Kodathisamaksham Balanvakkeel stars Dileep as an advocate who is disabled. Aju Varghese and Saiju Kuruppu have supporting roles. It is director B Unnikrishnan’s first light-hearted comedy, after political dramas and crime thrillers.
In the last 25 years that Dileep has been an actor, he has garnered a reputation for starring as disabled characters and roles that are less represented, even though the films itself didn’t talk about the plight of the characters’ lives.
He played a cleft-lipped man in Sound Thoma (2013), a blind man in Chess (2006), and a man with a hunchback in Kunjikkoonan (2002). In Chandupottu (2005), he played the life of a boy who was raised as a girl by his grandmother.
His performance in Punjabi House (1998) as a deaf-mute man, received praise. In Mayamohini (2012) he cross-dressed as a woman. He also starred as a common man twice – in Thilakkam (2003) and Chakkaramthu (2006).
Kodathisamaksham Balanvakkeel stars Dileep as advocate Balakrishnan, a man who stutters. This is similar to Jayasurya’s role in Su..Su…Sudhi Vathmeekam (2015), which won appreciation. The general tone of the Kodathisamaksham teaser, and roles of actors Aju Varghese and Saiju Kuruppu signal that the movie is a comedy.
Following Dileep’s arrest in the actress assault case, and his subsequent release from jail, director B. Unnikrishnan’s decision to work with him was criticised. Members of Women In Cinema Collective (WCC) opposed this. A member, Parvathy Thiruvoth, said that many including Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar had refused to work with directors after allegations of sexual assault were levelled against them.
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The director justified his actions by saying, “This film with Dileep is not a new announcement. It was committed long back – in 2013 while I was directing Mohanlal-starrer Mr Fraud. But later, Dileep couldn’t schedule his dates for the project and then I narrated the script to Mohanlal after making some changes. But Mohanlal said it was a script tailor-made for Dileep and that it would be better if I worked on it with him itself.”
Kodathisamaksham Balanvakkeel is been produced by Viacom18 Motions Picture.
It releases on February 21 2019.
Watch the teaser here:
Image Courtesy: Youtube