What happens when a director attempts to re-invent action-star Suresh Gopi in a comedy role, tinged with action, of course? Nothing negative if the script is good and the direction is equally deft. But when the script falters and so too the direction, everything goes terribly wrong and Suresh Gopi in a comedy-oriented role leaves you totally exhausted. That’s what has happened to Kichamani MBA, directed by debutante Samad Mankada, who had earlier produced films like Madhuchandralekha and Anachandam.
Kichamani MBA tells the story of Kichamani (Suresh Gopi), who had grown up bearing witness to a system immersed fully in all sorts of corruption. And when he grows up, he begins a firm named Kichamani and Associates and mediates deals between people and government officials, solving all kinds of problems and even mediating in corruption-related deals, on a commission basis. They are sort of power brokers, and keep feeding the corrupt officials in order to keep the machinery running.
Kichamani runs a sort of a parallel government and has sway over all sections of the people, managing things by bribing the corrupt and even dint of muscle power, when it comes to that. And in the process he earns the enmity of Devanarayanan (Biju Menon), who is an influential politician and corrupt to the core, with aims at making it big in politics. The shrewd and rather crooked Devanarayanan schemes in many ways to do away with Kichamani and also the State Finance and Excise Minister Bahuleyan (Riza Bawa), who is Kichamani’s friend and well wisher.
In the meantime a Delhi-based journalist Shivani Menon (Navya Nair) and her friend Saajan (Jayasurya) prop up to make a documentary on the ways of the real-estate mafia in Kochi, targeting Devanarayanan mainly, and when Kichamani protects Shivani, things take a new turn.
The rest of the story deals with what happens next.
Suresh Gopi doesn’t impress at all as Kichamani and it is evident that it is not at all the actor’s fault, but the director’s for the latter doesn’t seem to know what he wants out of the actor. The script-writer and the director both don’t seem to be sure whether they want Suresh Gopi to do a comedy role or an action role or an action-role tinged with comedy and thus they fail to get anything worth mention from the actor.
All the others in the cast cut a sorry figure, except perhaps Biju Menon as Devanarayanan, a character that could have been worked out even better. Navya as Shivani is a terrible let down.
There is nothing to mention about the technical aspects. The song “Pokkiriyaane…” has been filmed rather distastefully and could have been a highlight of the movie, had it been filmed adeptly. The film leaves you totally confused and exhausted and is a big let-down in all respects. The film would have been better, if more attention had been paid to scripting and direction. Bad Luck for Suresh Gopi and his fans!
