Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan Review : Fortune favours the good

Story: Miserly Keshu learns that he could get a fortune, but it proves difficult to lay his hands on and in the end, is it really worth all the trouble he has to go through?

Review: With writer Sajeev Pazhoor’s expertise in social drama and Nadirsha’s flair for comedy, they have a winner in Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan, though at 140 minutes, it gets a bit clunky at times, particularly towards the end.

Dileep plays elderly and miserly Keshu, whose younger siblings and their husbands are at his doorstep asking for a share of the family property. It isn’t fair, he insists, because they were all given their shares as dowry, but they get increasingly persistent, now that the value of the property has gone up with the nearby road getting wider.

Before a decision on the property can be taken, the whole bunch, including Keshu’s family with Urvashi playing wife Ratnamma and two children, first go to Rameshwaram as per his mother’s wishes to immerse their father’s ashes, and while there, Keshu receives a piece of news that could change his fortunes forever. While he secretly shares this with his wife and children, the rest of the party too, learn of this without his knowledge. And though he manages to give them the slip and get back home with his family, the news has spread in the area and there is no stopping the people of the neighbourhood from helping him, so that they can get a share of the fortune.

The story looks at the grip that a idea of a fortune has on people and how everything else seems tenuous in comparison, until things spiral out of control and then, one realises that money can make you lose your peace of mind. Keshu and his family are regular people, but the prospect of a fortune changes equations between them very easily. The story is spun through situations that are realistic and comic, just the way good satire is meant to. A couple of scenes towards the end between Keshu and Ratnamma, who loses her voice due to shock, are poignant and sweet and will stir couples.

Sajeev Pazhoor, who wrote Sathyam Paranja Viswasikkuvo and the National Award-winning Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, employs a lighter touch with Keshu Ee Veedinte Nadhan and shows that he can do comedy. The script is directed well by Nadirsha, who you can see has supplemented the writing with subtle touches. He has also composed the music, and written and sung Naaranga Muttaayi, which is sure to get popular by the nature of its lyrics. The editing by Sajan makes for a smooth watch in some key moments.

It is interesting to see Dileep as an elderly man with thinning hair and a paunch, and while Keshu can be an out-and-out comic character, the actor plays him with a slightly serious touch, and not in his usual slapstick style. He overdoes the old man mannerisms, though. Urvashi is a delight as always, in the comic and emotional scenes. The rest of the cast - Shajohn, Kottayan Nazeer, Jaffer Idukki - are good. And there is something about young actor Naslen; as usual, even in a small role, he manages to stand out and be goofily loveable.

With its good comic and emotional moments, and its message, this is a movie that everyone in the family will enjoy watching together.