SALT N' PEPPER

SALT N' PEPPER

Theatre : TVM Sreevisakh

Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 11-07-11

Status : Housefull

After an impressive debut with DADDY COOL(read my review) in 2009, director Aashiq Abu is back with his new movie SALT N' PEPPER with no big names in lead.

Story

Archeologist Kalidasan(Lal) is a foodie staying along with his cook Babu(Adv.Baburaj), his nephew Manu(Asif Ali) & a tribal guy Mooppan who was brought to his house to learn about new dishes & its making. Maya(Sewtha Menon) is a dubbing artist in film industry staying as paying guest in a beautician's(Kalpana) home along with Meenakshi(Maithili). Kalidasan & Maya meets through a call ordering DOSA, which was a wrong number. Kalidasan & Maya falls in love through chat without seeing each other. At a point, they decided to meet. Kalidasan sents Manu instead of him & Maya sents Meenakshi as they were really introvert & a bit complex. Whether Kalidasan & Maya unites is the rest of the story.

Performances

Lal as Kalidasan is the show stealer. The character was safe in his hands. Small movements, be it after tasting a food or after cutting the call when Swetha cries thinking about her mother, Lal was too good. A tailor-made role for him.

Adv.Baburaj as Babu the cook with some feminine nature is a change for him & audience. His oneliners & certain gestures will make us laugh at parts. But comparing to his role in DADDY COOL, its nowhere. Asif Ali as Manu had nothing much to do. He did an ok job & improved in his dialogue delivery. Swetha Menon was a miscast, atleast for me. ROHINI was the best person to play that role. Also Bhagyalakshmi's dubbing was not matching for her. She did an ok job. Mythili too had nothing much to do. In her intro scene itself, she proved that she's not a heroine material with bad expression. Kalpana had nothing to do in her bad makeup.Tribal character Mooppan was just a showcase material. Archana Kavi & NanduLal was fine in their cameo.

If someone tells you like this is a feel-good romantic movie, then you can find only one such sequence in this movie. Its not Lal-Swetha or Asif-Mythili, its none other than VIJAYARAGHAVAN. Though the character makes us remember the type of characters which Nedumudi Venu played in 80s, Vijayaraghavan's way of performance & dialogue delivery & smart dialogues in script makes you tell that this is the feel-good lovestory.

Songs

Music by Bijibal fits to the mood of the movie. Though songs are speedbreakers & seems unwanted in a movie like this, the editing of "Premikkumbol" song makes it watchable. "Kaanamullal" was an unwanted one. The final song "Aanakallan" by Avial band was a disaster. Are you the same Aashiq Abu who directed "Daddy Cool" song in that movie end titles. Bad editing results in an headache only. This song totally disturbs the mood of the audience which created till before that..

Technical

After TRAFFIC, Shyju Khalid makes an impressive work at parts. The opening forest sequence, the car crossing the bridge, a set of such visuals was impressive. But lacked the presence in the movie. Editing was good at parts & boring too at parts. The opening sequence & some scenes makes us think why so lengthy. Editing could have been crisper. Art direction needs special mention.

Script & Direction

I'll rate this film above DADDY COOL script wise & below DADDY COOL direction wise.

Script is by Shyam Pushkar & Dileesh Nair. They told a simple story on the backdrop of food. But unfortunately the script disappoints at times. The movie's first half was en engaging one. But problem is with second half. The climax is already known to audience. The scenarists failed to make it engaging with nice twists & turns or some feel-good sequences. Instead the script gave importance to Asif-Mythili sequence which looks totally out of place. Though presented the simple theme in new package, the film is not free from cliches. Mythili falls in love with Asif once he helps her & admits her in hospital following a duet. Also an irritated romance failure hero showing his anger towards his beloved ones. It is the director who gives the film another dimension. Aashiq Abu started the movie very promisingly & differently with fresh title cards. But the direction loses at many parts. Even traces of DADDY COOL was there here too. Watch out for the scene how director tells us that the characters were fined a Rs.3000 & what for. It made me remember Antony Simon's suspension scene in DADDY COOL.  In scenes with content, there lacks visual beauty & viceversa. On the whole, a decent work. Though the movie was given the tagline "Oru Dosa undakkiya Kadha"(A story which is made by a DOSA), not only that Dosa the entire food stuff which was used wantedly & unwantedly for proceedings in first half was missing in second half. Climax was another big disappointment, neither the script writer nor director provide a surprise or freshness. Also once the shooting location with flowers is shown, people started telling like this will be the climax shot.

Verdict : Entertainer, if you have no other biggies in theatres

BO Verdict : May end up as a HIT

Aashiq Abu is a director with talent, but his work is not at all consistent. Hope from next time onwards he'll overcome this.

People were booing & shouting & passing comments about Prithviraj when Swetha's opening sequence was a la'CLASSMATES sequence dubbing & later the same actor speaks about fans flex work.

Claps were there for Mammootty & Kunchacko Boban in the opening titles.Watch it!!

THREE KINGS

THREE KINGS (3 KINGS / THREEE KINGS)

Theatre : TVM Anjali

Showtime & Date : 11.25am, 02-07-2011  

Status : HOUSEFULL

V.K.Prakash after his first hit in career, GULUMAAL which also marked the comeback of Kunchacko Boban, is back with his new movie THREEE KINGS(three E's because there are 3 leads).

Story

Ramanunni Raja aka Ram(Kunchacko Boban), Shankaranunni Raja aka Shankar(Jayasurya) & Bhaskaranunni Raja aka Bhasi(Indrajith)  who were born at the same time are the sons of three brothers in a royal family . Now their families are having a lot of debt & all three try to save their families by earning money through their own methods. Ram tries to be a millionaire through Reality shows. Shankar tries to be an actor. Bhasi tries to be a sportsman. All three fails because every time one's attempt was made failed by the other two. All three are also in love, with Ranju(Ann Augustine), Manju(Samvrutha Sunil) a TV serial maniac & Anju(Sandhya), daughters of Jagathy Sreekumar. At one point they comes to know about a treasure which can solve all their financial problems thereby get settled in life. They starts for that along with their lovers. Rest of the story is whether they finds that & how.

Performances

All the three leads have got equal screenspace in the whole movie. Considering the variety of scenes & second half, Kunchacko Boban is the show stealer. Watch out his sequence in which he rescues Samvrutha. Though the second half sequence is same as Ritesh Deshmukh's sequence in Dhamaal, changes were done which makes it better. Jayasurya was funny with one-liners. Jayasurya had nothing new to offer other than his previous films of somewhat same genre. The spoof of SILSILA, BILSILA didn't worked on screen as expected. Kunchacko Boban- Jayasurya chemistry had worked very well once again on screen. In second half Jayasurya miserably failed in the sequence where Arshad Warsi scored well in the original. Watch this

Indrajith was the one who got more screen space in first half, but had a very few moments only to make us laugh. In the second half, except his "Inky Pinky" number towards the climax, nothing worked out. Indrajith's hindi was also a bit bore & at times we feel like he's doing his role in Happy Husbands. His sequence in second half was the same Vadivelu sequence from tamil movie Aayudham.Both Indrajith & Sandhya were horrible in that sequence.

All female leads have nothing much to do other than acting as people without brains. Samvrutha scores there a tad above with her innocent dialogue delivery. Ann Augustine & Sandhya were OK only. Jagathy was usual only. Suraj & Salimkumar were wasted. Asokan was good especially in climax sequence.

Songs

Music by Ouseppachan perfectly fits to the mood of the movie, lyrics by Shibu Chakravarthy too. BGM also impresses.

Technical

Cinematography by Venu was good especially in jungle sequences. Editing by Mahesh Narayanan was racy. Art Direction was superb especially the forest episode. Costume designer needs special mention for making the movie looks colourfull & the artists looks good in that.

Script & Direction

Script by Y.V.Rajesh is a mix of hollywood & bollywood films(Remember his first film GULUMAAL was a straight lift of Argentenian film NUEVE REINAS). Basic storyline of Three Kings is taken from 2007 bollywood flick DHAMAAL. Several scenes are a straight lift from that. Also films like GOLMAAL are also there. Samvrutha Sunil's role of a TV serial maniac is a straight lift of Kareena Kapoor's role in GOLMAAL. On the whole he did a commendable job in making the script work with Kerala audience. V.K.Prakash had given his style of narration. Second half is same as DHAMAAL in which many scenes didn't work except Chackochan's sequence. Mahesh Narayanan's editing as the saving grace for those sequences. Screenplay had many spoofs - Ghajini, Anwar, regarding Sreesanth, Serial actress on mobile clip, Rakshi Swanth ka swayamvar reality show, Silsila album.....V.K.Prakash was able to make an entertainer but those who have seen original may not enjoy the second half. But the climax was a good one though it was shown like the climax of Gulumaal, even dialogues were almost same. Screenplay by Y.V.Rajesh was an engaging one with good set of dialogues. After Cochin Haneefa-Jagadeesh jail sequence in Kakkakuyil, I saw a same stuff like same dialogue making fun here too where Kunchacko Boban & jayasurya telling each other "Ninakkenthanu chodikkaanullathu?"
Overall a good first half & tad above average second half with a good climax.

Verdict : Above Average Mass comedy Entertainer

BO Verdict : HIT

This movie can be enjoyed only by watching a mass audience, otherwise we'll find it boring at parts.

Leave your brains at home & Enjoy!!!

Kooval was there when Indrajith mentions about Prithviraj