Director Ranjith too seems to have been inspired from the great epic for his new film Prajapathy. Kaliyar Madom and Devarmadom are very similar to Kauravar and Pandavar in the epic. Kaliyar Madom is headed by Kunhambu Nair (Nedumudi Venu) the scheming old man with wife Indrani (Seema) and four evil sons and a good hearted daughter (Sandhya). The eldest son Giri (Siddique, a la Duryodhanan) has all vices, is always jealous of his cousin and nemesis Devarmadom Narayanan (Mammootty)

Narayanan is an epitome of righteousness and dharma (a la Yudhisthira) who rules Perumalpuram, a perfect village where he is the law. Enter Ali Raghavan (Sreenivasan) the illegitimate son of Kunhambu Nair (a la Karna) who wants to be recognized by his father. Narayanan vows to help Raghavan and in a bloody climax the good triumphs over evil. Then there is Manianpilla Raju who is a sort of Sakuni who turns against his master in the end.

The story is as old as the hills and Ranjith has borrowed scenes from a handful of films. The scene where Giri kills his father by strangling him is a straight lift from Gladiator, background score to give heroism to the character sounds similar to Anniyan , and the slow motion (freeze frame) fight in the end reminds you of Ghajini!The scenes of a film unit coming to Perumalpuram for shooting was a conscious effort to push in a song and its hard to believe that all this comes from a director who has given Malayalees a classic like Nandanam and a racy entertainer like Ravanaprabhu!

Mammootty does his Rajamanickam act sans the Tiruvananthapuram dialect with ease. It’s better that the gifted actor chooses his films with a little more discretion. And as if his film is not complete without a heroine, Ranjith has roped in Aditi Rao as a dancer madly in love with our hero. There is no chemistry between the two and she does a glorified extras role. Sandhya is wasted as her role is not well-etched out and all these characters disappear towards the end. The only silver lining is Azhagappan’s camerawork.

Nedumudi Venu is adequate and Siddique should avoid being typecast as the bad man in superstar films. Thilakan as Vellodi is the clichéd character one sees as a guide and philosopher to the hero in such genre of films. Sai Kumar’s MLA and Salim Kumar’s superstar act (Is it a take-off on Suresh Gopi?) is insufferable.

Instead of being plot-conscious, Ranjith is more character-conscious as he struggles to give his protagonist a larger-than-life image. His dialogues are too lengthy and long winded that tests the patience of the audience and some of them are repeated from his earlier films. This makes the film laboured, slow and outdated.

End result- Prajapathy is a big let down. Not for the sensitive and sensible.

Verdict: Disappointing