Note Book

Language : Malayalam
Banner : Grihalakshmi Productions
Director : Roshan Andrews
Producer : P.V Gangadharan
Camera : C.Divakar
Story : Sanjay Bobby
Screenplay : Sanjay Bobby
Dialogue : Sanjay Bobby
Lyrics : Vayalar Sarathchandra Varma
Music : Mejo Joseph
Distribution : Kalpaka Release
Release : 2006 December 21
Cast : Prem Prakash, Seetha, Jaya Murali, Sudha Nair, Ravindran, Aiswarya, Baiju, Skandha, Roma, Mariya, Parvathy, Vaani, Seetha, Mejo Joseph, Suresh Gopi

Roshan Andrews seems to be in the end of his good honeymoon with commercial cinema as his second film Notebook is predicted to be a loser. 23 months after his debut film Udayananu Tharam, one of the classics in Malayalam cinema, the expectations from Roshan's next, a three crore extravaganza with all new stars falls flat. We are not encouraged to talk of the brave attempt and the unexpectedly bold theme as the film portrays insensitiveness all through the proceedings, giving much little for the viewers to cherish.

The film has three girls as protagonists tied up in a boarding school trying to find out a way to overcome their emotional problems. Saira( Roma), Pooja (Parvathy) and Sridevi (Maria) are classmates and close friends in twelfth standard studying in Lord's Academy in Ooty. The threesome comes from altogether different homely atmosphere as Pooja lives with her mother (Seeta), Saira comes from a broken home and Sreedevi's parents are heart smitten on their daughter.

Pooja is the brightest student in the class and also the school leader while Saira is the naughtiest one in the group, even though she is more emotional due to her family problems. Due to her separated parents (Suresh Gopi & Aishwarya) Saira who is in hostel always play fowl to get caught every time by their principal whom they passionately call Dracula. Saira and Sridevi who are in hostel find their best friends in Firoz (Mejo Joseph) and Suraj Menon (Sooraj) in their class. Firoz is a modest guy, bad in studies but crazy about music. Suraj, the hero of his class falls in love with Sridevi and in a school excursion, they end up making love which results in Sridevi becoming pregnant. The rest of the story revolves round how the friends handles the pressure of pregnancy and how they find ways to overcome the associated troubles. The weakest link in Notebook is its amateurish screenplay and presentation, never expected from a crew which was composed of award winners for their debut ventures.

The all new star cast tries their best to bring in the energy of freshness into their roles but a monotonous script lets all the chances null. Even the climax which is a look alike of recent Classmates brings comparisons, which may also affect the box-office prospects of the film. However, the plus points of the film that is quite evident are the camera of C.Divakar and the effective rerecording which in many ways tried to avoid the total breakdown of narrative continuity. Songs tuned by Mejo Joseph are hummable and are well picturised

Among the starless cast, Roma as Saira excels while Parvathy and Maria are promising. Suresh Gopi's presence adds little impact to the film as the dubbing of many characters are a notch down. The opening sequences which impresses, in no time make a mess up and narration go haywire into a snailish pace.

A must have been cute film set in naughty school circumambience ends up creating out a fare that looks dismal and unobserving.

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