RACE

RACE

Theatre : TVM Kairali

Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 12-02-2011

Status :Balcony 50%, FC 20%

After ORAAL & VEERALIPPATTU, director Kukku Surendran is back in tinseltown with his new movie RACE. The movie which was marketed as a family thriller is not at all an edge-to-seat thriller.

Story

Dr. Eby John(Kunchacko Boban) is a famous cardiologist who leads a happy life with his wife Niya(Mamtha Mohandas) and daughter Anu(Baby Anikha). Things change when Eby leaves to Banglore for conference, a stranger who introduces himself as Niranjan(Indrajith) enters Aby's home & tells Niya that Anu got kidnapped & now she's with his friend Eldo(Jagathy Sreekumar). In the meantime, Eby got kidnapped by Gauri Munjal and tells him that Anu is in their custody. What's the reason behind the kidnap? How Aby & Niya rescues Anu? Watch the movie for the answers.

Performances

The movie does not offer anything new for the actors except a few scenes for Kunchacko Boban & Indrajith. Kunchacko Boban as Dr.Eby had some nice moments in second half, especially hospital scene in second half, after the award function & a few more,otherwise nothing special for the actor to shine. Indrajith had the very same hospital scenes in second half to score & some small moments in first half, otherwise nothing special & looks robotic at times. As the suspense of the movie was predictable, Indrajith's performance in the climax could not make any impact. Mamtha was a miscast, her dubbing was weak. Gauri Munjal was sidelined with not so well developed role. Sreejith Ravi was surprisingly good with good dialogue delivery. Chembil Asokan, Geetha Vijayan & some new faces did their part. Baby Anikha as Anu was convincing especially in the "asthma" scene.

The real showstealer is JAGATHY SREEKUMAR as Eldo who appears with soda glass spects & who repeats his dialogue everytime. SIMPLY AWESOME. After a long time, a well made character for Jagathy sreekumar

Songs

There were so songs in the movie. BGM by Gopi Sundar was tad above average only, but sticks well with the mood of the movie.

Technical
Cinematography was good, Editing was average. The movie demanded fast cuts. Art Direction was good. Title Animation was good.

Script & Direction

Story by Kukku Surendran is a straight lift of hollywood flick TRAPPED. Screenplay by Kukku Surendran & Robin Thirumala is a mix of TRAPPED, RANSOM & NICK OF TIME, but didn't do justice to even one of them. Dialogues by Robin Thirumala was not that good. The movie proceeds in a very prdictable path from the beginning itself. The scenarists didn't provide any surprise for the audience. Even the sequence in second half reminds us of opening sequence in KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS. Direction was average only. The movie could have been a lot better if handled the script & direction in much more convincing way. It is just the performance of Kunchacko Boban & Indrajith which makes the movie watchable atleast once, otherwise nothing new or special.

On the whole, the thrill created by the posters designed by GABRIEL GEORGE was not at all there in the movie.

Verdict : Disappointed

BO Verdict : Flop, may end as breakeven as the movie covered its production cost through satellite & other rights

Kukku Surendran has to be careful next time, if he is planning to direct a movie.

This RACE won't happen in theatres as TRAFFIC is still there.

MAKEUP MAN

MAKEUPMAN

Theatre : TVM Ajantha
Showtime & Date : 2.05pm, 10-02-2011
Status : Upper Circle Full, FC 90%+

Shafi's MAKEUP MAN which started its shooting long before Marykkundoru Kunjaadu(Shafi's 2010 Christmas release which is a HIT) finally released. Hypes were there as this movie is
Shafi-Jayaram team after Shafi's debut film One Man Show & Shafi-Sachi-Sethu team after hit movie Chocolate. The movie is a clean entertainer & is sure to win at the box office.

Story
Balachandran aka Balu(Jayaram) becomes a loser in business as his event management business ends up in a big loss making him a person with lots of debt to be paid. Surya(Sheela Kaul) is in love with Balu for years. Her parents fixed their marriage once & stopped when Balu loses business. When her marriage got fixed wih other perso n,he elopes with Balu on the day before her marriage. Balu & Surya seeks Kichu's(Suraj Venjarammood) help, who is working as a production controller in film industry.With his help, they gets married. Kichu was then doing director Siddharth's(Siddhique) movie Cinderella starring Kunchacko Boban(as himself) & produced by Paul Kallingal(Janardhanan). Accidently Surya got introduced as the new heroine for the movie. Siddharth got impressed by Surya's performance & renames her as Anamika. To keep Balu always with Surya, Kichu makes Balu as her makeupman & to learn the work, Balu was asked to assist Lawrence(Salimkumar).Things change when she too got impressed by the filmworld & at a stage she was forced to tell that Balu is just her makeupman & not husband. What happens next is the rest of the story.

Performances
Jayaram as Balu was nothing new & not as impressive it has to be, except in few scenes. Janardhanan & Babu Namboothiriwas apt. Jagadeesh did the role of a lawyer with the slang he did in movie Kakkakuyil. T.P.Madhavan, Appa Haja, Shammi Thilakan.... were impressive in limited scenes. Saiju Kurup aka Aniruddh repeats what he did in movie Chocolate.

Sheela Kaul got a role with substance though it reminds Meena's role in movie Udayanaanu Thaaram. He did her part well.

Kunchacko Boban & Prithviraj as themselves were just for songs & very few scenes, mainly to add commercial value for the movie. Kunchacko Boban simply rocked in the first song with fast dance steps. Kamna was surprisingly good in her lip sync.

Jagathy, though he was there in parts, he simply rocked with his style of dialogues.
SalimKumar & Kalpana were wasted.

The real show stealers are Siddhique & Suraj Venjarammood, both got more number of scenes in the movie. Siddhique was fantastic with his style & Suraj tried all the ways he know to make us laugh & majority succeeded.

Songs
Two songs were there in the movie. Aaru Tharum featuring Kunchacko Boban with fast dance steps was SUPERB, while the other one featuring Prithviraj was not that impressive. Vidyasagar's melody worked well in Aaru Tharum song & sure to be in top charts. Alex Paul's BGM was apt.

Technical
Azhagappan's cinematography had only few good shots, we can't blame him as most of the scenes were interior ones. Editing was fine, but needs trimming in both halves at times-mainly because of the screenplay. Art direction was superb.

Script & Direction
Script by Sachi-Sethu is a predictable one with comic moments in proceedings. Script lags at times especially in second half mainly because we know the climax already & they seems to be in a confusion about what can be added in between before that. It is the racy direction by Shafi which makes the movie an entertainer. He was successful in making even the lagging moments to be an engaging one with fast proceedings. First half was a lengthy one & second half drags a bit in the Hyderabad episode. On the whole a clean ENTERTAINER.

Verdict : Fast Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : HIT

In the audio CD, there was one more song "Karimukile" a fast number. If that one was there, it would have given the movie a much more reach.

Kooval Festival was there for every frame showing Prithviraj & whenever some other character says like "Prithviraj"

Saiju Kurup/Aniruddh's dialogues were welcomed well with koovals but not as much for Prithviraj.