Onnaman (2002)- Mohanlal, Kavya, Ramya Krishnan

Info: 
Overall: 2.5 out of 5
 

Imagine, just imagine sitting through another rehash of Mohanlal as underworld don which he has perfected at least ten times in the last eight years! Sad, that Thampi Kannanthanam’s Onnaman is a total let down, and is a rehash of his own earlier Rajavinte Makan and many other “Adholoka”(underworld) stories.

Ravishankar (Mohanlal) is underworld don Bava’s right hand man. Bava considers Ravishankar as his own son and there is a reason behind this bond between the two. When Ravishankar was small (Mohanlal’s son Pranav) he has saved Bava’s life from Chota Raja, another don and from then on Ravishankar is like a family member for Bava. When Bava gets killed in one of the fights Ravishankar becomes the leader of the gang, and he looks after Bava’s daughter Kavya (Kavya Madhavan) as his own sister. He takes over the empire built by Bava and helps the poor and needy. He becomes their God or the ‘Onnaman’ but in the process creates a lot of enemies like a police officer and politicians. Ravishankar had a childhood sweetheart, Kamala (Ramya Krishnan) who left the town but she returns years later to the same town in search of Ravi, this time as the district collector(!!). She is shocked to find her lover as a mafia leader, but soon realizes that his intentions were good and he has a heart of gold. Sensing that Kavya is Ravishankar’s weakness, the villains kidnap her and later in a bloody climax he saves her but ends up killing the leader. But the people come to his rescue and they prevent the police from arresting him.

Mohanlal is stale as Ravishankar, as he has done similar characters, even in his last film Praja. He looks absolutely disinterested especially in the song ‘n’ dance scenes. This great actor needs to re-invent himself. Even his most ardent fans are likely to feel let down by this snooze-inducing film. Ramya Krishnan, Kavya Madhavan and the rest of the cast are nor worth mentioning at all. However the major drawback of Onnaman is the story and screenplay, which is by the director Kannanthanam himself.

On the whole the film is unconvincing and totally an unpleasant experience. Even die-hard Lal fans cannot stomach this trash.

Directed by Thampi Kannanthanam
Music by SP Venkitesh
Lyrics by Girish Putenchery
Songs Sung by MG Sreekumar, Jayachandran, Yesudas, Chithra, Sujatha, Biju Narayanan, Janaki