Film: Ithihasa
Starring: Shine Tom Chacko, Anushree, Balu Varghese
Direction: Binu S
‘Body swap’, wherein two strangers end up in each other’s bodies by some flight of fantasy, might be a new concept in Malayalam cinema but it has been milked to the limit in Hollywood as far back as the 1980s. Perhaps the last among those happened in 2002, in the not-so-great comedy Hot Chick , from which Ithihasa has surely drawn more than an ounce of inspiration.
Alby (Shine Tom Chacko) and Vikku (Balu Varghese) are small-time thieves, the kind of guys who are the first ones to be picked up by the police when something happens in the city. Janaki (Anusree) is an IT professional who is yet to get out of her conservative shell despite her liberal friends. Two centuries-old rings, stolen from a museum, end up with Alby and Janaki by a string of coincidences and soon Alby becomes Janaki and vice versa.
From this point, Anusree literally takes charge, strutting around the street like a dada and beating up the baddies. Her transformation is more convincing than Shine’s feminine act, overdone at certain points and also limited in its scope due to the way the original Janaki’s character is written. Shine is relegated to the background as Balu and Anusree hog all the comic limelight. Binu S, in his debut directorial, brings in a whiff of fresh air, even acknowledging the fact that the film’s premise is borrowed.
The social situations that the two caught in a body of the opposite gender have to face are brought out well, though there was so much more left to tap. It being a perfect plot to be made use of to break several gender stereotypes, all that was achieved was Anusree doing a couple of stunts and smoking a few cigarettes. And to top it all, the final fight belongs to Shine.
Towards the later half, the script takes the conventional route with villains arriving in SUVs, Joy Mathew in yet another cameo and it all getting mired in a kind of predictability, so unlike the other half of the film. But this small film does entertain in parts and is a better watch than the ones coming branded as ‘comedy’.
S.R. Praveen
