Plot

Sam (Kunchako Boban) is stuck somewhere in the past, courtesy a mishap that occurred six years back, that'd almost cost him his life. His psychiatrist suggests that he goes on a trip to Manipal where he was when the tragedy took place to try and recover his memories. Sam's fun loving cousins, Joji (Indrajith Sukumaran), Pauly (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and Tony (Joju George) all join him on the fabulous road trip back to one of Sam's old, comforting places. Throughout the movie, the cousins meet Sam's old girlfriend (almost-wife)'s sister, and uncovers a life threatening mystery on how to save her from a dark and mysterious brother.

Cast

• Kunchacko Boban as Sam
• Indrajith Sukumaran as Joji
• Vedhika as Arathi
• Nisha Agarwal as Mallika
• Suraj Venjaramoodu as Poly
• Joju George as Tony
• Pradeep Rawat as Nagarajan
• Kamalinee Mukherjee
• Kalabhavan Shajon as Veerappa Gounder
• Balachandran Chullikkadu as Varkey Master
• Kailash as Peter
• P. Balachandran as Guruji
• Shiju as Chandran
• Santhosh as Devarajan
• Vijay Kumar as Rajarajan
• Abu Salim as restaurant manager
• Sreedevi Unni
• Vinaya Prasad as Threasa
• Sunil Sukhada
• Ponnamma Babu
• Miya as Ann (cameo)
• Ranji Panicker as Doctor (cameo)

Production

The filming started in 10 August 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 {{INRConvert|80|l}}.^[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]

References