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Madhuchandralekha Review:

Urvashi shines in predictable 'Madhuchandralekha'
By Paresh C. Palicha, Indo-Asian News Service

Film: "Madhuchandralekha"; Cast: Jayaram, Urvashi and Mamta Mohandas; Director: Rajasenan; Producer: Samad Mankada; Music: M. Jayachandran
  

  

Rajasenan's "Madhuchandralekha" brings together hit yesteryear pair Jayaram and Urvashi.

The premise of the film is well publicised and predictable. Madhu aka Madhavan (Jayaram) is a successful playback singer. Chandramathi (Urvashi) is his illiterate, rustic, betel-chewing wife with a bad habit of spitting in wrong places, and they have four children. It can be described as incompatible matrimony but still a happy one. 

Madhu loves his wife even though they are out of sync because she has brought him luck. Here enters Lekha (Mamta Mohandas), a sophisticated urban model-cum-singer, who finds a place in the hearts of all the family members.

Chandramathi thinks Lekha will be the perfect wife for her husband and a good mother for her children. How she goes about her plans of uniting Madhu and Lekha forms the rest of the story.

The humour, which is supposed to be the thread holding the film together, is inconsistent. One moment it is good and the next moment it is substandard. 

It all begins well with a clean shaven Jayaram teaching music to a group of girls in a village that includes the out-of-tune Chandramathi. The pacing in the first half an hour is good with Kalsala Babu playing the narrator.

Then the downslide begins that hits the lowest point in the end. The culprit here is the screenplay by Raghunath Paleri that excessively depends on contrived humour. It may have helped if a little thought had been spared for the characters.

This film solely belongs to Urvashi. If "Madhuchandralekha" manages to reap a rich harvest at the box office, it will be because of her. She shines throughout despite having to deal with really mediocre stuff. 

Her character is outlandish, which requires her to go overboard most of the time. But her presence makes the movie watchable. 

Jayaram looks pale in her presence. The script offers him nothing. He is just reduced to being a prop to Urvashi in a few scenes. He tries hard to display his histrionic abilities in the second half, where he has some scenes in which he doesn't have to compete with Urvashi. But they are few and far between.

Mamta as Lekha passes the muster. It would have been good if Rajasenan had tried something new instead of reworking an old formula.