Movie Review – Maheshinte Prathikaaram

Not to the perfect size?

This movie was one of my long hauled overdue and somehow escaped my radar all this while. Considered to be the finest of Fahadh Faasil and start of a new era by Dileesh Pothan and Syam Pushkaran. Unfortunately as I had watched and blown away by ‘Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum’, as a non malayalee who doesn’t understand the meaning of the words, even by the rhyme of it, ‘Maheshinte Prathikaaram’ was a little underwhelming. I guess both of it together would work as a dual feature, not like that or Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, but something like that of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’. The feeling was similar to how it felt after watching ‘Mr. Smith goes to Washington’ after being blown away by ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

The initial vibe of the film was terrific, the elongation of the word “pennu” and the sudden halt while saying “Idukki” in the titular song would give smiles to anyone settling in theatre. It’d have given a proper settling of rustling leaves vibes when you had seen people enter the theatre and you’re already in your dreamland. I thought it was going to be one happy film seeing that song sequence but it was entirely not so.

Mahesh (Fahadh Faasil) is a normal guy, in writer Sujatha’s words, a satharanan, one who has lived his life in peace in a small town, known by his friends and hated by none. He’s neither skillful nor terrible. He lives his life as if he’s not even in the frame. He loves a girl who too has affection on him but it doesn’t materialize for obvious reasons, the reason not explained in the movie but it felt like an eventual. This breakup felt harsher and realistic than Fahadh Faasil’s highly acclaimed but terribly boring ‘Annayum Rasoolum’. He doesn’t grimace in pain, may be part of him too knew that it was not going to happen. There isn’t any bitching, thankfully. Furthermore, post her marriage we don’t see her suffer. There were mild cues in the movie where the groom was shown as a possessive man, but thankfully being a positive non melodramatic movie we don’t see her suffering even though a part of us who sympathize with Mahesh would want that.

Due a sequence of events, a Butterfly Effect may be, we see Mahesh getting into a fight and getting beaten up and he swears that he wouldn’t wear a chappal until he avenges his man. While we think that the movie was going to get into a serious tone, the man who beat him up goes to Dubai. It was a terrific interval. It’d have been great if the movie had just ended there. The second half felt obvious. A girl who’s a sister of that man, Mahesh avenging him and asking for the girl, felt a little bit preposterous. The punch that he had expected while the directors name flashes on screen actually happens during the interval block.

As much as one would want to appreciate Fahadh Faasil, not just him but everyone could be appreciated in the same vein. There wasn’t a single badly acted scene in the whole movie. Everyone did their role to perfection. Even Mahesh’s Kung Fu colleague who beats up the auto driver. The climax fight gets us on the hook but isn’t it a film which is greater than this to have our emotions ridden in such a straight forward scene.

There was a part where Mahesh’s dad asks him not to call his studio as shop. There was a slight “coming of age” touch there but it wasn’t overdone and didn’t drift the film in some other direction. But it’s something which could’ve even be taken off and the film would have still worked fine and his character would have felt earthier. For some reason I was constantly getting ‘C/o Kancharapalem’ vibes which made me feel that this film as a less great one among the two.

As I said before, this movie would have worked better if I had seen it first and seen it with less disturbance. It’s not a movie for pause and play, in fact no movie is. But as it plays around with the feelings and emotions more than the story, a strong settling time would be appreciated.

Movie Review – Soorarai Pottru

A momentary success

“Paya pudichitan… elaam Technology,” said Delhi Ganesh about Suriya in Ayan and eleven years after that’s what exactly he has done, by releasing his movie in OTT platform. With no problem for First Day First Show tickets not being available, everyone who were interested in the movie watched first day first show at the luxury of their home. But what’s special is, it made even someone who’d not have been really that interested to watch First Day First Show of the movie too, to have watched it on the very first day. Thanks to the curiosity. There might have been few films to release directly in OTT platform before this one but this is the first star movie to release. It’s definitely not an easy decision to make, in spite of not being a fan of Suriya, I highly appreciate that.

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Ideally this is what Kamal would have wanted with his ‘Viswaroopam’. It became a blockbuster and was enjoyed widely in theatres along with the typical theatre moments like the transformation scene. But all that is a different issue. Down the line, like how ‘Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum’ would be remembered as first colour film, this would be remembered as first major OTT film. I too watched the film with same curiosity like many. I don’t remember following the updates of any Surya film before that. May be ‘Ghajini’, that too just to make sure that it’s not as good as ‘Anniyan’. But that’s it.

The movie opens with the trailer scene where a Deccan Air flight is trying to land and conveniently every swear word which Nedumaaran Rajangam/Maara/Maaran (Suriya) says is not lip synced on screen. Either it is a clever move to avoid censors or Suriya being a typical goody goody guy didn’t want to swear on screen. But it doesn’t matter, the swear words don’t have an impact here like a Vetrimaran film or isn’t used in a fancy fashion like a GVM movie. Vijay Kumar has to be appreciated for ingenuine writing. In Sudha Kongra’s previous movie, ‘Irudhi Suttru’ too the swear words were so ingenuine. Plus, Maddy’s character demanded it, which he delivered to perfection. I still remember the last dialogue to the association head, “tha ne gaali da”

The movie doesn’t take a linear screenplay, may be Sudha wanted to make a more impactful film so there is a high-tension opening scene, a sad interval scene and again a high climax. I don’t see any other reason for making the film in nonlinear fashion. Anyways that doesn’t affect the flow of the film. The songs do though, which is a problem with any Tamil film. The director has tried her best to make a fast-paced biographical movie, which is not at all easy unless you’re a Scorsese but whenever songs appear, no matter how good it is, it spoils the flow. Even while I was watching with the family, I was intrigued and had a conversation only during the songs. That’s something that could have been taken care.

Suriya does a fabulous job in the movie. Even the name suits him so much. Generally, no matter how hard he performs he looks desperate but here he has great screen presence. Thanks to the tight frames where they haven’t given him space in the open, all our concentration lies on him. The two best scenes of the movie where the one where his country people give him money and the climax scene. Both being emotional ones he performs really well. In fact, that’s the plus point of the movie, it’s something which audience could emotionally connect to.

Aparna Balamurali too does a fabulous job. I recently watched ‘Sarvam Thaala Mayam’ and wasn’t much impressed of her but here he does a fabulous job. Especially with her diction of Tamil. She matches Suriya scene to scene. Paresh Rawal as Paresh Goswami too does a fair job and so does Prakash Belawadi as Prakash Babu. Wish the latter had been the villain as I’m a big fan of him. He could have added more dimension to the story. Mohan Babu as M. Bhaktavatsalam Naidu got to be cutest hateable person on screen.

Overall, the movie would win hearts, it has its moments but still like how ‘24’ is enjoyable but not a coherent film, ‘Soorarai Pottru’ too feels the same. It’s a tad lengthy, the situations are repetitive with the hero going down on one scene and raising from ashes in the next scene. It happens again and again. Instead the director could have invested on one situation and built the scene through it, rather than giving moments of excellence again and again, something on the lines of ‘Guru’. By the time the film ends, we lose connect to the character, it becomes evident that he’d anyways win. It in a way is a mark of losing interest but thankfully it doesn’t go to that level. What should have been an edge of the seat thriller becomes a drama film with time.

Sudha Kongara is good at making star vehicles without it being called so. ‘Irudhi Suttru’ too treaded on the same lines which worked more because it was like a comeback movie of Madhavan. Similarly, this movie too works more as Suriya’s different attempt rather than being a different movie. It being a biographical movie can be cited as an excuse but that can’t last long.

Movie Review – Sarvam Thaala Mayam

A rollicking start to a rock bottom end

Some time back, there was a topic doing rounds, called a ‘great first half and silly second half films’. This film fits to tee to that description. I was never interested in this movie at first place. G V Prakash in his regular shabby avatar was a no brainer to avoid the film in spite of having Rahman in music department and Rajiv Menon directing the film. In fact, the posters I thought was a parody but thanks to a recommendation by dear friend, I thought of watching the film and ended up being pleasantly surprised.

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The story is about a young Peter Johnson (G. V. Prakash Kumar), a crazy Vijay fan, who plays music during new releases of Vijay, who doesn’t have much ambition in life. During one chance encounter he goes to deliver mridangam to Vembhu Iyer (Nedumudi Venu) at which times he gets awed by his playing, which makes him want to master the art of mridangam. Being a regular local drums player, he has fast hands and that makes Vembhu Iyer notice him but he doesn’t admit him as his disciple immediately. After a lot of effort Peter gains the trust of Vembhu Iyer.

Even though it feels like a regular rag to riches story, the making is so organic and lovable. We get so attached to the character so that we don’t want him to fail. Also, the friendship angle between Peter and Nandhu/Nandhagopal (Sumesh), another disciple who learns along with him, was nice because his introduction was a curious one where Vembhu Iyer rejects the proposal of shaking hands citing that someone injured his hand. What we think of attitude is actually his respect for art. I have a firsthand experience of it because a guitar teacher whom I know met with an accident while going in bike and injured his finger so he never uses bike but only car. He may minimize expense in other things but would never take a bike instead of car. So, what I thought would be gentle insult turned out the other way around when Nandhu too joins his class and both Peter and Nandhu strike a friendship. Throughout this phase, there was no direct mention of cast or creed, the music united everyone, which was beautiful to watch. Till now it had all the ingredients of a breezy Rajiv Menon film, like that of ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’ and I thought the film was going to proceed in the same vein but from the interval juncture things went awry.

Nandhu getting wooed by Anjana (Dhivyadharshini) to enter into a reality show where Peter gets caught instead of him and eventually losing the trust of Vembhu Iyer and injuring his finger was nice and tense. But the second half was a total disaster. He who loses everyone starts on a road trip to learn music and title song appears for it. It was as silly as it could get. Ideally that should have been the most inspiring part of the story but the directors nowadays who take travel for granted make these irritating montages and make people cringe for these songs.

The second half went wayward because the reason for Vembhu Iyer to follow the music program and wanting to prove the world that he’s the best looked silly beyond words. Even though his wife’s argument is valid and the scene was lovely, it doesn’t make someone with the stature of Vembhu Iyer to bow down so easily. She was terrific throughout the movie even though she didn’t have any dialogue. The second half still had its moments. The above scene was one, the scene in car with Vedaraman (Sikkil Gurucharan) was a lovely one. Something on the lines of ‘Uttama Villain’ car scene with Andrea. Even the scene where the judges talk outside the scoring avenue was good but altogether it wasn’t convincing in any way. Plus, when the movie ends as if its all for a silly TV program, it was disappointing to the core.

All in all, it was a really good attempt. They had tried something new. But the way it started, it looked as if it was due for something big but instead ends like a reality show cat fight. The movie was definitely nice but I thought by the end I’d like be liking it much more.