Very small mistakes that land the heroes in deep troubles – This used to be the base of many successful and entertaining Malayalam comedies in late 80s and 90s that involved actors like Jayaram, Mukesh, Sreenivasan and Jagadeesh. Vineeth Sreenivasan’s screenplay in Oru Vadakkan Selfie takes us on a journey back to those good old times where story was as important as the humor involved in a movie. His screenplay is the winner all the way here as Oru Vadakkan Selfie turns out to be an extremely pleasing and rollicking entertainer.
Oru Vadakkan Selfie tells the story about an engineering student ,Umesh ( Nivin Pauly) who by the time he ended his college had 42 suppliments in his kitty .He next aspires to be a filmmaker and when he finds that he cannot convince his father to get the money to proceed further, he takes a trip to Chennai which then triggers a series of unprecedented events that land him in huge troubles.
Movie starts with a lot of moments that people who had completed engineering could completely relate to. “Kaikottum Kanditilla” song is a riot and had done its part already before the release in generating the curiosity quotient. A sequence in first half where Nivin Pauly hatches a plan to impress his family and native people on a Hartal day which fells flat on its face is hilarious.
So is the scene where Nivin fails to fill a simple form in a bank or pick up fresh tomatoes in a vegetable shop that makes his father ( a terrific Vijayaraghavan) say – “Avanonnum ariyilla Damu…… Avan padichathu engineering alle “. The pace never slackens in the second half too as moments to laugh keep coming out after one another where all the while Vineeth throws up enough twists and turns to keep you hooked as well.
Nivin Pauly and Aju Varghese are individually good and together great . Their timing and skills in this art named comedy is only getting better and better with each outing. Especially watch out for Aju Varghese’s expressions in a scene where Nivin Pauly reads a news on them where he first thought his name was not involved in the case but then turns out he is in deeper tangle than his friend. Nivin on the other hand shines in the scenes with Vijaya Raghavan too . Towards the end when he hears from a small boy how much he loves his father , the phone call he makes to Vijaya Raghavan will leave you laughing out loud for long.
Manjima looks the part of the character she portrays. This seems to Vineeth Sreenivasan’s best effort in front of camera too. Both Shaan Rahman and Jomon.T.John just continues to keep up their great consistent work in music and Cinematography departments. G. Prajith is another associate of Vineeth who gets promoted to the director seat and he makes sure Vineeth’s screenplay’s momentum is never lost on the screen. He also seems to have a great flair in picturising songs.
The last 10-15 minutes might be the only minus in the movie where few dots in the story look disjoint but by then the movie had served its purpose big time. Vineeth’s school of films that involve a series of greatly talented actors and technicians is now fast growing to one of the most trusted bands in Malayalam Cinema today. Oru Vadakkan Selfie might be the best movie to have come out from this group yet. As for Vineeth Sreenivasan, he has started to really show traits from his father that had made the latter one of our greatest scriptwriters ever.
