Midhun Manuel Thomas’s first film Aadu (2015) told the story of goat and a few local thugs while his next Annmariya Kalippilannu (2016), was a revenge story, albeit a kid’s. Alamara is Midhun’s new flick in the third consecutive year. This time he leans on an Alamara (Almirah) to tell a funny tale.
The movie opens with the scene of an alamara, left to ruin under a coconut tree. It starts to narrate its story (voice over by Salim Kumar).
Arun (Sunny Wayne), a young banker is employed in Bangalore meets Swathi (Aditi Ravi), when she gets transfered to the same city. They soon tie the knot.
After their marriage, an Alamara is gifted to them by the bride’s family and the rest of the film deals with funny incidents around it.
The film is an attempt to portray human relations with the huge Alamara as a symbol of ego. The 2-hours-10 minutes is sprinkled with situational jokes.
Seema G Nair (as Arun’s mother) and Manju Satheesh (as Swati’s mother) do their bit in a decent way to establish how silly things can snowball into huge issues in a family.
Manikandan Achari (as Arun’s uncle) is a treat to watch. Though he was mainly given action sequences, his comic timings are charming too. Especially when he asks for beef fry though being a right wing activist and when he mocks deomenetisation.
The story by Mahesh Gopal is simple and John Manthrickal, who did the screenplay, gave the overall plot a right treatment. Sequences which involves Aju Varghese, Saiju Kurup and Sudhi Koppa gets monotonous at times. The real estate issue with a local gangster do not add any significance to the story, though elicits laughter.
As the makers gave more thrust to comedy sequences, the movie lacks an emotional back-up. Sunny Wayne exhibits a decent performance. So do debutante Aditi Ravi and Ranji Panicker (as Arun’s father).
However, it is Midhun Manuel Thomas who is emerging as a matured film maker with his each movies.
Keeping aside the sequences which involves drinking and scenes in the house which are often cliched, the film is wrapped well in comedy. Hence this comedy drama is a sure one-time watch.