Gopalapuranam

Cast: Mukesh, Saikumar, Ramana, Sujibala, Rajan P Dev, Indrans, Jagannatha Varma, Tony, Kalashala Babu, Salim Kumar, Zakker Hussein, Thesny Khan
Language: Malayalam
Banner: Sapco Creations
Director: K.K Haridas
Producer: Zakir Hussain , C.P.M. Rafeek
Camera: Pramod Monalisa
Story: Shornur Vijayan
Screenplay: Shornur Vijayan, T.M. Babu
Dialogue: Shornur Vijayan, T.M. Babu
Lyrics: M.D. Rajendran , S. Ramesan Nair
Music: Sudhamshu , Yunasio
Year: 2008

Old wine in old bottle. Tastes sour. Looks dull. Challenges patience. Gopalapuranam is just another movie to be listed for the mere sake of statistics. Nothing else.

With the release of Gopalapuram, the recent dismal fate of small banner Malayalam movies continues to frustrate moviegoers. This shabby non-entertainer falls into one of the early nineties formulae which churned out similar results a decade back.

'Gopalapuranam' tells, rather tries to tell, the story of Gopalakrishnan, the son of Gopalan Nair, who rears cows and sells milk for a living. Gopalan Nair, now in his sixties, finds it hard to continue with his job and calls for the assistance of Remanan, the president of milkmen association and the only friend of his son Gopalakrishnan. His son, doesn't want to work that hard and is least interested on helping with the cow business. Always dreaming of easy money, by hook or crook, he has tried many ways all resulting in absurdities.

Gopalakrishnan finds his breakthrough as his only sister Nandini comes across a person named Vishnu with whom she gets married after a while. Vishnu, however is a gold smuggler who moves around in masquerades (as usual with every mukesh film of the nineties) and works under Mathew (Saikumar, predictably), his mentor.

Gopalakrishnan too joins smuggling business with Vishnu and proves himself as too good in that. But on an  occasion, the greed for making big amounts in one go ,makes him to do something that  disrupts all equations between the different gangs  in the business .Vishnu and Gopalakrishanan are now left in dire streets between gangs , who wants their gold and money back.

Based on a story by Shornur Vijayan, the plot moves around with little surprises. Moreover a rather interesting premise is wasted by a treatment that is outdated and the direction is too old-fashioned and gives you a feel like watching television soap. If it could have been little more polished with interesting scenes, the film might have managed to make average collections.

The movie definitely tries to put in a message for the obsessively ambitious youth, but you know, straining through all the 130 minutes to read a quote book is too exhausting.

Mukesh as Vishnu, Rajan P. Dev as Gopalan Nair and Saikumar as Mathew are in their usual selves. Remana debuting into Mollywood as gopalakrishnan finds it hard to hold the movie together .With his unnatural acting manoeuvres, many a scene fell flat and melodramatic.

The only saving graces of the movie are Indrans as the broker Sultan Abdul Khader and Salim Kumar as Remanan who manages to bring about a few chuckles in between.

The songs by Yunesio are also average. Cinematography by Pramod monalisa and other technical aspects are not much to talk about. All in all, this movie doesn't allow a rewarding viewing.

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