Joker

Cast: Dileep, Nishanad Sagar, Manya
Language: Malayalam
Director: Lohithadas
Story: Lohithadas
Lyrics: Yousuf Ali Kecheri
Music: Mohan Sithara
Year: 2000

`Joker`, as the name suggests, takes us into the world of circus. Babu is the clown of the Royal Circus, which had flourished once but is in a sad plight now. The owner Govindan, along with the manager Khader Kuttipuram and the cook-cum-artist Susheela, manages to keep things afloat. Govindan has been saying that he would give his only daughter Kamala in marriage to Babu, who should run the circus after him. But anyhow things are not hunky dory in the camp. They are in dire financial constraints. It is at this stage that Sudheer Misra, the son of Padmini, a former artist in the group, visits Royal Circus. Sudheer, a talented circus artist and a performer at Rajkamal, another circus company, is invited to join the Royal Circus. Sudheer agrees and with his clever planning and management things change for the better. But things do not end there. Sudheer`s entry into the troupe brings about a lot of other changes too, not very pleasant to certain people there.

Lohitadas has tried his best to portray the life inside the circus tents very deftly. But somewhere along the line, he loses control of things and fails to maintain the tempo making one wonder as to what has happened to such a gifted writer like Lohitadas. Performance -wise, Dileep has done very well as Babu but newcomer Manya, who dons the role of Kamala, seems to lack freshness and seems ill cast. Bindu Panicker as Susheela has put in a really good performance. Late Bahadur, as the insane Abookka, the character which proved to be his swan-song too, gives a brilliant performance.

The songs, written by Yusuf Ali Kechery and Lohitadas, and set to tune by Mohan Sithara, are really good and melodious, especially `ChemmaanamPoothe` and `Kanneer Mazhayaththu`. The song `Kanneer Mazhayaththu` with the joker crying behind a laughing mask reminds one of the song `Jane kahan gaye who din` in Raj Kapoor`s `Mera Naam Joker` and `Unnai ninaththein paattu padichchen` in the Kamalhaasan starrer `Apoorva Sahodarangal`. But somehow `Joker` fails to convince and hold audience attention like some other milestone films in the same genre. But there is no doubt that `Joker` is, at least to a certain extent, different from most of the films released nowadays.

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