Having born out from the teaming up of Mohanlal and Lal Jose, ‘Velipadinte Pustakam’ was carrying the weight of an unnecessarily huge level of expectations. Well, the movie tried to energize the big screen on some occasions, but fell flat mostly. That said, it could well be a better outing, if you are willing to keep all your expectations at the bay.
Professor Idikkula (Mohanlal) lands to a college, which appears to be one of the most problematic colleges around, with frequent quarrels between students from the native village and that of the ones from the city. Upon the arrival of Professor Idikkula, the whole atmosphere of the college changed drastically, like the once rivals started hanging out like best buddies. Soon then, Professor Idikkula was destined to do something else – bringing out the life of a man named, Bullet Viswam (Anoop Menon), who was instrumental in setting up the college.
You would be wondering if that is all with the story of ‘Velipadinte Pustakam’. Well, yes to an extent, but no if you want to count the tracks running in parallel with the main plot – like the comic numbers of Prem Raj (Salim Kumar) and the rumoured love affair between lecturer Mary (Anna Reshma Raj) and that of Idikkula. It was frustrating to see a Lal Jose movie lacking properly drawn characters. You can find a whole number of familiar faces on the big screen, but none of them were capable of doing anything that is lovable. You have to believe it, that even the characterization of Idikkula too appears jarred.
We could attribute all these faults on Benny P Nayarambalam’s script, which didn’t ooze any freshness. But, what about Lal Jose? We all know that he is a director of a different league, something which he has proved umpteen times in the past. Look here, ‘Velipadinte Pustakam’ works in a haphazard fashion mostly, and relying more on individual sequences, which rarely contribute to the wholesomeness of the movie. What is even disturbing that apart from proven stars like Mohanlal, Salim Kumar, Alencier, Siddique or even Chemban, the movie hasn’t produced any meaningful act from the younger generation. Be it Sharath, who immortalized the character of Appani Ravi in ‘Angamaly Diaries’, or Anna Reshma Raj (Litchi), Arun of ‘Anandam’ fame, none maintained the energy level of their debut projects.
Technically, the camera works of Vishnu Sharma was strictly an average fare, and didn’t bring the usual visual charms of typical Lal Jose movies. Music of Shaan, sans the ‘Jimikki Song’ didn’t generate the desired output. All in all, without the screen presence of Mohanlal and the comic numbers of Salim Kumar, ‘Velipadinte Pustakam’ can hardly satisfy typical Lal Jose movie goers.
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