Cousins (2014 film)

Cousins
Film poster
Directed by	Vysakh
Produced by	Vysakh Rajan
Written by	Sethu
Starring	Kunchacko Boban Indrajith Sukumaran Vedhika Nisha Aggarwal Miya Suraj Venjaramoodu Joju George
Music by	M. Jayachandran
Cinematography	Shaji
Production company	Vyshakha Cinemas
Distributed by	Popcorn Entertainments (World wide Release)
Release dates	19 December 2014 (2014-12-19)
Country	India
Language	Malayalam

Cousins is a 2014 Malayalam comedy film directed by Vysakh and scripted by Sethu.^[1] The story revolves around four cousins, played by Kunchacko Boban, Indrajith Sukumaran, Suraj Venjaramoodu and Joju George,^[2][3] who undertake a journey with a particular intention and the issues they come across in between them. Vedhika and Nisha Aggarwal play the female leads, while Kalabhavan Shajon and Pradeep Rawat feature in supporting roles in the film. The film released on 19 December 2014.^[4][5][6]

Plot

Sam (Kunchako Boban), Jojy (Indrajith Sukumaran), Pauly (Suraj Venjaramoodu), Tony (Joju George) are cousins. During Sam's wedding all of them are at the church. When the priest asks Sam whether he wants to marry the girl he says no and that he want to marry Annie who was his old love but married to another man. The bride felt betrayed gets out of the church. The cousins consulted a psychiatrist and they told him that Sam had met with an accident during his Engineering Studies, and he lost his memory of the past 6 years. To regain his memory, the Doctor advices Sam's cousins to take him to a journey. So they travel through the places where Sam had traveled before losing his memory. During the journey they reach a carnival. Some anonymous people began a fight with them. All of them identifies Sam from long ago, and tells him to bring back Arathi but Sam does not remember Arathi, so they tell excuses about bringing Arathi. Later they met a girl named Malika(Nisha Agarwal) who is the elder sister of Arathi. After meeting Malika Sam reigns his memory and tells his cousins that he knowns Malika. So they go to Malika and ask her if she knows Sam. She tells them that some years ago he had come to the palace and had met her sister Arathi and that they fell in love. But the royal family didn't accept their love and so they tried to run away from that palace. Several henchmen chased Arathi and Sam down through a brook and they jump into the waterfall. It then seems that Jojy knew everything and he begins saying that he knew Arathi and he was the one who admitted Sam in the hospital after the waterfall jump both of them had escaped with minor injuries. While fleeing to meet Jojy down in the valley, they find the henchmen chasing them and they try to escape in a coracle. Sam ask Arathi to sit inside it and tries to unhook as he was about to get in the henchmen attacked him and the coracle moves on. It is also revealed that the girl who Sam was to marry was Arathi and that he did not recognise her during the wedding. So Pauly and Tony ask Jojy to bring back Arathi to Chandragiri he says no because on the day when the tried to kill Sam they didn't try to save Arathi. Jojy thought that there was someone behind it and knew Sam could only answer it and wanted him to remember everything. So he tells everything to Mallika and makes a plan to elope with Mallika and his cousin at first Sam hesitates but later he agrees to it. So when they were chasing them again Sam remembers everything and begins to hit Mallika's brother and tells them that he was behind the motivation on not saving Arathi because if Arathi dies Mallika can become the princess and he can be the scion. They then bring Arathi and tells her elder brother not to punish him and the last scene shows Arathi's and Sam's wedding, meanwhile the Gounder who was deeply in love with Malika since childhood tells Jojy that him, Tony and Pauly can now watch Malika and him marry but Jojy tells him that she is pregnant with his child which is the climax.

Cast

Production

Vedhika was signed to portray Kunchacko Boban's love interest,^[7] Bhavana was later replaced with Nisha Agarwal as the team felt that somebody who is not a complete Malayali would be apt for the role.^[8] Filming locations include Bangalore, Kochi, Pollachi, Kodaikanal and Athirapilly.^[9]

The filming was started on August 10, 2014 at Bangalore Palace,^[10][11] where a majority of filming took place over the next weeks.^[12] Around 600 artists, including a cultural troupe from Bangalore and nearly 80 horses were part of a song sequence, which was a five-day-long shoot and costed over ₹80 lakh (US$120,000).^[13][14] Kamalini Mukherjee did an item number for the movie.^[15]

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack contains 5 songs, all composed by M. Jayachandran. Lyrics by Murukan Kattakkada, Rafeeq Ahamed.

Critical reception

Asha Prakash of The Times of India rated 2/5 stars and wrote "Vysakh's Cousins insults a viewer's intelligence. At first, you wonder if you are witnessing the remake of a Kannada or Telugu masala entertainer; but no it has been made purely for Malayalis. The story is dramatic, beyond tolerance, and the narrative illogical. As you leave the hall, one question remains, why was the money - spent on making the songs - not put to better use?".^[16] Nicy V.P of International Business Times rated 2/5 stars and call it "A Poor Attempt to Bring out an Entertainer" and wrote "The first impression that you get from "Cousins", directed by Vyshakh, is the fact that it rarely manages to engage audience. The movie, which is touted as a comedy thriller ends up being a highly predictable movie with the least comic experience. The good aspect of the movie would be the cinematography, which managed to visualise the movie in the best way possible. The art direction of the movie was commendable and added to the rich look of the movie. To conclude, "Cousins" failed to meet the expectations with poor scripting and a highly predictable storyline.".^[17] Paresh C Palicha of Rediff.com rated 2/5 stars and wrote "Cousins is not an auspicious beginning to the festive season as it is crass and hackneyed. Sethu's script is pedestrian, and caters to front benchers, providing them a thrill per minute, thanks to comedy, comic and a hugely mounted song.".^[18]

Veeyen of Nowrunning.com gave 1.8/5 stars and call it "Average" and wrote "A disaster of colossal proportions is what 'Cousins' is. Vysakh's new multi starrer that has hit the screens this festival season might just about manage to scrape through it but it's very unlikely that these 'Cousins' will find any likers or takers thereafter. 'Cousins' does prove a few points though. It demonstrates how a film that has a running time of a couple of hours and several more minutes could be cooked up from a story that is never there, and it also confirms that you could get some of the best actors around working in it.^[19] Akhila Menon of Filmibeat.com rated 1.5/5 stars and call it "Repetitive And Outdated" and stated "A movie which attempts to narrate an outdate story line, in the shadow of visual richness. The repetitive story line and the not-so-engaging script by Sethu are the major negatives of the movie. Director Vysakh manages to make the movie look rich and colorful; but fails to make the narration of the plot engaging and interesting.^[20] Behindwoods rated 1.5/5 stars and said "Attempted comedy entertainer that turns out to be stereotypical. The entire film appears to have had the intention to bring out a lot of laughs in the beginning and slowly delve into the depth of the script as the suspense unveils. But, the movie unfortunately fails to deliver its intent, as a result of some poor writing, causing many restless moments".^[21]

Indiaglitz.com gave 6.5/10 stars and stated "'Cousins, is one movie that works largely for its fun quotient though in a hollow basement. If taken lightly, the movie will entertain you for two hour and ten minutes.Serious viewers are cautioned from trying this regular package . For every others, have a pack of popcorn 'keep away the brains and enjoy the fun stuff".^[22] Raj Vikram of Metromatinee.com wrote "Sethu's script is a huge let down and Vysakh's best efforts dont get registered principally because of this. It is unfortunate that such a highly budgeted venture has such an inane storyline. 'Cousins' is like an old product which was lying in some non descript corner. Taking that old product and trying to present it as new with a gaudy makeover is indeed what the makers attempted ,practically. Well, isnt it unbecoming to sell a product well past the expiry date?".^[23]

References