In the second half of the movie Melocow Pondicherry, we, as an audience, have clarity on what the movie is about, and thanks to Althaf Salim, there is a lot of counter-dialogue humor, like calling an Uber for a spirit, that keeps the movie lively. But the humor isn’t really an outcome of the movie’s concept, so when you walk out of this movie, you won’t really remember the story, and even the humor isn’t something you will celebrate afterward. With a generic revenge story getting an excessive coating of dialogue humor, Melocow Pondicherry is an extremely forgettable comedy that feels stretched out even after having only 117 minutes of duration.
Melvin, an NRI living in Dubai, has come to India, and he is planning to have his bachelor party with his college friends. Since they all studied at a college in Pondicherry, he planned the program in Pondicherry. What we see in this movie are the crazy things that happened during this visit of these friends that have links with their college days.
SPOILER ALERT! The movie’s genre, which was partially revealed in the trailer, will be mentioned in this review. If you look at the whole script of Melcow Pondicherry, one can clearly see that the concept director Nikhil Mohan had is actually perfect for a funny short film. Most of the events in the first half show us the backstory of multiple characters, and there is even a baby crocodile in the story. The details you get about these characters are totally irrelevant to the core plot, as the main agenda is happening in someone else’s life. The part that really exposes the desperation to stretch the runtime is this whole sequence featuring Motta Rajendran, which went on for a while with no real purpose.
After giving you a lot of information and backstories that will rarely have any significance in the story, including college rivalry and the hero’s toxic would-be, the film enters the second half where the horror element is no longer a mystery. The situations the movie manages to create in that space offer room for humor, and as I said, there are some really good counter-dialogues that will make you giggle. Just when you think the movie is going to link the core event of the story with our main characters, it decides to go for the most cliched revenge track, and the character reveal associated with the twist was extremely underwhelming.
Because of the insignificance of many scenes in the larger context of the movie, the treatment given to it also feels very hasty and sloppy. Almost all the jokes that happen in the first half due to the present life situations of the main characters are these familiar ones that one can predict from a mile away. Even the big reveal about a particular character is guessable after a point. The way the film tries to stretch the comedy in the first half is irritating. The main characters, who are masters at miscommunication, understand the twist in the tale from a vague communication. There is a slow romantic song, Chenthamara, and it reminded me of Electronic Kili’s another song from the movie Thalavara, Ilakozhiye.
Arjun Ashokan as Melvin is in his typical element, and he manages to perform the drunk act and humor neatly on screen. Balu Varghese gets to do the role of yet another failed guy, and he also performs the humor in his typical meter. Althaf Salim is saving the movie significantly with his signature style of comedy, and we are sort of enjoying the movie as a skit whenever there is Althaf on screen. The scriptwriter of this movie, Sanoop Thykoodam, has played one character, and he was fine. Content creator Anna Susan Roy is there as Annamma. Even though she had dialogues in the first half, as the movie shifted to the horror space, she moves pretty much into the background. Sarath Sabha gets to do a character that utilized him very effectively as an actor. Debutant Sreelakshmi Vijayan has the prettiness, but the performance feels flat in many areas. Producer Joby George’s son Joel George makes his debut with this movie, and the performance lacks the impact it demanded.
When you watch Melocow Pondicherry’s trailer, the vibe it gives off is pretty underwhelming, and that sort of reduces your expectations. The movie doesn’t fall under the category of films that are torturous. It has its moments here and there in the second half, and since the overall duration is under two hours, you are not sitting through too much of mediocrity. It is a movie that is designed after seeing the success of horror comedies like Romancham and Prakambanam. But I think the makers themselves know they have made a half-baked movie. Otherwise, the title would have been Idivettu rather than Melcow Pondicherry.
