The Hindu : Kerala News : Telling the tale of a robot Film Review

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Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008
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Telling the tale of a robot Film Review

Robo

The commercial release of a children’s film in our theatres is a rare event. This is the case of the film Robo, written, directed and produced by Dr. R. Prasannakumar. His debut film centres on the adventures of a robot. The film has several hilarious scenes involving the robot spiced by humorous dialogues. The filmmaker has attempted to convey some messages to the viewer which reveals his social concerns. For this, he relies on the words mouthed by the characters. T his has affected the charm of the film to a certain extent.

A 12-year-old boy, Kannan (Master Praveen Prasannan), arrives at his grandfather Madhavan Nair’s (Madhu) village. He brings along with him a robot named Robo. Kannan’s father (Shankar), a computer engineer, created Robo and gifted it to Kannan. On seeing Robo, the villagers are struck with wonder. Robo is programmed to walk, talk and do other simple activities. Robo soon becomes a friend to the children of the village.

Kuttan (Master Krishna Prasad), Lekshmi (Baby Preetha), Shambhu (Master Sooraj) and Jose (Master Pavith) together with Kannan go frolicking with Robo.

In between, Robo takes up some social causes also. Vijayan (Indrans), one of the farm hands of Kannan’s grandfather, has a drinking problem. In an inebriated condition, he beats up his wife. Robo and the children together devise a strategy by which Vijayan is cured of his drinking habit. In another instance, Robo helps the local cop Ettu Kunjan Pillai (N.L Balakrishnan) to nab a thief.

Meanwhile, Vaidyan (Kochu Preman) who pretends to be an Ayurved physician of the village, is actually involved in illicit liquor trade. Thanks to the timely efforts of Robo and the children, the police confiscate his liquor stock with lakhs of rupees. With revenge in his mind, Vaidyan ‘kidnaps’ Robo. Some more bad people enter the scene. They want to gain power and wealth by re-programming Robo to do harm to society. The mission to rescue Robo begins....

The cast includes Poojappura Radhakrishnan, Monilal, Sreeja Suresh, Kolapulli Leela, Prakash Pettah and Archana.

The lyrics of Dr. Prasannakumar are set to music by newcomer R. Sreedev. The English song ‘Give way, Give way,’ introducing Robo sung by Prakash Prasannan, is refreshing.

Robo has been produced under the banner Sree Vijaya Ganesh Productions.

G. Jayakumar

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