Kadhaveedu (2013)

Sohanlal's Kadha Veedu connects one story each from three celebrated Malayalam writers - M T Vasudevan Nair, Vaikkom Mohammed Basheer and Madhavikkutty. Now, the format is pretty interesting. Filmmaker Raj Karthi (Kunchacko Boban) and his live in partner Jeena (Bhama) are going through an emotional crisis, where she wants to get married but he is not ready for it as yet. He lives in his world of movies and the three stories are portions from his film and the intention is perhaps to connect it with the couple's real life. The basic idea looks good but the film never really strikes a chord with the viewer. With deliberate efforts to look more serious than what it is, badly written dialogues and some half hearted performances makes this one, a rather boring affair. The first story has Abdul Khadar (Manoj K Jayan) and Jameela (Mallika) as a loving couple. When the wife asks for two poovambazham, he takes all the efforts to get it but only manage to find some oranges. In the next story, Major Frederic Mukundan (Lal) and his sexy wife Reetha (Rituaparna Sen Gupta) keep their romance intact even at their house called 'Dar-es-Salaam' even after several years of their marriage. Raj Karthy is instantly attracted to Reetha's ample charms and now, he reminisces those memories after so many years. In the third story, Balachandran (Biju Menon) is finding it hard to come into terms with the sudden demise of his wife. His kids ask for neyypayasam that their mother made and are waiting for her return. There is a definite effort from Sohanlal to find some meaning to this whole exercise, but the problem is that it has not been conveyed effectively on screen. T D Sreenivas' camera and M Jayachandran's music are fine at best. The feeling you get is that almost every actor in the film has just done his or her roles without any real conviction. Kadha Veedu is another attempt to make serious cinema in a pattern that has lost its charm with most viewers by now, due to its rampant misuse. It's pretentious to the core and will require real patience not to be bored even during the 105-minute duration of the film. Watch this one at your risk please! Verdict: Below Average