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 :)

'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 :-)

1983 - 'a movie with a heart'

'1983' will remind you of a typical one day match. The first 20 overs of power play is stunning with big shots and lots of entertainment. Then slowly it drags back in the middle overs with singles and occasional boundaries. But finally towards the slog overs it gets the momentum back and ends in a flurry !

Sports movies are usually a risky subject and its not easy to give some thing to the audience more than what they already expect. I won't say that '1983' is a perfect movie or a sure-shot blockbuster but its a neat little entertainer with a lot of heart. Also the director deserves the credit for taking a different route and not following those typical underdog sport movies where the climax will irrespectively be a match in which protagonist ends up becoming the hero by hitting a last ball six or a last minute goal !

Highlights 

(+) Bringing back those good old days 
For lot of us, our younger days were filled with these backyard cricket with 'Dubber' ball or tennis ball and no matter what others think we know how seriously we used to see those matches. And in this movie from the the team 'selection' to the dialogues during the play, from the 'rules' for dismissals to those combined search for ball lost in the bushes, it was just as if the director took a page from our good old days and brought it back to us in silver screen

(+) Realistic story telling
When a man realizes his passion, then everything else in his life ends up secondary and this passion will not easily die with age or with the responsibilities life brings. If you understands this concept, then it will be easier to understand 'Rameshan' and the movie. Other than cricket the movie is also about 'Rameshan's life from his age 10 to 40 and I love the way the story slipped through each phase of his life

(+) Those LOL Moments
Cricket matches, the second 'Sachin' (especially that 'Kaakka' question.. I am still thinking about it !), first night scene... there are a lot of really funny moments which makes it a worthwhile watch

(-) Middle overs 
I still feel the middle portion could be a little trimmed. The 2.5 hour duration of the movie made me almost forget the first half entertainment by the time movie is over

Verdict - 
If you don't like cricket at all, still you might end up liking the movie, if you follow cricket, you will surely love it and if you played these gully backyard cricket at some point in your life then you better not miss this ..  !

Tail piece - 1983 is a special year for me too. But unlike Rameshan I missed that the world cup match. What can I do since at that time I was still on my way from dressing room to the ground ;)

'Oru Indian Pranayakadha'

Short version : 

Take out Fahad Fazil from the equation and its just another big yawn. I call it another one of those typical Anthikad soaps, may be in a better, colorful pack this time !

Detailed version: 

There was a time when Sathyan Anthikad was one of my favorite directors who delivers simple and fresh feel good movies. But with all due respect to the veteran, I felt his engine ran out of gas(a.k.a 'creativity') at some point around early 2000's. Our actor Salim kumar put it in a better way by comparing it with buses running in the same route ...

Because of all these I was reluctant to go to Anthikad movies lately, but this time after seeing the humorous 'Netavu' song and Fahad's guarantee I finally fell it to it. The movie started promisingly by depicting the life of a young ambitious leader pretty well and the bus seemed to travel in a different direction . The apolitical 'Sandesham' model view of director was quite evident but I can still live with that. As it went on, towards midway the shades of familiar route slowly started to show it signs. And by second half the movie begin to follow the predictable direction with those boring sentimental scenes, cliched farewell moments etc and I started my chain of yawns

There are certain predefined notions in our movies and when you don't have a lot of creative ideas, you tend to move towards safer side and stick to these rules. Like the case of so called 'interval punch' which is defined as a twist or a suspense just before the interval (may be to make sure audience return back to the movie after the break). There was not much hope for it with the way the story was going on. But hang on, here comes some totally unwanted scenes which were cooked up just to get that punch, which unfortunately miss the target. After interval you pretty much know what to expect and all I wanted was the movie to end some how.

You can argue that movie finally gives out a positive political message that politics should not be considered as a primary profession by politicians but rather should be a service. But for political tuition class alone, I would rather tune in to one of those FB groups where these ideas are discussed in more detail and in a more convincing way

(+) Fahad as always was exceptional and Amala paul was pretty good (except for those crying scenes which resembled more like Appukuttan's crying in 'In harihar nagar')

(+) Some hearty comedy in the first half

(-) Pretty much the complete second half and the predictable and boring  ending

Verdict - Had a promising take off and a descent flight till interval. After that it was nothing but a gradual decline. It fulfills the promise of a safe family tour, but if you ask about the ride I can only sum it up as 'boring' !

Tail piece : Some of you might be wondering "who gives right to this prick to judge an experienced and proven director like 'Sathyan Anthikad'. Well the truth is that when I spent my hard earned money for these movies, along with those 2.5 hours, I also deserve this right to show my frustration .. fare enough ??

Drishyam - 'A fresh and thrilling visual treat'

Any movie is built by placing a lot of pieces together. And the foundation for any great movie is usually a good story and a strong script. In Drishyam its foundation scores full marks and all other pieces like direction, acting, editing also comes out with flying colors

(+) Loved the 'realistic' theme : I always wondered about this unbelievable memory power of the characters in our typical crime thrillers who while questioned by police is able to recollect very normal incidents happened weeks back with the precision of date and even time. My brain hardly remembers a not-so-important incident happened day before yesterday, unless there is a real need to remember it. The director seemed to have read my mind and made a movie where the the central theme is based on this basic character of human memory, where the brain only retains the things that it feels is relevant and others are ignored unless its followed up with another connected incident. After watching a lot of movies with these characters of 'remarkable memory', one might feel it a little odd when 3-4 persons are not able to remember when exactly an incident happened only a few weeks earlier. But in in a real world this is more close to 'reality' !

(+) A detailed based director : I loved the works of Jeethu Joseph, right from 'Detective'. After an okeyish 'Mummy and me' and 'My boss' he is back, first with 'Memories' and now 'Drishyam'. The flow he maintained in the movie is beautiful, where he starts off with a  lite and pleasant first half to a roller coaster second half. The story, also written by him, is almost flawless and even the minute things are taken care

(+) Lalettan leading the show : What more should I say ? With such a strong script and direction, people will like the movie even if any other actor did the role of 'Georgekutty'. But can anyone else do this role as natually as our 'Complete Actor' did ?... I doubt it. Whether its a naughty romantic husband or a caring father or a tensed family man he was effortlessly living in those scenes. All others like Meena, Shajon, Asha, Siddique pitches in with key roles and good performance. Also a special mention to the two child artists who had a major role and did exceptionally well

(-) A little old-fashioned outlook : One can argue that the 'Georgekutty's' reserved outlook of "Women should be staying at home and should not be  going out" and 'Rani's' fear of "mobile converting you to naked photos" is due to the lack of education those characters have in the movie. But after watching the whole movie I got the feeling that the characters are talking a little bit of director's outlook. And if it is the case, I am a little against ths outlook, as I believe hiding or running away is not the solution for the social issue shown in the movie

Verdict : There are not many movies which is liked almost every one. Watch it not just for Lalettan, but for a refreshing attempt by a director who has a long way to go !

Tail Piece - For the one who already saw the movie (Beware of SPOILERs)
The movie leaves you with a more important question. When a girl's video is taken using hidden camera in a bath room which is later used to black mail her, the family had to do the extreme step which ended in beating the guy to death. Question is what can be done in such a case, especially when the culprit is a big shot (like IG's son here). A tough question to answer. May be in an ideal world following sequence can happen,

1) Girl will tell the boy to go and f##k off and do what ever you want with the video

2) Boy puts the video in youtube, but society instead enjoying the video and harassing the girl, will turn against the boy who defamed an innocent girl

3) Boy will be put behind the bars and girl will be commended for her courageous attitude

Now only question is, how far are we from this 'ideal' world ?

"Punyalan Agarbattis" - An enhanting fun ride !

Let's keep it simple ! 

There are some movies which shakes you up and keeps you spell bound with its sheer magic. On the other hand there are some others where only thing you will remember, or rather regret at the end, will be about your time and money wasted over it. But our Punyalan is neither a jaw dropper nor it will make you regret your decision to watch it. All it gives you is a few hours of lite, humorous ride which will make your every rupee worth !

What stands out ?

A feel good comedy - Comedy is a difficult craft, both in art and in real life. All these double meaning jokes and slap stick comedies are used when you are unable to master this craft. "Punyalan Agarbathis' is a welcome relief in this way. Rather than trying to add some extra funny scenes to create comedy, they try to present each scenes story in a humorous angle as much as possible and this resulted in an engaging, 'never-a-dull-phase' movie

Hail the performers !

The pivotal role of 'Punyaalan Joy' seems to be tailor made for Jayasurya , who is undoubtedly one of the most flexible actors around. After Jayasurya its our "Thuthuru Thuthuruthu" fame Sreejith Ravi that steals the show. He seems to be a born actor who is able to perform in a pretty wide range. In short lets call it a team effort where each and every one gel together and played their little cameos to perfection

Ranjith Sankar does it again !

A good director is the one who can bring the best out of each actors. Ranjith Sankar, a promising director for future, seems to inherit this gift. To elaborate further,may be for the first time I saw our highly 'talented' actor Edavela Babu in a relevant role and believe it or not, even his role looks awesome in the screen. No more proofs needed !

A Hero who is not a 'Punyalan'

I like the role of 'Joy Thakkolkaran' a.k.a 'Punyalan Joy', not because he is a perfect protagonist, but rather because he is more human. He keeps you guessing what is actually in his mind and you never know if he is actually a honest guy with a lot of innovative ideas and vision who wants to make the world better or just a selfish opportunist businessman who just think about himself. In the movie he has an uncanny knack of convincing people and bring them under his spell. What ever image you give him, by the end of the movie 'Joy Thakkolkaran' will surely bring all of us under that magical spell

Area to improve

I got the feeling that there was an attempt to make the ending a little different so as to avoid those cliched climaxes. In the process they seem to have tried too many things towards the end, It was more like there were multiple options to choose in the script and after getting confused on which one to choose they might have taken a bit of every thing. It doesn't affect the movie a lot, but a little tuning in the script towards the second half could have made it a little better

Verdict

Go for it with family and you will be guaranteed a few hours of entertainment !  Don't expect too much beyond that !

Thumps up all the way :) 

"Escape from Uganda" - Movie Review

Prison breaks are not very easy to present in a movie. Mainly because of its predictable ending  and also since a prison escape in reality is supposed to be a near impossible event, the story should present some seemingly impossible scenes in a convincing fashion with the help of some innovative tactics not seen previously or at-least not expected by the viewers. Its tough to get it right !

You might be wondering why I am taking this kind of anticipatory bail on behalf of the "Escape from Uganda" team. Well it spun out from my respect to all the pain and efforts taken by those folks and the bail is needed more than anything to satisfy my conscious before I gave the movie a disappointing  thumps down !!

What I liked in 'Uganda' ?

Bold attempt : A movie solely based on a jail break theme, as far as I know is first of its kind in Malayalam (not forgetting Lalettan's classical "Moonnaam mura" and "Jana priya Nayakan's" pathetic "Love and war"). Hail the makers for taking the risk and trying out some thing different

Rima's performance : Unlike others characters in the movie, Rima as usual, was living as Shika and once again giving her 100%

What I didn't like in 'Uganda' ?

Almost every thing else : You take any jail break/escape movie/series, the first hero is always the 'plan'. It can be revealed before the escape (as in "Prison Break  series) or after the escape  (as in 'Shawshank Redemption') , but either way the highlight of the whole movie is often the method used for escape and the way its explained and executed .. 

But here .....  first of all the plan is vague, add to it an average direction on top of a story/screen play that lacks any sort of imagination and above all a horrible back ground score that makes you seriously wonder if the Music Director was trying out some sound tests which accidentally became part to the movie. In short during the much awaited 'escape from prison' sequence I was also looking for an escape, but out of the theatre

Verdict : If you are expecting thrills of a jail break movie, better avoid this. Get a good version of Shawshank redemption's DVD or get it from torrent and watch it (even for a second time) instead !

Tail piece : Many times after reading reviews where a movie is criticized left right and centre,  I wondered what the reviewer would have done differently. Any ways here is Sam's view on what I would have done to make it better,

SPOILER ALERT : If you still want to see the movie, avoid reading further

1. Reduce Build up phase (which here almost consumes the first half) and use that time in showing a better planning and execution of escape. May be a failed first attempt would be good
2. Take out that totally unwanted 'Suresh Gopi style'  action piece for Parthiepan's  intro and replace it with some thing more cool and simple (some show off with a gun for instance)
3. Take out the romantic song, and instead put a song that focus on their life in Uganda which could help in avoiding many scenes in build up as well as given more intensity on their relations
4. Replace background score to something that slowly increases your heart beat rather than the current one which could create a heart attack instead
5. Advise Mr Vijay Babu to relax a bit and avoid the 'over' part from his acting
6. Avoid the 'DDLJ' style run in the climax. It was seriously funny though :)
7. Refine the script and fix many gaps so that it won't give a feeling to the viewers that some part of reel might have been lost during editing 
8. etc etc