Movie Review – Driving License

Charm and warm

I was saying that I’d want to get converted as Malayali after watching this film. Such has been Malayalam movies off late. For some past 4,5 years. Taking a nothing story and making it neat and crisp. A lot of movies have come out this way which makes a great evening time watch instead of being a soupy tear jerker.

After seeing favorable reviews for the most part, I decided to watch the movie. Also, it has Prithviraj so it was an added advantage. When I saw that the film was about a superstar’s journey and it was being produced by Prithviraj I got even more interested. The opening scene where he comes a star and bashes up the villains increased the curiosity one notch up.

But with all that coming to an end and somewhere into the movie when I got to know that it’s a comedy, I was slightly disappointed. It’s not one of my favorite genres. The first half in fact was not really great. What started as a great standoff between a superstar and common man slightly fizzled away with time. There is only this much one can do when you have two people fighting. So, it became kind of monotonous.

The premise of the movie was simple as it can get, yet it’s an interesting one. I loved the way it was handled by showing Hareendran (Prithviraj) as not so great a man and not so great a villain. Even though he’s a superstar he values his commitment, loves his wife, a beautiful Deepti Sati, and at the same time a practical person too when he tells that no one asks him for license while driving, and shouting at the MVI when he sees media. Instead of him saying that he’d want to get license no matter what or going by the heroic way of procuring license only in legal manner he goes the common man way.

Similarly, MVI Kuruvilla (Suraj Venjarammoodu) is not someone who takes bribe and allows people with license and the same person is the one who is okay in giving license for someone with predated form. It’s not a big juncture where he breaks the rule. He knows the chaos it’d lead to if the actor had to come there. That’s the beauty of the script. We don’t see angels and demons as heroes and villains. We see common people. We are so used to seeing things as black and white in cinema but when it comes to real life, we don’t even know what all wrongs we are doing.

In ‘Driving License’ its people like us whom we see on screen. At some point we are judgmental but we let them be as such. It’s clear writing which makes us accept the people with real plus and minuses rather than something invented just for the sake of it. Credit has to be given to the actors too to have made it possible for us to accept them like that. Especially Prithviraj for being in negative characters who is not outright villainous but someone whom we’d love less likely between the two. He first did it in ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ and now in ‘Driving License’, in the order of movies that I’ve watched.

There are scenes which was boring and slow but nothing was bad scene. The only bad scene if I’ve to knit pick would be the one was Hareendran runs to save the Kuruvilla. That was the only heroic moment where he was projected like being a hero in real life. That was a little true literal. The other scenes where he gives speech were more heroic like the film association head comments. It’s a great move by not letting Prithviraj show his acting powers even in the climax. The scene in car where Kuruvilla cries could have been easily used to showcase Prithviraj’s talent, something which Kamal would do but here he underplays even that and restores normalcy.

Movie Review – Ayyappanum Koshiyum

Double the fun, double the mass

Having heard good reviews from trustable friends of mine, I thought of watching the movie together with family. Sparks started to fly right from scene one. Being a Prithviraj fan, it was even more pleasure to watch. As one of my friends mentioned that it would be tailor made role for Simbu, I started agreeing that right from scene one. It indeed looked tailor made for Simbu. All he’d have to do would be to carry on the attitude that he had in Chekka Chivantha Vaanam.

A fully drunk Koshi (Prithviraj) gets caught by police for having a number of bottles. He gets beaten up and things get awry. His attitude remains the same even in the police station and that enrages Ayyappan Nair (Biju Menon) more. He calls the superior officer and informs about the same, who in turn asks Nair to go little easy on him. That makes Ayyappan fix a drink for Koshi as Koshi was showing withdrawal symptoms (not sure whether it was intentional or happens for real). He shoots a video of Nair opening the bottle. Because a FIR was filed, Koshi had to spend a couple of weeks in sub jail and starts plotting revenge post that.

The first act of the movie was as brilliant as it could get. The tension was palpable. We know Prithviraj was the wrong doer, yet we root for him. I guess it’s the deep-rooted hero wordship in us which makes us to do. And being someone who’s familiar with and a fan of the protagonist (who so far was Prithviraj for me) the scenes get even more intense and interesting. When Koshi explains that the bottle was only for some party we feel that Nair had overdone. Again, Koshi shows attitude that make us take our previous stance. This goes on an on for the entire first act. The seething rage of Koshi was there to see. It was very tough to chose who had performed better.

Post that it was a Koshi show, Prithviraj makes sure that the film focuses on him. We feel bad for Nair. Now our villain is Koshi. Like many of his advisors tell that he was going overboard with his antics, we get the same feeling too. When he submits the video, the little sympathy that we have on him too goes for a toss. He eventually does his bit and makes us think that Nair is the hero of the film.

The second half is Nair show. Again, my friend who had suggested Simbu for Koshi, had suggested Vikram for Ayyappan. But I don’t think Vikram would have underplayed and given Simbu a chance to be heroic even in the first half. That’s both his negative and positive. He has that much screen presence which will make any other star look meek. So, to imagine Vikram in the first fight post interval was a treat to watch. Because that’s where Ayyappan gets fully heroic.

But even in the second half when its an out and out Ayyappan film, there is Prithviraj who was standing tall even though knowing that he doesn’t have any chance. He stands tall with his morals and attitude even when the whole village is against him. It’s like Sachin against mighty Aussies. He fights for his case, all alone, truly and honestly.

Even in the climax when he accepts defeat and goes to the police to reinstantiate the order of Nair, he accepts the defeat with a certain bit of attitude. He exhibits that till the very last scene. When Nair comes to his house, you see a fear but you see in the same face that he is not the guy who’d beg Ayyappan to forgive him, he’d rather fight. I loved that attitude of Prithviraj. That’s the style which Prithviraj brings to the movie.

There were other equally memorable characters too, like Kurian (Ranjith) who never lowers his guard even when he gets arrested. Thus, we know how Koshi had got that attitude. Even the CI was terrific in his role. How he nonchalantly shoos of Kurian saying that post Ayyapannum Koshiyum we’d have a Kurianum Satheeshum.

On top of everything, I loved how the title was not taken literally by again and again citing the name Ayyappan. Instead he was called Nair throughout, except for that one scene where they say Ayyappanum Koshiyum. That was some good filmmaking.