Movie Review – Varathan

Love, lust and smoking barrels

‘Varathan’ has one of the most generic, mundane of openings. It was one of the two Fahadh Faasil movies in my list which I had not heard of, but still added to my list. I’ll come up with the review of the next one in a couple of days. The opening of the movie being such a lull, made me think, that is the reason why it isn’t as famous as Fahadh Faasil’s other movies. But with time it slowly builds up and has a great ending. From a boring opening to a showy second act, it blasts open to an extremely satisfying third act. It could serve as a great guilty pleasure movie and satisfy all our senses in the end.

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The first twenty minutes or so of the movie is such a lull, where you’re not sure what you’re watching, its so easy to even stop the movie and pass off after the first fifteen minutes. It has three songs, a needless Dubai setting and worst of romances. The events too are too mundane like Abi Mathew (Fahadh Faasil) losing the job, Priya Paul (Aishwarya Lekshmi) having a miscarriage and them two returning home. The flashback song was so needless. I can understand that all that was done to showcase their love but it totally doesn’t work. ‘Ishq’ is a similar movie where the first act had been done superbly. Even though it totally transforms into a different movie after that, the way the romance was shown keeps us longing for it.

The second act is all about built up. It’s of course showy. Amal Neerad is a showy guy. It worked in ‘Iyobinte Pustakam’ which too was a Fahadh Faasil one vs all movie. But the making of it was lovely. The built up suited it because the environment was like that. The period setting added charm to it. But here with just a resort, Amal Neerad couldn’t do much. He uses a typical thriller film template. It of course makes us glued to the screen. General audience wouldn’t find a fault. But cinematically it’s not such a great skill.

The villains do a decent job but instead of heavyweights, he had used young guns here. Arjun Ashokan was terrific in whatever little screen space he gets. The new gen actors like him, Sreenath Bhasi, Shane Nigam and all are such a pleasure to watch. Even though Sreenath Bhasi is my absolute favorite, whom even I thought would have done a great job if he had been in place of Fahadh Faasil, Arjun too is an actor who does so well without being so loud.

Even though the whole film is a lead to the final act, it could have been named differently. The title was too plain and simple. Just by the title the director makes it evident that he doesn’t care about others. But for such a movie to work, more than the fight, the reason for the fight is important. The reason here is Priya. The movie could have been even named as Priya. That would have served a whole lot of purpose. She was terrific in the role. Right from the time she says that she didn’t see heartbeat in her child to the climax where she shoots his abuser, she was fabulous. And a whole lot sexy too. Her costumes were brilliant. Except for one bad scene which brings in a transformation in Abi, other scenes were good.

Abi explodes in the climax. It would have been a total fanboy moment for all Fahadh Faasil fans out there. It’s a piece of cake for him which he does effortlessly. One should appreciate the fact he leaves the last bit of pleasure to Abi. It was so satisfying. Both the shot and her expression. But till the end, they don’t reveal what job he was doing, how he garnered all these Mission Impossible skills. It was still a “nee idhuku saripatu vara matae” setting. But it’s not a movie to criticize that deep, it’s a movie to watch with emotions. If it had to be criticized, there are lots to be done before the third act.

Movie Review – Koode

Too sweet to handle

Known more famously as Nazriya’s come back film. It’s a film which is all about Nazriya’s cuteness and nothing else. A film which looked as if it’s made for her, may be quite desperately. Being a Prithviraj fan, even for me his acting looked very limited in the film. Again, some other actor could have starred in this role but Anjali Menon mostly works with stars, which works for films like ‘Bangalore Days’ but here it takes a toll on us. It’s all stars and gloss but there is no impact.

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Malayalam cinema is generally good with these feel goods. Even if we don’t like the film, they make films which we can’t hate. Like a ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ where nothing much happens but the feel keeps us glued. ‘Koode’ falls on those lines. The movie begins with a ‘Breaking Bad’ kind of opening where Joshua (Prithviraj Sukumaran) is seen working in a factory in Dubai. His work is mundane and hard, we could see it from his plain face. Once he receives a call, he heads back to home for an unfortunate event. The wide angle and top angle shots of bus around that juncture was lovely.

Once he’s back home, he grieves a bit for her sister and takes Jenny’s (Nazriya Nazim) ambulance to drive around where he spots her inside the van. The whole film revolves around how Jenny gives Joshua company and makes him come to terms with his life. Anyone who had seen ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ would instantly get reminded of the van as soon as they see it in this film. ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ is a sort of movie which doesn’t affect you much at first. Even when I watched it, I was quite laid back and casual but by the end, it left a profound impression on me. ‘Koode’ tries to match that level but here the things are more vocal, like a tea shop owner telling how a couple of hippies travelled the world around with the van and how it ended up in his dad’s place. When Joshua and Sophie (Parvathy Thiruvothu) get on the van in the climax, it should have given us that liberating feel, but it doesn’t. If it had not tried to dramatize the incident then its enough to have given internal happiness but it tries to mask that its not doing something dramatic so it fails in both the aspect.

In fact, Parvathy doesn’t have any role at all in the film. There’s an angle of her being verbally and sexually abused by her family, which could have been given a further screen space but Anjali wanted the film to be within the confines of a feel-good drama so doesn’t delve on that more. It works better in Prithviraj’s angle, where the hint of sexual abuse is subtle. But using the same template for both the stories is not such a good idea.

Other than that, it’s all about Nazriya, who generally is a bundle of charm but severely overdoes here. She was trying to impress so much with her charm, that it becomes irritating. May be an actor like Anna Ben would have known the correct level to light up the screen. At present she does these charming roles the best. We get to know about Jenny’s congenial disease right at the start, so there isn’t much surprise left. It’s a film which deals with the impact a normal person like Jenny had left behind rather than showing how charming she was. So, it’s a curious way to make a film which had to be treaded carefully. But being a normal person, this is the maximum impact she could leave. Her flashback too is pretty weak. May be Anjali wanted us to imagine the rest of it but it doesn’t spark the fire in us to really investigate

I guess the main culprit for me was Hotstar which claimed the film to be thriller. It’s drama at the most with the main emphasis on feel goodness. Around the climax, the college students saving Joshua and co, his father’s antics and Jenny’s disappearance bring a sort of thrill but that’s about it. In the end ‘Koode’ feels a like feel good film where the feel goodness doesn’t work.

Movie Review – Parava

Flies high with pride

What started as a not so confident exercise made me sit up and look in awe within minutes. I was super excited to watch ‘Kammatipaadam’ thinking that it would be a fun film but it was the opposite. Seeing the posters, I thought ‘Parava’ too would be on the same lines but it ended out to be one of the nicest feel good films of late. Being a fan of Soubin Shahir, I was naturally interested to watch when I got to know that it’s a film directed by him.

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‘Parava’ is not a film which one watches on purpose but a film which happens on its own. These are like typical seven pointers in IMDB which works wonderfully well and could connect to us personally. Much like ‘The Bronx Tale’. It’s not a film everyone would have watched. It’s not a film which is recommend to everyone for watching. But for someone who adores the gangster flicks, this movie could be as personal as it can get. Given that De Niro had directed it with his regular culprits, which deals with nostalgia, this really was a sweet experience. ‘Parava’ was one such movie for teenagers.

Being a big fan of no nonsensical teen age films more than coming of age ones which deals with a lot of misery and boredom, ‘Parava’ strikes the right chord from the word go. The opening story with Haseeb (Govind V. Pai) and Irshad a.k.a. “Ichappi” (Amal Shah) was done so well that it could have been a standalone film. Good that I looked at the poster which had Salman in it, I was waiting for his entry sooner or later. If I had not known it, I would have been disappointed when the track changed from the kids to the adults. Because the kids’ story was so good.

Amal Shah is a treasure trove. He had acted so well, especially by keeping his emotions in check. Also, his character was superbly written. This is closest to how I was at that age, in real life. Master everything which is unimportant in life. It also reminded me of Calvin strip. To see how passionately they follow with their interest. Their friendship was superbly written, so much so that Haseeb wishes to fail to be in Ichappi’s class so that he can be Vice Captain. Note that even if he fails, he wishes to be second fiddle and not the captain. That was so sweet of him.

Being so involved in the kids’ story, it was a moment of distraught when the story jumps to the seniors but the director keeps us glued to the screen with an interesting screenplay. Though we know that Dulquer is eventually gonna die, it doesn’t hurt us much and moves the film out of ‘feel good’ zone because his screen space is limited. He comes as a savior for all and does the role reasonably well. Amongst the friends Shane (Shane Nigam) scores the best. Even though all he does is to stay in a balcony and stare, he does it so well that we get a feel of being struck to a balcony. Such lovely acting.

Wish Soubin had not acted in this movie. He was so not made for this role. This is a first film which felt like he was over acting. Films like ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ and ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’ works best for him where it feels like he’s very much part of the environment. There is so much practicality and earthiness in his acting which makes us fall in love with his character. Even though he has to be the opposite here, it doesn’t work at all. Whereas another drug addict Sreenath Bhasi does wonders. What an actor he is. I’ve become a big fan of his recently. He has a discreet charm like Joseph Gordon Levitt, where he couldn’t be hated. Especially it feels good to not see in full length roles. He always appears in films where we want to see more of him and the film ends whenever we are with that feel. Here too he has minimal screen space but does wonders with it.

The climax with the pigeon race works reasonably well, but it’s the kids who steal the show, the romance twist was the best scene of the film. The film ends on a high with an action sequence but that’s the only thing which felt forced in an otherwise superbly made practical film.