Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Shaheen, Lal, Vineeth, Shankar, Vijay Menon, Suresh Krishna, Edavela Babu, Revathy, Indu Thamby, Anjana
Director : Kalavoor Ravikumar
Music : M.G.Sreekumar, Sajiv Mangalath
Bg Score : Ouseppachan

The announcement of the malayalam movie 'Sneham + Ishtam = Amma', telling the intimate relationship between a mother and her son, has happened almost an year before. It was heard that Mohanlal will be acting there in a guest role. New comer Shaheen and Revathy comes in the lead roles, supported by Vandana ('Ulakam Chuttum Valiban' fame) and Namitha Pramod ('Traffic' fame). Any way, the shooting of the movie didn't started, even after the pooja occurred and pre-production publicity stills circulated in the media.

It all changed, a new movie has started in that place. The writer - director and some of the actors in the list has been changed, Mohanlal also walked out of the project. Kalavoor Ravikumar (script writer of 'Ishtam', 'Ottayal Pattalam', 'Swa.Le' etc) came forward to direct this venture titled 'Father's Day'. He has directed a movie

'Oridathoru Puzhayundu' before. Shaheen still continues in the lead role (he is also the co-producer of this movie), Revathy is there, new comers Indu Thamby (former Miss Kerala) and Anjana are the added ones in the list. Oscar award winner Rasool Pookkutty did a small appearance, like he committed in the earlier project also. Cinematographer S.G.Raman and editor Sreenivas are also maintained.

Sethulakshmy (Revathy) is a college professor, who is still unmarried. She lives with her distant relative (Indu Thampy). Sethu's brother (Vineeth) is staying nearby with his wife (Anjana) and kids. He is worried about the loneliness of his sister and even asked her to get married at this age. But, she is not willing for this, at any cost. At this stage, a stranger (Shaheen) came to the life of Sethulakshmy. The arrival of the youth, gave some mental tensions for the lady. The reason for this is revealed in the later areas.

The story of the movie is excellent and felt different also. The problem has happened in the scripting and presentation sides. The dialogues in many places felt childish and repetitive. The presence of an experience director should have saved the project from such loop holes. The director has handled such a big theme, in a silly manner. The way in which the four member gang reacts to the hero's words is the best example (Director Ranjith Sankar also committed a same mistake in 'Arjunan Sakshi'). Though the presence of Lakshmi Priya, Maya Visawnath, Reena Basheer etc are there, none of them have got prominence in it. The climax of the movie is a touching one.

The selection of the heroine Indu Thamby has affected in a negative manner. She is very badly performed. Her make up and costumes are not good; her body language is suited well to walk through the ramp for a couple of minutes in a fashion show and leave, without opening the mouth. She is there in almost all the scenes in the movie, from beginning to end. The loud howling voice from the crowd for many of her scenes, proved that she is not at all suited for this job. Another bad move from the director.

When compared to this, debutant Shaheen did a far better job. Though he needs improvement in many areas, his performance in the second half portions, including the climax, didn't showed that he is a new comer. Revathy is excellent in the lead role. She did it in her style, the thirty years of her acting career, gave her the energy to behave accordingly. Vineeth, Lal and Anjana gave a good support. Though the characters of Shankar, Vijay Menon, Suresh Krishna and Edavela Babu needed an aggressive mentality, it is not there as the director is having 'unwanted' control over them. The songs are not memorable, other than a gazal song from Hariharan. Bg score by Ouseppachan is ok.

It is a natural feeling that one might be confident in his script and wants to direct the movie himself, but before doing that he should analyze about his caliber in handling a big theme like this. It has happened in the case of Kalavoor Ravikumar. It is sad to see that even after getting an attractive theme, the team behind had failed to execute it, due to the lack of professionalism in the presentation, poor dialogues and the placement of bad actors in few roles, especially heroine. Kalavoor should wait for some good team to get the tamil rights of this movie to watch a nice remake version.

Father's Day has got an excellent theme; there are many problems in the presentation and casting sides of this movie, even then a hard core follower of family movies can watch this, keeping those facts in mind.

Rating : 6 / 10