Banner Grace International
Director Shankar
Cast Vinu Mohan, Vishnupriya, Nedumudi Venu,
Kalabhavan Mani, Salim Kumar, Kishore Sathya,
Sivaji Guruvayur, Prakash and Abhirami Suresh.
Music Shyam Dharman
Lyrics Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma
Dialogues Vinu Narayanan

Movie Review in English

Yesteryear matinee-idol Shankar has decided to test his skills as a director with Keralotsavam 2009, but sadly, it seems not to be his cup-of-tea at all. With an amateurish script that lacks originality, charm or substance, the film turns out to be a rather meek affair, devoid of any real merit.
Sandeep Subramaniam (Vinu Mohan) comes to Kalanikethan, to perform kalarippayattu, during their forthcoming show Keralotsavam2009. Though it is being run by Padmanabhan Embranthiri (Nedumudi Venu), who has retired from Kalamandalam, it is being controlled by his daughter Ganga (Vishnupriya) who also happens to be a dancer.
Now, on to the suspense, that is in fact revealed pretty soon. Sandeep is actually a fugitive on a deadly mission. The incidents take some melodramatic and likely turns from then on with more than a few loose ends and no real clarity. The whole story looks clichéd and the film is predictable or even plain boring, to say the least.

Vinu Narayanan’s script is a fractured and amateurish one at best, stitched together with situations from various movies from the past. Shankar seems to have been confused whether to come up with a romantic story or a thriller, and finally ends up making a senseless misadventure.
Vinu Mohan lacks the maturity or even the fitness to portray such a character and that is quite evident in most frames. But he looks fairly okay when compared to the heroine, who emotes worse than a log of wood. She talks in a screeching, loud voice and speaks Malayalam lines in an irritating style. She is perhaps the weakest link in the film, which even otherwise would have been a colossal failure on every count.
Nedumudi Venu has nothing much to do but it is Kalabhavan Mani’s brief role as a RAW officer, Jeevan Isaac, which is surprisingly silly. The cops get solid information about all the terrorists involved and if they had cared to publish them through the media, all of them could have been nabbed pretty easily and we would have been saved from wasting our precious two hours watching this agonizing saga!
There are some efforts to tickle the funny bone with Salim Kumar as an idiotic minister and it adds to the woes of the viewers. Deepak Padi’s camera does no wonders but Shyam Dharman’s tunes are pretty fine.
Keralotsavam 2009 makes no impact whatsoever in the minds of the viewers as it has no original story idea or a tight script to make it interesting. Pick any old movie in which Shankar acted and watch it again. It will prove as a more worthwhile effort than wasting time on this one!