Swarna Kaduva Review : The familiar tale of the greedy

Every Babu Janardhanan movie has an element that is inspired from the real life things that are there in the public attention. With the new movie directed by Jos Thomaas, Babu Janrdhanan is taking a dig at the self boasting business men of Kerala and at the same time he creates a preachy story about the downfall of a greedy man. Made in the same mould of 2006 M Padmakumar film Vaasthavam, Swarna Kaduva is a onetime watch movie.

A greedy lower middle class man Riny is our hero. He is this faithful servant of a Jewelry owner Lonappan. Riny is ambitious about having a rich life as some life experiences taught him that having money has a significant role in life. Swarna Kaduva is ultimately telling us this phase of Riny’s life where he achieves what he dreamt of and then a certain series of events teach him about the reality.

The content is somewhat a mix of Vaasthavam and Vellimoonga. What if Vellimoonga’s Mamachan gets into the position of Balachandran Adiga of Vaasthavam? A one liner review of Swarna Kaduva would sound like that. Of course the conflicts are different when you look at them from a distance but the soul of all the subplots and how everything ends looks pretty similar to the Prithviraj starrer. The contemporary elements in the script and the speed of the narrative are two main things which keep us occupied as an audience. A better emotional grounding and a little more freshness to the way they built the story would have made an emotional impact.

By making the character look greedy, venomous and comical at the same time, Biju Menon has done a really good job as Riny. Innocent repeats the over comical performance in his signature style. Ineya has got a meaty role in the film. Poojitha Menon wasn’t that great. Actors like Suresh Krishna, Harish and Sudheer Karamana has small character roles which they did neatly.

The subject here is different from the usual comedy genre Jose Thomas has done before. The treatment is a bit outdated and you won’t feel a makers touch in the proceedings. The movie isn’t communicating much through its visuals and silences. The screenplay has the theatrical drama sporadically and the good thing is that it has enough subplots to substantiate the nature of our hero. The cinematography is average and the edits have glitches. The music is just okay and the background score fails to impress.

Overall, Swarna Kaduva is reinterpretation of Babu Janardhanan’s own Vaasthavam. If Vaasthavam had more of a grey treatment, Jose Thomas has taken the theme to his comfort zone. It is undoubtedly better than Marubhoomiyile Aana, God for sale and Sringaravelan.