Film: Bhayya Bhayya
Direction: Johny Antony
Cast: Kunchacko Boban, Biju Menon, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Innocent and Nisha Aggarwal
Many tales have already been told about the plight of migrant workers in Kerala through various media. But it has never been the subject of a Malayalam movie. Filling this gap came Bhayya Bhayya.
This Onam release by director Johny Anthony once again experiments the successful pair, Kunchacko Boban and Biju Menon. The box office response to movies like Ordinary and Romans must have made the makers of the film to give this pair another innings.
Bhayya Bhayya opens with the narration of the life story of Bengali Babu (Kunchacko Boban). His father (Innocent) brings home Babu Chatterjee (Biju Menon), an orphan from Bengal. As children, the relationship between them grows stronger and they become brothers of choice. Bengali Babu is a supplier of workers to Kerala from Bengal. In an unfortunate incident, one of the workers supplied by him dies and they take the body to Bengal. His childhood heartthrob Angel Varkey (Nisha Aggarwal) also follows him as per their plan to register their marriage in Bengal. The incidents during their journey form the rest of the story. The script penned by Benny P Nayarambalam has all the ingredients for a masala movie mix. However, the old-wine treatment pulls a veil of boredom on the audience from the very beginning. The comedy essences added by Suraj Venjaramoodu and Salimkumar often fail to impress.
In a way, Bhayya Bhayya stoops into the standard of a second class story telling as the crux of the story is the conflict between Bengali Babu and the villains played by Vijayaraghavan and Shammy Thilakan. Music by Vidyasagar does not give any substantial push to the entire film.
Filmmaking is like building a house. The eyes of the director should reach every nook and cranny of the film. There were actors who are capable of building a magnificent house. However, as the base provided by the script writer was fragile, the director could not build a strong house upon it. It’s a modern adage that the migrant labourers are hard workers than the ones in Kerala but they have to be supervised by a Malayali worker. In the end, Bhayya Bhayya looks like a distorted house built by migrant workers without anyone’s sincere supervision.
Despite the novelty in the theme, the film offers nothing to the viewers.
