Banner: Hill Top Productions
Cast: Suresh Gopi, Navya Nair, Priyanka, Jayasoorya, Priyanka, Biju Menon, Rizabava, Cochin Haneef, Anil Murali, Aby, Indrans, Bindu Panikar, Rajan P Dev, Augustine
Direction: Samad Mangada ,Production: Salim
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The last time Suresh Gopi did a comedy role was about six years ago, in the Jose Thomas-directed Sundarapurushan. Trying to cast Suresh Gopi in a humorous role is a laudable thing considering that the actor has been tagged with the action-hero image for quite a long time. He had played humour-tinged characters successfully in films like Thenkaasipattanam. But debutante director Samad Mankada’s effort to do so has gone totally off the rails, courtesy a terribly loose script and utterly sloppy direction.
Kichamani MBA (MBA is not Master of Business Administration but Member of Bachelors’ Association) has in focus Kichamani, who had, as a boy, strayed into the teashop run by one Jinnah near a check post. Jinnah first gave him food and then gave him a job. And in the process of growing up, Kichamani bears witness to all the corruption going on at the check post. Often he becomes part of it too, because drivers coming to the check-post send their documents plus the bribe for the officials through him. Since he grows up seeing all this, Kichamani too becomes corrupt, but in a totally different way.
He begins a firm named Kichamani & Associates, mediating in all kinds of corruption-related activities on the government level, on a commission basis. With the permit given by him, anyone could smuggle illicit liquor or anything else for that matter into the state without being stopped even by the Police. Thus Kichamani & Associates runs a parallel government, with sway over all departments and at all levels. Kichamani has very trustworthy people including Jinnah as his lieutenants, and thus he manages to even use force when there is no other go. His firm is a boon to the poor who otherwise have to go through a lot of trouble to get things done at the government level. And from the poor, he doesn’t even take any commission.
In the meantime Kichamani gets a strong opponent in Devanarayanan, who too has a sway over government departments and is a prominent politician too. Devanarayanan wants to eliminate Kichamani and even get rid of Minister Bahuleyan, who is Kichamani’s friend and well-wisher and who is a hindrance to Devanarayanan’s political ambitions. Meanwhile a young documentary filmmaker Shivani Menon from Delhi lands in Kochi with the aim of making a documentary on the real estate Mafia headed by Devanarayanan. Shivani gets protection from Kichamani, and things become insufferable for Devanarayanan, who gets ready to wage the
ultimate war.
Suresh Gopi as Kichamani doesn’t impress at all. The problem seems to be that the writer and the director set out to present the lead character in a humorous manner, but in the process got carried away by the actor’s action hero image and the character thus finds himself neither here nor there, making no impact at all on the audience. Nor do any of the others in the cast impress us in any way.
Navya Nair as Shivani, Cochin Haneefa as Jinnah, Jayasurya as Shivani’s friend and assistant Saajan, Priyanka as Kichamani’s sister Kalyani, Salim Kumar and Jaffer Idukki as Devanarayanan’s sidekicks, Bijukuttan as Kichamani’s manager Udayabhanu, Indrans as Shivani’s driver-cum-Personal Assistant Chembakaraman, and Riza Bawa as Minister Bahuleyan leave no impression at all. Biju Menon is just OK as Devanarayanan.
Technical aspects are not worth mentioning. The song “Pokkiriyaane…” which is used to promote the film has been shot very distastefully. Samad Mankada, who had turned director, after producing films like Madhuchandralekha and Aanachandam, gives us a film that is totally disappointing.