Lava Kusha movie review: Lava Kusha fails to cheer

Cast: Neeraj Madhav, Aju Varghese, Biju Menon, Deepti Sathi 
Director: Gireesh Mano

For Malayalam cinema, this looks like the season of ‘dumb cop’ movies. Two weeks ago, Tharangam introduced us to two broke, dumb cops. This week it’s the turn of two dumber broke wannabe cops from the movie Lava Kusha, starring Neeraj Madhav and Aju Varghese.

The opening shot of the movie was the trailer that was already released. The audience are then taken to a Tasmac queue, where the lead characters meet and bond over a pint. 

Ten minutes into the movie, the characters break into a dappankuthu song and dance. These two characters, who do not have any specific names, call each other ‘boss’ very quickly, forge a strong connection and decide to help each other out in finding a job, especially because Aju’s character believes that when together they are  lucky. 

The duo soon gets caught up in various silly situations. Biju Menon joins them on a train journey, during which they land up in the hands of a gold smuggling gang. The rest of the story revolves around how they try to wriggle out of a series of unfortunate situations that tail them. In between all the confusion, they end up christening themselves as Lava and Kusha.

Now, it would be too harsh to say that the movie is an utter waste of time, because there are a few good scenes that offer the viewers a chance to laugh. But that does not help much this long movie with its many terrible coincidences and twists. 

Aju and Neeraj, are well, themselves. They are exactly how we are used to seeing them. Menon was definitely a saving grace in this otherwise really dumb movie. It could have been any seasoned actor playing Menon’s role and the movie would still be the same.  

Lava Kusha clearly has too many flaws, which could have been avoided. From the long-winding first half, unnecessary jibes at self and fellow actors (although laughing at self is applaudable, there is a thin line between that and belittling oneself) to an equally long second half. 

Clearly this script does not deserve so much of a viewer’s time — 151 fabulous minutes to be exact. It is commendable that Neeraj gave writing a shot, but it would be best if he stick to acting. 

The music complemented the movie. Kids clearly loved the cat and mouse chase. But at the end of the day, it just wasn’t that engaging.