous performance. His chemistry with Asif Ali as brothers is on the dot and offers a lot of scope for laughter. Asif's considerably stepped up on his dialogue delivery and comic timing.

 

The charm of this film goes to the smaller characters who have added a lot of good energy to the narrative, like Kalabhavan Shajon as the village officer, Sethulakshmi as his mother Devu, Renji Panicker as the jittery 'antagonist' are all characters to watch out for. Anusree, as Yahoo's smart and overbearing girlfriend, has some hilarious one-liners and steps away from usual heroine characters we're used to. Nikki Galrani wasn't warranted in the cast because she really hasn't much to go on with here. But not like we would protest the presence of her pretty face onscreen. 

 

The narrative goes pretty briskly in the first half, but once the story hits the second half, it begins to lose focus and tries too hard to wrap up the plot. The storyline and the progression are rather simple, but maybe this would not sit well with most of the audience because by the time we get to the climax, the whole exercise seemed a little pointless. But it must be said that the very atypical manner in which the whole blackmail drama was handled was quite refreshing, where the blackmailers and the one being blackmailed have a rather friendly dynamic between them. 

 

Although when it comes to comedy, all that works is the chemistry between Kunchacko and Asif as well as a few genuine moments here and there. Besides those, the comedy track feels over-used, cliched and forced. S Kumar's cinematography captures the essence of Calicut like never before and makes for some very inspiring shots. Music by Bijibal has fallen flat, while the background score is quite decent.