The director newer seems to be a new terrain. A run of the mill action love story recited in the most routine manner is what you see in Shaji kailas' latest 'Simhasanam', the only merits being - the first Shaji kailas movie with Prithviraj and indeed an eminently forgettable one.
At a point of time, the hero of 'Simhashanam' asks his fellow man, 'This is the age of youth, Why do we still follow the poor traditions of the past? After being convinced of the reasons, the hero is shown to severely follow the various ritualistic traditions and ethnic customs. And for us, the viewers, who are never convinced of the reasons of this repeat saga are left to lament to witness the same old cliched structure of father-son bonding and the archetypal fight for conducting the local festivals.
For regular Mollywood viewers, hardly would you leave any of the scenes in this movie without thinking about their umpteen original sequences. Such is the first scripting assignment of the director Shaji Kailas who seems to have done a spoof of his own best run movies. But here the sequences are plastic, with unintentionally funny writing and poor situations that demands booing even from the front benchers, for whom the director has prepared this entire recipe.
The movie has Saikumar as the very big patriarch, Madhava Menon of Chandragiri, with political connections that even extends to the Chief Minister of the state and the most powerful Bishops. He is often invited as the only answer to solve the problems that loom around the state ministry. With all the built ups of that feudal fascist with that praja and ruler' equations in the village, which is even made firm by the temple officials.
Madhavan's only son Arjun(Prithvi), currently studying at a far away city is a dare devil youth who suddenly realizes the growing enemies of his father and decides to stay with him and help him to sort out the issues. The ladies in the plot are Lakshmi (Vandana) , his childhood pal and Nanda (Aishwarya Devan) his college mate who are in a tussle to get the attention of the hero. All the visual elements that have worked well for Shaji in the past including the poster fonts, and big tharavadu to the elephants, kalari, scheming politicians, faithful confidantes, and the branded actors in villain roles- Siddhique, Devan, Jayan, but proving poor, pathetic figures saddled with a weak script and therefore with limited chances to offer anything new.
The lead actor Prithvi doesn't seem interested in the proceedings and sleep-walk through the frames. It is evident that this will surely end up as his third big flop in a row. Saikumar and Biju Pappan as bagged some applause. Though there is a cut and jump in every other second, the director's skepticism to move away from the cliches is evident, which will make this one as his last action movie ever attempted by him. The technical sides, as usual are fine, but that seldom alone makes no good movie.
What we really sympathise is with its poor producer, who still doesn't seems to know what will sell in the current scenario. With no proper business plans, releasing the movie in a poor month known for its low collections could be the biggest risk that he has taken in his life. On the whole,'Simhasanam' is another terrible waste of a terrific opportunity and money. Disappointingly Cliched!
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