I saw two movies this week - Vinodayatra & Mayavi. Vinodayatra is a story of Vinod finding his calling in life. It's a feel good family movie where the screenplay takes us into a families daily life without any fanfare and at a leisurely pace. Sathyan Anthikkad is a master director at weaving good family stories and though this movie is not his finest, it' s certainly a decent one with oodles of melodrama. Dilip is funny and so is Mukesh. Seetha, Meera Jasmine, Parvathy (the Kiran TV compere), Mamookoya, Innocent and a few others complete the cast. Screenplay this time is done by Sathyan Anthikkad himself. Ilaiyaraja's music is apt.
Mayavi is a humor loaded movie which doesn't offer any logic, I didn't expect that too. Mahi is a good guy who walks in and out of jail for various crimes he did not commit but owned up to for money. Inorder to get big money he accepts to own up to a murder that is to be committed so that he can save his best friend's brother's life by paying for the operation. How Mahi goes about the task unfolds in the story. There's deception at the highest level, there's jealousy and every Shakespearean vice in this movie. But what I am deliberately trying to understate is the fact that this movie has tons of laughs stuffed into it.
The first half races past you, the length is not felt because of the incredible humor by Mamooty and the entire cast. The second half meanders into the illogical to the absurd but who cares, you can still laugh. Overall, Shafi has directed a hot comedy screenplay penned by Rafi Mecartin and delivered the first superhit of the year. After the dissapointment that was "Big B", "Mayavi: was a refreshing change. Incidentally "Mayavi" released before "Big B" but took so long to release in Coimbatore.
