KODATHI SAMAKSHAM BALAN VAKEEL MOVIE REVIEW AND VIDEOS

Critic's Rating: 3.0/5

Story: 

Balakrishnan is a struggling lawyer who hasn't made much of a career because of his stutter and a past riddled by guilt. But his plain and sober life is about to change with a case, in which he is being played as a pawn in a conspiracy larger than anything he was prepared for.

Review: 

Written and directed by B Unnikrishnan, Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel is the first time that the writer-director pairs up with Dileep. The choice of the actor isn't surprising one bit, because this is Balakrishnan's tale of redemption from being an underdog riddled by guilt, into his own personal confident self. It is the redemptive tale of a fallen hero, whom the film demands us to love.

Balakrishnan's guilt from his past has made him a stutterer, and that has also affected his career. But soon, he finds himself a pawn in a conspiracy larger than anything he ever wanted to be a part of. Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel is Balan's tale of redemption from guilt.

Siddique is at his best as Somashekharan Pillai, Balakrishnan's father. Some of the crass chauvinistic dialogues aside, his comic timing and refreshing take on the father of a protagonist lifts the movie on its fulcrum. Aju Varghese playing the clueless thug sidekick to the protagonist is a character made to look cliched. But his performance is what saves the character with grace. Since playing the good-bad cop in Mayaanadhi, Harish Uthaman settles into his character proving to us that he is built to go places. Artistes like Priya Anand and Sajid Yahiya come, do a good job and go. Akhil George, who cranks the camera for Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel gives us crisp and beautiful frames, with substantial and fairly evident help from the art department. The seemingly bland item song apart from the songs in the movie are average.

The choice to cast Dileep is obvious from the narrative of the character because this character is right up his alley. However, as Balakrishnan, Dileep seems slightly controlled and hinged in his performance. Suraj Venjarammood is back playing the selfish sidekick who gets into trouble himself and also pulls in everyone around him. This is the kind of character he has long out-grown by his own virtue. However, the story has its own pitfalls, in that it's trying too hard to sell a conspiracy plot. In a Sherlock-meets-Robert Landgon twist, Balan is made to deduce quite a lot based on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) eye movements, body language and a photographic memory. Remember the film 'The Tiger', where 'vappachiyude legacy' sort of clues keep showing up at the right time at the right place? It is something like that. And the rest is the sort of thrill and action necessary to sell a story with a conspiracy that the protagonists need to come out of.

Kodathi Samaksham Balan Vakeel is a run-of-the-mill thriller made for you to like and be in awe of the hero. It is demanding you to like him and root for him, sometimes out of sympathy and the other times for his intelligence. It is a story entirely revolving around that need to urge you to like him and appreciate his Sherlock-ian intelligence.