The promos,posters and songs of Shahjahanum Pareekuttiyum failed to generate much impact among the audience and forewarned a leisurely made retro-style rom-com made to cash upon the festival season.The judgement didn't go wrong a bit as the movie based on a wafer-thin plot of memory loss had nothing new to offer except for occasional laughs that were far and few in the narration.
Boban Samuel,who has earlier directed films like Romans,Happy Journey and Janapriyan didn't have much to do with this done to death and inconsistent screenplay by Y.V.Rajesh that's jam-packed with confusing characters,lackluster twists and quiet a few tiresome and immaterial sub plots that does more harm than good for the overall integrity of the movie.
The story is totally devoid of logic and progresses pointlessly to end on a half-note with a cameo that didn't make any intended impact among the audience.The logiclessness could have been justified had their been more moments to laughs as in movies like writer Y.V.Rajesh's debut script Gulumaal or Boban Samuel's Chackochan starrer Romans that could evoke laughs at regular intervals.
I admit the fact that there were few interesting comedy sequences,particularly in the first half,but these alone couldn't sustain the narration for its running time of around 140 minutes that felt much more due to abundance of prolonged and easily avoidable sequences.Many of the sequences infused for producing laughs fell flat and could have been edited out to gain more pace for the narration.
The sequences involving Suraj Venjarammood was a big relief and hilariously funny.The neatly executed idea to spoof few hit films from the past was well received and worth mentioning.
Coming to the performances,it was a cake-walk for the lead actors as they were casted in typical roles that reminded of their films released in the recent past.May it be Kunchako Boban playing the role of Pranav or Jayasurya enacting Prince,the characters looked too similar to their roles in films like Cousins,Romans and 3 Kings.Amala Paul had a meaty role to play here which she did with ease and required perfection.Suraj Venjarammood was hilarious.Aju Vargheese could shine only in few instances.Surprisingly,the parent characters played by Vijaya Raghavan and Vinaya Prasad felt struggling to pull out a decent performance with an artificial feel to it.
Songs by Gopi Sunder and Nadirsha were passable,but don't qualify for repeated hearing.The background score by Gopi himself was mediocre.Lijo Paul could have done better job with editing.Cinematogrpahy by Anishlal R S was adequate.
Overall,Shahjahanum Pareekuttiyum is a festival movie that entertains in bits and parts,but is hollow for the most part.
