Fukri (2017)

Director Siddique once renowned for his expertise in handling family dramas stuffed with delightful slapstick humor had lost his midas touch of late with his recent filmy attempts such as Ladies And Gentleman,Bhaskar The Rascal and King Liar (Story,Screenpay) being easily forgettable affairs that were no way close to stature of his evergreen comedies as far as the quality of presentation is concerned.Fukri too is no exception as the 156 minutes long family drama has nothing new to showcase except for an uninspiring tale of impersonation that reminded me of at least half a dozen films ranging from Sibi Malayil's evergreen superhit 'His Highness Abdulla' to Barjatya's Salman Khan starrer 'Prem Ratan Dhan Payo' of late.

The screenplay is more or less a 'Kichdi' of family dramas scripted by duo of Udayakrishna and Sibi K Thomas such as 'Udayapuram Sulthan','Karyasthan' and 'Mylanchi Monjulla Veedu' with loud humor used as a garnish over the hollow predictable plot that has lost its steam by overuse over the years.Agreeably there are few laughable humor sequences (thanks to Nirmal Palazhi who's in his full form) in the movie but the overall packing was tiresome with the melodrama and romance portions looking totally outdated and unconvincing particularly in the latter half of the movie.

The narration by Siddique who once won our hearts with his rib-tickling comedies such as Ramji Rao Speaking and In Hairhar Nagar looked outdated and heavily relied-upon verbal humor from the Quartet of Jayasurya,Nirmal Palazhi,Bhagath and Kalabhavan Niyas,unlike the slapstick based humor that he has mastered in the past.BTR and King Liar too suffered from this abundance of such skit-based comedies that emerges from Whatsapp jokes and similar stuff.

Jayasurya's performance looked half-hearted for the most part and his expertise in handling humor too wasn't well-utilized by Siddique at any point in the narration.Heroines Prayaga Martin and Anu Sithara were passable.Lal was impressive in a role that looked tailor made for him.Siddique's godfather-like character looked artificial and repetitive.Nirmal Palazhi made an impressive comeback after a brief hiatus for few months.Among others, Bhagath Manuel,Krishna Prabha,Salini etc did their part well.Joju George,Naseer Sankranthi etc were wasted.

The technical side of the movie was pretty mediocre in general.Editing by K. R. Gourishankar was very poor and lacked continuity.Cinematography by Vijay Ulaganath was average.Songs by Dr. M. Sudeep Elayidom and Viswajith failed to make any impression.

Overall,Fukri is a half-baked comedy drama without any high point as such.