Film: Madhura Naranga
Director: Sugeeth
Starring: Kunchakko Boban, Biju Menon, Parvathy Ratheesh, Neeraj Madhav
When a film advertises itself as ‘based on a true story’, there is much that comes in the form of expectations. One, that the story on which the film is based has some element of the extraordinary or that it has enough meat for engaging drama. Sugeeth’s latest outing Madhura Naranga comes with such a true story tag, but it comes across as one of those thousands of normal stories, which no one bothers to make a film on or write a book about.
Jeevan (Kunchakko Boban), a taxi driver in Sharjah, one day gets as his passenger a Sri Lankan girl, Thamara (Parvathy Ratheesh). She is a victim of human trafficking and is on the run after attacking an abusive dance bar owner.
Overflowing with empathy, he decides to give temporary shelter in his room, which he shares with Salim (Biju Menon) and Kumar (Neeraj Madhav).
Love has to blossom obviously and obstacles are galore – the Sharjah police, the dance bar owner and geography, the last owing much to the compulsion to set the story in two countries.
In his debut film, Sugeeth hit most of the right notes owing to the comic chemistry of Biju Menon and Kunchakko Boban. He tried repeating the same in his second film ‘3 dots’ as well as here, but with less success.
Although there was scope for comedy here, it is not explored much. The sequences which were intended to be comic, depends heavily on double entendres. Neeraj Madhav though stands out with his timing.
The depressing state of the girl seems to affect the whole mood of the movie and even seeps into the lighter parts. Adding to the woes is the background music, which is perpetually on. The film’s momentum is further affected by a plethora of songs, which literally appear every single time the lead pair set eyes on each other.
At close to two-and-a-half hours, Madhura Naranga squeezes dry the audience’s patience, without offering either the laughs or tension, for which there was ample scope in that ordinary true story.
S.R. Praveen
