Kolahalam Review | A Predictable Social Satire Saved by Colloquial Humor

Kolahalam is Rasheed Parambil’s second movie after the political satire Bhagavan Dasante Ramarajyam. While that movie was based on certain things that were extremely pertinent in the current political climate in the country, this new film is a minimal-scale comedy set against the backdrop of a funeral. With the satirical angle towards the materialistic desires of human beings, offering some scattered moments of laughter to the film, this 96-minute-long movie is a harmless watch with no major surprises.

So the story here is seen from the perspective of a thief. While he was trying to steal money from a house, the patriarch of the house, who was bedridden, took his last breath. As the night proceeded, the thief kind of got stuck in that busy house filled with friends and relatives. What we see in Kolahalam is the drama that unfolds in that family as key decisions are to be made before cremating the veteran.

The idea of a thief getting stuck in a house is a catchy one, and one can definitely think about the possibilities of a satire because your main guy is an outsider, much like the audience. And predictably, we are getting into the family politics, as the story moves forward, and it is the obvious greed for money. What saves the movie in these parts is the humor in the dialogue. Just when you feel the thief staying there for that long is impractical, writer Vishal Viswanathan throws in this twist, which may not be that fresh, but sort of keeps us interested in the film.

In the second half, the movie is trying to be a balance of humor and social critique. Some of the closure tracks they have created towards the end have that emotional touch. Despite the movie having only 90+ minutes of running time, there are sequences and songs that felt unnecessarily stretched. There are these 3 love stories mentioned in the story. One didn’t go well for the girl, another, where the girl took the safe option, and another that will face its D Day in the future. Considering the family politics, one can understand why those stories are placed, but they didn’t really gel with the film. The Brazil-Argentina track felt like a forcefully added comedy bit.

The producer of the movie, Santhosh Puthan, is the one who has played the role of the thief in this movie. Well, even though he is the central character of the movie, it didn’t feel like the usual case of someone who doesn’t know acting created an opportunity by throwing money. He was apt to play that character, and with the help of the slang, he was able to make it look believable on screen. The most memorable performance in the lot came from Swathi Mohanan, who did the role of Prabhakaran. Achuthanandan, Kumar Sunil, and Priya Sreejith were the other major performers in the elaborate cast of the film.

In totality, Kolahalam is an unsurprising social satire that uses comedy at regular intervals of time to keep the audience engaged. With the runtime being around 90 minutes, the movie does not become a burden for the viewer. And unlike the director’s last film, the idea here is not that ambitious, and hence it doesn’t feel like a misfire.