POKKIRIRAAJA ---- For the Masses.....

Mass masalas have become a routine outing in Malayalam cinema which was once known for its realistic approach in the silver screen.Gone are the days you went to the theater expecting to carry back some memorable stuffs........its the age of formula movies with multi heros who try to pump up the adrenaline in the viewers....and pokkiri raja does qualify to be in the same league.

Pokkiri raja from debutant director vaishakh is a mix of comedy,dance and action flavoured with some romance.The story,i would rather say the movie, is all about two bros raja and surya.Raja the elder one is another of those mamootty role who has run off from his native for some act that he is not actually responsible for.His brother surya(prithviraj) grows up in the same lines as of his brother.The first half is mostly about suryas fights and dance, romance with shreya's character and a comedy plot starring salim kumar and suraj.Though stuffless it doesnt bore you and slowly u start realizing that the title character is yet to make it to the screen.

Finally about 10 minutes before the interval, raaja is forced to come to the scene to save his brother out of one of the routine issues that filmy brothers often jump into---falling in love with the commisioners daughter.Mammootys intro though was similar to many of his previous films was worth the wait as the theater went haywire.
Post interval Raaja comes to kochi to single handedly thwart the plans of the bad guys.

Despite lacking any storyline pokkiriraaja manages to entertain.Thanks to the towering screen presence of Mammootty.It is another of his Raaja avataar after pazhassi and Bellary raaja to create waves in the B.O..But it did seem to me that Raaja should have been more of a serious character and should have been devoid of the silly English speaking infection injected by uday-sibi to his character.Prithviraj repeats his looks and action styles from puthiya mukham which is apt enough for a movie like this.Suraj-Salim kumar combo works out decently except for some scenarios where they struggle make you laugh.Fights by 'the ghajini fame- kanal kannan' and mafia sasi will thrill you mostly but should admit that it goes over board at times.Songs and dances are a real eye reckoner in pokkiri, as even Mammooty manages to get the viewer appreciation for some of his steps like the moon walk in the pub song.Music by jassie gift matches to the moods created in the plot.Director Vaishakh should be praised just for the fact that he managed to churn out pokkiriraaja out of a nothing script.Thanks to his tamil style movie making.Seems that when tamilians winning hearts with their realistic movies Malayalam industry is trying to play safe with masala ventures.
The weakest element in pokkiriraaja is the script by Sibi-Uday.The writers of many Masala pot boilers including Twenty twenty,thurappugulan,Runway tries to repeat the same formats with bits and peices from former ventures in malayalam cinema and some peices even from their own movies....The result is a script with very few surprises in the storyline.These guys have always tried to use the void in malayalam cinema and yet again tries to exploit the audience's starvation of quality cinema.

However with movies like TD Daasan 4 b being trashed by the mallu viewers and theaters ,one feels that this is all we want,rather this is all we deserve.Viashakh is lucky enough that even though his first venture is stuff less,it entertains the mass audience.