Coming from a debutante Raj
Prabhavathy Menon, Buddy is a light
hearted family flick which talks about
emotional bonding between a son
and his 'biological' father , who
realizes about each other only after
eighteen years. Though with liberal
doses of paronomasia, and a light,
simple storyline, 'Buddy' may not
offend you as many other new
generation movies do.
Buddy has Midhun Murali as Vishnu,
who is born out of artificial
insemination to one of the ladies
among Meenakshy(Asha sharath) and
Padma(Bhumika), whom he considers
as his mothers though he resists
knowing who among them is his
biological mother. Meenakshy is a
famous writer while padma is doing
research on classical dances. One
the day when he turns eighteen,
Vishnu is disclosed about his
unknown father. But the
adventurous guy he is, Vishnu with
the help of his friends, Diya and
Govind finds clues about the man
who donated the sperm. They track
him up in Ooty where he is living as
Manikunju,(Anoop Menon) the
millionaire who is celebrating life as
a detached man who doesn't want to
keep any solid relations. He has a
gang in Rtd Dy S P Shankaran
Namboodhiri (Balachandra Menon),
Chandran Singh (Babu Antony), Biju
Pattambi (Arun) and Kurisu(Josutty)
who lives with him in his
magnificent bungalow and does
everything according to the whims
and fancies of Manikunju.
When Vishnu introduces himself as
his 'technical and biological father ',
Manikunju is hardly in a mood for
sentiments, but asks Vishnu to
consider him as a buddy than a
daddy.Vishnu soon gets into a
college in Ootty and starts living
together with Manikunju and his
friends. But within days the
detached father sees himself getting
more and more attached to his
biological son
The highlight of the movie is a very
fresh theme, never ever discussed in
Mollywood. It passes through
plentiful of twists and carefully
avoids melodrama and cliches in
most of its reels. This effort is quite
evident, just as the lead character of
Anoop menon who proclaims himself
to be the one who hates sentiments
and tragedy. But the flick suffers
many times with the average viewer
unable to connect with a movie that
is emotionally plain, especially in
the former half. The insemination
and associated stories are hastily
placed in the plot without any
detailing. Moreover, overdose of
double entendre's and buddy
comedies spoil the quality of the
first hour. But the second half
gathers meat and propels the movie
to an acceptable finale.
The dialogues by Bipin chandran are
something that stands out in the
movie , that but is delivered much in
an uniform tone in the former hour.
The director depended mostly on
uncut lengthy shots and lesser close-
ups to craft his sequences, which
failed in establishing sufficient
emotional buildups. The flashback of
Anoopmenon featuring T G Ravi is
also unconvincing with a plastic feel
through out.. The movie is a little
over lengthy at 154 minutes, as
sequences comes out in a relaxed
edit by Dileep Dennis. Some of the
songs are unwanted and appear as
speedbreakers.The technical
standards are but top notch with
prakashkutty capturing the best of
the exotic locales and interiors in
finely toned visuals , setting up the
mood of the film.
The performances are fairly good
with Anoopmenon checking his
flexibility in a role that seems to
have written with Mohanlal in mind.
He can also be seen flexing his
muscles for a lengthy slow motion
action sequences in the later half.
Balachandramenon excels in his
comeback as Shanku bhai.Midhun
Murali is appropriate in his role
while Asha sharath has a decent
role that she does with flair.
Bhumika, Sreekanth and the rest of
the cast play their parts without
resorting to any big melodrama.
The music by Navaneeth Sundar is
ok, with 'Kadalil' emerging a feel
good song, while the rest of the beat
filled songs are marred by average
lyrics. The BG scores by Gopi sundar,
a usual are good.
In the final analysis, 'Buddy' at least
makes an attempt to tell a new tale,
though it is draped in the regular
bottle..Fine dialogues and sequences
are there, but few and far in
between.
Rating - 6.25/10
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