Category: 2019

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2014 2019 English Malayalam Nivin Pauly

Moothon (2019) & Liar’s Dice (2014)

The institution of the family seems to be important to writer-director Geetu Mohandas as relations within it form the crux of her two film stories. Take Liar’s Dice for instance. Kamala who didn’t hear from her husband for 5 months after he had left for a job at a construction site in the city, decides to go looking for him. From the moment we spot her on screen, we see her punching his number into her cell phone continuously even after it gives back a switched off message. Therefore, she decides to walk with her 3-4 year old daughter, on her instance her pet goat, one day to the nearest town.

Mulla in Moothon has a similar urgency to meet the big brother rumoured to have left their island years ago for Mumbai. The bullying at school and the streets gives this desire more momentum. One night, he takes his uncle’s fishing boat and sets sail for the mainland with a phone number in hand. Both Kamala and Munna are following a wild hope in their heart when they set out on a journey to a destination they have only heard about from others.

Their lives during this journey, the people they meet form the crux of the stories!

Categories
2019 Arun Kumar Aravind Asif Ali Malayalam

Underworld (2019) ðŸĪĻ😎

Underworld: can skip the theatre show to watch on Amazon Prime, their streaming partner.

Google Images

When a small town ambitious toughie Stalin John (Asif Ali) is sent to prison, his life takes an unprecedented turn by leaping into a different level of a thug life.

Arun Kumar Arvind’s Underworld centres on the rise & life of Stalin alongside the 3 other characters, Mujeeb (Farhaan Faasil), Solomon (Lal Jr) & Padmanabhan Nair (Mukesh) introduced in the teaser & trailer.

The quartet, and the rest of the cast who share complicated relationships with each other may not be heroes with pristine character certificates, nevertheless, within the scope of their shady lives, Stalin and Mujeeb uphold values of friendship, Solomon’s man friday (Nishant Sagar) is loyal towards his heartless master, and Muthumani is Perry Mason-esque in her attitude towards her client, Stalin. They are surrounded by devoted family members, and at least a friend, but the final battle seems to be set between Stalin and Solomon as it is their lives & families who have more screen time in comparison to those of Nair & Mujeeb.

The take away from the film could be an enriched vocabulary to describe a range of ruthlessness in people engaged in felony; synonyms of goon & gangster, as they aren’t the same, to describe & differentiate Stalin, Mujeeb and Solomon for the jobs they do, attitudes they carry, influences they have, & milieu they live in.

However, the film heavily & solely relies on its background score by Yakzan Gary Pereira & Neha Nair to keep the thriller and thug ambience alive in a weak script with cliched scenes, mass punch lines, & slow motion! It could defintiely have been shorter, the second half crisper, the story less predictable with more depth!

Lal Jr looked, behaved & sounded as menacingly vile as his father did in his debut in Kaliyattam (1997). Mukesh played the part of the corrupt septuagenarian politician with elan. Farhaan Faasil comes across as a cute goon, who may have to write his own makeover story like his brother did in the years to come ðŸĪž. Samyuktha Menon, Amalda Liz & Ketki Narayan play there and not there roles, as this isn’t their story to tell. Nevertheless, Muthumani as the advocate, and Sreelakshmy as Stalin’s mother, make an impact with the little they have to do in this script. So does Srikanth Murali as Potty, Padmanaban’s secret keeper, and Meghanathan, Solomon’s confidante in the police force. The comic relief is brought about by the surprise cameo of the trio Arjun Ashokan, Balu Varghese and Ganapathy, in that order 😉 The books used as props need a mention.

As this tedious long film ends, the audience may not empathise with the director, the gangster story by Shibin Francis, the songs that came and went or the cast. They may remember a few moments of male bonding between Mujeeb & Stalin, and ponder over the evolution of Asif Ali as an actor in the ten years he has been in this industry since Shyamaprasad’s Ritu (2009).

Categories
2019 Malayalam Mohanlal Prithviraj

Lucifer! Empuraan

Wanting to watch Lucifer again, a fourth and a fifth time when streamed on a TV channel, after I had watched it in the theater on day 2 of its release, and later on streaming platforms says, I like the film. Not in its entirety but in parts.

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That scene when Priya Ramdas (Manju Warrier) confronts her current husband Bobby (Vivek Oberoi) after her daughter Jhanvi (Sanya Eyyappan) confessed to her about the misdeeds of her step father, that he has been initiating her into drugs, and asking for sexual favours she hasn’t given into. Priya on her part is shocked. Initially she thinks Jhanvi is lying to cover up her addiction, but the daughter and mother find a middle ground, and the floodgates of woes opened. In the next scene, we see a Priya teeming with rage waiting in her chair rocking, to lash out at Bobby.

But, her anger fizzles out into stunned disbelief when Bobby accepts, then warns, and later threatens her. It is one of those chill down our spines kind of reply. It washed away all her years of trust in him.

In the beginning of the film, she is seen relieved that her teenage difficult daughter talked to him even when she wasn’t on talking terms with her. At the hospital, after Jhanvi opens up to her about her life inside the house, Priya still hopes that her daughter is making up stories about her stepfather, but the reply ends all of it. At the end of it, she sees Booby for the villain he is, the reasons why he had married her, and as the long time planner who murdered her first husband and father in the name of power. 

Lucifer as a narrative from the beginning is moving towards a final standoff between an arrogant Bobby who thinks the state is at his feet after the death of his Chief Minister father-in-law, and Stephan (Mohanlal) who he thinks is a mere politician from a constituency he can pacify, smear and put behind bars.

The rest of the film lines up the reasons for Stephan to kill Bobby without an inkling of guilt. As the credits roll, the narrative settles comfortably into the dynastic leadership, with the elder brother keeping a watch over his younger siblings, the sister turning advisor to her younger brother, the newly appointed chief minister.

We can’t blame Bobby for thinking it was his idea to bring his brother-in-law, Jatin Ramdas (Tovino Thomas) into this political milieu as a puppet to dance according to his tunes. He had to be a little more aware, listen to the gossips and conspiracies put forth on social platforms by the character played by Indrajith. He would have known. To the audience, there was always a bigger role for Lal in the film other than the politician he was playing throughout. The ending may not have come as a surprise to any especially if they had taken the prologue seriously.

The film on its parts throws up the question as to who is the bigger and lesser evil, it up to the audience to discern. 

Enough has been written about the film since it was conceived, made and released. You can except more moments like these if I happen to watch it again.

Categories
2019 Malayalam Mohanlal

Can give Ittimani a skip! (2019)

Mohanlal has been looking after older women in his films for a while now.

Ittimani (ooops spoilers ahead) is no different. If in Drama he helps to fulfill a dead woman’s last wish in the choice of her site of burial, here he goes a step further to marry an older woman, the widow who lives next door, his mother’s closest friend, his classmates’ mother to teach her children basic lessons in how to look after aging parents.

I can understand the intention of the film makers in choosing such a pertinent subject matter, and use their film to create an awareness about it to the public. However, the story does not pull the audience to emotionally be involved in it. By the time or rather if the audience has patience to sit through until that revealing climax) the script and direction has already played spoilsport in driving them away or lulling them into boredom with stupid jokes in the name of the slapstick.

Drama, last year, Baba Kalyani a few years ago, Snehaveedu, at a time of Sheela’s second coming, when she wanted to work with Lal are all stories about a younger (?) male protagonist in combination with an older mother figure whom he helps in a crisis, as a son, police officer, family friend or/and as part of his job. This series of being helping hand is becoming a little more than tiring especially when Mohanlal the superactor alone cannot pull audiences to watch his film anywhere.

Lucifer was mass film with thorough script and excellent direction. It is difficult to believe he ia the same actor who chose to be Lucifer, earlier this year, & the Ihikara Pakki cameo that overshadowed Nivin Pauly’s titular Kayalamkulam Kochunni.

About Ittimani, watch at your own risk, level.of patience, state of mind, levels of stress

Categories
2019 Kalabhavan Shajoan Malayalam Uncategorized

Brother’s Day: Kalabhavan Shajoan’s directorial debut (2019 – Onam)

True to its name, the film begins with the story of a 10 year old boy expecting a baby sister from his nearly fully pregnant mother in flashback colours – his mother’s pet, the village’s darling, friends’ hero, but his drunk Tamilian stepfather’s hate. The build up to this smooth but fractured childhood in the title song is disrupted by the death of the mother at child birth. The helplessness of a boy that young, losing the only loving relative he had to an unexpcted death is conveyed effectively. As an audience we feel sad for his plight & future with a man who has no attachment towards him whatsoever. But the new born baby girl changes all of it turning him into her caregiver under these harsh circumstances. The story smells of more tragedy such as when the sister grows older into a tweenager, her father offers her to his friend. The brother who arrives in the nick of time saves her by slaughtering the two men. But the trauma of the incident seems to have set into the little girl’s mind just as the blood speckled on her petticoat had dried & strained the cloth.

In the present, Prithviraj (Ronny) introduced in a flamboyant 1980s hero style is interrupted by the entry of his sidekick (Dharmajan) to tell us they work for Joy caterers, and are about to serve lunch at a wedding. Kottayam Naseer who is the Joy of Joy Caterers, Joy Tours & Travels etc etc etc .. with a trying to be happy but still can’t conceal the sadness sub-story of a childless couple is a small scale business man in Cochin. At the wedding reception, a brash and loud Madonna Sebastian along with her girlfriends get into trouble with Ronny for cutting the buffet queues to heap their plates with food. But she turns out to be the daughter of the groom and not a student of the college nearby trying sneak in a free lunch as they assumed her to be. As the flashback and the present go their parallel ways in the plot so far, Joy enters again to ask Ronny a favour, this time to pick up one of his regular guests from the bus hub and drop him at a pre-booked hotel accomodation. However, things go haywire for Joy & Ronny as the man Chandy (Kuttan), Ronny picks up turns out to be the wrong guy. He soon finds himself in an accident after which he tells Ronny’s name as his local guardian. If you found this tedious, the first half of the film is like a game with more known actors from the industry being introduced one after the other without much context. Prasanna of the Comfort Ad fame is also introduced but by the looks, sounds & bgm he can be immediately registered as the villain. But the film offers no curiosity brownie points to find out where he intersects with the lives of our Joy boys. This is where he film fails in script & direction, it fails to inject that adrenaline edge of the seat curiosity associated with a vengeance or a thriller.

However, the film isn’t as bad as its was reviewed at the time of its release during Onam this last month. But it is not the interesting kind either. When a film comes with a title like brother’s day, it is indicative of the centrality of the the character of the brother in it. Nevertheless, the plot falls flat as the suspense is centred on the play on the audience’s mind as to who among these characters form the intial brother-sister pair from the flashback..Nadir Shah’s debut felt like a one hour tv skit stretched longer into a film with an interesting climax. We will have to wait for Shajoan to write more scripts & direct more films to see him carve his niche as a film maker like he did for his acting career.

Watchable, one time is too much, but with adequate breaks if you want to, that is. Go with zero expectations.

Categories
2019 Malayalam

Pranaya Meenukalude Kadal (2019)

Skip / watch at your own risk. Trailer

The eco-friendly cloth posters show Vinayakan coming out of the waters with a spear giving us hope of a meaty titular role, depth in character etc, etc, one can have so many expectations from a poster of a Kamal film featuring Vinayakan!! The film introduces him as Poseidon/Aquaman (I’m not even being sarcastic here) with a born in the sea origin story, running on the white sands of the ocean bed lying in wait for that biiiiiig shark. In Malayalam film nostalgia, he is the Pullimurugan of this Kavaratti seashore. But … Even Dileesh Pothan’s presence does nothing to elevate this film to “let’s watch it for the scenery in Lakshadweep.”

The film is a roll of cliches, trying to fit into the new generation age with an 80/90s love story of a boy meets girl, with a problematic past. All of the main leads, the love birds (the pranayana meenukal, it should be them, I guess) included have their individual introductions. But, intros alone do not make a plot interesting! The scriptwriter & director in Kamal needs to understand stalking a person with or without a mobile phone, taking their pictures and videos in reel & real is an offence.

Dear Censor Board, I wonder if you were sleeping while you passed this film with such inept content. Where were the warning flash messages saying stalking is a social offence! Your commitment to society especially in an age where the WCC has been organized in the Malayalam film industry to empower, educate, enrich women in/inside cinema is questionable!

I didn’t for a moment find it cute that the island girl falls heads over heels in love with the stalker boy from the mainland Calicut soon after the lip lock under duress underwater. So …

Categories
2019 DQ Malayalam

Oru Yamandan Premakadha (2019) | DQ

A Malayalam language film |a DQ fan like me couldn’t sit thru. I re-watched with a determination when it was re-telecast on one of the channels a second time. Teaser

A different love story of two people who met “very briefly” once (think back to babies holding hands in Tamil/Hindi film Khushi) wait for each other all life long, never to meet again face to face, but are in love with that unknown to-arrive-lover Lallu (DQ) who is in search of that girl when the sparks will fly, violins will play a la SRK in Main Hoon Na. The story of the film lies somewhere in the middle of the search for this girl while he and his happy go lucky friends – Soubin is wasted, Salim Kumar has a slightly more responsible role than the prof in the Jimmiki Kammal film, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, also the co-scriptwriter, the blind man with a horrendous singing voice – go gallavanting after their daily contractual building painting jobs. (They have jobs, yes & they earn well.) This carefree life set in a picturesque Kadamakudy Islands is disrupted (no surprises there 😜) when Lallu finally finds his spark, but …

Most of the details during the first half become relevant by the end of the second, but they still do nothing to engage the audience watching a predictable story, motifs, stock characters indulging in cheap humour. DQ does choose to be a mass hero, however he hasn’t been able to sink into this character as effectively as he was Aju (Bangalore Days), Charlie (Charlie) and Adityan (Vikramadityan)

Yamandan means huge, it can also mean mass as in a mass film. Though it checked all its ‘mass’ elements, it failed to bring them cohesively into an arresting storyline.

Therefore, let’s run with the idea of Yamandan as unrealistically huge, as in “ethra manoharamaya nadakkatha swapnam” a dialogue from the Mohanlal-Srinivasan film Nadodikkttu.

Lallu (we see) & Diya (Nikhila Vimal) (we are told) are in search of that rare spark when they meet their partner as Madhuri Dixit’s character in Dil Toh Pagal Hai waits for the ishaara (a sign) from the upperwala. Therefore, they aren’t interested in anybody else, even when others are interested in them. The film is bildungsroman in genre to the extent of showing Lallu from pre-birth, birth, growing up & coming of age into a slightly more serious about life person, earning the support especially of his strict advocate father (Renji Panicaker and his many father roles is a post in itself) and his younger techie go getter brother (Arun Tharian of Aanandam fame). The scriptwriters – Bibin George (the villain) and Vishnu get meaty roles, so much so that, I thought this film was more a platform for their onscreen presence than for DQ to perform as a easy going rustic, school dropout with a good heart from an affluent family.

The better parts, the film nostalgia during a wedding eve mashing up popular songs. Highlight, that bit with Ashokan

Dileesh Pothan & Suraj Venjaramoodu

Watch at your own risk! I’d always say I told you so 😜

Categories
2018 2019 Malayalam Nivin Pauly Telugu

Who is #HeyJude’s #DearComrade?

**a few spoilers, here & there**

All I could hear while I was watching Hey Jude (2018) was the word comrade echoing at the back of my head. Crystal (Trisha) being there for Jude (Nivin Pauly) to boost his self confidence, teaching him social skills, getting rid of his fear of the water & people, encouraging him to pursue his passion in life and finally, helping him to understand his peculiar condition related to Asperger’s Syndrome is as Bobby (Vijay Devarkonda) stands with Lily (Rashmika Madanna). In Dear Comrade (2019), Bobby tries to convince Lily to break free from the social shackles of fear to fight an established institution to acheive her life long dream of playing cricket for India.

Crystal like Bobby checked all traits of a comrade as a person’s support system in good times & bad, Lily had listed in her reply to the press at the end of her film.

The Malayalam film Hey Jude, and Dear Comrade (released parallely in 4 South Indian languages) set in entirely different contexts are primarily about friends who help and are there for each other. Released in subsequent years, they come together here as I happened to watch them one after the other over a period of a week. They are available on Amazon Prime if you wish to watch them, together, or/and separately 😀.

Hey Jude is Tamil lead actor Trisha’s entry into Malayalam films, Nivin Pauly’s second film with director, ShyamaPrasad. Siddique, as always is mind blowing, he and Vijay Menon bagged Kerala State Awards (2019) for their parts. Neena Kurup as Jude’s mother essays a full length role after long, brings in the remaining cast.

I watched Dear Comrade for Vijay Devarakonda. I turned his fan after his Arjun Reddy. He is brilliant in the film as well, his chemistry it Rashmika sizzles. Shruthi Ramachandran as Jaya holds fort. The music is addictive in the voice of Sid Sriram. There, your reasons to watch it, but the story drags, its run time could have been cut shot by at least half an hour, and may be a little more spotlight on Lily.

Fate brings Jude to Goa to meet Crystal, Lily to her cousin Jaya’s wedding to Bobby. They become friends, and comrades who are more supportive of their lives than their families could ever be. Jude’s lack of social and people skills make his problems more visible and tangible to the audience in comparison to Lily’s fear of the societal gossip and slurs. While Crystal has the task of gradually introducing Jude to a society that he can’t make sense of Bobby is up against Lily’s years of upbringing that stops her from fighting the bureacracy for their misbehaviour.

They are the best comrades, Lily and Jude could get to achieve their life goals.

Both the films begin and moves with the lives of their male leads for quite a bit until their women make their entry. In Lily’s case, the audience realizes she is a state level cricket player (a crucial piece of info to the plot) much later after she is introduced. It is clear from the epilogue that Lily’s fight with the cricket board is the crux of this film set in the larger canvas of an intense love story. However, the focus is slightly more on the Comrade in Bobby. As seen in the poster, his life changing physical & emotional experiences in at least 4 different looks is highlighted more than Lily’s ‘the problem.’ As Bobby is the one who instills in Lily the courage to fight, the film becomes an ode to Lily’s Dear Comrade, yeah?!

If this pattern is taken as a point of reference for camaradarie, Hey Jude would have provided enough screen space to Crystal’s trip to Shimla which is very similar to Bobby’s rides to Ladhak to rid him off his demons. Crystal is equally in need of help for her bipolar disorder which the script underscores through Dr Sebastian (Vijay Menon) her father and a psychologist. Nevertheless, the film is ultimately about Jude’s journey to being less of a misfit, excelling in his niche area of expertise (clue is in the poster) thereby finding recognition from the larger society. His transformation from being mocked to taking him seriously, by his family and colleagues. Therefore, his story is rightly named after him, Yeah?!

Which begs me to ask the question, what of the female Comrade Crystal, the first person to instil confidence in Jude to pursue his dreams. What of Lily’s transformation to stand up to her accusers on Bobby’s unwavering support? What is the significance of their roles as the helper/helped in their films ..

What if, Hey Jude was named Thank you Crystal on the lines of Dear Comrade, and Dear Comrade was titled, Hurrah! Lily after Hey Jude

Ponder ..

Categories
2019 Malayalam slapstick Uncategorized

Janamaithri (2019) 😀

Janamaithri follows the lives of 4 sets of people on the inaugural night of the “Oru chayakku oru jeevan” an initiative by the local Peerimedu police station of the land, to spread a positive image of the police force among the people in their jurisdiction. The idea is to distribute a cup of tea each to every citizen driving a vehicle/in a vehicle passing through their main junction to keep them from sleeping at the wheel to avoid accidents at night. Such a promising idea, thought the DYSP played by Irshad, who wants to make his “brilliant” initiative go viral statewide to fetch a name for himself in the police circles as part of the Janamaithri Day.

Such good intentions as we have seen before ought to go out of hand in this slapstick genre to make it comical 😜. But all the story threads are tied at the end.

Soon after Samyukthan (Saiju Kurup) finishes his supper at a roadside shop on his Kochi-Kannur trip, his tummy begins to bubble and rumble. As he is driving in the hope he can contain his urge to go to a loo until he reaches his destination, he is stopped by our friendly police force for his free cup of tea. He tries his best to decline the offer, but he is forced to drink it, pose with them for pictures as per orders from their DYSP. As one of them records the moment, the police tea threateningly increases the pressure in Samyukthan’s tummy dramatically spiralling his urge to reach out to a loo asap. Seeing his inability to drive further without taking a dump in the open, the Sub Inspector (Indrans) assigns Constable Ashraf (Sabumon) to him to find a toilet in a nearby house in this midnight hour to relieve himself. And thus begins the fun … of knocking at doors, sleeping people woken up, their valid doubts about people knocking at their door at a night hour, questions, explanations, requests in the backdrop of Samyukthan’s increasing discomfort in his tummy. Meanwhile, the police serve tea unknowningly to two sets of thieves, take pictures and videos with them, share them with their DYSP who in turn religiously posts them to his Facebook page in the hopes of being reposted on the main page of the Kerala Police.

I laughed a lot, the lol kinds at confusions and bloopers of the characters, and in anticipation of their actions and predicament further in the film. Be it Irshad, Indrans, Vijay Babu as the elder brother & upholder of his family business. Shit always brings in a weird kind of funny humour to the stories, taboo topics on civil tables, but they are part of our daily inevitable routines. Remember Piku?

One time watch 😀 laugh riot.

Directed by John Manthrickal, he co-wrote Ann Maria Kallippilanu & Alamara.

Aside:

  • The title, Janamaithri, in connection with a police station brought back memories of Jeethu Joseph’s Drishyam, a film centred around a Janamithri police station in that town.
  • Coming on the heels of Mammotty’s Unda, I’d love to make a comparison but other than the premise of the Kerala Police, the two films of different genres.

A rating guide to films here …

  1. I loved it .. ðŸĨ°
  2. Watched it more than once. (I watched #Virus about 5 times) ðŸĨ°ðŸĨ°
  3. Had to watch another film to wear off the hangover 🙄
  4. Slept off in the middle of it ðŸ˜ī
  5. Didn’t like the first half, wanted to run away from the theatre. Post interval was superb ðŸĪŠðŸ˜ƒ
  6. Popular opinion vs mine ðŸĪ”
  7. Watch at your own risk. I didn’t enjoy the film 🙃😈
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