Katha Parayumbol is a nice movie. It is vintage Sreenivasan, with a script providing a bunch of poignant moments interlaced with breezy humour. It is not as loud as “Arabikatha” and the movie as such is enjoyable.

Story: The story is a little “Malgudy”-esque and has universal appeal. A simple story set in a village with all its innocence and its unique characters The protagonist is Barber Balan (Sreenivasan) who struggles to make a living with his dilapidated saloon which he wants to renovate. The village looks cut out from a Basheer story or maybe “Meesha Madhavan”, with its cunning money lender, amateur poet, local communist who connects everything to globalization, the tea shop owner and a struggling “parallel” college principal played my Mukesh. The movie depicts their struggles, tribulations and small egos in a pleasant fashion. Then Mammooty arrives…

Good: 1. Arguably the best Sreenivasan script in some time. It is subtle and feels like an Aesop fable we heard and forgot sometime.

2. Mohanan’s direction and Sreenivasan’s controlled performance and ofcourse Mammooty’s act as himself.

3. Suraj and Salim Kumar draw applause in Trivandrum, whatever they do.

4. It takes a lot of courage to do a movie like this (one without a formula). Sreenivasan did.

Bad:1. It gets a bit boring in the slog overs

2. Mammooty cries in the end, could have been avoided. Can’t say why he cried. Big secret.

3. Its the same “Arabikatha” team, the actors, the music, the back ground score. Listen.

Verdict: 3.5 stars of 5. Must watch!

Average Hit most likely. “Malgudi Days” is period stuff, I don’t know how many of us will enjoy it post 1991, we need packages like Lagaan. It isn’t that fast and there are no jokes for the sake of jokes. The movie is highly watchable, preferably alone.