UP & DOWN MUKALIL ORAALUNDU

UP & DOWN MUKALIL ORAALUNDU

Theatre : Aluva Madhurya
Showtime & Date : 3.00pm, 25-05-2013
Status : About 40 people

T K Rajeevkumar after a series of dull films is back with his new film - UP & DOWN, MUKALIL ORAALUNDU, a thriller genre. Whether mmovie succeeds in entertaining us?? Lets see

Story
All the lead actors in the story gets trapped in a lift. Above that lift, they find a dead body. The rest is an investigation through flashbacks by each in the lift.

Performances
Indrajith as lift operator Thamburan was another ordinary one for him. His lift repairing scene was funny. Ganeshkumar as Police Commissioner delivers a powerful performance. Baiju rocked with his comments in first half. Prathap Pothen once again makes the scenes appear entertaining with his typical style. It was a MeghnaRaj show as the whole story revolves around her character without a proper name. Remya Nambeesan was fine, Rejath Menon & Vijayakumar too. Nandulal repeats Jagathy style once again. Kochu Preman failed to evoke laughter at many parts. Rest of the cast were okay except the female artist(Idea Comedy Stars TV programme anchor - somebody please make her attend an acting course session)

Songs
No songs in the movie. BGM by Prasanth Murali syncs well with the movie.

Technical
Great work by cinematographer & Editor. Sound effects by Arun Seenu, Mixing by Shankar and team needs special mention for powerpacked sound effects right from titles.

Script & Direction
Story by T K RajeevKumar was fine. Screenplay by Sunny Joseph & Manuvel George need special mention. Without a dull moment and in a single location they made the plot this much engaging eventhough the towards climax portions were predictable. Still they could make the show engaging with light surprises in climax. Dialogues by Indugopan needs special mention - Awesome oneliners.

Direction by T K Rajeekumar will be a surprise to all who have seen his past few movies. Remember he is the one who gave us CHANAKYAN, MAHANAGARAM & PAVITHRAM. Good execution of a theme like this.

Overall a well made entertaining thriller.

Verdict : Engaging well written & executed thriller
BO Verdict : Deserves a HIT status, but chances are less.

Another movie which will be getting appreciated after DVD release. Support this movie and watch it in theatres.

NERAM

NERAM

Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 6.20pm, 11-05-2013
Status : Balcony Almost FULL, FC 45%

LAL JOSE FILMS, PISTAH song and an amazing trailer, these are more than enough to give Alphonse Putheran's debut film NERAM(a bilingual, Tamil version releasing a on 17th May by  Udayanithi Stalin's RED GIANT MOVIES) a try. The tagline itself was interesting.

Story
Story is waferthin one. Its the story happening from 9am to 6pm in a day. Mathew(Nivin Pauly) has to pay back the amount he borrowed from VattiRaja(Simha), a baddie. On the same day, his love Jeena(Nazriya) leaves her home to live with Mathew. On the way, Mathew loses his money. The rest of the story is full of twists and turns which director turned to a roller coaster ride.

Performances
Nivin Pauly as Mathew was good. His mannerisms & dialogue delivery was super cool. More action sequences should have given to him, he escelled in whatever given. Nazriya as Jeena - you can't look anything else on the screen on scenes which she appear. Amazing Screen presence. Her initial scenes shows the actor in her. An actress to look forward is here. Lalu Alex as Jeena's father was funny. Simha as VattiRaja was another promising actor. All the unknown actors was awesome. Joju once again proved his ability to do comic roles - Aliyan was wonderful.

Shammi Thilakan as S I Ookken Tintu and Manoj K Jayan as Achayan makes the show lively and engaging in scenes they appear and climax episode. Manoj K Jayan was awesome with his funny dialogues.

Songs & BGM
Rajesh Murugesan did a great job in both departments. All songs were equally good and picturised well and sync well to the narration.

Technical
Editing by Alphonse Putheran could have been better at parts. Cinematography by Anand C Chandran needs special mention. EXCELLENT work!!! Artists running through slums were beautifully picturised. Art direction by Mohana Mahendran was good. Action by RUN Ravi was cool.

Script & Direction
Story by Alphonse Putheran was a simple one. Its his screenplay that takes the story  to another level. Though first half was a bit slow, second half was superb with good twists and turns. Dialogues by Alphonse and Mohsin Kasim were perfect for a great entertainer.

Direction by Alphonse Putheran was superb. Whole movie was concieved in a new way. Still we feel that lots of scenes in second half, especially Manoj K Jayan's part could have been better by giving him more screenspace, Pistah song could have been used in a much better way like that. Realistic approach made the scenes funny at many points.

Another new director for malayalam cinema with new visions

On the whole, a racy entertainer with never a dull moment

Verdict : RACY ENTERTAINER
BO Verdict : Sure HIT

After AMEN, another movie fully belonging to director.

BHARYA ATHRA PORA

BHARYA ATHRA PORA

Theatre : Aluva Madhurya
Showtime & Date : 11.35am, 05-05-2013
Status : 50%

After VERUTHE ORU BHARYA which gave Jayaram a comeback, the same team - Akku Akbar, GireeshKumar Jayaram,Gopika unites again for BHARYA ATHRA PORA. Is this one a rehash of previous venture?? DDefinitely not - this time more entertaining & engaging with a good shocking climax episode.

Story
Sathyanathan(Jayaram), a school teacher is an alcoholic who has immense love for P Bhaskaran songs. He lives with his wife Priya(Gopika) & son Bhas aka Bhaskaran(master Ken Sanal).The story unfolds when Sathyanathan becomes too alcoholic & starts using facebook. Watch rest on screen.

Performances
Jayaram, after a long time makes a strong performance. At times, the character is a caricature to show newgen language which Jayaram does with ease & deserves applause. Gopika as Priya was usual till the final 25min. The final lap makes her the star of the movie. Thanks to the wellmade character. Siddhique in his limited role impresses us once again. Reena Basheer was usual. Aju Varghese was fine at parts. Sunil Sagatha is wasted. Balachandran Chullikkad had a fine set of dialogues towards climax which he delivered well. Arun Ghosh was fine as SI Paul. Veronica once again impresses as Thandamma.

Songs & BGM
Only one song in the movie which works well because of picturisation. BGM was usual.

Technical
Cinematography was fine. Editing could have been better in second half. Art direction was good.

Script & Direction
Script y K GireeshKumar was a good one. Though from start itself script mentions about newgen, the final hour makes it work well. Dialogues were good at parts. Final parts of the movie was too good which was shocking at the same time a reality in current society. Though movie takes off slowly in first half, the movie never makes us boring. One of the best climax scene in recent times which sans all the cliches of the typical climax of movies of same genre.

Direction by Akku Akbar could have been better at parts. He did a fine job except in newgen portions. It was lengthy and sans reality at many points.

On the whole a good family entertainer.

Must watch for all those who are married & going to marry
Verdict : Family Entertainer
BO Verdict : Hit

Ladies will surely like this one as many scenes and dialogues will be applauded by them, especially the climax & the scene in which Gopika blocks Jayaram before slapping her.

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 04-05-2013
Status : Balcony about 25%+, FC 15-20%
Aji John after Nallavan joins with Anoop Menon-Jayasurya combo mainly banking on Trivandrum Lodge effect in new movie HOTEL CALIFORNIA

Story
I'm copying this part from INDIAGLITZ review as there are so many characters I forgot the names

It moves through the lives of many persons with the common link being a 'pushpak' flight from Mumbai to Kochy. It has on its board, Roshan (Krishna), the personal body guard of a Bollywood superstar, who is carrying the latter's  sperm to be delivered to Kamala Nambiar, who wants to deliver a child without the real physical interference of any male.  In the same flight is Aby Mathew(Shankar), a rich flirting businessman, who is ready to have a day out with a television star of his dreams ,Swapna Joseph(Dhwani). Tarun Singh(Saiju Kurup), the son of a politician convicted in 5G scam, is flying down to kochy to meet his online girl friend. And on the same flight' is his look-alike Rafeeq Ahamed(again Saiju Kurup), a poor NRI who is working as a 'carrier fly', carrying the pirated copy of yet to be released film of Supreme Star Premsagar (Anoop Menon), titled as ' Hotel California'. Outside the airport waiting for them is another big group starting from a bunch of self-procalimed terrorists lead by Nandulal to the local conman Airpot Gimmy(Jayasuriya) , who all needs to make money out of each of the deals offered by the men on the  plane.


Performances
Jayasurya repeats his Cocktail role even in dialogue delivery & costumes. If he was given comical shade the movie would have been much more entertaining. Anoop Menon once again repeats his trademark do-gooder clean man role once again. Shankar was funny with awesome BGM "Njanoru Vedan". Nandulal once again imitates Jagathy Sreekumar & fails wonderfully. P Balachandran was repetitive. Saiju Kurup was impressive & good. His hindi accent was awesome. His Rafeeq role was too innocent & realistic. Sukumari was good. Manikuttan was wasted. Sudheesh was fine in his limited role. Narayanankutty, Krishna, TV comedy stars were fine. Female artists had nothing much to do.

Here comes the show stealer JOJU GEORGE as BHARATHCHANDRAN IPS, the police commissioner. He made the scenes he appeared a scream with awesome expressions & dialogues. Awesome Work. Another comedy actor in the making.

Songs & BGM
Only one song, a rehashed version of "Anthimaanam" song from movie Chukkan.
BGM was another star of the movie - AWESOME work by Shaan Rahman. The best one was NJANORU VEDAN BGM for Shankar.

Technical
Cinematography by Jeethu Damodar was good. Editing could have been better. Art Direction was good.

Script & Direction
Story of the movie was a kind of old Priyadarsan movie - lots of confusions and interchange. A great plot to become a blockbuster stuff. But sadly script by Anoop Menon lacked the punch & funny elements at many parts to be a comedy movie. Many scenes were forced & many characters were created with confusions in writing itself I hope. Don't know what was Jayasurya's role to be - comic or serious or criminal??? If made into a full length comic one, movie would have taken a U turn to positive note. Dialogues were funny, mainly for Joju & Shankar. Many dialogues could have been avoided so that the movie would have been a clean family entertainer. Better luck next time.

Aji John after Nallavan once again proved direction is not his cup of tea. A director like Priyadarsan or Shafi would have taken this to a great entertainer. Aji  mainly focused on visuals rather than flow of the film. Screenplay saved the part to a great extent there. First half was dull with no much comic elements other than Joju's. Second half was far better with Joju & Shankar rocking. Still the movie fails to reach an average + status due to bad direction.

A movie like this need 3 things in my opinion - an entertaining script, good actors and a good director. In most parts, all three fails. When all works, its for Joju and Shankar parts only too. Rest was like 2-0 or 1-0.

Verdict : Timepass, if you go with zero expectation
BO Verdict : Average to flop

Anybody can try to be a Priyadarsan, but to compete with Priyadarsan one should become another Priyadarsan. Luckily or unluckily there is only one PRIYADARSAN. This film clearly proves how talented director Priyadarsan is once again to handle such plots in such a simple way and making big hits. If the script was given to Priyadarsan may be this year's blockbuster would have been this with his selection of starcast

Nandulal, please stop imitating Jagathy Sreekumar. In this movie you did the role which Jagathy did a hundred times. If the same was done by Jagathy even if again a hundred times again it won't make us feel bore, thats JAGATHY SREEKUMAR.

MUMBAI POLICE

MUMBAI POLICE

Theatre :Aluva Zeenath Screen 1
Showtime & Date : 3.00pm, 04-05-2013
Status: Balcony 45%, FC 75%

Rosshan Andrrews-Bobby-Sanjay team is back after the disaster Cassanova with Mumbai Police, a thriller genre one

 
Story
Antony Mosses IPS, ACP(Prithviraj) mets with an accident when he was about to reveal the culprit of Aryan John ACP(Jayasurya) murder case to Commissioner Farhan(Rahman).After accident Antony had memory loss & he tries to solve the case once again is the rest.

Performances
Prithviraj as Antony Mosses post accident episode was good but in the past episode, he was artificial. In looks too he was not at his best when compared to his previous police roles. Rahman was good while Jayasurya was ok only, especially in parade scenes he lacks the police finese in looks & actions. Rest of the cast had nothing much to do though Kunjan had a scene to score which was an unwanted scene in the movie. Riyaz Khan in his cameo impresses.

Songs & BGM
No songs in the movie. Is it the same Gopi Sundar who impressed us with many awesome BG scores. His worst work in recent times.

Technical
Cinematography was fine. Editing could have been better a lot. Art Direction was fine. Action choreography was good.

Script & DirectionIs this the same Bobby-Sanjay team who gave us TRAFFIC. The storyline was a good one but the screenplay was in a confused state I hope like whether tto make in non linear or linear in a stretch especially flashback episode and whether to make it a forcefully made newgen theme. Script had a lot of unwanted scenes which had nothing to do with proceedings of the story. Interval block was a simple one which makes no interest. Many good scenes were conveyed through dialogues and bad ones were made into scenes. Overall an average work on script by the team.

Rosshan Andrrews did his part but direction lacked thrill. These type of films need thrills at regular intervals to keep audience engaging till climax. Like a sensex graph the pace of the film goes up & down at regular intervals. The film deserved a Joshiy style of approach. The hollywood standard adapted definitely won't work with the starcast & the theme in malayalam cinema.

Verdict : Average(at max)
BO Verdict : Flop