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 – Ohm Shanthi Oshaana

Feel good female fantasy

‘Ohm Shanthi Oshaana’ is a film you can’t hate. Feels like a breather when you’re in a movie marathon. A nice weekender. And all sort of adjectives for feel goodness. Thanks to the stellar leads and sincere performances, it’s impossible to dislike the film. Just like a little trip by taking time off from busy schedule. Even if there isn’t much to do in the trip, just to be out of the monotony and enjoy the greenery gives a momentary happiness. ‘Ohm Shanthi Oshaana’ is one such film.

‘Ohm Shanthi Oshaana’ follows the story of Pooja Mathew (Nazriya Nazim) from being a school girl to college girl. Nazriya is a perfect fit for the role as she’s naturally cute but trying to be too much innocent because she’s a school kid, kind of spoils that cuteness. She searches for an ideal girl to fall in love with and after a series of failed attempts, zeroes in on Giri (Nivin Pauly), who’s a dream of any woman. He’s known by everyone for being such a good guy who lends helping hand to just anyone and also brave. So naturally she falls for Giri and tries to propose him at various junctures, to vain.

When she finally proposes, he rejects her saying that she’s a kid. As time passes by, she gets into medical college and fate has it that they both meet together during the final year. Not willing to be disappointed again, she doesn’t want to propose again. On top of it, Giri’s mother tries to marry a poor girl to him on mass marriage so Pooja devices a plan to get to him and how she does that is the story.

It’s not a story which is important here, nor anywhere. But the presentation. It could have easily been a foolish film but the Nazriya makes sure that everyone loves the film and Nivin Pauly is a dream. So are the other actors. There are no villains as such. Not a single character which you can hate. Nor does the film makes you tensed. Even when Pooja goes off late at night to various places, tries to help his friend elope or almost gets into a fight in theme park, there isn’t an iota of scare in us. We know that she’ll be fine. Because it’s here fairy land where all things happen to be good.

Even though Nivin Pauly doesn’t have much screen space, his entry in both first and second half are exemplary. Definitely a fan boy moment. He’s such a charm both on and off screen. Has a nice personality to him and works his role effortlessly. It’s actually because of him the film attains a complete circle. He doesn’t overdo at any point. Even though his character maintains a straight arc, it’s not easy to maintain calmness throughout the film. Many still think he’s suitable only for lover boy roles but he’s much more capable than that. He’s an actor of sincerity.

The director doesn’t mince with the story and makes an unapologetic feel good movie. May be that’s why the film works, otherwise it’d easily have been a movie that would have been swept aside by number of other feel goods.

Movie Review – Trance

Wonder Why?

‘Trance’ is a confusing movie. So much so that we don’t even know why so much money, effort was used to make a film which looks only like a mockery. The joke finally is on them. They make a mockery of themselves. I too was waiting for something or the other to happen but the same stuff gets repeated again and again till the end. This storyline is so basic that there need not be so much effort put to make a big film out of it.

If the idea of the film is to showcase the bad side of these missionaries and evangelist, don’t people already know it. Why a three-hour film for it? it was definitely funny but having seen them as bit jokes in numerous Tamil films, I didn’t get the idea of making a whole film out of it. I thought there would be a bigger picture behind all this. I at least hoped. But nothing of that sort happened.

My biggest disappointment was the name ‘Trance’. I expected a super stoner film. That too with big cast involved I was expecting a riot but it was made to look like a serious film, gets a depressing overtone and ends up being a nothing movie. If the point of the film was to educate, wish at least it had taken the PK route where even though it looked like an extension of Vivek jokes in Tamil, the scenes were really funny. That’s one advantage of Rajkumar Hirani being the director. He knows the craft perfectly.

The only happy thing about the film is that there were no protests against it. By reading between the lines I guess the attempt of the director was to make a film on Christianity by the anti-Christian elements. The idea was acknowledgeable but the execution was pathetic because the film was not at all practical. Just like that, the characters come and go without any reason. And the scenes are not at all logical and what’s worse it’s not even funny.

Most of the film’s criticism was towards the slow and boring second half. I believe its because everyone expected things to change at least in second half but it doesn’t. Thus, the disappointment. If not for that factor, the whole film is a lull. The movies first act is terrific when we don’t know what its all about. Whether to be happy or sad or depressed but then when the movie gets to focus on a storyline it falls miserably. The climax where is too hard to believe and impractical. Again, a storyline which gets injected right towards the end which doesn’t stick to our mind. A pastor who’s so famous can be reached through phone just by a common man and can be found in church just like that. He could also enter and kill a couple of big shots just like that. Too many just like that’s for my liking.

The director wanted to give a platform for Fahad to go berserk but if it had been a script like ‘Magnolia’ or ‘The Wolf of the Wall Street’ then Fahad would have been remembered like a Tom Cruise or DiCaprio respectively but what he does looks just like a tomfoolery with a wafer thin script. Whereas GVM gets a solid role which fits him to the tee. All in all ‘Trance’ is a deep disappointment.