SAKUDUMBAM SHYAMALA

SAKUDUMBAM SHYAMALA

Theatre : TVM Kairali
Date & Showtime : 23-07-2010, 6.30pm
Status : Balcony Full, FC 35-40%

After Saji Surendran, another miniscreen serial director, Radhakrishnan Mangalath is making his debut in big screen with the script of Krishna Poojappura, who had already delivered two big hits. If you people have any expectation like serial director's movie will also somewhat like a TV Serial, just change that mentality. Already Saji Surendran broke that. Radhakrishnan Mangalath makes an impressive debut with Sakudumbam Shyamala which is 101% family comedy entertainer.

Story
Shyamala(Urvashi), sister of Shekharan(Nedumudi Venu), eloped with Vasudevan(Saikumar) in her early days. This creates seperation between them. Now Shyamala is the mother of Aakash(Kunchacko Boban). She still wants to win over her brother who is a collector. She wants her son to marry an american malayalee girl. Her husband is a clerk in Shekharan's office. Enters the picture Kollamkaavu Pappan(Suraj Venjaarammood) who is a local political party leader.Nandana(Bhama) is co-worker of Aakash & both are in love too.  After some interesting sequences Shyamala becomes a minister by defeating Nandana's father played by Balachandran Chullikkaad. What happens when sister comes above her brother is the rest of the story.

Performances
Urvashi as Shyamala, a housewife with lots of ambition & love, simply rocked with smart voice modulation with original Trivandrum slang like "Entharu makkale??" Nothing more to say, SIMPLY SUPERB. Negative I felt was her costumes in second half.

Kunchacko Boban as Aakash has nothing much and new to perform, but did his part well with good voice modulation & scenes with Saikumar & Urvashi. Suraj Venjaarammood as Kollamkaavu Pappan was impressive by avoiding his usual set of dialogues & introduced a fresh set of comedies, situational ones. Vasudevan is a great change for Saikumar as well as the viewers. It's a great relief to watch him other than his routine villain roles. He simply rocked with his expressions & dialogues, SUPERB. Nedumudi Venu as Shekharan was good. Jagadeesh finally did a role wihout going over the board in recent times.Bhama has nothing much to do.

It is very important to mention that director has given screen space  to all those actors who associated with him in TV serials, including late Monilal as a party leader character in a photograph, Hats off for that.

Songs
Music by M G Sreekumar was above average. Vilicho sung by Yesudas is a simple romantic song in recent times, a good one. The second song in the movie featuring Urvashi, Kunchacko Boban, Sakumar, Nedumudi Venu & Jagadeesh in various costumes of various countries was a good one to watch. BGM was a bit loud at many parts. Don't know why BGM of Mammootty starrer ROUDRAM was used.

Technical
Cinematography by Jibu Jacob was good, especially in Vilicho song & some parts of the movie. Art Direction by SabuRam was above average. Editing was fine.

Script & Direction
It's a hatrick for Krishna Poojappura. No scenes are there in the movie which will make u feel bore. Good dialogues & a racy screenplay, though predictable. The story is nothing new or something offering twists & surprises. Towards the climax just 5-8mins was a bit slow, otherwise nothing else to say as -ve. Direction by debutant Radhakrishnan Mangalath is impressive. He had handled the script very well without making the actors going over the board though the script had loopholes for the actors to do so. Very fast & impressive making from a debutant. We can expect more entertainers from him.

Verdict : Fast Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : Hit

Though 3 people were keep on booing from beginning of the movie purposefully, after abt 10-15 min they also started enjoying the movie.

Families will thoroughly enjoy the movie.

Scriptwriter & Director provided whatever they promised through pre-publicity in a much better way than expected.

APOORVARAAGAM

APOORVARAGAM

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 21-07-2010
Status : Balcony No idea, FC about 30 people

Problem with many directors & script writers in malayalam industry, who had delivered good movies in their past , is that they are not changing the style of making & subjects they are dealing with. They still remain in the time where they used to give box office hits. After a break, following a series of flops, director Sibi Malayil is back in tinsel town with his new movie Apoorvaragam starring comparitively new stars in malayalam & new faces in lead. Eventhough the film has a new theme(in Malayalam), the film ultimately fails to impress & sorry to say, director still shows his refusal to be part of modern making styles at many parts of the movie.

Story
Roopesh(Nishan) and Asif(Tomy) are college students. Roopesh falls in love with Nancy(Nithya Menon), his college mate. Problems arise & they were forced to do a register marriage. Nancy's parents came to know about this. From then onwards, story will proceed in a new route.

Performances
Nishan performed well, especially in the interval sequence but fails to sustain that later because of the character he got. Towards the climax he was a letdown. Asif was OK in his role. His voice modulation was bad in good sequences of the movie. Nithya Menon was apt for the role & she performed well. Jagathy was wasted in just 3 scenes. Santhosh Jogi did an impressive cameo. Rest of the cast including new faces were OK in their roles.

Songs
Songs by Vidyasagar were a big letdown, but the BGM was good. Vidyasagar touch was there in the first 2 lines of the song "Maanathe Meenril..", the one in the second half.

Technical
Cinematography & Editing were good at parts. Second half needs trimming & fast cuts. A fashion show sequence was poorly edited with some basic effects in available softwares, I think. Art direction was over the board. Nithya Menon's house, inorder to show richness, it was arranged like a crockery shop. Sound mixing was good at parts.

Script & Direction
Script by newcomers had got a new theme to present in Malayalam, which comprised of Love, Betrayal, Loss, Gain, Pain.......They were having a basic plot to present till some 20 minutes of the second half. After that, the script was moving in a cliched manner, ofcourse predictable. Lack of a tight script in second half makes the movie dull at many places. Dialogues, especially in the first half were a bit refreshing. Climax was a big letdown. Director Sibi Malayil carelessly handled many scenes like scene with Jagathy in second half. Director seems to be still following the very same method of making he did in past. Here the script only is different from his previous ventures.

Verdict : An average movie with half baked script & not so well developed characters
BO Verdict  : Flop

Recommended only for a DVD watch

Sarath & Shammi Thilakan had done an excellent job in dubbing for Nishan & Nithya's father character

Families will never prefer this one in theatres eventhough no other movies are there in theatres.