Four Friends

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Kamalhassan (guest role), Jayaram, Jayasurya, Kunjakko Boban, Meera Jasmin
Director : Saji Surendran
Music : M.Jayachandran

After a couple of hits like 'Ivar Vivahithaaraayal' and 'Happy Husbands', the same team (director Saji Surendran & his associates, script writer Krishna Poojappura, cinematographer Anil Nair, editor Manoj, art director Sujith Raghav, music director M.Jayachandran, choreographer Prasanna, still photographer Mahadevan Thambi etc), once again joined together for a new venture named 'Four Friends'. Jayaram, Kunjakko Boban and Meera Jasmin are doing the lead roles with Jayasurya who was also a common factor in the previous projects. The notable thing regarding this project is that 'Universal Hero' Kamalhassan did a special appearance in malayalam after 'Chaanakyan', breaking a gap of more than 20years.

The movie starts with a song, 'Yeh Dosti...' (remake from 'Sholay), showing the friendship of Roy (Jayaram), Soorya (Kunjakko Boban) and Ameer (Jayasurya). They are reaching airport for a trip to Malaysia. They are waiting for their another companion Gauri (Meera Jasmin) to arrive. In the mean time, their past, the way in which their friendship started, the motive of their journey etc are shown through a flashback. What happened to each of them and how they are prepared to face the life boldly forms the main theme of the story that are shown in the second half portions at abroad.

Unlike from the earlier movies, the presentation of the movie is different; Though 'Happy Husbands' was filled with humour oriented situations, here the story is more sentimental. In the beginning portions itself the problems are revealed, which later takes us to a sentimental journey till end. It shouldn't have done like that, there has to be a suspense element kept for the viewers to stay there. In this decade, you can't expect the people to enjoy a movie made like 'Thaniyavarthanam' or 'Aakashadoothu'. We can't blame the viewers, they are clever enough to identify that the incidents shown in the movies are real, but they don't want to see as it is through an entertainment medium. If the team behind is too particular about taking such a team, then they should tackle such a situation by presenting it differently, here the creators have failed on such a part.

I strongly argued with those people who says that the first two movies of Saji Surendran looks like a tele serial; but here I felt in many situations, such a view point must be right. The situations involving the doctor (Ganesh Kumar) and Soorya's parents (Lalu Alex and Seema) are too dramatic. Most of the time, the dialogues used in the movie felt like narrations or statements. The scenes showing affection between Roy and Gauri, the sudden start of the song after a tense behaviour by Gauri, Salim Kumar's comedy, the lengthy action scene in abroad, chasing done by Gauri's brother (Manikkuttan) , the doctor 's wig, the temple episode etc are few areas carelessly handled here. In general, the overdoze of sentiments creats laughing and humorous sequences are not upto its standards. The bg score given by M.Jayachandran is too loud most of the time. The remix song used in the movie won't make any change.

Jayasurya in the beard appearance is serious and humorous also. Jayaram and Kunjakko Boban did well. The character given to Meera Jasmin suits her well. The visuals given by cinematographer Anil Nair is colorful. If editor Manoj wants to trim certain sad situations, it would be confusing for him to decide, where should he started. It is good to see that Saji Surendran has handled the lengthy and motivating scene by Kamalhassan in an excellent manner, which is the only highlight of the movie.


'Four Friends' is a serious attempt targeting ladies. The presentation of the movie in such a way, won't gives you an attractive sight...


Rating : 3.5 / 10

Happy Husbands

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Jayaram, Jayasurya, Indrajith, Bhavana, Samvritha, Rima Kallingal
Director : Saji Surendran
Music : M.Jayachandran

The same team behind 'Ivar Vivahitharaayal', which is one of the few hit films that happened in the last year, Saji Surendran (director), Krishna Poojappura (script writer), Anil Nair (cinematographer), Manoj (editor), M.Jayachandran (music) etc had come up with their new project, 'Happy Husbands' produced by Milan Jaleel. They had got a big star cast this time. Jayaram, Jayasurya, Indrajith, Bhavana, Samvritha, Rima Kallingal, Vandana, Suraj Venjarammood, Salim Kumar etc. The film is presented in a comedy background.

Mukundan (Jayaram) is the managing director of Kerala Today magazine. His wife Krishnendu (Bhavana) is too possessive for her husband and always thinks that his husband might go behind other ladies. On the other side, Mukundan's friend Rahul (Indrajith) is not straight and had got a flirt character also, but his wife (Samvritha) dont know anything and she blindly believes that her husband is a good person. John (Jayasurya) is a neat bachelor who works for Kerala Today and he is loyal to his boss. His marriage is fixed now. One day a girl named Diana (Rima Kallingal), who is a bar dancer, comes to the life of these three guys. When Krishnendu sees Diana along with Mukundan, he tells that she is John's wife and thus starts the hide and seek game, confusions etc.

The story is not a fresh one, 'Happy Husbands' is the remake of tamil film 'Charli Chaplin' (Prabhu, Prabhudeva, Abhirami, Gayathri Raguram) which has been made in hindi as 'No Entry' (Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta). No need to blame the director here for doing a remake, as you are getting an opportunity to watch the product that is popular in other languages and more over they have claimed in the beginning itself as the story is inspired from the tamil film 'Charli Chaplin'.

There is out and out comedy from beginning to end as if like a Priyadarshan style of movie in the 80's. Suraj Venjarammod's role has been added for this story and it is a replica of many of the same kind of characters that we have seen from the olden days itself. In some scenes, he had tried to justify the usage of 'trivandrum slang' also. The performances of Jayaram, Indrajith and Rima Kallingal are notable. A couple of the songs happens in foreign locations. The title song featuring almost all the artists is a style adapted from bollywood. The boldness of the team behind to shot some of the portions in the foreign locations, gave a freshness to the atmosphere.

Anil Nair's cinematography is colorful. Songs by M.Jayachandran goes with the visuals, his bg score is good. Krishna Poojappura, who made the script according to the malayalam atmosphere, had done his job well. Saji Surendran, who made this comedy subject targeting family audiences also, might enter the list of notable directors in the field here after.

'Happy Husbands' is an entertainer. Don't look for the logic and if you have not seen either of its previous versions in hindi or tamil, then you will receive a bulk of laughing situations...


Rating : 7.5 / 10