Malayalam filmmakers seem to have a fetish for Internet chatting. Director Jeethu Joseph is the latest to join the league with Mummy & Me.
The film talks about the generation gap between a teenager and her mother portrayed by Archana Kavi and Urvasi, respectively.
Jewel (Archana) is frustrated with her mother Clara (Urvasi), who finds fault in everything she does and tries to control her life. This leads to friction and Joseph (Mukesh), the father, has to bear the brunt of it. His efforts to be a bridge fail most of the time.
The other characters who pad up the story are Jewel's younger brother (Master Jeevan), who spies on his sister and reports to their mother; Rahul (Kunchako Boban), son of Joseph's childhood friend (Lalu Alex), who acts as Jewel's local guardian and secretly likes her. The twist in the tale comes, when the bad guys in college try to get even with Jewel and Rahul saves her.
Jewel's parents seek out a psychologist (Anoop Menon) to help them deal with her, and Jewel finds an Agony Uncle in her online friend Ameer (Suresh Gopi's voiceover). In the process, we get to hear a few scholarly sermons on new-age parenting and what kids should do to understand and appreciate their parents.
Writer-director Jeethu Joseph tries to prove his versatility with this film, but does not succeed fully as the film is very loud. A little subtlety would have worked wonders.
The cast saves the movie from being a total disaster. Urvasi takes to the role as a fish would take to water. Archana should consider herself lucky to get such an author-backed role so early in her career and that too opposite Urvasi. She has screen presence, but needs to hone down the histrionics. Kunchako Boban shaves off his moustache to look like a college student and succeeds in doing so to a large extent. Veterans like Mukesh and Lalu Alex have nothing exceptional to do.
Mummy & Me works only in parts; it is too loud the rest of the time.
Rediff Rating:
