Comali review: This Jayam Ravi-starrer is silly but the jokes do the trick

Jayam Ravi’s Comali (2019), from writer-director Pradeep Ranganathan, is the kind of film that never makes sense but manages to work, thanks to a terrific Yogi Babu and his one-liners. The comedian for once is not reduced to body shaming and is actually given the scope to shine through some genuinely funny jokes.

For the most part of the film, even if you’re not invested in the story, the comedy keeps you engaged and all that credit must go to Yogi Babu. Take him out of Comali and the film would’ve fallen flat on its face.

Comali features Jayam Ravi as Ravi who plays a school-going teenager. The year is 1999 and Ravi falls for his classmate Nikita (Samyuktha Hegde), and pursues her till she likes him back. Ravi decides to propose to Nikita, and when he’s all set to propose to her, he meets with an accident and ends up in coma, only to wake up after 16 years.

When Ravi wakes up from coma, he has a difficult time adjusting to both his physical condition and the severe culture shock he encounters after so many years. The rest of the story is about Ravi trying to get a grip back on his life and finding a purpose to live while trying to adapt to the new lifestyle.

The biggest issue with Comali is that it doesn’t cash in on the exciting premise, which it borrows from 2007 English comedy Kickin’ It Old Skool. It heavily relies on comedy to work, and as long as the jokes keep coming, the film stays afloat but the minute it changes tone to preach about humanity with a needlessly dramatic climax, it turns plain boring.

Jayam Ravi is convincing in the school portion but again the weak writing has nothing more than making Ravi and Yogi Babu rate the girls in their class and pass lewd comments. The film’s set in 1990s and it was supposed to be nostalgic, but there’s hardly anything worth some praise. The film features two leading ladies – Samyuktha Hegde and Kajal Aggarwal – and both of them have absolutely nothing to contribute. Aggarwal is reduced to eye candy and she’s starting to get extremely horrible in her films and Comali is no different.

Instead of taking the clichéd dramatic route to deliver a message, I wish Comali was even funnier as it had the scope, but it fails miserably in trying to pack too many elements into a film that was meant to be a laid-back entertainer.