Cobra
Friday, 13 April 2012 18:18 | 
Written by Prasanth | 
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Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Mammootty, Lal, Lalu Alex, Maniyanpillai Raju, Salim Kumar, Jagathi, Babu Antony, Padmapriya, Kaniha
Director : Lal
Music : Alex Paul
Bg Score : Deepak Dev
A humor oriented action subject titled 'Cobra', announced with Mammootty and Lal in lead roles, cannot raise any expectation for regular movie buffs like me. Going through the recent facts and figures, a common man will think in such a way only. A point to be noted that the hero desperately needs a success, as seven of his last movies received negative responses at the box office.
First, the title of the movie was not an attractive one, but, when the team behind claims that it is the story two co-brothers lived in Kottayam, thus the title 'Cobra' felt like an idle one.
The movie is scripted and directed by Lal. This is his first independent directorial venture with Mammootty. After creating commercial successes through the sequels of 'In Harihar Nagar', he did a youth oriented movie like 'Tournament', with many young faces, but it didn't became a notable one. At this time, Emperor Cinema (owned by Anto Joseph, producer of 'The King and The Commissioner') came forward to do a project with Mammootty, the director shared the same screen space as the hero, expecting to repeat a 'Thommanum Makkalum' magic here. Heroines Padmapriya and Kaniha once again works together, after the Mammootty movie 'Keralavarma Pazhassiraja'. Venu, an usual companion for Lal, in all his previous directorial ventures, is the cinematographer. 'Cobra' is distributed by Play House.
Raja (Mammootty) and Kari (Lal) are twin brothers. They are known by the nick name Cobra, both are experts in boxing. They are rich people, who spends their life in a jolly way. They relocates to a new surrounding to free from the bad image, they received in the current place. They meets and befriended with a local rich man (Lalu Alex), who had got two daughters (Padmapriya and Kaniha). Cobra decides to buy a property from him. At the same time, another person (Babu Antony) is also eying on the property. The action and the romance portions are happening there after.
The movie is 'supposed to be' presented in a funny manner. To be honest, there is not a single scene in it, that will give you a good laugh. The lengthy talk regarding the hero characters, done by their body guards (Maniyanpillai Raju, Salim Kumar), in the starting portion itself, will give you a restless mood. It is very hard to digest the jokes given by these two characters. The twist given for one of the heroes is not treated properly. The romantic episodes are also not done in the best way. The second song and the visuals are not appealing.
The climax has got the flavor of tamil movie 'M.Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi', but this one is done in a very ordinary manner. The international heavy weight boxer falls on the ground after getting a single punch from the hero, is too cinematic (a colleague of mine predicted this scene, seeing the posters of the
boxer). The boxing episodes (first one happens in Mumbai) clearly gave the sign that they are done in the sets designed by the art director. The sentimental scenes have got the hangover of movies like 'Thengasippattanam', 'Thommanum Makkalum' etc. The fowl play at the meeting hall done by the villain and the father trying to convincing his daughters through a lie, are areas that felt like childish ones. The black color and the glamor issues told here are repetitive, it is already used in many movies before to create humor. Calling 'brother', 'brother', all the time, creates an uneasiness.
Cinematography by Venu is colorful. Songs by Alex Paul are not good. Bg score by Deepak Dev is ok. V.Saajan is the editor. Sameera Saneesh is the costumer. Art director is Prasanth Madhav.
'Cobra' adds the 8th one to the account of flop list for Mammootty, in the recent past. It is very sad to see the unprofessional approach of the senior actor in selecting roles. Hope, he is not going through the scripts seriously, these days. No need to compete with others, by doing 6 - 7 movies an year ! A good movie or two in an year is enough. This type of projects will spoil the 'name', earned by him in the 32 years of acting career. Choosing roles according to the age and full commitment in doing the character, are the two important factors that can create a best actor : these are few words and true observation from my friend, a genuine and great fan of the Megastar, in the last two and half decades...