Movie Review – The Great Indian Kitchen

Great Indian Tragedy

Great Indian Kitchen is a treat to watch, pleasure to discuss and a joy to write. It’s one of the few movies, which you know will work right from seeing a frame. In fact even that’s not necessary, just the title hits you so hard with its sarcasm. This is an universal film, even if people don’t talk your language, the kitchen doesn’t look like yours, the political issues are not similar, it’s as local and rooted a film can get. Because everything above just acts as a metaphor. The underlying issue and its effect if what makes the film.

There are two things which I didn’t like in the movie. The opening credit and the ending scene. The opening credit goes on for five minutes without any music and any hurry. Wonder whether it’s intentionally done to make people understand that it’s going to be artsy movie, asking us to practice patience from then on. The last scene, where the dance choreography was beautiful of course, and it was nice to see Nimisha Sajayan happy, but the scene totally out of place in a movie which was that classy till then. I got a satisfactory explanation from one of my friends stating that how the other films end without us knowing what would have happened to the character, but here we know that the character is happy and knows what she is going to do in her life. Even though cinematically the scene didn’t appeal to me, I was satisfied with this explanation. For me, it’d have been apt to finish the movie when she walks in the streets, out of her home, crossing the hoardings of Sabarimala protest by females. That would have been a classy finish.

In fact the Sabarimala episode was a high risqué portion, which they handled beautifully. Even though I didn’t like the scene where some people torch up a ladies scooter but otherwise the episodes are home were brilliantly done. The torching up scene comes out of the blue and doesn’t impact because we don’t know that character. Even though the director lingers around our (men’s) minds, it’s at that episode he strikes a nail in the coffin. I’m sure, even for a pro ‘Great Indian Kitchen’ folks, there would have been one or two scenes which would have come as a shocker and made yourself realize that you were doing something wrong without even knowing that it was wrong.

For a film like this which revolves around the kitchen, like some ninety percent, needs that one impactful scene, otherwise, it’d just be a Big Boss episode of our household. This film which runs for around one hour and forty five minutes has only cooking scenes for about one and a half hour but that one scene which happens post that makes for the movie. May be for a movie of this caliber, that’s a cinematic scene, which I didn’t realize while watching of course, but the impact of which was so strong that it made me hoot. And personally I loved it because, after all these things I didn’t want Nimisha to undergo physical abuse and then react. She reacts before she’s hurt even a single bit physically.

The beautiful thing about the movie is, even though it’s only cooking and kitchen for about one and a half hour, it keeps us invested in the movie. The shot of the stove, the sink and more importantly there is a side angle shot of the kitchen, it’s so haunting as if you’re seeing a “found footage” type of horror.

The reason the Tamil movie failed is because they saw the film as women centric film and concentrated only on the female character. Of course Nimisha was terrific. Just like any other film, she gives a “is she the heroine?” vibe at start and makes us root for her character in the end. But the bigger players here were Suraj Venjaramoodu and T. Suresh Babu. Suraj is one of the actors whom you’d overlook because of his capability to blend with the film. Even though I’ve seen few films of his, it’s only this film which made me realize what a great actor he is and how well he had done in the films which I had watched. T. Suresh Babu as his dad was, oh my god, eclectic. Just him sitting in the bed and swiping his WhatsApp, makes such a horrific act.

The film kind of gave vibes of Elippathayam through T. Suresh Babu. May be it was ode to Elippathayam. Even though ‘Great Indian Kitchen’ was as classy as it could get, in the end it was straightforward picture. Just think of how ‘Elippathayam’ works subconsciously, without even knowing that we’re affect by it. That shows what a master Adoor Gopalakrihnan is.

For a film this classy, I felt the scene where a guest arrives at their home and cooks and gives free advice could be avoided. Even though his character irritates us, it makes us relax a bit from a highly intense movie.

Movie Review – Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

The gold that it chokes

What started as a typical Fahadh Faasil film with a slow start of unsuspecting characters takes a U turn as soon as Fahadh Faasil arrives on screen. It has all the elements like his other movies which starts with a story without him in the beginning, an everyday routine of them, to the point that it makes us feel we need a breather, then we yearn for his arrival so that there could would be some entertainment and finally bam he arrives. It’s one way of writing massy entertainers which is wrapped in the artsy format. Fahadh Faasil somehow gets these roles or the makers write one for him always.

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Fahadh gets a terrific intro in the bus, post which he’s caught red-handed and handed over to police station. It’s doesn’t take much time for us to develop hatred towards him. Given the way the couple complaint, it’s only easy to deduce that the incident has happened for real so it’s an open and shut case for police but they use them to fullest of advantage so that they could mint as much money as possible. What looks like a story between the couple, Sreeja (Nimisha Sajayan) and Prasad (Suraj Venjaramoodu) and the thief, Prasad (Fahadh Faasil) has police also playing a substantial part.

It’s like a game of Raja Rani, where everyone has equal importance. In fact, they have more importance. It’s typically a scene or a sequence which put in plain words show how the judges are bigger thieves than the culprit and the victim. But the way its built, it’s a careful constructed maze. There is no loud music, there isn’t any tools which manipulate us, but plain straightforward acting. As honest as the couple are, we can’t help but feel sorry for them. Seeing the confidence, we doubt ourselves whether Fahadh has really stolen the chain and the way the police perform, especially A.S.I Chandran (Alencier Ley Lopez) we feel he’s for real. In fact, the way the duo of Chandran and the other police officer (Sivadas Kannur) perform, they were equivalent to Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah in Maqbool. Only that, here they’re not together but their act together is nothing short of spectacle.

In a movie like this, it’s really tough to hold the curiosity of audience. Editing here is lovely. The opening part where they both get married are not shown on screen but we get to know it in bits and pieces in the middle. The tension is not evident on screen but they’re not a romantic couple, the strain of what they’ve undergone in life shows on screen. That’s where both Suraj Venjaramoodu and Nimisha Sajayan are excellent. In fact, Suraj looks first choice for roles like this where he shouldn’t cry when sad. Maybe it’s becoming a template role for him but his innocence is lovely. Even though Fahadh mercilessly manipulates his, he still has an ear for him. He couldn’t leave him to walk free because he feels it would be a cheating for his wife yet he couldn’t hold on to him to bring him down because he’s not powerful enough and he has a little bit of sympathy towards him. He does both of it and struggles to survive. It’s typical of any man in a middle-class family. Every middle-class member could relate to it. On the other hand, Nimisha’s role is straight forward, she has a motherly innocent nature about her who first feels angry and then doesn’t.

This has got to be Fahadh Faasil’s best. When the film was taking a familiar twist with police trying to use wrong evidence, the way he asks Prasad to tell the truth in court and make him free was one of his masterstrokes. It looks all good till the end but there is one frame where he stares at the couple and through that one stare, his villainous nature becomes evident. That’s some lovely acting. I didn’t like the way it ended which gave a ray of hope as if all is fine. I couldn’t deduce much from the couple’s angle, who looked satisfied but may be the police had mellowed down, still he’s doing his job of not being an honest man. It’s not outrightly told that he has taken leave or retired. And Fahadh through to looks of it, feels like a man who’s searching for job. But nothing could be deduced so easily from his character. Maybe he’s looking for another robbery. But I’d like to take it in a negative angle which makes it more interesting.

Movie Review – Action Hero Biju

A full on Nivin Pauly entertainer

‘Action Hero Biju’ is a much important cinema than what its perceived to be. All people see in ‘Action Hero Biju’ is fun moments in the life of police. Thanks to Nivin Pauly, there isn’t a moment of boredom in the film. But when you look at it closely. It’s one of the proper police films which deals with only the actions of police. Barring a needless romantic track, the film is an out and out police film. What GVM tried to do showing slices of life in his police trilogy, Abrid Shine achieves it effortlessly in just one film. Something in lieu of Mani Ratnam’s ‘Nayakan’ which achieves the greatness of ‘The Godfather Trilogy’, through just one film.

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The film could have been done only by Nivin Pauly, who has this charm to keep calm in any situation. He’s an effortless mass action hero when need be but otherwise, he keeps his calm throughout. Even in dire situations he plays coy and makes fun of people without annoying anyone. In fact, it’s his ‘nakkal’ which works big time for a movie like this. But the movie is not just about how Sub-Inspector Biju (Nivin Pauly) is a superhuman who solves any case. In fact, he’s not super human. He goes about his job like a sincere office goer. There are some cases he can’t solve, there are some cases in which he’s wrong. But all these are chapters in his police diary where he doesn’t have time to react emotionally. Even at places where he’s not emotionally involved, he isn’t emotionally detached too. There is a fine line in between both where a policeman has to deal with, which Nivin Pauly does beautifully. This film could be the greatest tribute to the policeman.

The film is about how Biju handles each case. Initially I thought, that this would end and there would be one important case he’d be involved for the rest of the film, there would be some twist etc. but it never happens. At end of first half I again thought the same when Karate Rajesh track was introduced. Because the film opened with that track, I thought the first half would be reserved for fun and second half for serious story. On one side I was expecting the same and on other I didn’t want it to be a negative film at any cost because the first half was most lovable.

There were a variety of aspects dealt in the first half. Apart from the obvious serious as well as not so serious cases. The dog bite of a kid looks like not so serious case when heard from the phone but he takes down the details and pays a visit to the hospital to see how bad her condition is. We then get to know the seriousness. As the film starts with that story and the villain looked like a serious offender with political connections. That looked like the main story of the film. But that ends there. Some cases are as silly as a man flashing his penis on screen and some as serious as death of a kid. He had to hold his composure everywhere.

Even the suicide case where the kid dies, he worries about her mother getting jail term for attempt murder and the naval officer angle was the icing on the cake of an already well-made story. If auto driver and his affair’s case is about fun, the Pavithran (Suraj Venjaramoodu) – wife is case is about hear break. In fact, that’s the most heartbreaking scene of the movie. The fact that the director is able to achieve such high emotions in so little time is something to be appreciated of.

The case where the ladies approach him for complaining against a man who bathes almost nude in their compound is the case where we see Nivin Pauly in full flair. Such a charmer. And the final case where he had to deal with a robbery shows that how not everything would happen as per his plan. Sometimes law can be cruel even if correct. So, when he gets to find out Karate Rajesh after that, he vents out all his anger on him. May be a reason he could stand the stab. May be even the romance is so little yet not completely taken out of the equation because a police officer gets only that much time to spend for his family or may be the film wanted to show that a police officer is romantic in spite of his schedule because he too is a human or maybe it’s plain old-fashioned way to introduce songs in the film.

The film plainly is an amalgamation of short films. Each case is a chapter in police officers’ life but it doesn’t feel like a story where the cases are listed but feels like how it’d feel in a first person. He’s of course a hero, he doesn’t receive any threat anytime whatsoever but he’s a hero who has limitations. And the way we feel how a police personal feels in first person is because of the fact of certain fun stories like the walkie talkie incident and how even when the police who lost it comes to them and tells a sentimental dialogue for which they ridicule. It all feels like a good old office humor, which no movies have showed till date. Thanks to Nivin Pauly who effortlessly walks us through the life of police inspector so seamlessly, making the film is such a work of art.

Movie Review – Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25

A film which grows with every passing minute

It’s another feel good plotless movie which Malayalam cinema has mastered by now. So much so that, the movie wasn’t in my list because I know I’m going to feel good, but at what cost. Just like how ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ was above average and didn’t come as a striking feature, I knew ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’ too was going to fall in the category. It’s one of the reasons I wasn’t might impressed by ‘Varane Avashyamund’ too. If I had watched it when I wasn’t movies much, I’d have gone spellbound. But for now, it looked just a good movie but not great.

We see a robot killing its owner at the beginning of the film and then the title card appears and story goes to some other place. I’m not a big fan of this single shot lead. We know, something related to this would happen later but this single shot lead is something we tend to forget with time. For a change, we don’t here, because the act is inhuman, as well as the act is by a non-human.

Good thing about the film is as soon as the killing act gets over, we get to see a funeral where someone named Kunjappan is killed. We feel that he’s the person who got killed by robot in first scene. May be how Samuel Abiola Robinson gets named as Sudani/Sudu in ‘Sudani from Nigeria’, we feel that the African here would have been named as Kunjappan. But we are wrong. It’s totally different context and you know what, even the funeral is for someone who’s not related to the main story.

So finally, the story starts when Subrahmannyan / Chuppan (Soubin Shahir) and his dad Bhaskara Poduval (Suraj Venjaramoodu) come into picture. Soubin Shahir was as amazing as always and seems to be appearing in every film that I’ve watched off late after ‘Premam’. Suraj Venjaramoodu was a class act. He plays the father-in-disdain to perfection. The irritation, body language and even the wry smile suits him perfectly. The idea to have injury to one of the hands and a taller structure was minute details which worked for his look. Not sure it was the actor or the director who suggested it but it works well.

Hitomi (Kendy Zirdo) was another sweet character. Her chemistry with Subrahmannyan was perfect. Also, her Malayalam was easier to understand than the normal Malayalam. Even though the idea was to use VFX for robots, the use of a kid to play the robot suited better. It gave the life which Pixar gives without taking out the artificialness due to graphics. If VFX had been used, it should have been flawless like that of ‘Wall-E’ so better not use it if it can’t be made like that.

The film as such revolves around the antics of Android Kunjappan along with Bhaskaran. There were no startling revelations but cute little incidents here and there which makes the film move seamlessly. There were a number of fun scenes like the license of Kunjappan, Kunjappan in Temple and the dress he wears. It goes in a fun way throughout and then the seriousness strikes in.

Things could have turned disaster there but the director manages to get hold of the situation. The father blames his son for not being with him and the son blames father for not letting him get a proper job. There is no right or wrong here and people are in their crossroads of life. That was the best thing done here, no conclusion was provided on who was right and who was wrong. An average film till there gets elevated towards the climax when Bhaskaran takes Kunjappan to a temple where Kunjappan’s head gets knocked off and he tries to kill Subrahmannyan. The film would have been good enough even if it had ended at bus stop without a proper conclusion but when he calls out his son as Kunjappan and the helmet turns to be like the robot, it gets one notch higher. We now get to know the state of mind of Bhaskaran and know that he has truly got blinded by the affection towards Kunjappan, or in easier words, gone insane.

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.