It is perhaps the innate goodness in the theme that works in favour of Jayaraj’s Loud Speaker. With Mammootty playing an uneducated but refreshingly honest villager and media personality Sasi Kumar as an urbane but virtuous NRI, the film has a genuine theme to narrate. Still there are times when one gets the feeling that these advantages have not been used to the fullest.
Anand Menon (Sasi Kumar), an astrophysicist who has shifted his base from the US to Kerala, is in a hospital bed with a major kidney ailment. An agent brings a willing donor, Mike Philippose (Mammootty), a villager from Thopramkudy in Idukki. Mike has been nicknamed so due to his irritatingly loud voice and he has an old radio that he carries all the time with him. Menon takes him to his flat and the two starts living inside his plush apartment.
Soon Mike finds it too difficult to adjust with the etiquettes and standards of the residents in the complex. He is not ready to live according to their terms and he becomes a headache for some of them. But after a while they realize his innocence.
An old man living alone while having a legal tussle with his children, a couple who can’t see eye to eye, a gang of bachelors having a merry time, a naughty kid left behind with her grandparents and of course, the temperamental secretary who has only his dog for company, all of them interacts with Mike and learns more about selfless love.
Mammootty gets into an entirely different avatar as a commoner with remarkable ease, in a shirt and mundu. Sasi Kumar looks perfect as the soft spoken, sophisticated scientist who understands some new lessons in life from an ordinary stranger. The rest of the cast, including Jagathy Sreekumar, Janardhanan, Suraj Venjarammood, Salim Kumar and KPAC Lalitha besides others have done their roles, just the way what we expect from them.
One of the main problems about the film is that its makers seem to have some kind of confusion whether to present the film as an offbeat one or as a commercial potboiler. So there are some emotional, touching moments and at the same time, the varieties like paint falling over people, dog creating mayhem and quite a few song n’ dance routines.
The pace gets a tad slow at times and some of the actors, like Gracy Singh for instance, have nothing much to do. It may be far from being perfect and things would have looked even better with a tighter script and more carefully crafted situations. But Loud Speaker still manages to make an impact, with its heart at the right place.
The film has been shot in sync sound and the difference is felt here. The visuals and the music suit the situations, but the golden oldie Alliyambal Kadavil… is used quite effectively, gives a nostalgic mood.
It is perhaps the novelty in its theme and Mammooty’s performance as the jovial and footloose Mike that turn out to be the highlights of the film. Some of the commercial ingredients that have been added to it may at times be found odd, but the sincerity in it should be appreciated.
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Mammoty was better in this movie.instead of doing some low class comedy movies he must concentrate of good movies with some social element