Daivame Kaithozham K Kumar Akanam movie review: A hilarious satire

Cast: Jayaram, Anusree, Salim Kumar, Nedumudi Venu

Director: Salim Kumar

There’s a way in which society runs. No matter how well our lives and living standards have improved, we dare not question the stone-age practices conveniently termed as traditions, or simply choose to take them into belief without thinking the other way around. It’s not that we don’t have the knowledge or power to do so, but the easiest option is to go with the flow and stop bothering where the road is going to end.

Social satires become the need of the hour at this point, and films have proven to have handled that part with perfection many times before. Here’s one more that mocks at the so-called system or that structure composed of unfair people, practices and circumstances. Daivame Kaithozham K.Kumar Akanam, coming from a director who is still the people’s favourite comedian, promises not just another laugh-riot, but a sharp dig at things that need a timely redressal.

The home of Village Extension Officer K. Kumar aka Krishna Kumar and his wife Nirmala acts as a backdrop against which the entire story revolves around. Obedient wife Nirmala (Anusree) is old school, the one who discharges her duties from the crack of the dawn to sundown, without uttering a word of complaint, except a few murmurs. That is what the husband expects too, or sometimes more than that. Jayaram mostly repeats his ‘Sugunan’ self in Veruthe Oru Bharya, that reeks of staleness in the first half.

There begins a fantasy that should be treated in the way it is. A ‘divine intervention’ occurs, God (Nedumudi Venu) attains human form to stay with them to take their lives on a ride.

Salim Kumar, who has gotten back to his former self of a comedian, tickles the funny bone as Karimannur Gopi to caricature a publicity-seeking businessman. The ‘Pranchiyettan’ type character is quick-witted and cashes in on situational humour.

It’s high time we corrected our beliefs, the film tells us. That there is a need for gender parity and not dominance, which is mostly mistaken to be chauvinistic or feministic. The director has chosen a less-trodden formula for it — gender role-reversal, which has been executed to perfection with the accompaniment of humour.

If the movie boots a 3F USP — Fun, Family and Fantasy — it keeps the promise all throughout.