Mere Pyare Deshvaasiyom

Written by Ismail Manjhali, 'Mere Pyare Deshvasiyom' is Sandeep Ajithkumar's second outing after a largely unnoticed political drama, 'Akashathinum Bhoomikkumidayil'. However, with 'Mere Pyare Deshvasiyom' Sandeep Ajithkumar attempts sarcastic comedy.

Muthalayoor is a fictional remote village in Kerala with just about a Lower Primary school and a dysfunctional public reading room. A few elderly folks, tired of the taunts and embarrassment of being illiterate, decide to pass high school by resuming their education. But everyone isn't happy about it.

'Mere Pyare Deshvasiyom' has a weak story to start with. Neither the story not the comedy evoke the necessary emotion. And the amateur cast, barring Neena Kurup and Nirmal Palazhy, don't make it any better. Ashkkar Soudaan, who plays the teacher who comes in to teach the elderly, could have been styled after Prithviraj's Vinayachandran from Manikyakallu. On multiple occasions, by multiple characters, Ashkkar is likened to Mammootty for being the megastar's nephew. However, his performance hardly shows any merit to it. The film is an amateur melodrama at best, and with a confused story line. Confused, because the plotlines shift, turn, and don't know which way to go. 

Also, in the course of the narrative, logic and reason died multiple deaths. Text heavy posters are written inviting so-called illiterates to a literacy class. The whole village is supposedly so illiterate that they can't read newspapers, but then can read posters of street gossip put up by anti-social elements.

'Mere Pyare Deshvasiyom' should thank the cinematographer for the neat visuals. Music by Nandagopan is good, so are the songs, but even that is tainted by the bleakness the film leaves you in.

For an interesting title, the film does not deliver. 'Mere Pyare Deshvasiyom' is a good two hours spent on nothing. If it means to actually speak on literacy, or the life of the elderly, or moral policing, it does so very feebly and half heatedly.