Cert 12A
131 mins
BBFC advice: Contains drug references, moderate sex references, comic threat
Watching some Indian films, particularly comedies, is like stepping back to Western cinema from the 1960s.
Farces such as John Varghese's Adi Kapyare Kootamani have that Carry On-style mix of innuendo and innocence. They could not be made in the West nowadays.
Nevertheless, this low budget Malayalam film has been such a box office hit that a sequel is already in the pipeline and I can understand why it has boasted such success even though it did not resonate with me.
Its premise is that a young woman (Namitha Pranod) pays a student (Dhyan Sreenivasan) to allow her into a boys' hostel where she wants to berate her former love.
In Western society all she would have to do is walk through the front door but in India she has to be kept hidden because of the potential shame of discovery,
And that is where the comedy lies. Basically, once she is esconced in the hostel, she finds herself unable to leave without being detected.
Her minder makes several attempts to smuggle her out but when they fail he has to reveal her to his closest friends and they are roped in on the escapade.
Meanwhile, there is a parallel story about the hostel being haunted and the farce links the two tall tales together.
This being an Indian comedy there is much over-acting and sound affects accompany many of the gags just in case the audience had not spotted them.
In its defence, Adi Kapyare Kootamani has a sprightly pace and its characters are warm and appealing- for example, the role of head of the hostel (Mukesh, reminded me of the falsely superior characters played by Kenneth Williams or Hattie Jacques in the Carry On hospital comedies)
As said, I understand why Indian audiences have enjoyed it but it was a few decades out of its time for my taste and I found too many of the jokes to be banal.
Reasons to watch: if you are into Indian farces
Reasons to avoid: its comedy is pretty banal
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 5/10
Star tweet
alter ego 'AdiKapyare Koottamani' was made with shoestring budget. It broke even in 4 days & they've already declared that sequel will be out in 2016