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 – 22 Female Kottayam

Surprisingly good but expectedly not so good

It was one of the movies which I don’t know how it ended up in my list and for some reason I was very disinterested too, so watched it hastily. But quite surprisingly, it was an interesting watch. The movie was quick to grip. The typical feel goodness of Malayalam film was there to be seen in the first act and that’s the best part. The way their love casually blossoms, the not so meaningful scenes and all those niceties were superb, just when I thought I was going to settle it for a surprise feel good movie, the typical Fahad psycho mode started and movie got out of place…

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The movie begins with Tessa (Rima Kallingal) escaping from someone’s clutches where she phones and thanks him. It then shifts to flashback mode where we see her try to go out of the country. She meets Cyril (Fahadh Faasil) from the travel consultancy agency and they both fall in love with each other. It was a cute love story till then and Fahadh Faasil was excellent in that. Plus, there was no sign of any doubt in their relationship. It felt as organic and natural as it could be. Even the introduction of Hegde (Prathap Pothen) and all of them being together was as natural as it could be.

The first twist was when Hegde asks Tessa whether he can have sex with her. Generally, Prathap Pothen is really good in psychic characters but he wasn’t as menacing as he would generally be.  At that point we’d be thinking of how Cyril would take revenge on him but the second twist happens when he too becomes psycho. Even though the first act was best, the way the movie transforms too was nice, even though I didn’t like the idea, the execution was good but it’s the part post that which was entirely a debacle.

The jail scenes in the second half was a total let down. What should have been a hard-hitting passage of time was let down by poor story which looked like yesteryear antics. That part had an uncanny resemble to ‘Ek Hasina Thi’, wonder whether there could be so much coincidence. Thinking about the film now, the entire story feels like it, just that the first act was lovely here. The jail part was the best one in ‘Ek Hasina Thi’ and that’s the reason why the film worked. Whereas it’s the opposite here.

She comes out and takes revenge. That was of no surprise but I loved her collaboration with DK (Sathaar). That was a lovely character who looks flirty and villainous in the first half but becomes a hero of sorts in the second. Also, I loved his concept of love. Though he has multiple affairs he doesn’t cheat any. May be even his wife knows about it and approves. And he’s someone who never shies away from mentioning about his wife, to which no muses of him get irritated. It was a welcome change from typical ‘minor kunju’ types in Tamil cinema.

The revenge scene with Cyril was inevitable but wish we could have seen more resistance from him. Also, as per Wikipedia, she tries to woo him by being a typical “femme fatale”. Seriously? She looked hardly any different. The final dialogues between Cyril and Tessa were nice with Fahadh Faasil taking the onus. Good that the movie doesn’t end with Tessa killing him. It would have been mundane. Plus, she even after doing penectomies, has a little bit of sympathy on him and he has more agony on her. He challenges her and she still looks weak somewhere. That passage of play was nice to watch. May be with a better actress, it would have been nicer.

Movie Review – Silencer (2020)

What was it even trying?

There are many ways to defend ‘Silencer’. People generally do that. But when a movie doesn’t even work an iota, why even try defending it, even if its Tarkovskian. I’ve said a number of times, that there are movies which even if it doesn’t work for you, you know that there is some greatness associated to it. Then there are some movies which simply don’t work even though it’s called a great movie. ‘Silencer’ fits in the latter, but don’t know whether it’s considered a great flick anyways. It, put in simple terms, is a debacle.

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‘Silencer’ was trying to be artistic, which I got to know only during the last twenty minutes and that’s when I completely wrote off the movie. I was expecting something on the lines of ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’, where even if all the sci-fi thing doesn’t work, it’s a film of warmth. A film need not compulsory be of warmth, it could have been of wrath too. Seeing Lal, I thought its one such film but it wasn’t that too. With the way the film progressed I thought he had lost it but it felt like every character looked lost. In short, it’s a film full of confusion.

The editing is cluttered and confusing, even though it was intentional it didn’t work. The cuts had to be in such a way that it has some meaning. There should be some revelation or shock when the film cuts to the old or may be have a feel which makes you like the process like ‘Premam’ but here the flashbacks come at needless places and we don’t know what it tries to prove. May be that’s the intention, the war, the rage and everything is of no use. But it definitely could have been shot in a much interesting way.

It’s another movie where the lead actors lock horns. Lal in his silencer less bike and Irshad in his Fortuner fight it out, even though not literally, but mentally. Their irritation upon each other gets on us too. Even though considered amongst the power house of actors, I feel Lal’s acting to be monotonous. His coarse voice, demeanor and body language are all too stiff for acting and he repeats the same in every film. It feels like he could play ‘The Hound’ perfectly because of his hard outlook and soft nature. But keeps repeating it in every format. It’s appreciable for once but not always.

Of all, it was the last act which got me to write off the movie completely where it was going towards art house. It only felt like an art of escapism to me because these things work when you create a mood and not when it takes you off the hook all of a sudden. There could be underlying meaning but the movie in the end couldn’t simply hold my attention.

Movie Review – Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

The gold that it chokes

What started as a typical Fahadh Faasil film with a slow start of unsuspecting characters takes a U turn as soon as Fahadh Faasil arrives on screen. It has all the elements like his other movies which starts with a story without him in the beginning, an everyday routine of them, to the point that it makes us feel we need a breather, then we yearn for his arrival so that there could would be some entertainment and finally bam he arrives. It’s one way of writing massy entertainers which is wrapped in the artsy format. Fahadh Faasil somehow gets these roles or the makers write one for him always.

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Fahadh gets a terrific intro in the bus, post which he’s caught red-handed and handed over to police station. It’s doesn’t take much time for us to develop hatred towards him. Given the way the couple complaint, it’s only easy to deduce that the incident has happened for real so it’s an open and shut case for police but they use them to fullest of advantage so that they could mint as much money as possible. What looks like a story between the couple, Sreeja (Nimisha Sajayan) and Prasad (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and the thief, Prasad (Fahadh Faasil) has police also playing a substantial part.

It’s like a game of Raja Rani, where everyone has equal importance. In fact, they have more importance. It’s typically a scene or a sequence which put in plain words show how the judges are bigger thieves than the culprit and the victim. But the way its built, it’s a careful constructed maze. There is no loud music, there isn’t any tools which manipulate us, but plain straightforward acting. As honest as the couple are, we can’t help but feel sorry for them. Seeing the confidence, we doubt ourselves whether Fahadh has really stolen the chain and the way the police perform, especially A.S.I Chandran (Alencier Ley Lopez) we feel he’s for real. In fact, the way the duo of Chandran and the other police officer (Sivadas Kannur) perform, they were equivalent to Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah in Maqbool. Only that, here they’re not together but their act together is nothing short of spectacle.

In a movie like this, it’s really tough to hold the curiosity of audience. Editing here is lovely. The opening part where they both get married are not shown on screen but we get to know it in bits and pieces in the middle. The tension is not evident on screen but they’re not a romantic couple, the strain of what they’ve undergone in life shows on screen. That’s where both Suraj Venjaramoodu and Nimisha Sajayan are excellent. In fact, Suraj looks first choice for roles like this where he shouldn’t cry when sad. Maybe it’s becoming a template role for him but his innocence is lovely. Even though Fahadh mercilessly manipulates his, he still has an ear for him. He couldn’t leave him to walk free because he feels it would be a cheating for his wife yet he couldn’t hold on to him to bring him down because he’s not powerful enough and he has a little bit of sympathy towards him. He does both of it and struggles to survive. It’s typical of any man in a middle-class family. Every middle-class member could relate to it. On the other hand, Nimisha’s role is straight forward, she has a motherly innocent nature about her who first feels angry and then doesn’t.

This has got to be Fahadh Faasil’s best. When the film was taking a familiar twist with police trying to use wrong evidence, the way he asks Prasad to tell the truth in court and make him free was one of his masterstrokes. It looks all good till the end but there is one frame where he stares at the couple and through that one stare, his villainous nature becomes evident. That’s some lovely acting. I didn’t like the way it ended which gave a ray of hope as if all is fine. I couldn’t deduce much from the couple’s angle, who looked satisfied but may be the police had mellowed down, still he’s doing his job of not being an honest man. It’s not outrightly told that he has taken leave or retired. And Fahadh through to looks of it, feels like a man who’s searching for job. But nothing could be deduced so easily from his character. Maybe he’s looking for another robbery. But I’d like to take it in a negative angle which makes it more interesting.

Movie Review – Kerala Cafe

Too many cooks spoil the broth

A film that runs high on ambition and looks to have a novel idea implemented. Whether it’s necessary or not is a question that needs to be asked for. There were a large section of people who had problem with ‘Dasavatharam’ because of the very same reason. It looked like a story written so that the film can accommodate ten Kamal’s, but what it did right was it accommodated ten Kamal’s properly. Whereas in ‘Michael Madhana Kamarajan’ it’s a story which got accentuated because there were four Kamal’s. It would have worked even if four different actors had worked. However, to me, both the films served its purpose. Did ‘Kerala Café’ serve its purpose, is a question to be asked for.

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Nostalgia

Well, really a nothing film which was so plasticky and mundane. Worse than the excuse which Johnykutty (Dileep) utters every now and then. Nothing really works here and the climax dialogue where Sheela (Navya Nair) says its nostalgia and the title card appearing then was just lame.

Island Express

There was hope because it had Prithviraj in it. However, as a non-Malayalee who is used to seeing only his great movies, this feature was so bad, be it the getup, dialogue delivery or even the story, which hardly settles in. This part actually makes us feel whether he could do this bad a role.

Lalitham Hiranmayam

Another horrible story and horrible acting, which felt childish. Never have I liked Suresh Gopi’s acting but this story took it to a level above. In addition, the story did not really work at all. For a wife and mistress story, it needs Dostoevsky level of artistry but it ends up being a TR level film.

Mrityunjayam

‘Mrityunjayam’ has a pretty plastic acting to start with and a premise, which would at least give short time chills but ends up doing nothing apart from showing bad graphics. Another loser.

Happy Journey

A reasonable story with some pretty solid acting by Nithya Menon. But, again, the production value was bad and the film looked very amateurish. May be it’d be a good film for a ‘Nalaya Iyakunar’ level of filmmaking but as a feature film with pro actors, it’s not up to the mark.

Aviraamam

It is a story of a businessman Ravi (Siddique) who’s on verse of suicide because of his debts. Although that part of the film does not work, Devi’s (Shwetha Menon) glam act evokes some interest in the film. If Siddique too had acted better, the chemistry would have been wonderful.

Off-season

An over the top story with over the top acting by Suraj Venjarammood. This could be a good story to read in a paper you get while you have Bajji from teashop but nothing more than that. Neither the jokes work, nor the setting.

Bridge

By far the best story and the only story with conviction. Even that did not have great acting but the setting and the way two story mingles with each other in such short span of time is something to be appreciated of. Even when the film ends and all the characters go out of Kerala Café, it is the granny and the kitten sitting who sit outside of it, evoke sympathy from us.

Makal

It is another mundane story, which works reasonably well thanks to its nativity. The climax was guessable, even though bad, it gave a little respite because it had a twist. If not for it, the impact would have been even lesser.

Puram Kazchakal

A story, which could have been better if it had been given some time but Mammootty does a fabulous job in keeping us, interested. If it had been made a full-length feature like ‘Munnariyippu’ may be the story would have got more time to evolve. Anyways the last three stories makes for not so bad ending to the anthology.

Movie Review – 5 Sundarikal

Tad too much, Tad too ambitious

Anthology films are always fun and entertaining, especially when a number of directors collaborate. ‘Lust Stories’ was a prime example of that in recent times, which superbly took a topic which would surely sell and the film being an OTT release, the makers had more liberty with the content. The very title gave a scare that it’d be feminist film but luckily it was not. It was about five different females and what happen in their life. With few, the idea was good but execution was bad. With others, making was good and story was poor. Few had done both right and few had both wrong.

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Sethulakshmi

By far the best of the short stories. Eclectic acting by the kids as well as the photographer (Guru Somasundaram). It starts in a feel good way with a hint of sadness like Iranian films. Sethulakshmi (Baby Anikha) and her close friend (Chethan Jayalal) go to a photographer to take photos of themselves. Sethulakshmi has a weird habit of collecting couples photos from newspaper, which was a great touch by the way. Kids are always up to stupid things and have these weird habits. So, it was nice of the director to make use of that. Guru Somasundaram as photographer was terrific with villainy just oozing out of him. The last shot was an epic one.

Isha

With the titles appearing after ‘Sethulaskhmi’ my expectations of the movie increased a lot. It’s only after ‘Sethulakshmi’ does the title appear. ‘Isha’ had a plasticky opening and the story too was kind of far-fetched. No matter what she does, Isha Sharvani always reminds me of ‘David’ and “Kanave Kanave” song. And, her role here too was similar. Jinu/Santa (Nivin Pauly) is a thief and Isha (Isha Sharvani) seduces him. Until the climax part, it was a great story but the climax twist spoilt it. Nivin was fabulous as a hesitant lover boy. His blushes would make any girl go weak in her knees.

Gauri

It’s quite unclear as to what the film tries. There was a bit of sadness in the film right from the start and hesitance in their daily life. Gauri (Kavya Madhavan) and Jonathan Antony (Biju Menon) are couples who supposedly married without the consent of their parents. They seem to be living a fairy tale life. The servant (Shine Tom Chacko) looks kind of weird right from the start. Was that a hint that he had done something to his master? It’s quite unclear. But, anyways the whole film didn’t work. It was just too showy.

Kullante Bharya

The film has a ‘Rear Window’ kind of theme, like a tribute to the film. Dulquer appears as a nameless person with cast and does not have any dialogue to utter but holds our interest through the narration. The story gives an ‘In the Mood for Love’ feel but unfortunately, the making is not good. Partly it has to be attributed to bad setting. If the place and lights had been used more efficiently, this story could have been a great mood piece. Both Kullan (Jinu Ben) and Kullante Bharya (Reenu Mathews) were really good in their roles, especially Reenu Mathews. Again, the melodramatic end was something which spoilt the film. It was all too sudden and unnecessary. This was the only part, I wished, could have been an entire feature film.

Aami

An overdone Fahadh Faasil story. It is a one-man show and everything relies on him. His look was different and he does a typical psycho, which has now become overbearing. Good that the morality check was not done for this part of the story but I sincerely feel that he’d die the next day. It tries to give a punch with the storyline but feels too plasticky in the end.

A film, which almost all the top stars and famous directors in it, ought to have been greater than this. If not ‘Wild Tales’ level at least it should have been ‘Silu karupatti’ level but it falls short of it severely. If not for the first film, ‘5 Sundarikal’ is a disaster. And my order would be Gauri < Aami < Isha < Kullante Bharya < Sethulakshmi

Movie Review – Vikrithi

Average feel good

Vikrithi is another movie which falls under the category of “you-can’t-hate” Malayalam films. It’d be nice to watch these films in the midst of other films which are different. Or at least watch it with some serious gap but when you’re watching films with fury, it becomes underwhelming. Because all the recent films fall under the same category. So again, this film too ends up being a nice film but nothing apart from that.

Just like watching few other movies like ‘Driving License’, ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ etc. This too happens to be a film which works on a single incident and how two lives are connected with that incident in the end. There was nothing to look forward in the end because we know that one person is going to forgive the other. Though it could be appreciated as a film which was made without being boring, by just one incident, there isn’t much more to it apart from that. How long are we going to keep saying the same.

The film follows the story of two individuals Eldho (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and Sameer (Soubin). Eldho being the nice guy and Sameer being the mischievous one. Eldho’s family is an interesting one with both him and his wife Elsy (Surabhi Lakshmi) being mute and deaf. Sameer on the other hand is a person with reasonable money. Till the mid-point we don’t get to know how the two stories are going to be linked.

There were few clues from Sameer’s story showing how he’s so much into social media but that too doesn’t come out loud. Generally, those scenes would be made loud so that we start anticipating the twist early but here it doesn’t happen like that. It’s more organic and natural. Though Suraj’s acting steals the show, its Soubin who plays a better everyday guy. He seems to be there in every movie I watched recently and does an amazing job in whatever role he was given. Here too, in the scene before shooting a pic of Eldho, the way he mischievously smiles at the person next to him was too natural, it looks like a reaction more than action. Wish I could act as freely as he does.

If the first half was about we empathizing Eldho, the second half was about us empathizing Sameer. But it doesn’t work as much as the first half because we’ve seen the suffering of a physically challenged man. As we know who was the reason of such mischief, it wasn’t easy to forget. But with time, that feeling is overwhelmed too. We start sympathizing with Sameer and wish for a happy ending and that’s what happens.

If you had seen Malayalam movies of recent past, this is one other movie which you can tag along. Nothing unmissable but not something you’d regret watching too.

Movie Review – Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25

A film which grows with every passing minute

It’s another feel good plotless movie which Malayalam cinema has mastered by now. So much so that, the movie wasn’t in my list because I know I’m going to feel good, but at what cost. Just like how ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ was above average and didn’t come as a striking feature, I knew ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’ too was going to fall in the category. It’s one of the reasons I wasn’t might impressed by ‘Varane Avashyamund’ too. If I had watched it when I wasn’t movies much, I’d have gone spellbound. But for now, it looked just a good movie but not great.

We see a robot killing its owner at the beginning of the film and then the title card appears and story goes to some other place. I’m not a big fan of this single shot lead. We know, something related to this would happen later but this single shot lead is something we tend to forget with time. For a change, we don’t here, because the act is inhuman, as well as the act is by a non-human.

Good thing about the film is as soon as the killing act gets over, we get to see a funeral where someone named Kunjappan is killed. We feel that he’s the person who got killed by robot in first scene. May be how Samuel Abiola Robinson gets named as Sudani/Sudu in ‘Sudani from Nigeria’, we feel that the African here would have been named as Kunjappan. But we are wrong. It’s totally different context and you know what, even the funeral is for someone who’s not related to the main story.

So finally, the story starts when Subrahmannyan / Chuppan (Soubin Shahir) and his dad Bhaskara Poduval (Suraj Venjaramoodu) come into picture. Soubin Shahir was as amazing as always and seems to be appearing in every film that I’ve watched off late after ‘Premam’. Suraj Venjaramoodu was a class act. He plays the father-in-disdain to perfection. The irritation, body language and even the wry smile suits him perfectly. The idea to have injury to one of the hands and a taller structure was minute details which worked for his look. Not sure it was the actor or the director who suggested it but it works well.

Hitomi (Kendy Zirdo) was another sweet character. Her chemistry with Subrahmannyan was perfect. Also, her Malayalam was easier to understand than the normal Malayalam. Even though the idea was to use VFX for robots, the use of a kid to play the robot suited better. It gave the life which Pixar gives without taking out the artificialness due to graphics. If VFX had been used, it should have been flawless like that of ‘Wall-E’ so better not use it if it can’t be made like that.

The film as such revolves around the antics of Android Kunjappan along with Bhaskaran. There were no startling revelations but cute little incidents here and there which makes the film move seamlessly. There were a number of fun scenes like the license of Kunjappan, Kunjappan in Temple and the dress he wears. It goes in a fun way throughout and then the seriousness strikes in.

Things could have turned disaster there but the director manages to get hold of the situation. The father blames his son for not being with him and the son blames father for not letting him get a proper job. There is no right or wrong here and people are in their crossroads of life. That was the best thing done here, no conclusion was provided on who was right and who was wrong. An average film till there gets elevated towards the climax when Bhaskaran takes Kunjappan to a temple where Kunjappan’s head gets knocked off and he tries to kill Subrahmannyan. The film would have been good enough even if it had ended at bus stop without a proper conclusion but when he calls out his son as Kunjappan and the helmet turns to be like the robot, it gets one notch higher. We now get to know the state of mind of Bhaskaran and know that he has truly got blinded by the affection towards Kunjappan, or in easier words, gone insane.

Movie Review – Munnariyippu

Silent Killer

That would have been an apt title for this film but it’d have given a bit too much too. It’s great fun to see an actor of Mammootty’s caliber to have acted in such a film. He makes entry after quite some time and that too with no heroism. In fact it’s quite an interesting entry. The entry is sudden but there is no suddenness in the entry. We don’t get shocked by his entry, there is no built up to it, there is also no cinematic passing by of the entry. It’s sudden, it’s focused but by some means important.

Talking further on the entry, there is carefully written sequence of events, which if called as screenplay is brilliant. One event leads to other and the events doesn’t have a bigger purpose. It’s not as if some scenes are made up to eventually arrive at the introduction. Instead of being butterfly effects, they are proper sequence of events which could happen to anyone. Anjali (Aparna Gopinath) gets caught by traffic police, then goes to an author’s event which leads to her going to a policeman to write story and bam she gets her prisoner there. The traffic police, police, author don’t have a greater purpose they just happen to be part of the process in ending up to Mammooty.

The jail superintendent Rama Moorthy (a brilliant Nedumudi Venu) and KK (Prathap Pothan) surprise us sometime when the latter claims her as devil and two together scold her during their drinks event but nothing big happens because of them. We think she’ll get affected by them but it ends up being just part of life. But what it does achieve is, if redirects our focus from Mammootty. We forget what he’s up to and starts thinking about them.

There are various means by which he achieves it. Another brilliant tool he employed is Prithviraj (Chacko). I don’t know how it’d have been to people who don’t know him. But for us when a big actor comes all of a sudden we expect some twist of him. That’s a brilliant way to use a special appearance. Thanks to Prithviraj too to have accepted the role. It’s only because of him, the focus again shifts from Mammootty. Generally in a movie like ‘Seven’ where Anthony Hopkins was involved without being informed, we expect something to happen because of him. And it does. It works there but what Venu does here is much better than what Fincher had done there. He uses the same tool but in reverse effect. In a way the film is slap on the face of people who are busy racing in life. But it’s not so obvious like a ‘Tamasha’ or a ‘3 Idiots’. It does everything in a subdued manner.

The actors have been brilliant, especially Aparna Gopinath, who does a Parvathy. The way she carriers the whole film on her is brilliant. She’s just a normal person but not a subdued one, the one with emotions. Not even at a single place does she go overboard to do something cinematic. She’s a writer by choice and doesn’t have some sad melodramatic story behind it or an irritating coming of age story. She’s a writer and that’s that. The maximum that we hear about she being more than normal is when her mom says that now it’ll shut their relatives mouth who have been telling ill things when she went to study journalism. If I remember it correctly she doesn’t even say journalism, she says some study related to this profession. She doesn’t have a father and does that have any significance to the story, no. As simple as that. There is nothing unnecessary, just crisp writing.

Even here, if you see till now all we’ve been talking is about actors other than Mammootty. That’s where the director achieves his success. And Mammootty or numerous other Malayalam actors are always successful in being part of the story rather than being a story (a cue which Vikram needs to take care if he has to scale heights). Mohanlal too does a similar role in a similar story in Drishyam. It’s good to see people trying hard to bring reality in the movie by just being normal people than being superstars. Even though I’m a Mammootty fan, I felt between the two Mohanlal does a better job in Drishyam.

But when it comes to film or making or writing, it’s Venu who is a clear winner. One can’t make a movie like this interesting without craft. The movie just takes that one double homicide story as a crux and keeps going on. There is no tense music, there is fast cuts, yet there is underlying tension. It just happens subconsciously, as if something is happening behind the layer of cinema which is being projected on screen. We feel that there is some disturbance behind the screen, something confusing, something unanswered. It all gets answered in that one final scene in the end, which is brilliant. I wish the film had end few minutes earlier when Anjali just stares at Raghavan.

I carefully avoided using a specific word, which would make the climax guessable. And tried carefully not to reveal the climax as well as the intention. Let’s see what you feel. What do you think the Mammootty character really did? What could be your version of his past?