Crazy Gopalan

The first malayalam movie i got to see in 2009! Crazy Gopalan.... A movie that can be neatly classified among the likes of older Dileep no-brainers like CID Moosa, Parakkum Thalika. If you are not a fan of those types then u can stop reading this review right now and give this movie a miss!!

Story is a bit difficult to put into a review as it starts on one note and ends on a totally unrelated climax. Gopalan (Dileep) is a medium-time crook in a tiny village called Oonjalaadi. Cant describe him as a small time crook as he steals much bigger articles like door frames and cycles than small items like wallets. The villagers hatch a plan to catch him but they do not succeed. This gives Gopalan a fright and he shifts base to Ernakulam town and meets up with Salim Kumar another crook. They are then caught up in a big bank robbery plan and end up becoming the accused!!! How they try to get out and how Dileep takes revenge forms rest of the story. Why the story should start in a village and then shift base to the city is something which baffled me. He could just have been made out to be the same crook in the city also. The movie was initially named as 'Run Gopala Run' which would have been more apt than the final Crazy title because he just doesnt do anything crazy all throughout. :-P

The heroine Radha Varma is an absolute waste as she cannot even smile properly forget mouthing the dialogues!!! and she just ends up looking like a way-side pick up instead of the millionairess shes made out to be. Manoj K Jayan is the same ditto stereptype villain he is as in every movie and has just sleep-walked through this role. Same with Jagathy. The saving grace of the movie is Salim Kumar who is a riot in every scene he appears. :-)

Dileep tried really hard in movies like The Don and July 4th (both which sank without a trace) to change his image from slapstick hero to larger than life hero like Mohanlal and Mamootty. But i think he has now finally figured out hes not of the same material and has gone back to his roots albeit with some small action scenes in place. The director has managed to fit in a couple of neatly choreographed stunt sequences which do not (for once) look funny but on the other hand we can clearly see he has put in some work against his flabs and it shows also. Well, good for him!!

Crazy Gopalan is not hit material but it might turn out to be an average collector and rake in the money spent. A movie you can afford to watch when your train has been delayed by 5 hrs!! (so now you also know the reason behind me sitting through the entire movie)
Rating : 2 stars.