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…

• 

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 – 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.

• 

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 – Ee.Ma.Yau.

Death Note!

Known more widely because of his ‘Jallikkattu’, which I watched sometime back. I wasn’t mighty impressed. It was still a show biz. So I wasn’t having great expectation while watching ‘Ee.Ma.Yau’. I thought this would be another film of his which would have been loved by many but I wouldn’t like and thus have to incur the wrath of fans. But it was drastically different experience. In fact, my opinion about Lijo Jose totally changes. This probably might be his finest films where he hasn’t done anything preposterous but only what is necessary for the film.

Ignorance is a bliss and I firmly believe that because, only because of that I had the surprise factor for the movie lingering till the end of opening credits. Having no idea of what the film was about and expecting a raw violent film, thanks to Lijo Jose’s other films and the poster of this film, I was in for a surprise when I discovered what the title meant. The opening shot was a long shot of death procession and only after the end of it, the title card appears and through subtitles I got to know what the title meant. I guess all the people who had not known the language could identify with it.

More than anything filmmakers like Lijo Jose, inspire us. Thanks to a film like ‘Ee.Ma.Yau’ where the story is bare minimum but made in a really interesting way. It could easily have been a depressing docudrama but it ends up being a movie with a lot of emotions masked by satire. Importantly, practical. That’s what made the film work.

Having known the title, we wait for a good twenty minutes for the eventual to happen. The titular character first appears in bus with a duck, slaps someone, goes home and talks to himself, drinks with his son, talks about his death, performs a play and finally dies. Those twenty minutes were shot like a thriller when we know what’s going to happen eventually. That’s one of the lovely little tricks of the film. But to shoot till that is not a big deal because there are a million ways to make it interesting, in fact it can be taken like a short film project. But what happens next is what the film is about.

Post the death of Vavachan Mesthiri (Kainakary Thankaraj), his family is heartbroken and the almost the entire village comes for mourning. The way the people in his family was named was lovely, Sabeth for Elizabeth, Nissa for Agnissa, to name a few. His son Eeshi (Chemban Vinod Jose) is a heart broken man and doesn’t know what to do after the death of his father. I’ve always thought about this concept. It’s not something to get information prior hand so when the eventuality strikes, it always comes as a shocker. The same happens to Eeshi and that’s when his friend Ayyapan (Vinayakan) comes to the rescue.

Together they go in search to buy various stuffs for his death and his other friends go to check on doctor and vicar. The comedy of errors is brilliant. The doctor is sloshed out, his wife is also a little tipsy, an amazing nurse who drives the bike and the best of the lot is the vicar, Fr. Zacharia Parappurathu (Dileesh Pothan) who’s a crime novel enthusiast. Off late I’m becoming a fan of Dileesh Pothan. He’s great in these small roles.

There were lot of fun moments in the film but to list a few, the naming in the card where Eeshi had to intervene to correct was lovely, especially when his friend asks with what degree his wife had graduated. We get to know that the person who plays band had asked for marrying his sister. It’s a great idea when his boyfriend comes all of a sudden to shoo him off. Not before trying to kiss her in the guise of consoling her.

In the end it culminates to one big typical Lijo Jose film moment where the film explodes and when you have an actor like Chemban Vinod Jose, you finally get to know how he has used him as a trump card. If I had to complain, I’d have liked it if the film had ended after he keeps the cross on his father’s death bed. Unnecessarily it wavers post that, which could have been avoided.

Movie Review – Virus (2019)

A Disaster movie with a heart and soul

‘Virus’ is one of the sought-after films along with ‘Contagion’ in this lockdown period. This is the time when the events would make sense and the impact will be doubled. Like watching a horror movie alone at night. Also, while discussing the film there is a moral fear that something might happen to us if we criticize the film. That also works for both of the films. Both the films could be used a template for making disaster-based films and both come out as pretty interesting ones too.

If ‘Contagion’ was all start studded and quick based movie, ‘Virus’ thrives more on the mood. The former is like any American movie where things unfold quickly and the events are similar but with ‘Virus’ we feel the situations are more real. Also, the numbers game was blown out of proportion in ‘Contagion’. In ‘Virus’ the numbers are small but the situations are equally tense. We get to see the film from the Health Departments point of view. It was lovely to foresee a situation before it actually happens. Thinking of what the bigger impact would be.

The film could have definitely been pacy but that’s how it is in real life, it doesn’t happen fast but the situation is gripping. The way it unfolds as a thriller was terrific. Just like how the people in charge would have found out the cases, we too see them in same angle, so with every link found we feel as if we get close to a conclusion. The track of finding whether Nipah had really come from single cluster forms the heart of the film. That part was superbly made. And every actor who were part of the process had acted beautifully too.

There were ‘n’ number of actors involved in the film. It feels as if they had made this film to create awareness among the public. I wonder how so many actors would agree to act in a film which has so limited screen space. For me the two people who really stood out where Parvathy Thiruvothu as Dr. Annu and Sreenath Bhasi as Dr. Abid. They both were prolific. Dr. Annu was charming in every little way as possible. Parvathy could really do any role. I was bored of her short curly haired look and roles that she was doing off late, especially ‘Charlie’. It was blown over the top but here she is more rooted and it took me a while to know that it’s her. And Sreenath Bhasi was a revelation. He did his role with so much conviction. He demands respect right through his looks. He looks like a perfect doctor in distress.

The film talks only about the positive aspects of the people and no politics was involved. I don’t know whether it was really a good thing or bad thing. May be a few not so good things could have been shown which would have added dimension to the film but the risk is that those things would make the film a commercial one and we lose the connect to the films. With people always all so good it feels like we are fighting along with them to solve the mystery and find the root cause. Wish things were that simple.

The CCTV footages played a major role in the film and so were lighting. The colors used at some junctures were trying to give a hallucinating feel. The director was trying to bridge a gap between reality and fantasy so didn’t go into trance lighting full on but I’d have preferred it that way. Here it just feels like some other color bulbs instead of regular ones were used. It didn’t give the desired effect.

All in all, it’s a film definitely worth a watch but it’d work best if you watch it now during lockdown period because post that it would not be as interesting as something which would hold your attention.

Movie Review – Sudani from Nigeria

A film which you can’t hate

‘Sudani from Nigeria’ joins the league of this one object film which Malayalam cinema has been doing off late. Maybe I watched the films in wrong order but if ‘Driving License’ was about the license, ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ was about passport. The majority of the film revolves around it and the object appears out of the blue like a rabbit out of the hat. Only thing is we don’t feel cheated, we love it, like magic. I guess keeping the screenplay apt to make us love is what makes films like this tick.

Right from the start Mr. Samuel Abiola Robinson (Samuel Abiola Robinson) gets called by various names. First Robin Singh, then Sudani and then even more sweetly as Sudu. Something which generally happens with foreigners whose name we couldn’t pronounce. I thought the film would take a different side. Good that I noted the genre to be comedy, otherwise it’d have been disappointing. I expected a rather serious film which would tell a story about a migrant settled in India. But the film was much light hearted than I thought.

The film starts with Manager Majeed (Soubin Shahir) and his football club MYC Accode winning a match against one of their rivals. The environment gets slowly established. I wonder how they get so many different settings in Malayalam. When you talk about the environment, it’s pretty simple in Tamil films. The same template gets repeated again and again. But here in this film we see a whole new world. A Muslim family, sevens tournament, foreigners playing for the local club and a whole lot of passion for the sport. It’s not the regular rags to riches story you see usually but a story which you feel like something which truly exists. So, we quickly delve into this world.

Unfortunately, my next guess about the film too went wrong. I thought the film would deal with Sudani’s football heroics but he breaks the leg in bathroom. As a matter of fact, everything in the film happens matter of factly. There was no great drama. People and their needs are simple too. When Sudu gets injured, Majeed doesn’t really get irritated, he genuinely feels that he should take care of him. At no point does the thought of getting rid of him comes to Majeed’s mind. Same thing with his family too. They too take care of him genuinely. The friends, staffs and everyone would be of same opinion. The one dialogue where Majeed says that he too doesn’t have money and someone gives him was too deep. His friends too are ready to mortgage their wife’s jewels. It’s not a depressing movie where one doesn’t have money but just a fact. Even the t-shirt gesture in climax wasn’t blown out of proportion.

Everyone in the film are do gooders, even the villain lends Sudani some money. Majeed’s father doesn’t have any complaints with his son. It’s a great move to have cast him as an apartment security. Generally, only this kind of people are there are security. People who are weak and have no other way to earn money in old age. Like how Visu would have worked as watchman in ‘Samsaram Adhu Minsaram’. Majeed’s mom is not the complaining type, she’s rather happy to serve Sudani. Even her neighbor comes to help her and offer prayers for him.

I thought at least during the climax something dramatic would happen like Sudani’s family coming here or Sudani getting back to football again but he just gets into the cab and goes off. We don’t know much about how Majeed got money for his tickets as well. But we know he’d have made some arrangements.

The single highpoint of the scene was the passport scene, it comes at quite unexpected circumstance. Superbly written scene that one, as the SI would have previously talked to them about a foreigner being there in their club and would again appear for checking license. So, we think only in that angle but ‘bam’ comes the surprise.

‘Sudani from Nigeria’, I thought would be some film on the lines of ‘Separation’. A heavy film about a foreigner but ends up being a feel-good film. Nothing to complain but it could have been a greater film but ends up being a film which you can’t hate.