Queen - Celebration of womanhood !

Verdict
Queen, is a simple story, beautifully told and so charmingly presented by Kangana that even if you were her strongest critique, you will start loving her after watching the performance.. 

Going further .. (with a pinch of SPOLIERS)

Reading the plot and seeing the trailer you could easily mistake the movie as a typical feministic type where its a story of a woman against her fiancee who dumped her a day before the marriage. But the movie in reality is not restricted to a woman's fight against men. Rather its a fight within, a struggle that ends up in self discovery. It coveys to you silently that women don't need to fight men to be equal, rather they should win the battle within themselves and once that is done the other war is inconsequential. The smile in Rani's face during the last scene of the movie tells it beautifully !

It also shows women not only needs to fight against men and social system that brought her up, but the main adversary is often other women. Here it starts from her 'over-caring' mother who can't even spare the thought of her daughter going out alone and also her 'to-be' mother-in-law whose idea of fun does not go beyond making tea for herself and gossiping.

The movie is also about introspecting the cultural dual - East vs West 
It tells you how our so called traditional beliefs and 'proud' Sanskruiti is more or less patriarchal and restrictive in nature especially for women and also how the western/foreign culture which a lot of us considers immoral and 'caring-less-for-relations' type is actually more open and exclusive. In the movie when Vijay sees foreigners as bad and dangerous, Rani finds friendship and love from the same. It tends to tell you that good and bad is not determined by where you are from or the culture you are tagged to, but rather it lies within our own mind and how we views the world around us !

The movie is a celebration of womanhood .. not the one which revolves around  idea of "Na sthree swathanthram arhati", but the one where woman finds her freedom and lives her dream !!

Happy woman's day :)

"Thira" - Movie Review

Is 'Thira' a copy of 'Taken' ? Rubbish.. Comparing Liam Neeson with Shobhana or even Dhyan can be called, at the least, atrocious. But that does not mean this movie is not at all inspired from 'Taken' or similar foreign flicks. I could feel the 'Taken' effect at many places in the movie. But the fact that, this movie gives you an escape from those age old style kidnapping movies we see in local flicks, is such a big relief that you will thank the makers if they even get 'inspired'. 

In any case let me reveal what Vineeth and team actually copied, I mean 'got inspired', from 'Taken' and similar Holly wood thrillers, 

1) Editing - The major difference between our Thrillers and some good Hollywood thrillers is not that we have any thing less. But its that we usually have some thing more - one extra song, one extra stunt, one extra emotional side story etc. Its as if there is a rule that if your movie is not at-lest 2.5 hours, its a bad omen. Here the makers have simply cut the sh## and gave us a 2 hour refined thrilling product 

2) A Lady can be a Hero - How many thrillers/action movies we have where a lady is the Hero (not using the word Heroine as it sounds more like 'second fiddle') and also I am not talking about Vijaya Shanthi type movies. Have seen this trend in a lot of Hollywood flicks though. It shows you a tough reality - its not just about the physical strength, but most of the times what matters is your mental strength and resolve 

3) No spoon feeding - Some thing we are so much used to. Take any of the local thrillers, the director will never give the audience the pain of using their 'brain' anywhere in the movie. Every complicated points, even the subtle ones, are explained either by the Hero to the side kick OR else repeated with a short flash back which is shown from a different angle. In this movie you better listen carefully and actually 'think', because the director is not going to stop and spoon feed you with every thing you need to know 

4) Trilogy - I don't even remember a proper trilogy in Malayalam or for that matter Indian movies. Don't even mention about Golmaal or Dhoom.. its such a shame to be called a Trilogy. Even the Ram ji Rao - Mannar Mathayi speakings or Hari har nagars are not actually sequence but made in to a sequence after  the first one succeeded. This one could be the first of its type planned Trilogy at-least for sure in Malayalam. I am sure many are going to follow ('Taken' has got a sequence too ;-) )

There are so many other good things about this movie. Like the performances of lead roles and even others, the good back ground score, cinematography etc 

There is not much bad points, may be except that they could have improved the action sequences. I am ok with shaky originality type stunt, but this is just too shaky and irritating some times. Vineeth, please take care next time :p 

All in all ... A must must watch and not just one time. It surely deserves a second watch !!!

Tail piece : One heartening part of the movie was the use of a transgender in a strong and serious role with out giving much importance to the sex of the person. All I have ever seen in our movies till now is to use them either as a laughing stock/ridiculed type roles or a dull/sympathetic role. Again another welcome change !

"Ustaad Hotel" -- Movie review

To meet my expectations of this movie, it was always going to be a challenge. Thanks to all those hype created after the unanimous positive reviews from all quarters … But fairly enough, it managed to pass the test with a first class!

STORY:  About Anjali’s story and script, I rate it good but not great. It has a descent enough positive flow, but at times goes in some predictable lines and many parts inspired from Gowrikar’s ‘Swades’. What I liked about the story line is the way in which the Muslim background is used for the movie. We have seen many such ones in the past, but most of them are overdone. Here it’s used in a controlled manner and surely adds to the overall taste.

MUSIC: I am NOT a huge fan of ‘Appengal embaadum ..”, but I just love the way Music and Background score is used in this movie. May be it’s the best effort I saw in Malayalam where Music is used so effectively in sync with the scenes … Just keeps you hooked to the mood of the movie.

CAMERA: The Camera shots are eye pleasing, but surely it’s NOT a rarity in today’s new generation movie trend.

PERFORMANCE: Everyone agrees to one thing that Thilakan’s Karimka was the show stealer. But Dulqar did pretty well to do justice to the role. Siddique, Maamukoya as always kept the standard, Nitya is just improving with every movie.

DIRECTION: Anwar Rasheed surely scores the top marks. He controlled and crafted the movie pretty well and blessed it with some amazing sequences. The Sulaimaani Scene along with Karimka’s flashback will go down as a one of the all time classical sequences in Malayalam. I can see the movie twice again only for that sequence!

ALL IN ALL : Karimka tells to Faisee in the movie … “Any one can fill your stomach, but original ‘Kaypunyam’ is when your mind is also filled along with stomach”… This movie simply does that ! 

"Spirit" - Movie Review

Should movies be just for aesthetic satisfaction OR should it focus on social responsibility as well ?
The topic is always debatable. But after watching 'Spirit' I felt Renjith was trying too hard for the latter one giving not much consideration to the former. But unfortunately it turns out to be a rare anticlimax as the movie ends up lagging in both parts ...

Performances are pertty good, songs are fresh and different, camera work is ok. But movie sadly lacks in a tight story/screenplay coupled with a mediocre editing.. There are some good sequences and enjoyable moments in between but the number of loose ends in the story and lack of flow makes the movie loose its focus more often that it should.

Plus :
1) Lallettan - The best(or only) ingredient that makes Spirit stronger is the presence of this versatile old wine that seems to get better with age. Just like the 'Grand Master' he takes the movie on those broad shoulders with his familiar effortless acting. The role was tailor made for him and he made himself fit into it with an amazing ease.

2) Effort for a noble social awareness 

Minus:
Almost every thing else

Final verdict:
Watched the movie first day with a Himalayan expectation and finally when I was leaving the theatre my feeling was similar to what i felt after watching "Thalsamayam oru Penkutty" Like some one made me sit and hear a lot of documentary type advises and finally relieved when the class was over... 

I can assure you that this movie was surely better than that T K Rajeev kumar's disastrous effort ...But when you even consider comparing a Renjith's movie with a Rajeev Kumar's type of movie that itself says a lot ... isn't it ?