Movie Review – Mahaan

A pulverizing anti message film

For a Vikram film, which was preposterously titled ‘Mahaan’, this happened to be a quickie. With the first single of the movie too not creating much hype and falling under regular troupe of Santhosh Narayanan’s latest outings, it looked like it was going to be the same old story of any Vikram movie but the real attention started with the teasers and trailers where the film felt appealing. But the puzzle solved itself only after watching the movie. In fact the whole setup was to make audience think of something else and come up with something wholly different.

There is a short, not so appealing flashback at the start with three kids involving in a game of cards. It happens so quick that we don’t get a grasp of it. One of the kid Gandhi Mahaan, ends up to be the forty year old Vikram in the next scene, who has to abide by the rules his family, society has framed/set for him. It was a pleasure to watch Vikram do such a subtle under performance in the beginning but it doesn’t last long as he gets a free license for a day. His wife Nachi (an amazing Simran) and his kid Dadabhai Naoroji leave him because of the incident. From that point to interval it was just a pleasure watching Vikram on screen. Time and again he shows what an actor he is. He is a straight out Hollywood material who could match up with the likes of Al Pacino and De Niro in a Scorsese gangster flick.

The three friends unite together at most interesting points. In fact any character who appears for a scene, reunites at superb juncture. Sathya (Bobby Simha) at gambling, Gnanam (Vettai Muthukumar) when they plan to get a seemingly impossible license for their drink and Manikkam (Ramachandran) at his lone birthday party. In fact its Manikkam’s words which makes a seemingly innocent Gandhi turn into Mahaan. Isn’t it just apt that Gandhi thinks of only Manikkam during his birthday? And the chemistry between all of them with Vikram was fabulous. None looked like lesser known actors. It was great to see so much comfort level on screen.

It was good to see Karthik Subbaraj trying to come out of comfort zone. He could have easily done a normal gangster movie with Vikram and could have gotten away with it as a runaway hit but the path he takes in second half and establishes a lead actor without questioning his morality was brilliant. Pro Gandhian, Pro Alcohol or pro or anti of anything is not easy to establish. But he does it with élan. The scene where Dada (Dhruv) refuses to drink alcohol was such a lively scene. It could have been easily laughed at. If it had been laughed at, the film would have been a failure. Only because the emotions of it could be understood, it makes for a compelling watch.

Karthik had tried to do something different with ‘Iraivi’ and ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ but couldn’t. With ‘Iraivi’ it got too personal and self-righteous and with ‘Jagame Thandhiram’ it got too hollywoodish, so much so that it looked plasticky. But with Mahaan he held his ground even though he had not aced it. There were few brilliant scenes where the emotions were stripped off, like, every time Vikram thinks of family, it doesn’t happen for more than a couple of seconds, he laughs it off with his peers dismissing that his past life was nothing but crap. (Something like Ranbir brushing of Deepika rejecting her proposal in ‘Tamasha’ but that was not as subtle as ‘Mahaan’) Karthik could have easily made those scenes a cry fest and made us empathize with Vikram. But he doesn’t, and that’s the beauty. In one of the scenes he so effortlessly dismisses his wife Nachi from his life. He says something like, “avala epovo thooki potachu, payana than maraka mudila”. It’s so cruel a scene which I’m afraid whether other actors would have done it but it happens so effortlessly in the movie.

Climax is where the entire villainess of Gandhi comes to fore. It was a treat to watch Vikram in full flow. Like my friend commented, Vikram gave an audition for ‘Marudhanayagam’ with his ‘Hey Ram’ caricature. Dhruv who was trying so hard to match with Vikram in the face off scenes had to succumb completely in the climax. In fact he obeying his dad in film felt more real than the remaining scenes. Gandhi calling him a puppy in the call to Gnanam was probably the cruelest scene of the movie. May be the people who couldn’t connect with the movie citing that they couldn’t understand the emotions were actually the ones who couldn’t digest the fact that the lead needn’t always have to be a morally correct person.

The length of the film felt justified. May be it could have explored more about Dada and the flashback sequences. The actors, especially the trio of Vikram, Bobby Simha and Vettai Muthukumar were terrific. Even Sananth as Rocky was brilliant. In fact everyone were, except for Dhruv. May be it’s a miscasting. He was not bad, in fact a lot better than I expected but he was forced with a herculean task to match up with Vikram. Karthik or may be Vikram wanted the character to be macho and tried to add a lot of cool factors like Vikram’s previous mannerisms and dialogues but it was a total put off. May be a cop who hardly talks and generally broody in nature would have appealed more.

Overall it was a superb movie with Vikram and it was like showing the next generation what he’s capable of. People who are newly discovering him (thanks to a series of flops) would have been wondering why was he not in limelight all through the years.

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 – 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.

• 

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 – Putham Pudhu Kaalai

What starts like a loveable lockdown romance ends up being a numbing corona tale

The theme is lockdown and there are five films about it, the number of mentions of lockdown and corona would be a nice exercise to do while watching the short films because almost every film has a mention of it, a number of times. As if we haven’t heard the news and read the newspapers enough, the terms are annoying to the core. And given the limitations, all filmmakers try really hard to do something worthwhile where some end up successful and some end up desperate but everyone end up doing literal tales with very little cinematic value.

• 

Let’s look at each of the films, one by one.

Ilamai Idho Idho

The first film is generally a make or break film when it comes to an anthology. So, it has to be carefully selected so that it sets the mood right plus the other films has to be better than the first one, otherwise audience will easily lose interest. ‘Ilamai Idho Idho’ works for its curiosity and terrific cast. Even though Kalidas and Kalyani are cute as a young couple, it’s the seasoned campaigners Jayaram and Urvashi who steal the show. At first when they transformed to young self, I was disappointed because it felt like an insult to old age, to employ young people to act them out but the mix and match of cast worked well as a whole.

Coming from a lady director, the eye for details is amazing, the spoon in the bowl and wet towel on bed are like every household’s melodrama, which one a woman can note. May be for an upper middle-class person with maids to support for every need, this might look cute. But for an average individual, they’d know how annoying these things can get. After the drama, the film ends on a happy note too. Well begun is half done.

Avarum Naanum – Avalum Naanum

The titles, voice over, a delayed heroine entry, English speaking people. You know you’re in for a GVM retreat. Thankfully its not a love story but a story between a grandad and his granddaughter which is done in the same romantic way as how Jessie meets Karthik. Needless to say, M. S. Bhaskar is excellent, for a change, as an educated urban scientist and Ritu Varma as an IT employee, who from a recent hangover of ‘Oru Manam’ looks all the more fabulous as a GVM heroine.

Of all the shorts, this one feels the least desperate, even though there are a lot of mentions of mask and corona. There is an overtly dramatic scene between them both, where the subject is excellent but dialogues were written very poorly, a trademark GVM mistake. Thanks to the cast, they make the scene work. I loved the idea of how a man feels for her daughter’s loss of passion, it’s a great subject which GVM has touched upon but it doesn’t carry on with the same flow. Like any other GVM film, more than the film, we end up loving the heroine and her costumes.

Coffee, Anyone?

The film’s downfall starts from here. A tale of sisters, something which should have had a Jane Austen flair, falls flat because of over enthusiasm of real-life sisters, Anu Hassan and Suhasini Maniratnam, through acting and directing, respectively. Obviously Suhasini has directed because whoever came up with the idea, discussed with their peers and decided to do a lockdown film, it’s not that they hunted for talents. So, this is a pretty bleak subject. An ailing mother whom we first think has corona but thankfully not, her three daughters, one of whom had born late and a father who takes care of wife.

The film is about hope but its as hopeless as it could get, the subject is like how a teenager would write short story, there is absolutely no surprise. There is no logic but only magic but the magic doesn’t work because its like seeing the age-old act for the umpteenth time. If the GVM movie was literal in narrative, this film is literal right from the title. The climax with the granny holding a cup of filter kaapi lokes like a more irritating version of Ashwagandha, Athi Madhuram mixed 3 roses tea ad.

Reunion

Seriously, what was even tried here. It has Andrea who’s hot as hell and wears great gym wears at home and even sings an awesome English song but that’s that. Of all, this looked like the most pointless film. Like a film of an old man who so wanted to prove that he is young. It was a reunion of sorts where a singer meets doctor who has crush on her. There are drugs, biryani and adidas thrown in. Poor Gurucharan C, apart from singing that Ooh la la la song, there isn’t one scene he looked comfortable. Especially going near Andrea, he had a constant fear like a high school student trying to talk to a pretty girl. The climax where he says that the poem is for her, is a point which the audience would have decoded even before the script was written.

Miracle

This would have been a film which most people had eagerly waited for. The film starts with trademark Karthik Subbaraj shots, music and pun. Wonder how Bobby Simha acts so well when it comes to his movies. He was effortlessly funny in this film too but the show stealer would definitely be his friend, Sharath Ravi, who was terrific with his comedy timing. But that’s that. It’s not a film by filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj but only by a short filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj. The film would qualify as one of the films made by contestants but not by a maestro. He’d have easily made this film during his Nalaya Iyakunar days, who knows maybe it’s one of the films he had in mind during those days but couldn’t make. So, he had made it this time with better production value. Except for the scene where the tyre rolls with “Oru kili uruguthu” background, there wasn’t anything funny. But it’s a troupe which has been beaten to death by now, so it fails even in that aspect.

So, my rating of the short film would be almost of the same order it appears on screen.

Reunion < Coffee, Anyone? < Miracle < Avarum Naanum – Avalum Naanum < Ilamai Idho Idho

Movie Review – Kerala Cafe

Too many cooks spoil the broth

A film that runs high on ambition and looks to have a novel idea implemented. Whether it’s necessary or not is a question that needs to be asked for. There were a large section of people who had problem with ‘Dasavatharam’ because of the very same reason. It looked like a story written so that the film can accommodate ten Kamal’s, but what it did right was it accommodated ten Kamal’s properly. Whereas in ‘Michael Madhana Kamarajan’ it’s a story which got accentuated because there were four Kamal’s. It would have worked even if four different actors had worked. However, to me, both the films served its purpose. Did ‘Kerala Café’ serve its purpose, is a question to be asked for.

• 

Nostalgia

Well, really a nothing film which was so plasticky and mundane. Worse than the excuse which Johnykutty (Dileep) utters every now and then. Nothing really works here and the climax dialogue where Sheela (Navya Nair) says its nostalgia and the title card appearing then was just lame.

Island Express

There was hope because it had Prithviraj in it. However, as a non-Malayalee who is used to seeing only his great movies, this feature was so bad, be it the getup, dialogue delivery or even the story, which hardly settles in. This part actually makes us feel whether he could do this bad a role.

Lalitham Hiranmayam

Another horrible story and horrible acting, which felt childish. Never have I liked Suresh Gopi’s acting but this story took it to a level above. In addition, the story did not really work at all. For a wife and mistress story, it needs Dostoevsky level of artistry but it ends up being a TR level film.

Mrityunjayam

‘Mrityunjayam’ has a pretty plastic acting to start with and a premise, which would at least give short time chills but ends up doing nothing apart from showing bad graphics. Another loser.

Happy Journey

A reasonable story with some pretty solid acting by Nithya Menon. But, again, the production value was bad and the film looked very amateurish. May be it’d be a good film for a ‘Nalaya Iyakunar’ level of filmmaking but as a feature film with pro actors, it’s not up to the mark.

Aviraamam

It is a story of a businessman Ravi (Siddique) who’s on verse of suicide because of his debts. Although that part of the film does not work, Devi’s (Shwetha Menon) glam act evokes some interest in the film. If Siddique too had acted better, the chemistry would have been wonderful.

Off-season

An over the top story with over the top acting by Suraj Venjarammood. This could be a good story to read in a paper you get while you have Bajji from teashop but nothing more than that. Neither the jokes work, nor the setting.

Bridge

By far the best story and the only story with conviction. Even that did not have great acting but the setting and the way two story mingles with each other in such short span of time is something to be appreciated of. Even when the film ends and all the characters go out of Kerala Café, it is the granny and the kitten sitting who sit outside of it, evoke sympathy from us.

Makal

It is another mundane story, which works reasonably well thanks to its nativity. The climax was guessable, even though bad, it gave a little respite because it had a twist. If not for it, the impact would have been even lesser.

Puram Kazchakal

A story, which could have been better if it had been given some time but Mammootty does a fabulous job in keeping us, interested. If it had been made a full-length feature like ‘Munnariyippu’ may be the story would have got more time to evolve. Anyways the last three stories makes for not so bad ending to the anthology.

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