Crazy Gopalan (2008)

Kattila Gopalan is a notorious name in a little village named Oonjaalaadi. Though nobody has seen Gopalan, people hold him in dread as he is a thief who always manages to steal whatever he wants, without ever getting caught or even being seen by anyone. His identity remains a mystery.

Then one day Harishchandran, a carpenter happens to see Gopalan for the first time. He is thus forced to flee the little village and seeks refuge in the city. There he meets Lakshmanan, another thief who has an ailing mother to look after. They form a team and start thieving, Lakshmanan to treat his mother and Gopalan with an aim to buy back his ancestral house which he has lost in his childhood. And then a girl named Diana and her brother Babu John, a rich banker, come into the lives of Gopalan and Lakshmanan. Life changes drastically for the duo.

Dileep is his usual self as Gopalan, though he shines more in the comic sequences than in others. Salim Kumar as Lakshmanan is good. The rest of the cast, like Harisri Ashokan as Harishchandran, Manoj K. Jayan as Babu John and Biju Menon as the commissioner of police are OK, though none of them gets to do anything outstanding. The heroine Radha Varma as Diana doesn't impress much. Jagathy Sreekumar too is his usual self.

Nothing much to jot about the songs. The technical aspects are in keeping with the mood of the film. The main flaw as far as Crazy Gopalan is concerned is that it loses its appeal when Dileep's character, that of Gopalan starts playing the usual film hero, inf the baddies and engaging in all kinds of heroics. If the character had been presented in a comic vein on the main, it would have been much more enjoyable. The director Dipu, who has also penned the script, has to take the blame for this. There are many sequences that could have been executed much more deftly, but as such the film requires more of polish.