Director- Lal
Producer- Anto Joseph
Cast- Mammootty, Lal, Padmapriya, Kaniha, Laloo Aalex etc.
Music- Alex Paul
Background music- Deepak Dev
Review By : Unni R Nair/ Kerala9.com
When Lal took took to directing, long after Siddique and Lal stopped directing movies together, I was happy. Siddique was delivering hits; Lal too would be doing the same, I thought. His first offering was good; ‘2 Harihar Nagar’ came as a good sequel to ‘In Harihar Nagar’, one of the best from Siddique and Lal. But then, with ‘In Ghost House Inn’, I was disappointed. The film did do well at the box office, but I was thoroughly disappointed. Still, I tried to justify the shortcomings, saying Lal should have given it some time to happen, he should have waited before planning yet another sequel. And then, he did ‘Tournament: Play and Replay’. “Youngsters, fresh faces; would be great!”- I thought. But then again Lal missed the mark. Then came the news that Lal was coming up with a film that had Mammootty and Lal himself in the lead, a complete laugh riot. Bingo! So we are going to get a big hit from Lal, I presumed.
But Lal has disappointed the film buff in me, totally and thoroughly. He has missed the mark once again. I wasted over two hours and Rs. 166 to watch a movie that left no impression whatsoever on my mind. I now tend to ask myself why I had to see the movie. But yes, I do have a reply; I had a review to write and hence my watching the movie was justified. But why did Lal have to make such a movie? Why did Mammootty have to act in it? Well, I can find no answers. The film lacks directorial brilliance on all counts and has no commendable performance from anyone in the cast, not even Mammootty. Now, let’s hope the producer, at least the producer, gets something (his money) out of the movie.
‘Cobra’ is the story of Raja (Mammootty) and Kari (Lal), who have been together since childhood. They could be twins, or it might even be that Kari was misplaced and Raja’s identical twin taken by someone else in the commotion that happened at the hospital years back. Raja is fair and handsome while Kari is dark in complexion and doesn’t seem like Raja’s brother at all. People have been making fun of Kari and even the parents had been discriminating against him. But Raja and Kari had always stuck together. They always chose to stay at places that had names starting with ‘Ko’ in Malayalam. And hence they came to be known as the ‘Cobras’. Now they want to add another ‘Ko’ by marrying two sisters and thus becoming co-brothers. They thus land up in Coimbatore and in the house of John Samuel (Laloo Aalex), whom they help out at a juncture and who incidentally have two daughters Annie (Kaniha) and Shirley (Padmapriya). They feel they can perhaps marry these two girls and get their dream realized. What all happens next forms the plot of ‘Cobra’.
Contrived scenes and sequences, half-baked script and weak characterization, humour that doesn’t deliver and such things mar the effectiveness of the whole thing for ‘Cobra’, a film that leaves you confused and even exhausted, at least to an extent. You can’t find anything that lingers in your memory or minds after you leave the theatres and there are lots of instances during the movie when you feel like letting out a yawn or two. You even tend to let out a sigh of relief when it ends.
Performances
Mammootty is OK, but there is nothing good about the role and he too gets to do nothing by way of performance. Lal is better. All the rest are just so so. It’s a film that you won’t remember for performances…never by any chance.
Technical aspects
Technicians like Venu (cinematography), Saajan (editing) and Prashant Madhav (art-direction) have nothing impressive to do in the whole affair, except routine stuff.
Music
Neither the background score (by Deepak Dev) nor the songs composed by Alex Paul leave impressions on your minds.
Script
Seems Lal didn’t take much pain scripting the movie. He is no doubt a good script-writer; he has done wonderful scripts along with Siddique in their early days and has also shown his skills at scripting ‘2 Harihar Nagar’, but it seems he took things for granted and didn’t pay much attention to the script.
Direction
Nothing much to say, poor show Mr. Lal. Better luck next time!
Verdict: Not at all impressive!!
Rating: 1.5/5