Lavakusha Movie Review

CRITIC'S RATING:  2.0/5

AVG READERS' RATING: 2.5/5

Cast: Neeraj Madhav, Aju Varghese

Direction: Gireesh Mano

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 2 hours 35 minutes

• Critic's Review

Story: Two semi-jobless Malayali men meet in Chennai and become friends. When they sense their common interest to be cops, after inadvertently get involved in a police encounter, they decide to stick together. What awaits them is a cauldron of crimes and outlaws.

Review: A premise involving two physically average men wishing to join the police. The ways and means they employ to materialize the dream - all of it sounds propitious enough to offer a few hours of harmless laughter. When Lavakusha's teaser was out featuring the goofy characters of a talented Neeraj Madhav and Aju Varghese, hinting on this comedy plot, it added to the hope that the movie indeed has what it takes to keep audience entertained through its length. But sadly, it ends up being a messily put together tale loaded up with humour that hardly works.

A social media manager (Aju) and a touch-up boy (Neeraj Madhav) meet at a local liquor shop in Chennai, accidentally. A bond gets formed gradually between them and they get into a 'criminals and cops' situation, by chance. Unwittingly, they help the cop Joy Cappen (Biju Menon) and together realize their dream to be policemen, in the process. The rest of the tale unfolds showing whether they materialize it and if so, what are the hurdles they cross for the same.

At irregular intervals, there are a few jokes of Lavakusha that work and create ripples of laughter in the cinema hall - thanks to the signature style comedy rendition of Biju Menon. Aju and Neeraj also entertain in parts through their dialogues and comedy action sequences. Neeraj's dance number in the first half at times makes you wonder why his skills in it aren't used much in films.

The movie is also the debut screenplay initiative of the dancer - turned - actor but sadly, it has not workout out well as the execution comes across as sloppy at numerous points. Certain comic sequences completely misfire and are utterly laugh-deficient. A lot of times, it is because of attempting to mirror some age-old, evergreen comedy lines of the industry, albeit poorly. A few of the sequences, like the ones in which Aju's character arrives with the girls for whom he did a makeup session, come off as utterly silly efforts for humour. The second half, which squeezes in the thriller elements also pack in too much for the film to take that they bulge out as a misfit in the whole premise of the story. All in all, the movie neither offers quality laughter or thrill to keep you entertained through its length.