If your idea of a film still holds a perfect hero-heroin-villain combo and a crisis-solution plot, better skip 'You too Brutus'. Because chances are high that you would end up wasting your energy swearing all and sundry for good or bad for anything with the new-gen banner.
On the other hand, if you like the film on which you spend a few bucks to be different and to question your formula of a film, dare to watch the all-youthful flick, an attempt to hold a mirror into us that would portray the deformed and stretched selves within us, much like the depiction in the posters of the film.
The film, which has no formal hero or heroine, is a tale of a few youngsters and a middle-aged man all of whom can undoubtedly update their status on FB as "in a complex relationship". The title, the Shakespearean catch phrase which has almost become part of our local parlance, holds the key to the movie.
Harichettan, an artist, (Sreenivasan) has a group of youngsters -- Abhi (Asif Ali), Tovino (Tovino Thomas), Vicky (Anu Mohan), Arun (Ahmed Sidhique) and Unni (Sudhi Koppa) and a fake dislike for women with him. (By the way Abhi is said to be Hari's brother and Unni, the servant. Couldn't figure out why the artist shelters the others in his house - may be just for the sake of company!). Three of the youths fall into relationships, which means lands in trouble as we see it. The relationships - one of which is a wedlock, one a live-in and one illegal as the girl is only a 'girl'- gets into deeper trouble.
The fragile aura of fidelity breaks down so as to justify the catch word of the film, "a golden cheating". The plot then unfurls with nothing much happening to the protagonists – They continue to be what they are as it often happens in real life.
More than characters the film has caricatures. And the actors, both men and women, don't disappoint. While Asif Ali and Honey Rose reminds us some of their early characters, Tovino, Rachana Narayanankutty and Sudhi Koppa succeeded in portraying the caricatures of a gym-man who gets angry with the Almighty for not giving him a little bit courage too, the woman who leaves her husband for smoking (the fact that he slept with another woman seems to be a non-issue to her), and a rustic cook who waits on NH under hot sun for a woman who would offer him a 'lift.'
The film decodes the serenity of relationships and thus undo an array of beyond-life family dramas portraying the value of relationships. As the theme song repeatedly tells, the film is all about the Brutus within you and me.
As the director and writer, Roopesh Peethambaran can be proud of the hilarious narrative. Though not a pathbreaking effort, it definitely treads a road less travelled.
Swaroop Philip's cinematography and Roby Abraham's music syncs with the narrative style.
While discussing a complex theme like man-woman relationship, knowingly or unknowingly the director offers something to satiate the male psyche for which he is likely to get a slap from those who are into the business of gender studies. We will leave him to fend the brickbats. However, the erudite viewer willing to forgive minor hiccups is likely to spot a daring venture.