Grrr.. movie review: Kunchacko Boban’s whimpering comedy lacks teeth to be enjoyable

2.5/5

Grrr.. story: After he believes that his girlfriend has ditched him, Rejimon gets drunk and thinks it’s a good idea to break into an enclosure and challenge a lion to prove his bravado. In a bid to rescue him, zoo official Haridas jumps in, only to find the duo entangled in a dangerous situation that will also have huge ramifications for their personal lives. Further drama ensues as police, fire and zoo authorities get in on the rescue act.

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Grrr.. review: The promotion materials for Ezra director Jay K’s latest Malayalam venture, Grrr.. all played up just one incident from the film: a drunk man jumping into a lion’s enclosure and another trying to rescue him. The entire film revolves around this incident, but given that it’s a small thread to base a two-hour-long movie on, there’s so much that it needs to go in its favour. On the surface, you would think having two endearing actors, Kunchacko Boban and Suraj Venjaramoodu, who have already proven their comedy chops, in pivotal roles would be enough, especially when the lion’s share (no pun intended) of the film's success depends on humour. But does it land? Not quite.

While Grrr.. has taken inspiration from real-life events of people finding themselves staring at lion’s jaws in a zoo, these incidents kept the audience hooked for hours on TV because of the drama unfolding. In Jay’s film too, there’s a lot of drama that ensues, and more than what happens with the two lead actors and the occasionally jarring CGI-driven lion, it’s what happens outside the enclosure that evokes laughs, albeit a few.

This is so often the case that you would wonder why a film like this required the talents of Kunchacko and Suraj. Any actor would have sufficed. To their credit, the supporting cast, which includes Shruti Ramachandran, Alencier Ley Lopez, Manju Pillai, Sibi Thomas and Rajesh Madhavan, does a good job of keeping the audience entertained sporadically, even when the lead actors are just locked in the enclosure for most of the movie. The lion’s sequences, which were billed as the major highlight of the movie, too fail to create an impact.

In terms of making, Jay doesn’t do anything fancy and the movie is reminiscent of comedies that go round and round in circles, trying to draw laughs from the various incidents that the characters find themselves in. That’s why the sequences of where the authorities—the zoo, police and fire department—can't make head or tails of what’s happening get the biggest laugh, especially when an alcoholic is brought in to tranquillize the lion. Some of the gross mismanagement in government-run facilities are also shown in lighter vein, adding to the laughs.

The film, which might work better with children, struggles to keep these laughs consistent. It’s mostly due to the wafer-thin material that it revolves around. The romance between the lead pair of Kunchacko and Anagha, as well as the marital problems of Suraj and Shruti’s characters, are given so little screen time that they barely register, which is not necessarily a bad thing considering that the comedy becomes a whimper by the end of it.

Grrr.. verdict: Kunchacko Boban and Suraj Venjaramoodu’s comedy fails to make an impact as the laughs are sporadic and the script’s sequences become redundant after a point.