'Om Shanti Oshana'

I used to do a lot of beating around the bush and catch the rabbit only at the end. Considering 'popular' demand, this time I am first catching the rabbit and will leave the bush beating for later. Here comes rabbit,

Rabbit a.k.a Verdict 
There has been a lot of debates on what we should expect from a movie. Well, the question one should really ask is what you expect out of a movie. And if you expect a no-nonsense, fun filled, feel good entertainer where there is hardly a chance to get bored at any point, then don't think twice before going to 'Om Shanti Oshana'

Beating around bush
(+) When I list down the positive points in my review I usually try to list down the best one first. But in this case there was a very close battle between the Director and the Hero of the movie. Finally 'Jude Antony Joseph' the director narrowly overtook Nazriya the 'Hero'. Through out the movie you could feel the imaginary presence of director. He is more like a composer who is always there making sure that the tune never goes below the 'fun' range. There were instances where it seems to be dipping to 'sentimental' area, but a moment later its back to the track. There was a sense of freshness and innovation through out and editing was crisp to avoid any unwanted scenes. The movie also tend to go with a progressive mind set, which  also seems to reflect the director's out look


(+) No, its not a typo to mention Nazriya as the Hero of the movie. As already told in the trailers, its totally her movie. The naughty teenage girl role was a cake walk to her and she hardly need to 'act', but nevertheless she does have an excellent screen presence and was able to take the movie in those little shoulders with her natural mannerisms. But what really impressed me about her is the way in which she was able to change herself during the sentimental scene. Even though it was a very brief one, she was able to absorb the emotion pretty well and was able to connect with the viewers. She does have a long way to go

(+) Nivin Pauly, Aju Varghese and three 'other' directors did their role beautifully.The movie 'technically' was also excellent, thanks to camera, music and other stuffs. Let me leave further interrogation to the experts

(-) Honestly, I don't see anything worth highlighting as negative here. May be director could have avoided the cliched idea of hero being young 'communist' worker whose father was an old communist leader of that village (how many times we saw that) and might have tried a different route, like an 'Aam Aadmi' so ;-)

Tail end
From the 'Thank you' note at the beginning of the movie, where he thanks his girl friend who ditch him at the right time, its clear that director is a survivor of lost love. But it seems he did manage to make a creative use of it. How will you otherwise describe the classical theory of 'lost love' he narrated using Vineeth in the movie. The heart warming literature piece by using 'gancha', Orkut' and 'mustache' as metaphors of lost love can only come out of a true heart broken lover. Salute to the creativity :-)