Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu (2017) Online

Baiju's (Biju Menon) patronizing hijinks are best enjoyed by those who spent a good part of their childhood outdoors, engaging in various sporting activities and keeping the body / mind constantly in high-energy zone, unlike the millennial who prefers an air- conditioned zumba room for their physical unwinding. Baiju is a government employee who still spends more time at their village playground than at his office, along with his bunch of (mid/late 20s) cronies who call themselves Kumbalam Brothers.

What I liked genuinely about the Ranjan Pramod flick is its honest take on sports and physical activity as a whole. The playground harbors all kinds of sports, not just cricket. While Kumbalam Brothers are cricket enthusiasts, they still make room for young footballers and women badminton players too. The camaraderie between the youngsters and Baiju is a treat to watch. The humor is clean, situational and mostly chuckle-worthy. In the absence of a solid plot, the writer/director relies on the cast and the holistic positivity to sustain viewer attention. And for a film that runs close to 2h 45m they manage to pull off a successful feat, for most part.

Deepak Parambol, Aju Varghese, Harish Perumana and a long list of supporting artists keep the movie afloat. Hannah Reji who plays Baiju's wife Ajitha, is perfect foil. The husband-wife conversations are humorously relatable; the soapy vibe that usually comes with poor handling of such characters thankfully doesn't take charge here. Some of the younger romances too are subtly dealt. Menon plays Baiju in his usual relaxed self, cracking one-liners with a deadpan expression that the viewers have cherished since a long while now. A few emotional moments are present in the latter half, although there is the severe lack of a 'major event' that hints at a turning point/twist. Perhaps, it is this uneventful-ness that makes 'Rakshadhikari Baiju' a jaunty, feel-good affair.

Baiju tells the nerds sitting at a bus-shelter to stop staring at their books, and take a peek around once in a while, because they never know what they might be missing out on. There is absolutely no preachy tone adopted while trying to convey the message(s) which makes 'RD' an uplifting experience overall. There are numerous sub- plots (like Manoj's and Unni's love-lives, Hari's cricketing quest which eventually leads him to the IPL, Baiju's sibling rivalry, his relationship with the kids of the block, there's plenty to write about!) and songs that take up a sizable amount of screen-time, yet 'RD' never bores you.

Verdict: Refreshing!

This movie was excellent.. One of the best feel good movies of recent times.. the only drawback was the length.. However, after watching the movie you will get a nostalgic feeling of old times and can be related to any commoner. Biju has put in his best effort, the comedy scenes have good variety and it makes the audience laugh out loud.. This movie deserves good rating, some people are giving bad reviews without even watching the movie.. We should support such small budget movies. I rate it 10 as it gave me everything what i expected from watching this movie.

Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu (RBO) has most of the ingredients to entertain the Malayalee family in total. Ranjan Pramod has experimented a new style, which is something different from the usual film making, . Anyone who born before 1990 can relate many things from their childhood memories while watching this film. Apt casting, melodious songs, timely comedy dialogues has added more value to the film. Spot recording is another aspects which attracts an applause. In total, we as a family liked the movie a lot. Hope and pray film makers comes out with such movies more in future too.

A must watch movie!

A few years back if you had asked me to spot Biju Menon among a group of people I would have had to take a pass. But then I saw Vellimoonga and have been a fan ever since. However his recent movies have been nothing to write home about. Leela was terrible. Marubhumiyile Aana was bad. Swarna Kaduva was alright. The second half of Anuraga Karikkin Vellam was good. Its not that his acting skills have ever been in question but his ability to pick & choose movies have been far from reliable.

Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu is his best movie in recent times by quite some distance. If you are a millennial who spends most of his leisure time playing video games then this movie is not for you. If you are a Gen Xer who spend most of his free time on a playground back in the day then you cannot help falling in love with this movie.

Biju Menon is a 40 something married father who spends most of his free time playing cricket with the youngsters of Kumbalam. Its a movie about refusing to grow up. The movie is somewhere along the lines of Action Hero Biju with no concrete plot. To be honest even I was expecting a plot to develop at some point during the 2 hr 45 min run time. Maybe the drug dealer hurts one of his team mates and it is a revenge story. Maybe one of his team mates gets hurt and it is a movie about dealing with pain and sorrow. Fortunately no such thing happens. The movie basically chronicles a few months in the life of Biju Menon, an Irrigation Department employee, who is a happy go lucky guy.

This is not one of those movies that you take home with you. I still sometimes think that Maheshinthe Prathikaram is almost as good as some of the finest Iranian movies that I have seen. Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu is just 3 hours of feel-good movie making that you can sail through without taxing yourself.

You should have seen the atmosphere in the theatre when the movie ended. There was dead silence. Some people probably felt let down by the lack of a plot. The others, like me, who could relate to the movie were thankful for a brilliant movie. Just bought back so many memories. Fantastic movie.

This movie really took us back to our childhood in hometown , grounds , sports , friendship . hatsoff to the entire crew behind the movie , very realistic movie with true moral .

If there is a competition for 'feel-good' movies then Rakshadhikaari Baiju is the strongest contender! Playing his usual common-man self with a blank expression and cracking one-liners at ease, Biju Menon plays up to his titular role to perfection as a 40-something family man who spends more time at his village playground than his workplace with his preteen to late 20's gang of friends. In the absence of a major event/turning point or a solid plot, clean and situational humor and the lead character's anecdotal incidents with the support cast carries the movie home somewhat. This Ranjan Pramod flick would be best enjoyed by 80's / 90's kids who can relate to the playground camaraderie and relatively simpler times compared to the millennials. Best part amongst the proceedings would be the subtleness brought into typical nostalgic affairs like romance sidetrack or family drama and the shrewdly avoided preachy tone in conveying what they want to tell. Technically perfect (spot recording being a feature well apt for the plot) and with its humdrum screenplay, Baiju is the perfect unwinding for supposed- to- be grownups who relish their childhood.

Rakshadhikari Baiju never feels like a film, that may be the best and the worst part of the film. It feels like the lives of a small village of Kerala is portrayed without adding anything to it. That is other than focusing on a character in his mid 40's who carries the film as he lives as a mentor for the youngsters of the village without losing the naughtiness of a kid in his mind. But probably for anyone who has not seen that kind of life, this may look like a bunch of events with an aimless direction. But for those who have lived this life, it is a poignant story of a village succumbing to the urbanisation that is creeping up everywhere. One of the best things about this film is that whichever scene it is you have a feeling that there is a different story right around there if the camera just turns from one side to the other; each frame is so detailed, not for foreshadowing a plot point or filling with Easter eggs, but for making the audience believe in that village. The only real problem for me was the editing; if the editing was a bit tighter; if the overlong runtime was cut down through just simple editing this could have been a great film, still a very good film.

Summary (no spoilers)

This movie goes deep into the story of a funny and good hearted man named Baiju, who also works as a government employee and is also the leader of the Brothers club in Kumbalam.

My Review (no spoilers)

The plot of the movie which was written by Ranjan Pramod was really sweet and simple. After watching this movie my Dad was telling me his story which was somewhat related to this movie. This movie makes our Dads and Moms to look back into their childhood which was a really good experience for them. Biju Menon as usual has done a spectacular job in enacting the role of Baiju and not to forget the whole of Kumbalam Brothers club. I did not feel any songs in this movie interesting but no complaints. Overall a good movie to bring our child hood memories back.

My Recommendation

Yes, I would recommend this movie to everyone.

My Rating

8/10

I expected a simple comedy movie with nice little story but i felt this movie was moving very slowly and at times very silly. For me this was a boring documentary kind of a film.On a positive note Bijumenon performed well and there were some good comedy scenes too. Overall an underwhelming experience it was.

Plus: Performances, realistic presentation and climax which gives the intention of the makers

Minus: The driver (director) refuses to change the gear of the vehicle I.e. no story. If it was a commercial film then having no story was ok, but a realistic film with no story? Ok that also u can bear because of action hero Biju. But a story less realistic film with sync sound? How would it be when you have to widen your ears to hear the dialogue? A very boring film.

Verdict: RBO is a two and a half hour journey running only on first gear without any conflict point.