“Our situation is like fishing from the Venduruthy bridge. We didn’t catch any fish but got hit by a vehicle and died.” Dialogues like these, which erupt laughter spontaneously, is the highlight of the movie ‘Money Ratnam.’ Stickered as a comedy thriller, Santhosh Nair’s directorial debut with Fahadh Faasil in the lead, ‘Money Ratnam’ has evoked curiosity even before the release with a catchy title and an interesting teaser. As the name itself describes, the story is all about Money and Ratnam (Jewel) and the struggles people encounter on the path to attain it.
The film starts with the narration of the life story of Neil John Samuel (Fahadh Faasil), who is in the sales team of Benz showroom in Kochi. On his way back home, he accidentally locks horns with local thug Makudi Das (Joju George). In an unexpected turn of events, Neil gets a bag containing `1 crore in cash and the rest of the movie is the struggle he faces to conceal it. Parallelly, five people, led by Kannammaly Joppen (Chembil Ashokan), want to sell a rare jewel with magic powers to Isaac Anakkadan (Renji Panicker) and often they fail to settle the deal.
Back home, Neil’s fiancee Pia (Niveda Thomas), who is engaged in charity, strives hard to get funds for the operation of children. Though she finally finds money to support them at the eleventh hour, the sponsor himself throws a spanner into her plans. The crisis faced by Neil to reach to Pia forms the rest of the plot.
‘Money Ratnam,’ penned by Anil Narayanan and Ajith C Lokesh, is the testimony to the famous John Lennon quote, ‘Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans’. Glued with genuine comedy and well-carved situational funny sequences, the account of the filmmakers is rich enough.
Another highlight is the individual performances of Fahadh Faasil, Renji Panicker, Joju George and Chembil Ashokan. Fahadh has done complete justice to the role and carries the burden almost single-handedly.
After his much appreciated performance in the Mammootty starrer-RajadhiRaja, Joju George through ‘Money Ratnam’ underlines that he is here to stay as a comedian. The performance of Chembil Ashokan is also commendable. The makers were able to retain the comedy tempo of the movie till the end.
When the tone of the movie changes to a serious one, it becomes a bit indigestible.
The over heroic action scenes by Fahadh (though well done by him) differ from the entire mood of the movie. Also the film doesn’t give any chance to perform for the female characters. Despite these minor hiccups, it is a comedy film, entertaining and engaging throughout.