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100%
3.50 

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Kunjikoonan Reviews

Nature Sao Tome and Principe
~~~I like this Hunchback~~~
Sep 02, 2010 07:16 PM 8314 Views

A great story never dies. May be the author don't get the full credit for the story. I believe even when a story inspires new stories, it is a kind of recognition. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a one such novel which stands tall from foregone century and the light still passes through era. It will be so in the years to come where humanity exists. There had an earlier film in Malayalam, called 'Ezhu Rathrikal'. It was inspired from a drama written by Kaldy Gopi. Before leaving for my exile, I acted as the Hunchback in that play and Kunjikoonan reminds me of my theatre days, though it only lasted few months. The story of Kunjikoonan is inspired by Ezhu Rathrikal which originally is inspired by The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo.


Kunjian (Dileep) is not only a hunchback but polio affected too. His hair looks odd, so is his tooth. He is a warehouse of disability. This makes him a poor soul, unlike the macho Hunchback of Notre Dame. He is in search of marriage and due to the physical appearance, no girl likes him. Arrives Lakshmi (Navya Nair) who is blind. Knowing that Lakshmi cannot see him, Kunjan somehow succeed in impressing her. One Free medical camp in the area changed the entire situation where Lakshmi is been selected for the free operation and doctors are hopeful of she getting eye sight. Whose eye the girls gets and how that becomes a villain to take the story further is for you to watch on screen.


It is a kind of formula film which used to come in frequent intervals and go away with some sort of success. Physical disabilities always bring sympathy of the audience and when films of this genre appear audience accepts. For the merit of Kunjikoonan, the treatment of the movie was light, unlike its inspiration, 'Ezhu Rathrikal or of the same genre, Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum. The director made sure that the movie does not bring any tears but loud laughs. This comedy treatment made the movie watching a pleasant experience, though it took away the seriousness partly from them film. Though I do not endorse making fun of the disables, when the disable makes a mock of himself, I could not laugh it out, may be to hide my sympathy.


Dileep's acting is impressive in both roles. If his appearance as hunchback was interesting, the villain look too was cool. Navya Nair did the role of blind girl convincingly. Manya handled the cheerful rich girl's role comfortably. Kochin Haneefa, Salim Kumar & Bindu Panikkar contributed much to the success of the film with their short but effective performance.


Songs of the film are good and they impress. The choreography with its comic and romantic touches well suites the situations.


Cinematographer succeeds in bringing a pleasant feel across with its brightness with less shade. The emotional scenes however could have better filmed.


Editing is good.


The writer, Benny P Nayarambalam succeeds in giving a new life to this old theme. The comedy approach helped the film to make a good turnover in box office. Some times the comedy was little down the belly kind but if one considers the overall affect, it is a pretty good effort. The director Sasi Shankar did a decent job though not exceptional. He handled a serious subject with light hand but not giving away the soul.


It is a good watch for the comedy, screen presence of Dileep, Navya Nair and the romance angle between Dileep and Manya. I liked this Kunjikoonan.


My rating: 3.5 Stars


The Hunchback of Kerala-dom
Jul 08, 2005 02:41 PM 3521 Views

One of the recent trends in the Malayalam movie industry, started and more or less sustained by a one-man army known as Vinayan, was that of telling stories of people with medical disabilities. The trend-setter was a tear-jerker named ''Vasanthiyum, Lakshmyum pinne njanum'' directed by Vinayan, which dealt with the debacles faced by a blind man. Enthused by the success of this film, Vinayan went on to make flicks using a mentally retarded hero in one and a paraplegic girl in another! Amazingly, even the mentally retarded hero had a beautiful, fair, intelligent and well-educated girlfriend, whom he finally married! Must have left many a Romeo ruing the fact that he was born with all faculties intact!!


Taking heart from the varying degrees of success all the above movies enjoyed, Sasi Sankar also decided to jump into the physically disabled bandwagon with ''Kunjikoonan'' or ''Small Hunchback''. As usual, the hero (Dileep) lands a beautiful damsel, albeit blind, in spite of his disability. The girl, Chembakam, gets her vision back thanks to the heroes efforts and a corneal transplant. The trouble is that the boyfriend (Dileep in a double role) of the girl whose eyes were donated after her death starts stalking Chembakam. How this is dealt with, and how the hero overcomes his fear of rejection by Chembakam once she realises that he is a hunchback, form the rest of the story.


While all the actors have put in plausible performances, the film takes the audience for granted. A story smacks of fantasy, and shades of various literary works can be found in the film (Eagle in the sky by Wilbur Smith is one such). Most of the jokes are aimed at the hero's disability (even the hero makes statements like ''Did you tell the girl's family that I have an extra muscle on my back'' while going to see a girl for marriage), and some of them are in bad taste. The movie is watchable, and you wont regret having paid money for the ticket, but dont go and buy a DVD of this film!


Incidentally, this was also re-made into Tamil, where Surya did a better job than Dileep as the hunchbacked hero.


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