Doing films with newcomers is a tricky business. But once again director Vinayan has triumphed with his latest Ooma Penninu Uriyada Payyan. The new boys Jayasurya as the dumb artist and Inderjit as the villain bring a breath of freshness to the stagnating Malayalam films.

Vinayan has borrowed more of Gulzar’s classic Koshish than Sasi’s Sollamallai as alleged by his detractors. Baby(Jayasurya) is born dumb who is a good artist. He works for Punchiri Advertisings owned by Pushparaj (Cochin Haneefa). His friends are Kochukuttan, a hunchback (Harisree Asokan), Sundaran (Indrans), and Tomy(Sudheesh). One day while Baby was painting a hoarding on a roadside, he chances to see a girl watching him from a Mercedes car. She is Gopika Varma (Kavya Madhavan), daughter of Sekhara Varma (Sai Kumar) from a royal family. Though she is born with a silver spoon, Gopika is born deaf and dumb. Her father starts a school for her to study and she is the apple of his eye. Once again she sees Baby in school and slowly both fall in love with each other. Varma fixes Gopika’s marriage with Shyam (Inderjit), who is his sister’s son. When the family comes to know about her affair with Baby, they plan to take her to Mumbai and conduct the marriage. But she elopes with Baby and they reach Ooty. A nomadic group who performs roadside dances gives them shelter. A local sub-inspector and womaniser Chettiar (Rajan.P.Dev) has an eye on Gopika, but each time he approaches her Baby saves her. But soon Shyam and his gang come to know about Baby and Gopika’s whereabouts and they reach Ooty. Will the lovers unite in the end? Well, the climax has truly the ‘Vinayan touch’.

On the whole the film is a good entertainer with some hilarious comedy in the first half, which later peters out to be a steamy tearjerker. Among the newcomers Inderjit as the villain looks like a younger version of Sukumaran and director Vinayan has made him adopt his late father’s mannerisms. Jayasurya as Baby, the dumb painter has given an excellent performance. But it is Kavya Madhavan who has not only taken the cake but the bakery too. She has given a very matured performance. The songs are hummable.

Directed by Vinayan
Music by Mohan Sithara
Lyrics by Yousef Ali Kechari, Vinayan
Songs Sung by Yesudas, MG Sreekumar, Chithra etc...
Starring Kavya Madhavan, Jayasurya, Indrejit, Cochin Hanifa, Sudheesh, Harisree Ashokan, Rajan P. Dev, Jagadeesh