Movie Review – Ennu Ninte Moideen

Disastrous in making

Like why I watched ‘Special 26’ long time back when it was said to be remade in Tamil with Vikram in lead, I watched ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ too with the same intention. ‘Special 26’ was a disaster for me, even in Hindi so I wasn’t mighty worried when it went to Surya. But at least ‘Special 26’ aimed low and achieved what it wanted to. ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ was disastrous from start to the end, I was waiting to see if at some point, something out of ordinary would happen that would interest me but it never happened. Don’t know what’s going to happen with ‘Mahavir Karna’, which the director, R. S. Vimal calls his dream project. Even though I have high hopes that the film would never be materialized at all, still the agony of Vikram falling into the trap time and again is just unfathomable.

Sometime back, while watching ‘Annayum Rasoolum’ too I had this uneasy feeling where I was struggling to sit in my seat. Because nothing really was happening. I could get that it was trying to do an ‘In the Mood for Love’. Even though it didn’t work for me, at least that inspiration part is understandable. But here in ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ it was irritating, especially the voice over for every death. Voice over was disastrous than the deaths. When a death happens in the preclimax, due to which Kanchanamala (Parvathy Thiruvothu) couldn’t come out of the house at 2 PM midnight, I had enough. So, when Moideen (Prithviraj Sukumaran) comes with a passport in the climax, we were like, she couldn’t even come out of the house at night, as if she’d go to a foreign country. So, there was no surprise in the anticlimax of the film. I was in fact happy that one of them died, so that film ended. Just like ‘Dia’, the ending was a relief that the film ended. Wish in both the movies both the leads had died. It would have been far more satisfying.

Indian new gen directors soon should get rid of the thought that slow movie equals to great movie. The audience had to be blamed more than the directors. No matter what anyone says, I couldn’t never accept ‘’96’ to be a great movie. It’s a great thought alright, but the subject is made in a way that if anyone says anything against it, they’d be called impure. That “en pondati pathini” moment. There were a lot of uninteresting scenes along with periodic brilliance. Just that both the leads acted their ass out and some excellent music, saved the film. Otherwise its all about moments, it’s a film which could have been made a lot more interestingly.

But ‘Ennu Ninte Moideen’ is no ‘’96’, there were absolutely no moments. An epic saga out of real life. Even if its so, and its celebrated because its real life, I still couldn’t get the point. The period setting was not something which was extraordinary because we don’t see much of the outer world. It’s just the one bus which happens to come again and again just to showcase that it’s a 60s film. That much detailing, even ‘Pa Paandi’ has. If a film has to be appreciated for detailing, then it must be as good as a ‘Subramaniapuram’, not just one old bus.

Guess it was Prithviraj who got me interested to watch the movie. The way it was proceeding, I thought they both will die and unite in their next life, thus the generic notion that it’s a love story of ages but sadly it didn’t happen at all. Prithviraj was the only respite from otherwise dramatic acting. Parvathy was overtly dramatic with her emotions. With every passing film I tend to hate her. So here it didn’t help at all. She was trying to be too perfect whereas Prithviraj was nailing it completely. Even the last scene when she enters his house, the way he looked at the camera felt so soothing. Parvathi could never do it throughout the film with any number of smirks.

It still baffles me as to why the film was approved by audience all around and made it into a highest grosser. Is it a story as famous as a Laila Majnu or a Romeo Juliet or am I missing something?

Movie Review – Take Off

Takes you out of familiar terrain

‘Take Off’ deserves more credit than it currently has. Seeing Fahadh Faasil’s photo bigger than that of the actual stars Parvathy Thiruvothu and Kunchako Boban, I thought it was a movie just about the rescue operation of nurses from Iraq to India. But, hardly less than half of the film features that act. And, the rescue operation too is not as heroic as expected. Even for the rescue operation, it’s a nurse who plays the bigger part than an official does. So it’s all realistic, at least cinematic reality and not all too flashy.

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The film doesn’t get into the act right away. There is a full-blown story before it, which could act as a separate film. Parvathy gets one of the best characters for herself. Even though not a big fan of her, this type of role works for the film. Sameera (Parvathy Thiruvothu) is a nurse in Kerala who is moving to Iraq for better salary. Her husband Faizal (Asif Ali) who doesn’t like her working at first place, gives her a divorce eventually when she wants to move to Iraq. Shaheed (Kunchacko Boban) follows her and tries to affirm her with love and they both get married so that she could go to Iraq without any problem. On top of it, Sameera has a kid with Faizal, which complicates the problem.

The best part about the movie is Sameera, who is not a person who’d get your affection right away. She’s rude and irritating to start with and slowly we get to know her part. Even then, she is not a lovable character. Even after knowing her past, she gets our sympathy but we don’t feel sorry for her or fall in love with her character. She still is annoying. That’s her natural instinct. But that doesn’t mean that she’s someone whom we’d hate too. She doesn’t get our hatred as well. That’s how beautifully written her character is. We get so much invested in her life which is already in a cocoon so our interest first lies in how she deals with it and only later comes the terrorist part.

Therefore, the whole story runs on various emotions of Sameera until the interval part. The crisis is beautiful and practical. Especially the way she had to deal with her kid. When she gets to know that he’s going to stay with her forever, she is already exhausted. She accepts it and resigns to life. The way emotions runs between her and the kid, where she can’t out rightly tell about her husband and an impending child was a great crisis sequence. So much so that, even the terrorists don’t look like big problem in front of it. Only when it comes to life and death, does all the other problems gets pushed aside.

The final part is where she goes to embassy and begs/shouts to find her husband. Manoj Abraham (Kunchacko Boban) who is an Indian ambassador to Iraq comes out there and doesn’t console her first but shouts at her about the reality. That’s the welcome change. Post that he helps her and she helps him, that’s a different issue but that’s where the whole crisis part happens which was taken reasonably well. Prakash Belawadi was again brilliant as a government official. Such a terrific actor who’d right away be in my film if ever I make one.

The film has few, heart in the mouth moments too and what tops it is the scene where the kid says the verse. In the end, Shahid too getting saved was quite farfetched but it creates the necessary impact to end the film. Guess the makers of ‘Uyare’ took a cue from this movie about what Asif Ali is capable off and cast him in the similar role. Anyways here too he silently does a good job. What I thought would be a morbid patriotic straightforward movie, ends up being an emotional complex movie about both external as well as internal crisis.