VPN MOVIE REVIEWS

CASSANOVA

2012-01-26T22:18:00.001+05:30

CASSANOVA

Theatre : TVM New
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 26-1-2012(Republic Day)
Status : Housefull

Many discussions were done by many people regarding the current situation of malayalam cinema, production costs, going after the trend set by some big hit movie etc etc. Do you know whats the new trend in malayalam cinema now? The answer is make some good watchable abv avg whatever entertaining movies, some 1-3. Then announce a big one which will attain huge media attention. Please note that the stills of the movie will be hype increasing catalysts for the final product. When the product reaches the audience, everyone will be having only one question to ask - Is this the same person or team whom or which did the previous ones. LalJose, just last week with Spanish Masala joined the league. Rosshan Andrrews tops the list with quality of the product with the "SUPER" screenplay(nothing like that was there for this) written by Bobby-Sanjay team(remember their previous one was TRAFFIC).

Rosshan Andrrews with Mohanlal after Udayananu Thaaram & Ividam Swargamaanu & with Bobby-Sanjay after NoteBook with the above said hype catalysts - Cassanova, the worst of the director & the script writer duo.

Story
The movie begins with a robbery by a team of 4. They plans another theft in a marriage function in Dubai. Cassanova(Mohanlal), an international flower merchant and a cassanova in nature comes to Dubai to attend the marriage. There he hosts a TV show in Sahya channel run by Shankar. Why is he hosting the show? There is no suspense in the movie. Its just that old wine revenge story of hero after the vilains who killed his lover.

Performances
Mohanlal looked quite uncomfortable in the whole movie except in Shreya flashback episode. His makeup was also bad. Performance wise, this one is just a simple one for him, an ordinary one not even heavy or stylish as Sagar alias Jacky or OMR in Red Chillies. Riyaz Khan was good with good accent & neat performance. Jagathy was wasted, Shankar too. Lalu Alex in his limited role scores with his good dialogues(perhaps the best dialogues in the movie). All the four newcomers were not at all impressive. Heroines were mainly for skin show. Roma's character had a good start with nice comic situations but ended the flow of that character somewhere in between. Lakshmi Rai once again proved that she's just a showcase material, so as the case of Sanjana. Shreya was just fine only.

Songs
Songs were not at all impressive as it acts as speed-breakers. BGM for Riyaz Khan was superb, rest all seems to be rehash of some English flicks.

Technical
Cinematography was nothing special to mention about other then the usual visuals when malayalam movies are shot overseas. Editing by Mahesh Narayan was good but without script what he could do. Art direction was good.

Coming to action sequence, this one has the worstly choreographed & copied stunt sequences in recent malayalam cinema. Interval sequence & climax fight ended as comedy show for audience. Copied from Jackie Chan's Police Story, Mankatha, Aalavandhan, Matrix...Horrible

Script & Direction
The worst script from Bobby-Sanjay duo ever, not even a single comedy sequence or awesome dialogues to relook. Or is this any new Bobby-Sanjay team??(May be I made a mistake thinking that they were same Traffic duo). Direction by Rosshan Andrrews had a promising start which ended in few minutes of the movie itself. Though his Udayanaanu Tharam was inspired from hollywood flick Bowfinger, the execution & final product had enough elements to keep the audience engaged. But this one started itself like Jackie Chan's Police Story with a cliched police officer with style after them. Then enters the hero who does Kunchacko Boban's Dr.Love internationally. Sad thing is there were not enough moments to make the audience feel like the pairs fall in love. Then the robbery teams were chatting like why didn't you come for live robbery practice?(Is this a CCL or something?) By the time, when love blossoms there happens the robbery by the 4 team in Mankatha style which was failed by Mohanlal's Hrithik Roshan DHOOM 2 play which is ending like Dileep's Crazy Gopalan sequence after court scene which takes a good turn to Mission Impossible 2 Tom Cruise in a matter of seconds. Then happend the best part. INTERVAL. Once flashback in second half started, the movie though engaging I felt like I was watching S J Suryah-Nayanthara movie Kalvanin Kadhali again starring Mohanlal-Shreya team. In that sequence itself Jeyam Ravi-Hansika Motwani sequence directed by PrabhuDeva in Engeyum Kadhal is well blended. Finally an action sequence with a big twist for audience. Do you want to know what's the twist. There is not twist, that was a big twist for audience those expected a twist. If Rosshan & Bobby-Sanjay duo had tried a bit, you people would have made Riyaz Khan, the main villain so that we could watch Billa too with this. They disappointed there. Anyways second half was better compared to first half. Both halves were having different storylines. Few Dialogues were good at parts, rest were wastes in a bad screenplay. Director was taking frames in a rich manner even for unwanted ones.
Love was the basic theme of the movie. But that was not convincingly presented eithe in script side or direction wise & absolutely no chemistry between lead pairs.

Anything more I have to say about this?

Verdict : Avoid
BO Verdict : Flop following a good initial collection

People talks were like Kunjaliyan, Padmasree Bharath Dr.SarojKumar were nice ones compared to this as it had somewhat nice comedy moments eventhough not so good ones.

Watch Arabeem Ottakom P Madhavan Nairum in Oru Marubhoomikkadha, which was 100 times better than this or NANBAN the best bet available now.

Making frames in a rich manner should be just like an icing in the cake, you were icing on an ice cube Mr.Director.

SPANISH MASALA

2012-01-22T16:18:00.001+05:30

SPANISH MASALA

Theatre : TVM Kripa
Showtime & Date : 11.15am, 22-01-2012
Status : Housefull

What we'll expect from a Lal Jose-Benny P Nayarambalam combo with Dileep, Kunchacko Boban & Biju Menon coming together with Spain as backdrop - good comedies, nice twists, extraordinary visuals in songs & scenes - altogether an entertainer. But the outing from the team SPANISH MASALA is a total disaster.

Story
Story begins with childhood days of Kamela(debutant Austrian model Daniela Zacherl) whose father is leaving back to his homeland Spain after his service as brand ambassdor in India. She learn Malayalam from her Aaya(Vinayaprasad). Then camera focuses to childhood days of Charlie(Dileep) who is not at all interested in learning especially English language. After 16 years, due to financial problems, Charlie now a mimicry artist decided to stay back in Spain after his stage programme for a job without a job visa. He gets the job of a chef in an Indian restaurant. Kamela impressed by his Dosa asks Menon(Biju Menon), the manager to buy that. Considering the health matters, he appoints Charlie as chef in her house. Kamela was in love with Rahul(Kunchacko Boban) whom she believes was killed by her father. After a series of incidents, impressed by his tatics her father decided Charlie as his son-in-law. Menon asks Charlie to bring his relatives there to take a decision regarding this. By the time, Kamela's father dies. Then comes back Rahul to the picture. I'm sure what's the rest of the story you have in mind. The very same thing without any changes or surprises can be viewed in this.

Performances
Dileep as Charlie, to an extent was a tailor-made role for him but missed the Dileep in his old movies in which he used to score a lot in similar scenes. Except some 2-3 comedy scenes and 2-3 scenes in second half, script wasted him in such a dull role. Kunchacko Boban as Rahul had a good entry in Interval sequence but the script had nothing much to offer him except two scenes with Dileep. His performance in climax sequence was Superb. LalJose & Benny P Nayarambalam should be blamed for not utilising BijuMenon in such an underdeveloped character with same style dialogue delivery throughout the movie. Nelson as Pappan had a nice debut chance but except his cliched drunken guy(in which he scores in TV shows) scene in second half, nothing evoked much laughter. Daniela Zacherl as Kamela was a cliched absent minded lover girl. Vinayaprasad was OK but Kalaranjini was bore. Spanish actors had nothing to do other than to drink wine all the time & smile for what lead actors are doing. Archana Kavi was awesome in her cameo(because she had no dialogues or any scenes to perform). Nivin Pauly had the looks, why LalJose didn't use him???

Songs
Vidyasagar always created magic with LalJose. But here that magic was missing. Arezhuthiyavo is the pick of the lot. Song picturisation tto lacked the LalJose touch. BGM was too loud at times & senti music used was heard from Doordarshan times itself.

Technical
Lokanathan, the cinematographer was sleeping giving camera to Spanish technicians I think. The trademark LalJose visuals were there in few scenes only - the sunrise scene during titles, Interval scene & Dileep-Chackochan scene in second half. Editor can't help this movie more than this is what I can say. Art direction was just okay.

Script & Direction
Benny P Nayarambalam known for presenting silly storylines with good comedies & screenplay flow miserably fails here after PothenVava & Lollypop. Plot eventhough silly had enough elements to make it a suspense thriller in second half was converted to a cliched malayalam movie which we have seen 100 times before, to be exact the early career movies of Shankar,Mammootty & Mohanlal. Predictable to the core was one problem & the characterisation of Dileep, Chackochan & BijuMenon were limited by the screenplay. Dialogues were good at parts especially Dileep's dialogue in second half, Chackochan's dialogue in climax & Biju Menon's dialogue regarding his old lover. Benny, please concentrate on script suiting today's audience or future audience but not for audience of 80s movie. Masala was there only on movie title only, but spoiled second half whcih would have been a great Masala Entertainer with twists & action. Childhood school days of Charlie's character makes us remember the Salt n Pepper first scene in school.

LalJose announced the movie & went for a tour to Spain I think. This is not what audience expected from the most promising(We were wrong) director in the new league. After Arabikkadha, your love towards movie seems to be in low level. Elsamma enna Aankutty though an average movie had nice moments with greeneries as background & nice performances. This one had nothing to take a look for second time except the following scenes
1. Dileep's 2-3 comedy scenes
2. Kunchacko Boban in Climax
3. Nelson as drunken guy
4. Interval

I don't think that today's Malayalee audience will watch this movie for the above said scenes alone just because it's a movie by LALJOSE. Please concentrate on script next time. All the very best for DIAMOND NECKLACE

Don't know why Spain was chosen as backdrop for this storyline which is as old as Himalayas for Malayalam/Indian Cinema.

Verdict : Average, at max because of those scenes
BO Verdict : Flop, considering the huge budget

Once Casanova gets released on 26th Jan & if it works well with audience, Spanish Masala will be a washout at BOX OFFICE.

Wait for a DVD release as this one had nothing worth for a theatre watch.

NANBAN

2012-01-16T22:19:00.000+05:30

NANBAN

Theatre : TVM Remya

Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 16-01-2012

Status : Balcony Full, FC 10%

Ilayathalapathy VIJAY with south india's showman director SHANKAR, remake of well acclaimed movie 3 IDIOTS, Jiiva & Shrikanth in supporting roles, Ileana's second innings in Tamil, calling cards were several including the well edited TRAILER. Yes, the movie is a 101% genuine remake of 3 IDIOTS where Vijay the actor plays the lead role with no punchlines,no action & no mass masala elements usually seen in his films.

Story

The story is told as a flashback by Venkat(Shrikanth) whom with his friend Saravanan(Jiiva) with silencer(Sathyan) in search of his friend Panchavan Parivendan(Ilayathalapathy VIJAY) who were college mates in Ideal Engineering College run by Virumandi Sandanam aka Virus(Sathyaraj). Watch the rest on screen friends even though you have seen the original.

Performances

Its an ILAYATHALAPATHY VIJAY show. Happy to see that VIJAY which we have seen in SACHEIN last time. He lived as the character - the body language, even a single smile makes an impact on screen. We can expect more good characters from this ACTOR.

Jiiva once again proved his versatility. In my opinion, he's the best in South Indian Cinema now to perform well as a drunken guy. Boss Engira Bhaskaran & Siva Manasula Shakthi are good examples.

It's a comeback for Shrikanth & he performed well, I should say we will forget his previous movies.

Sathyaraj as VIRUS was a good choice which he performed well in his own style at parts. Ileana was okay only as her makeup was bad at many parts, but surprisingly lip-sync was better. Anuya & S J Suryah in their cameo was impressive. Sathyan did the role of silencer well but lacks the perfection as he immediately speaks in normal Tamil soon after the Teachers Day sequence.

Though in a small role, once again director Shankar included a malayalam actor in his movie - Indrans

Happy to see Ajay Rathnam again in a Shankar movie after a long gap- if I'm not wrong

Songs

Harris Jeyaraj's music had the charm especially En friende pole song's beat had that haunting effect. Aska Luska & Irukkana was good though picturisation of both lacks usual Shankar charm though made in rich sets.

BGM was superb especially En friende pole beats.

Technical

Manoj Paramahamsa amazes us with his awesome cinematography, superb visuals!!! Editing was fine with first half but second half could have been better. Art Direction was superb!!! Resul Pookkutty made his mark with clean & clear sound mixing.

Script & Direction

Story is inspired from the book 5.1 Screenplay by Rajkumar Hirani & Abijath Joshiy in hindi is the same used here. But the dialogues by Shankar & Karki made the script more powerful. The placement of Irukkana song looks misplaced and could have been avoided. Also second half seemed too lengthy & the proceeding could have been ore interesting. It's the first remake movie of director Shankar to which he did 101% justice without ruining the original but made a bit better than original if the total making perfection is considered. But song picturisation could have been better for Aska Luska & Irukkana which looks totally out of place for the whole movie. I felt that the theme was not conveyed to that extent as in original which made a good mark along with other sequences.Climax sequences could have been better.

Eventhough you have seen original, its worth a watch for Vijay as its the actor & not star here.

Verdict : Good

BO Verdict : Superhit

What Shankar said on audio launch time was right - people who don't like Vijay will start liking Vijay after watching this movie

ARABEEM OTTAKOM P.MADHAVAN NAIRUM in ORU MARUBHOOMIKKADHA

2011-12-18T22:02:00.001+05:30

ARABEEM OTTAKOM P.MADHAVAN NAIRUM in ORU MARUBHOOMIKKADHA

After a log gap, after Krishnanum Radhayum I watched a movie in theatre

Theatre : TVM Remya
Status : Housefull
Showtime & Date : 5.45pm, 18-12-2011
After Kakkakuyil, another Priyadarsan-Mohanlal-Mukesh combo movie released. From the same team, all will expect a typical full length comedy movie. If you ask me whether the movie reached the expectation level, my answer will be "TO AN EXTENT".

Story
The whole story happens in UAE. Puthanpurakkal Madhavan Nair aka P.Madhavan Nair(Mohanlal) is an accountant in Arabi's(Shakthi Kapoor) office. He meets Meenakshi(Lakshmi Rai) by accident and falls in love with her which proceeds in same way as in hollywood movie Serendipity which was inturn used in Tamil movie Jay Jay. Abdu Kupleri(Mukesh), a former room-mate who was sent out for robbering Madhavan's Rolex watch again appears before him for a job. Then a change takes place in Madhavan's life which changes the track of the movie to a road movie featuring Abdu & Ileana(Bhavana) along with him. Watch the movie to know the story well as there is subplot for each character which makes confusions generating Priyan style comedy scenes.

Performances
Mohanlal as Madhavan Nair was not that challenging one for the actor. His expressions and very few dialogues will make us laugh. Mukesh as Abdu Kupleri steals the show with his smart comic timing & witty dialogues. In sentiment scenes too, he shines. The best set of dialogues belongs to him. Suraj as Koya is another who will make us laugh at parts. But many of his dialogues were a failure in creating laughter. The rest of the cast - Bhavana, Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Mamukoya, Manianpilla Raju, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy were fine. Lakshmi Rai with typical Bhagyalkshmi dubbing in Priyan films spoiled many scenes. She was just for skin show. Shakthi Kapoor in his cameo had nothing much to do.

Songs
Songs by M G Sreekumar were fine. Chembakavallikal is the best. Picturisation of all the songs lack the typical Priyan magic which was there even in Kilichundan Mambazham,though movie was not upto the mark. BGM was not there in many parts of the movie which makes the movie dull at parts, especially first half.

Technical
Cinematography by Azhagappan & Gym Ganesh were fine. Editing by T.S.Shekhar could have been a lot better.

Script & Direction
Story by debutant Abhilash Nair had enough elements to be a smart entertainer, but the screenplay by the same & half baked direction at parts spoiled the show. Till the entry of Mukesh's character, the movie was just an ordinary one with almost no funny moments. Once Mukesh enters the scene, the typical Lal-Mukesh combo started their play in the first scene itself with usual TVM slang, but didn't lasted after a few scenes. From then on, more than screenplay, its the oneliner dialogues by Priyadarsan neatly presented by Mukesh saved the show. Most of the dialogues look outdated & repetition of his own films especially towards the climax. Screenplay was a mix of previous Priyan movies like Hallo My Dear Wrong Number, Vettam, Kilukkam, Chandralekha, Kakkakuyil...The marriage episode featuring Mamukoya and the song was an unwanted one. Still the movie works because of the combo and witty oneliners. Direction by Priyadarsan lacked sincerety and seriousness at many parts I think. Frames seems repetitive & the gradual fall and increase of pace of the movie makes me think so.

On the whole, a watchable entertainer which could have been a lot better.

Verdict : Tad above average
BO Verdict : May end as a HIT

KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM

2011-11-07T22:37:00.001+05:30

Santhosh Pandit's KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM Movie Review

Theatre : TVM Kairali
Status : Balcony Don't know exactly, but a good status as per after show returns, FC 30%+ with TERRIFIC ATMOSPHERE
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 07-11-2011(BAKRID)

Finally saw the much awaited movie of the year KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM by alien star SANTHOSH PANDIT who shot to fame through the songs of this movie aired through YOUTUBE.

Story
John(Santhosh Pandit) is a christian who is not in good terms with his father & brother who are after making money. John is an album music director and a poster/banner maker. He is in love with hindu girl Radha. They gets married eventhough resistance were there from both's families & horoscope problems between them. For getting a house for rent, John was forced to tell that he's a hindu named Krishnan. Both stays in house where Rukmini & her mother stays. Things went well till the last minutes with songs & subplots. Twist is when Radha gets murdered. Watch the rest on theatres itself.

Performances
TERRIFIC is the word which is apt for this. It's a SANTHOSH PANDIT show all the way. He introduced a new set of expressions to NAVARASA. Audience support for him, his gestures, his dialogues, expressions were TERRIFIC. He acted well in scene in which fainted & in scene in which he becomes ill. NO WORDS TO TELL MORE. Watch the movie in theatres to see the minute expressions of Santhoshettan well. Don't miss the terrific expression of Santhoshettan when he comes to know that his wife got murdered.

All the female characters had unique identity in the movie with apt screenspace. Rest of the starcast were superb with new generation acting techniques.

Songs
Biggest plus point of the movie was songs, BGM too. Picturisation of all songs were well received by audience with dancing before the screen along with Santhoshettan on screen. Read my audio review here.

Technical
Here too its a SANTHOSH PANDIT show. Editing needs a special mention. Cinematography lacks the punch as it was done by someone else & not Santhoshettan. Action sequences with Marmani vidyas were terrific.

Script & Direction
Again a SANTHOSH PANDIT show. Movie started with thanks to a set including ALL KERALA SANTHOSH PANDIT FANS & WELFARE ASSOCIATION. After movie title, just two title cardds. Then listed the 15 things & then came the name which everyone waited, yes SANTHOSH PANDIT. Audience applause was awesome. First few minutes were boring because Santhosh Pandit was not there & reminded me like a TV serial. Dialogues in those scenes too were too dramatic.When SANTHOSHETTAN entered the screen, if you see the response, for one moment you may think whether you are sitting in Rajnikanth movie playing theatre, TERRIFIC TERRIFIC TERRIFIC!!! From then on movie became engaging with new generation set of dialogues implanted on cliched worked out formula storyline. First half was an engaging one with good set of songs & proceedings. Second half lags a lot till the harthal episode of Radha's friend Sreeja. The main plus point of the movie were the songs and the awesome dialogues by Santhoshettan. Dialogues in 11 min Trailer was just a teaser in my opinion. Lots of interesting dialogues were there. Dialogues by audience too were terrific!!! After Goutham Vasudev Menon, it's Santhosh Pandit only who used English dialogues with this perfection suiting the scene well. An example, scene in which heroine had to answer like sammathichu. The dialogue was "YES, I AM AGREED"

Verdict : TERRIFIC MASS ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
BO Verdict : Already a blockbuster, may be a mega blockbuster

A must watch in theatres. An experience which you won't get by watching online or a DVD/CD.
A MOVIE OF A LIFETIME. THESE THINGS HAPPENS ONLY ONCE. SO DON'T MISS THIS!!!

The best counter dialogue from audience for Santhoshettan's dialogue
Santhoshettan on movie : Mrugangal orikkalum swantham vargathilullavare kollaarilla, avarkku vargasnehamundu. pakshe manushyano?
An audien : Vargasneham ullathu kondaada nee jeevichirikkunne

Another smart one was when ad of QUBE technology was shown after interval "Enthina ithokke kaanikkunne, Lavante pallu kaanikkanalle"

JITHU BHAI ENNA CHOCOLATE BHAI AUDIO REVIEW

2011-11-07T16:04:00.001+05:30

SANTHOSH PANDIT's JITHU BHAI ENNA CHOCOLATE BHAI AUDIO REVIEW

After the silent & violent success of KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM, alien star SANTHOSH PANDIT is back with his new venture JITHU BHAI enna CHOCOLATE BHAI. Like the former, this one too has 8 songs all written, composed & sung by the supermegastar of the decade himself.A kind request to SANTHOSH PANDIT, please concentrate on Music department alone, if you are the one who composed these songs, surely you have real talent in music composing.

Song 1 : Music is the name of Love

Singers : Santhosh Pandit & Ameya

This is the surprise song of the album. Its an English song. The starting may remind us some famous English albums. But once the lyrics starts we'll be surprised. I'm planning to conduct a contest to find the words used in song from time 0:26 till the main song starts. Is it Korean? Japanese? Chinese? Another feature of the song is Manglish pronounced words of the singer. Hope this song won't be played by anyone near the place where Michael Jackson is buried. By hearing the lyrics, there is a chance of reincarnation of Jackson resulting in the murder of alien star. NO it won't happen. Santhosh Pandit is unbeatable & highly explosive. Waiting for the video of this song.

SURPRISINGLY MUSIC & BEATS ARE GOOD, SERIOUSLY. Hear the song without thinking of lyrics & Santhosh Pandit.

Song 2 : Kaamini

Singer : Sathosh Pandit

This song may makes us remember some Karan Johar Shahrukh Khan flicks' songs or some old hindi songs. If this song was sung by some good singer, this would have become topper in hitchart. SUPERB MUSIC & ORCHESTRATION. Don't miss this song. It's the singer Santhosh who spoiled the song. M G Sreekumar was the apt singer for this one. Lyrics also was average which becomes too bad with Santhosh's singing talent. Anupallavi & Charanam of the song makes us feel that somewhere Santhosh Pandit became emotional.

Song 3 : Konji Konji

Singer : Santhosh Pandit

Another good music composition though seems to be a rip of some A R Rehman songs. Still worth a look, surely u won't be disappointed. Some good voices for this song would have changed the status of this song. Lyrics was just the route map of some tourist locations.

Song 4 : Ithu Saada Call alla

Singers : Santhosh Pandit & Ameya

Another good number in the album with lyrics full of mobile phone & Internet related things. I'll rate it as the best new generation song compared to the crap album songs we found on youtube. Music had both traces of hindi songs especially violin BGM. SUPER one.

Song 5 : Kaakke Kaakke Koodevide

Singers : Santhosh Pandit & Varsha Pandit

If it was Anganavadiyile Teachere in Krishnanum Radhayum for kids, here its the famous rhyme Kaakke Kaakke Koodevide remix with lyrics full of kids related things. Another good number. Starting was superb. Guitar music and beats was awesome. The song gives us an idea that Santhosh Pandit is playing a school teacher in the movie.

Song 6 : Bajam Bajam

Singers : Santhosh Pandit & Ameya

With a terrific starting music, Santhosh Pandit simply amazes us in Vidyasagar style music. I'm sure the starting music is going to be a MEGAHIT in mobile phone ringtones. Like Guruvayoorappa song in Krishnanum Radhayum, this one too is a devotional song, but this one is SUPERB with good lyrics & Catchy music. DON'T MISS THIS. On repeat hearing you'll be addicted to this song.

Song 7 : Bandhangalellaam

Singer : Santhosh Pandit

A sad song with typical Santhosh type example lyrics with full of relationship in families & problems. iolin music was superb. Singer disappoints again. Enjoyable one with good music at many parts especially in Anupallavi & Charanam parts.

Song 8 : Amme

Singer : Santhosh Pandit

Another sad song in the album with good orchestration spoiled by the singer's emotional voice. Veena music was good.

ONCE AGAIN A SMALL REQUEST, THE VERY SAME REQUEST TO SANTHOSH PANDIT, PLEASE CONCENTRATE ON MUSIC DEPARTMENT ALONE. IF YOU ARE THE SAME PERSON WHO COMPOSED THESE SONG, THEN YOU HAVE REAL TALENT IN MUSIC COMPOSITION.

VELAYUDHAM

2011-10-26T22:15:00.000+05:30

VELAYUDHAM

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Status? An unwanted question, HOUSEFULL with family audience even at first front row of first class
Showtime & Date : 5:55pm, 26-10-2011(DEEPAVALI)

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
BOX OFFICE GHILLLI IS BACK

When Jeyam Raja joined with Vijay, everyone expected a remake or a usual mass masala film of Vijay like his previous films, even trailers too were not different, but the final product is not something we expected, it's something different which had all the elements to satisfy all.

Story
Movie begins with Tamilnadu minister in Pakisthan-Afganisthan border joining them to implant bombs in Chennai. Freelance journalist(Genelia) & her friends tried to find out the crimes happening in Chennai. They were caught by villain gang & kills them. Luckily Genelia escapes. When the villain gang gets killed in an accident, she creates a character VELAYUDHAM who is after criminals. Then story unfolds with introduction of Vel aka Velayudham(Vijay), his sister(saranya Mohan) & his friends going to Chennai & their story flashbacks. They came to Chennai to get the amount back from Chit Fund for Saranya's marriage. There Santhanam, a small time thief joins them as friend. Velayudham accidently rescues people from bomb blasts 2-3 times. When Genelia realises that everything happened without his knowledge, she asks Vel to be real Velayudham. Though he rejects, later he was forced to be Velayudham. The rest is Velayudham vs Villains.

Performances
First of all, thanks to M.Raja for utilising not only the mass hero only, but the good actor in Vijay which we have seen in Kannukkul Nilavu, Priyamudan, Sachein, Thullatha Manavum Thullum, Shahjahan.....Its a clear ILAYATHALAPATHY SHOW. This time the screenplay was fresh not giving him an over buildup or lots of punch dialogues or much over the board action sequences. VIJAY once again proved after Rajnikanth he's the one who can carry an whole film with his charisma. Watchout for his performance in second half towards especially towards the climax. Sentiment scenes were superb!!!

Genelia got a powerful role, but her lipsync was bad & expressions were almost same. Hansika Motwani was surprisingly good especially in comic scenes. Watch out her expressions in the train sequence. Hansika's role was limited one. Script could have provided much more comic scenes as she was capable for comic scenes execute well. Shayaji Shinde & Pandiarajan were good. Santhanam will make us laugh. The one who narrates Vijay-Saranya flashback in train was superb. Rest of the cast did their job well. Villain characters failed to create any impact.

Songs & BGM
Vijay Antony once again scores. Sonna Puriyathu is the best mass number in recent times. Picturisation was rich & colourfull, SUPERB!!! Chillax was a forced one, though enjoyable in richly made sets. Mayyam Seythayo seems unwanted, but picturisation was innovative. Molachu Moonnu is the best melody in recent times but picturisation & choreography was not upo the mark. Rathathin Rathamey was good.

BGM was SUPERB!!!

Technical
Cinematography was superb especially in action & song sequences. Editing was good. Milan's art work was good. Stunt director's did a good job.

Script & Direction
Here comes the man behind the show - M.Raja aka Jeyam Raja. Story is inspired from Nagarjuna's hit telugu movie Azad. But he took only the basic thread only. Screenplay was fresh & racy with all commercial ingredients. Subha's dialogues were good & superb at many part Direction was racy & tried maximum to avoid the buildup & over the board scenes though a set of scenes are there which were enjoyable with the flow of the movie.. Instead of executing a script with Vijay on mind, M.Raja seems to be executed the final script with Vijay. Yes, a director's movie in which Vijay scores with his charisma, thats VELAYUDHAM.

Verdict : Superb Mass Entertainer
BO Verdict : SuperHit/MegaHit

THE FINAL SHOT OF THE MOVIE WAS INNOVATIVE & EXECUTED WELL.

When M.Raja said that he was not worried eventhough 10 films like RA-ONE or 7AM ARIVU releases with VELAYUDHAM before release, I didn't believed. Now I can say HE WAS RIGHT, 100% RIGHT

SANDWICH

2011-10-16T22:17:00.002+05:30

SANDWICH

Theatre : TVM Ajanta

Status : Balcony FULL, First class 99.99%

Showtime & Date : 5.55pm, 16-10-2011

Expectations were low after watching the trailer of the movie. Those expectations reached below zero level after reading reviews on net too.

Story

Sai(Kunchacko Boban), a software engineer met with an accident which eventually resulted in the murder of goon Ajayan. Murugn(Vijayakumar) brother of Ajayan threatens that he’ll kill Sai. By the time, another gang by Andiptti Naikkar(Suraj Venjarammood) enters the scene & claims that Sai purposefully killed Ajayan for him. Thus Sai gets sandwiched between these two gangs. The rest of the movie is how Sai escapes from these two gangs.

Performances

Kunchacko Boban as Sai, a software engineer was not a challenging one for him. He performed well with good dialogue delivery. Suraj Venjarammood was usual only but surprisingly he didn’t go over the board except in one second half sequence. Ananya in her cameo was fine. Richa was ok, but her lip sync was bad. Vijyakumar was surprisingly better with comic moments. GaneshKumar was good, Sreekumr & Lalu lex too. Indrans, Kottayam Nazeer…. were OK only.

Songs & BGM

Songs by debutant verge only. Chembullimaane was misplaced in the movie. Panineer Chembakangal was enjoyable. BGM by debutant Bose Santhosh was engaging & impressive at parts.

Technical

Cinematography was ok only. Art direction by Boban was fine. And the real hero is editor DONMAX who had done n impressive work which makes the movie a watchable one.

Script & Direction

Story by Ratheesh Sukumaran had enough elements to be a smart entertainer. But the screenplay failed the show. Movie which would have been a good action thriller was converted to a comedy flick with not so good dialogues or twists. First few sequences were promising. Later forceful inclusion of comedies in each & every scene spoiled the show. Climax sequence was a better one. Debutant director M S Manu offers nothing new. Also script was conceived very ordinarily. It is editor DONMAX who saved the show.

Verdict : Watchable

BO Verdict : Average(considering low budget) to Flop

If it was not DONMAX who would have done editing, verdict would have been something else.

Once again Kunchacko Boban-Lalu Alex combo worked well in the second half sequence.

Hope Producer Sudeep Kara't will compensate for this movie with VEEDU, new movie by Sohanlal starring Kunchacko Boban in lead scripted by M T Vasudevan Nair.

VAAGAI SOODA VAA

2011-10-09T18:31:00.001+05:30

VAAGAI SOODA VAA

Theatre : Theni GopiKrishna
Status : 55%
Showtime & Date : 2.15pm, 09-10-2011

After Kalavani, Director Sargunam & actor Vimal joins together again for a movie, this time story happens in 1966 in a village backdrop.

Story
This 1966 story starts at Puthukkottai. Veluthambi(Vimal) is an educated youth who had completed teacher training and waiting for a government job. His father(Bhagyaraj) asks him to go to a village called Kandeduthan Kadu as Village Sevak to teach the illiterate children there so that he'll get a certificate with which he could get a priority in government job posts. Things were not that interesting for him there where children & parents were not at all interested in studies or make their children educated. They depended on brick making for livelihood. Though his attempts fails in the beginning, things changed as the story progresses. Watch it on screen.

Performances
Vimal was apt as Veluthambi-the innocent educated Vaathiyar and he performed well too. Bhagyaraj in his limited role was superb especially in second half. Debutant Iniya as Maari, who is after Veluthambi is promising. Thambi Ramaiah was good. Ponvannan had a routine villain character only. Rest of the cast were apt. The kids were superb.

Songs & BGM
Songs by debutant Gibran is enjoyable especially Sara Sara Saaral Kaathu. Though songs were more in second half, the picturisation makes it enjoyable. Except the romantic song in the second half, the rest perfectly fitted. BGM was superb.

Technical
Cinematography by Omprakash was awesome with wide angle shots of the village & some natural beauties. Art direction by Cheeni was wonderful. Action sequence though a small one, was realistic to the core.

Script & Direction
Sargunam handled both departments. Sargunam had come up with a social issue of Child Labour presented on the backdrop of 1966 with a set of wonderful character portrayals & an engaging screenplay. Though song placement of 2 songs may find unwanted, the picturisation & music makes you forget all those. The romance track of Veluthambi & Maari was refereshing though the length of climax shot between them was a bit lengthy. Though the story unfolds only on second half, first half had enough elemnts especially kids & witty dialogues to keep you engaged. With realistic village characters & realistic portrayal on screen, director Sargunam makes an impressive movie again.

Verdict : Don't miss this!!!
BO Verdict : Hit

Social Issue is dealt in a very strong manner on the backdrop of 1966, Impressive though and excellent execution. Another Good Tamil Film.

MURAN

2011-10-02T18:31:00.001+05:30

MURAN

Theatre : Theni Vasanth
Status : 50 people
Showtime & Date : 2.20pm, 02-10-2011

A thriller movie in Tamil created by Rajan Madhav & music by Sajan Madhav-sons of malayalam music director Raveendran - MURAN. As the name indicates, the movie too had unexpected events & uncertainity in proceedings in first half, but the later half was just ordinary for a normal film goer.

Story
The movie begins as a road movie in which Nandha(Cheran), a struggling music director asks for a lift to Chennai to Arjun(Prasanna), a spoiled brat of a millionaire. In the journey, they tell their stories each other & towards the end of the journey Arjun comes up with a plan to solve each other's problems.What happens next is the rest of the story.

Performances
Cheran as Nandha was good in parts. In second half, his character demanded much more emotions which Cheran failed to emote. Prasanna as Arjun was good except in flashback episode in looks. First half belongs to him as he had best set of dialogues and scenes. Also his looks & costumes added plus to his performance. In second half, his character got sidelined and ended as a usual character. Among heroines, it is debutant Haripriya who impresses us with terrific looks and ease acting. Nikitha had nothing much to do. Another debutant Suma Bhattacharya was fine. Jayaprakash as usual did his part well. Rest of the casts were fine.

Songs & BGM
Except the party song towards the climax, all were enjoyable and situation ones. BGM was good in first half, but failed in second half.

Technical
Cinematography was superb. Editing was superb in first half, but needs trimming in second half. Art direction too was good especially Cheran's flats. Sound mixing by 4 frames as usual impresses.

Script & Direction
Debutant Rajan Madhav handled both departments. Basic story idea seems to be inspired from Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train". But Rajan had beautifully developed the idea to a thriller one. Dialogues were superb. Screenplay was an engaging one. The bonding between Cheran & Prasanna seems to be made in a fast manner to develop the story. First half was a well made one. But second half though engaging, it was having a repeated set of scenes in different locations with predictable twists. Climax was an easily predictable one and was a big letdown. Still the movie is worth a look.

On the whole, a good first half and half baked second half with usual climax

Verdict : Above Average Engaging Thriller
BO Verdict : Multiplex Hit

Haripriya may be seen in some malayalam movies soon. She was superb.

ENGEYUM EPPOTHUM

2011-09-22T23:34:00.002+05:30

ENGAEYUM EPPOTHUM

Theatre : Theni Krishna
Status : 50%
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 22-09-2011
How road accident change the lives of many is the crux of ENGAEYUM EPPOTHUM produced by Fox Star Studiios & director A R Murugadoss.

Story
Story begins with an accident between two buses. And the story unfolds in a nonlinear manner through the four characters travelled in those two buses - Kathiresan(Jai), Manimeghalai(Anjali), Amutha(Ananya) & Goutham(debutant Sarva)

Performances
Its the female leads who shines more than male characters. Anjali as boyish dominating lover was excellent & Ananya with typical village girl characteristics was superb. Jai as a middleclass good boy was good & debutant Sarva was promising. Rest of the characters did their part well.

Songs & BGM

Songs were catchy ones and well picturised except the second song Aarumasam featuring Jai which was picturised in a typical masala song model which was not at all fitting to the movie's total making style. BGM was superb especially for Jai-Anjali sequences

Technical
Cinematography was good and did an awesome work in road sequences. Editing was apt except the opening bus readying sequence.

Script & Direction
M.Saravanan handled both departments. Script was a refreshing one in narration with superb witty dialogues & refreshing sequences especially in Jai-Anjali episodes. Dialogues are one of the big plus points of the movie. Director had handled the story in non linear manner in an entertaining manner. The scene which will make us cry the most will be the episode of NRI father longing to see her five year daughter for the first time. Director could have picturised the second song in an interesting manner rather than following a usual tamil cinema formula. Also some of the sequences in second half were left untold, especially in Jai-Anjali sequence & Sarva sequence & why Ananya there in Chennai then and all. Saravanan definitely needs a special mention for making such a movie.

Nothing more to say a good first half and above average second half.

Verdict : Good
B O Verdict : Hit
After watching this movie, you'll drive carefully on roads.

Like director Shankar, Murugadoss also started funding for good movies.

SEVENES

2011-09-10T12:02:00.000+05:30

SEVENES

Theatre : TVM Kripa

Showtime & Date : 09-09-2011, 6.15pm

Status : Balcony Full, FC 85-90%

Expectation were high when Kunchacko Boban teams up with master director Joshiy & script by Iqbal Kuttippuram. But sadly the movie is not as good as expected because of bad script & bad editing.

Story
Shyam(Kunchacko Boban), Sooraj(Asif Ali), Shoukath(Nivin Pauly), Sarath(Rajith Menon), Arun(Aju Varghese), Satheesh(Vijeesh) & Linto(Ameer Niyaz of Puthumughangal fame) are the Seven member football team SEVENES. Shyam is in love with Gowri(Bhama), a shop girl sister of Asokan(Mithun Ramesh) whos is a goon working with Beppoor Surendran. As part of a football match, they attacks Aravindan(VineethKumar) by mistake. For his operation expenses, Sevenes team becomes a quotation team through Habeeb(Manianpilla Raju). Though they starts the quotation work for this, needs coming again & again & they were forced to be quotation gang again & again. Things change when they were accidentally part of murder of a criminal business tycoon Ramakrishnareddy(Mahadevan). The rest is how commissioner Amala Vishwanath(Nadia Moythu) solves the case & how Sevenes team proves their innocence.

Performances
Kunchacko Boban, though not a challenging one, he did the role with ease. Especially in dialogue delivery & modulation, he's at his best. His scenes before first quotation sequence, on court ground seeing his mother, at Bhama's house confrontation with Mithun Ramesh, he delivers a power packed performance. In action sequences too he shines. Asif Ali, though he had got a good set of scenes & dialogues, he spoiled many with bad voice modulation. Nivin Pauly with limited dialogues were good & shines in final action sequence. Ameer Niyaz was good in action sequence. Aju Varghese is the one who makes a big laughter on screen when he tries to help the fallen girl on track. Rajith Menon had the final shot to perform & Vijeesh was usual only. Vineeth Kumar had nothing much to do. Mithun Ramesh was surprisingly good in second half. Bhama & Rima Kallingal were showcase girls only. Nadia Moythu had a powerful character, but bad dialogues spoiled the show. ManianPilla Raju was impressive. Mamukoya, Mahadevan, Bindu Panicker, Zeenath... had nothing much to do.

Songs & BGM
Songs were stricly average & BGM was just fast version of song music & lacks punch & at times loud too.

Technical
Ajayan Vincent with ARRI ALEXA camera(for the first time in Malayalam) delivers new angles at times. Editing by Ranjan Abraham was bad & spolied the final sequences. It could have been a lot lot better. Art Direction was good. Costumes were realistic especially for Kunchacko Boban, Rajith Menon & Ameer Niyaz. Action sequences lack freshness.

Script & Direction
Iqbal Kuttippuram fails to make the proceedings in the movie interesting though the story had enough energy to make it so. Bad dialogues, especially Nadia's were another highlight. Bad & cliched execution of a better plot. It is direction by Joshiy which makes the movie this better & watchable. Still Joshiy is not at his best. He seems to have taken the movie in an easy manner. The climax portion makes me think so. Also bad editing spoiled the whole show.

On the whole, a watchable first half & strictly average predictable second half.

Verdict : Tad above average
BO Verdict : Average

If Mohanlal was there in Nadia Moythu's role, movie would have taken another dimension.

Dr.LOVE (Doctor Love)

2011-09-09T22:10:00.004+05:30

Dr.Love

Theatre : TVM Ajantha
Showtime & Date : 09-09-2011, 2.10pm
Status : Balcony 75%+, FC about 50 people

After back to back hits, HALLO & MUMMYnME, producer Joy Thomas Shakthikulangara is back with his third movie Dr.LOVE starring Kunchacko Boban in title role, written & directed by debutant K.Biju.

Story
Movie starts with a song by Lal(in cameo) & Asif Ali(in cameo as himself) explaining about Vinayachandran(Kunchacko Boban) who is a romance consultant, a person having tips & tricks to solve lover's problems whatever the problem or situation. On seeing this, PT master(Innocent) of nearby college invites him to college as a canteen staff to solve his love problem with Aanandavalli teacher(Bindu Panicker). When Vinayan solves Bhagath Manuel's love problem with Manju(debutant Vidya Unni, sister of actress Divya Unni), he becomes ROMANCE CONSULTANT in college. When Roy(Hemanth of Living Together fame) comes to him to solve his romance issue with Abin(Bhavana), the "devil" of college. When Abin comes to know that Vinayan tries to help Roy, things change & it leads to a rocking entertainer.

Performances
It was a full length KUNCHACKO BOBAN SHOW. Chackochan plays the character in a SUPERB way. An energetic performance with humour & seriousness in perfect blend. Especially in second half, he scored with superb expressions. Once again I would like to say, it's a clear KUNCHACKO BOBAN SHOW.

Manikuttan was another actor who gets some viewers' attention with good oneliners. Hemanth, though good, had some dubbing problems in between. He had a nice role in Interval part. Bhagath was good. Aju Varghese, Rajith Menon, Shravan Eapen & newcomers did their part well.
Nedumudi Venu, Innocent& Vijayaraghavan were good. Salimkumar though good, his track looks totally out of place. Baiju Ezhupunna had limited scenes. Kalabhavan Shajon & his helper guy were good. Ananya was perfect in her role, both in looks & acting. Bhavana was cool though her makeup was a bit over at parts. Shari, Bindu Panicker, KPAC Lalitha did their part well. Vidya Unni was OK in her role, but was missing in second half. Nimisha & Others did their part well

Songs & BGM
Vinu Thomas impresses with his songs in audio CD. In movie, only Aakasham Doore & Nannaavoole was there in full. Rest of the songs, Ninnodenikku(One of the best in recent times), Ormakal, Avanalle were there in parts. Best thing is all were picturised well & perfectly fits. Superb work!!! THEME MUSIC needs special mention

Gopi Sundar's BGM too impresses, especially Dr.Love theme remix SUPERB!!!

Technical
Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction all were superb. The title cards animations were amazing.

Costumes by Sameera Saneesh needs special mention.

Script & Direction
What to say, superb script & superb execution. To point out as negative we can say, Salimkumar's episode seems to be a forced one. Otherwise there was nothing to point out. Also the execution was Top class. FRESHNESS was there in every frame & sequence in the movie. Smart screenplay & Superb dialogues.

What to say more, waiting for his next movie

Verdict : Superb Feel Good Campus Entertainer, Don't miss this!!!
BO Verdict : Superhit
This one will be the ONAM WINNER of 2011.
Never expected such a superb product from a debutant who handled both script & direction.

DON"T MISS THE SCENES WHILE THE TITLE CARD ROLLS

Sad that movie is released in limited centres. In coming days, it'll pick up as word of mouth is Superb.

Mohanlal fans had enough dialogues in start & climax of the movie.

Kai Onnadichen song was not there which had enough beats

If this movie is watched with full house mass audience, it'll be going to be another great movie experience, such a Superb script

TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

2011-08-30T15:32:00.002+05:30

TEJA BHAI & FAMILY

ദിലീപിന്‍റെ നാട്ടില്‍ നിന്നൊരു പൃഥിരാജ് ചിത്രത്തിന്റെ റിവ്യൂ
Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 11.20am, 30-08-2011
Status : Balcony around 50%, FC 55%

After the runaway hit CRAZY GOPALAN(a good revenge story with a good second half), Dipu Karunakaran is back in tinsel town with his new movie TEJA BHAI & FAMILY which was promoted like the image makeover of Prithviraj as a comic hero sadly fails in almost all departments to entertain.

Story
Teja Bhai(Prithviraj) is a highly paid underworld don in Malaysia who falls in love with a social worker Vedia(Akhila) without revealing his real identity & meets her as Roshan Varma. Things change when her father Damodarji(Thalaivasal Vijay) decides her marriage as per priest(a comic baffoon character) Vashyavachas said(Suraj Venjarammood) whom in which Damodarji strongly believe.With the help of Vashyavachas, Teja introduces himself as Roshan Varma who is from a reputed family. Damodarji asks Vashyavachas to be with Roshan & get his family details. Roshan aka Teja, by the time with the help of Vashyavachas himself tries to find his lost parents at the age of three ending up with a group of fake relatives to be with him to make the marriage happen. The rest is whether Vedika & Damodarji comes to know about Teja & whether they unite.

Performances
Prithviraj, though marketed as his comic role didn't delivered a single scene which will make us laugh. As a don in malaysia episode too, he looks bad(His look in Thanthonni was perfect for this role). When Suraj enters the movie, Prithviraj was seen in few scenes only. His intro scene was horrible. Suraj as Vashyavachas tried his best to save the movie. Sadly he too fails. Except a very few oneliners, nothing worked. The best scenes in movie belongs to him - the final shot & the scene in which he imitates Mohanlal in Chithram. Salimkumar had a Mahabharatham storytelling episode & one dialogue to make us laugh. Bheeman Raghu in his cameo imitating Mammootty of Rajamanikyam didn't work. But the scene in which Suraj imitating Bheeman Raghu in his presence was good. Akhila was just a showcase item in the movie. Thalaivasal Vijay was ok. Suman as baddie was just another routine role for him. Asokan was just ok in his role. Nedumudi Venu, as usual, eventhough a cameo role scores. Shobha Mohan had no dialogues & just 2 shots in the movie. Shakeela couldn't make in any impact in his cameo. Rest of the cast - Jagathy Sreekumar, Kochu Preman, Premkumar, Nandulal, Indrans, Kollam Thulasi, Bindu Panicker, Manju Pillai, Manka Mahesh & a set of kids were there to fill the screen only.

Songs & BGM
Deepak Dev disappoints this time. Except Shishiranilavil, nothing worked. Remix of Oru Madhurakkinavin didn't work as expected. In BGM, you can find lots of Hollywood, Bollywood, Tamil & Telugu movie BGMs.

Technical
Cinematography by Shamdath was OK. Art direction was fine. Action sequences lacked freshness & picturised in an ordinary manner only. The real villain of the movie is the editor Manoj. I think he was sleeping for the first 15-20 minutes. Editing was bad as a whole.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Dipu Karunakaran. Basic story had all the elements to be a mass entertainer. But the screenplay lacks the punch to make it entertaining. Everything was predictable & many scenes looks similar to rehash of old Priyadarsan movies like Boeying Boeying. Though the movie was marketed as comedy movie, comedy was too old fashioned & artists tried their best to make us laugh, but without proper script & bad dialogues, what they could do. Director seems to be unclear of how he could present the movie before the audience. Teja Bhai as don was presented very badly on screen as a not at all serious one. Many scenes looks like a TV serial at times. Climax was just rehash of Pokkiriraja climax. Direction lacks experience & many frames & shots look repeated & a copy of some other language movies. Dipu Karunakaran did an OK job only.

Verdict : Strictly a one time watch if u have nothing else to do or no other movies left on theatres
BO Verdict : No competition for 9 days & wide release might help this one to enter safe side, but whether budget of 6.5c will be covered is yet to be watched.

The hardwork in script & execution seen in CRAZY GOPALAN was absolutely missing in this one. This one eneded as just a movie to project Prithviraj among family audience, some dialogues in the movie too tells that.

If u watch this movie on DVD, you can finish it in just 1 hour

ROWTHIRAM (ROUDRAM)

2011-08-12T22:03:00.002+05:30

ROWTHIRAM (ROUDRAM)

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.18pm, 12-08-2011
Status : Balcony No Idea, FC 45-50%

After the success of KO, Jiiva is back with his new movie Rowthiram, produce by his father R.B.Choudhary, scripted & directed by debutant Gokul easily enters the list of worst movies in Tamil Cinema & worst movie of Jiiva.

Story
Genuinely speaking, there was nothing like that in the movie. Movie starts at Azhagiya Pandipuram in Kanyakumari district where PrakashRaj is a Kalari expert who saves a man from a set of goons which impresses the child Jiiva. He too trains under him. Then after 20 years, in Chennai run by a set of goons played by Gauri(the hairy baddie in Naan Mahan Alla) & Kittu(bollywood choreographer Ganesh Acharya), enters hero Shiva(Jiiva) who reacts to bad things around him. As usual impressed by his heroism heroine Shreya, daughter of assistant Commissioner played by Babu Antony falls in love. Once Jiiva fights with a goon in his intro scene & till climax goons ae after him.

Performances
Jiiva as Shiva had just to look serious, fights & romance with seriousness. Nothing else to do. At times his seriousness seems over forced. Shreya had nothing much to, but much better compared to her similar roles in previous movies. Jayaprakash was cool & convincing as Jiiva's father, the best among the cast. Sathyaraj with comic scenes fails to evoke laughter. Babu Antony had just 6-8 dialogues. The crying father emoted by him in climax ended up as comedy. Malayalam actor Santhosh as commissioner had nothing to do. Rest of the cast including baddies could not make any impact.

PrakashRaj in his cameo had just one action sequence & three line dialogues.

Music
Music by debutant Prakash Nikki was a big flop. None of the songs impresses. All are misplaced ones in the movie. Also the treatment of the movie & songs differs a lot(Heard that the songs were reshooted after the success of KO). Bad picturisation too. BGM by Raja was okay at parts. BGM was missing in lots of places.

Technical
Cinematography by debutant N Shanmugham was just OK. Editing was bad. Action scenes were endlessly going. Art direction was OK. Action sequences lacked freshness. Infact the first & final action choreography looked similar.

Script & Direction
What happens when a first time director decides to make a commercial movie with a routine formula happened to watch NAAN MAHAAN ALLA & a week before shooting, he is getting DVD of a Mysskin movie & happened to watch a Shaji Kailas & Amal Neerad movie on a malayalam TV channel & at the end he wants wants a commercial product of proven formula? Exactly that happend I think. There was nothing called story or screenplay in the whole product. First half was better compared to second half as first half sticks to the proved formula. Second half was a big bore & too lenghty. The whole movie runs two & a half hour plus. Lack of familiar star cast also makes the movie boring. The screenplay was so bad that Nothing more to say!!!

On the whole, a watchable first half & a bad boring second half.

Verdict : Escape
BO Verdict : Flop, chances for a disaster.

In a scene, where Naan Mahaan Alla baddie threatens Shreya, Babu Antony comes there. Comment from audience was "ടാ പയലേ അവന്‍ ഒന്ന് ചാടി ചവിട്ടിയാല്‍ നീ പിന്നെ എണീക്കൂലാ"

Though the title of the movie is ROWTHIRAM, its treated as SHANTHAM.
For producer this movie will end as BHAYANAKAM
For those who watched the movie, its VEERAM as they have taken a big risk
Those who are waiting for next show, those who have seen will say KARUNAM as they are coming with SHOKAM

Audience were not even having the strength to boo at the screen as they were crying in their mind twice or thrice the level Jiiva cries at the final shot.

SALT N' PEPPER

2011-07-11T15:20:00.007+05:30

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

2011-07-02T14:00:00.005+05:30

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

VAADAMALLI (വാടാമല്ലി)

2011-06-10T15:18:00.006+05:30

VAADAMALLI (വാടാമല്ലി)

I will be writing the review of this movie a bit different from usual pattern of my reviews. It may contain lines which may disturb the ones behind this project.

കൂട്ടിയ റ്റിക്കറ്റ് നിരക്കില്‍ കാശ് കൊടുത്തു തിയറ്ററില്‍ പോയി സിനിമ കാണുന്ന ഒരു സാധാരണക്കാരന്റെ ദീനരോദനം ആയി കണ്ടാല്‍ മതി

Theatre : TVM SreeVisakh

Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 10-06-2011

Status : FC around 40-50 people, Balcony No idea

Many have seen the scene in movie CHINTHAVISHTAYAAYA SHYAMALA in which Sreenivasan & Sudheesh as fraud ad film makers gets caught & when producer worries, the camera man says to him like "സാര്‍ വിഷമിക്കാതെ, സംഭവം ഞാന്‍ ചെയ്തു തരാം". The same happened for this movie too I think. The whole movie looks like cinematographer directed one.

Story

The movie begins with an accident sequence(made at half the speed of slow motion in Amal Neerad movies). It lasted for about 3 minutes. By the time all characters in the movie were shown. Then story takes a flashback(we came to know that was a storytelling episode to a police officer only after that is over). Vasu(debutant Hari), a poor guy from a colony, Vrinda(debutant Richa Panai of Bheema Jewellery ads), Saranya & newfaces studies in a typical cinematic music college having no classes with a baffoon professor played by yesteryear actor Raveendran. Story unfolds like a multi perspective one. In the beginning Hari is shown as a bad guy & later a good one. First half is mainly missing of Vrinda & flashback telling the love development sequence of Vasu& Vrinda. Second half tells what happened to Vrinda.

Performances

Hari as Vasu was impressive at parts with Sarath's good dubbing. Rest of the newfaces were horrible. Raveendran, BijuKuttan, K R Vijaya were the known faces in the movie with pathetic performances. Lishoy has nothing to do.

RICHA PANAI was refreshing on screen & surprisingly her lip sync was superb & her expressions looked fresh. She is sure to stay in the film industry.A positive I can say about the film.

Songs

Music by Shyam was good. Neeyo Puzha & Thoomanjin are my picks. BGM too impresses at few parts. Another positive I can say.

Technical

Here comes the real hero & dirctor - the cinematographer VAIDY S PILLAI. The whole movie was a visual treat(visually in the sense frames alone). Editor was sleeping I think. Art direction- is something like that there?

Script & Direction

Script was pathetic one by debutants Rajesh Varma & Lasar Shine(both are journalists). A small advice to them - A movie screenplay is not a newspaper coloumn. I think that explains everything. Dialogues were very few in the movie. Maximum 2 page dialogues were there in the whole movie.

ALBERRT ANTONI - this movie won't become success just because you changed the spelling of your name according to numerology. HARDWORK only pays. I don't believe that a person called director there on the sets of this movie.

Both script writers & director could not convey the matter through the characters. Emotions were not there in the script itself I believe.

In the movie a police officer character played by one who played lead role in Asianet's Kunjali Maraikkar serial is ivestigating about the missing of his own sister Richa. When a clue like a nude bath video of Richa is found(പച്ച മലയാളത്തില്‍ റിച്ചയുടെ കുളി സീന്‍ ), hero cries like Sir stop it stop it please stop playing the video & the BROTHER had no emotions & he was enjoying the video. PATHETIC SCRIPT & DIRECTION. Watch Mysskin directed Cheran acted movie YUDDHAM SEI to see how well such a character was portrayed.

Verdict : Pathetic movie

BO Verdict : SUPER DISASTER

വാടാമല്ലി ആദ്യ പകുതി കഴിയുന്നതിനു മുന്‍പെ തന്നെ വാടി
ബോക്സ് ഓഫീസില്‍ ഈ വാടാമല്ലി വാടിക്കഴിഞ്ഞു

Good claps were there for Richa's intro scene

About 5 college students came as a gang & in the first half middle itself, one among them was trying to escape from theatre & friends forced him to sit. he was trying to get out of the theatre by telling some reason. Finally he said I'm going. When friends asked why he said റിച്ചയുടെ മുഖത്തു കുരു

10 minutes after second half, the whole gang left the theatre

Theatre Response was like this

A : വാടാമല്ലി കണ്ടോ?

B : പോടാ **********

Movie started with thanks to Mohanlal, Mohanlal Fans Assc, Antony Perumbavoor & Jackie Chan. After watching this movie none will invest money for Mohanlal-Jacki Chan upcoming project NAIRSAN by same director

JANAPRIYAN

2011-05-21T21:53:00.004+05:30

JANAPRIYAN

When I entered the theatre, status was just 27 people. When the show started, it got increased to around 70. Thanks to SENIORS for its housefull shows & heavy returns.

Theatre : TVM Kripa
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 21-05-2011
Status : Balcony No idea, FC around 70 people

Another TV serial director Boban Samuel is making his debut in bigscreen with Krishna Poojappura's script who delivered 3 hits(Ivar Vivahitharaayaal, Happy Husbands, Sakudumbam Shyamala) & a disaster(Four Friends).

Story
Priyadarsan aka Priyan(Jayasurya) is a villageman fron Thonnakkal, Thodupuzha who does almost all jobs to meet his family needs. He gets a temparory job in Thaluk Office on the post of Vysakhan(Manoj K Jayan) who was forced to take 5 years leave from service as he's an aspiring film director who is always film producers without doing office works. Priyan meets Bhama, who introduces herself as maid in the house nearby his lodge & falls in love. Problem starts when Vysakhan decides to cancel his leave & be back in service.

Performances
Jayasurya as Priyan could not make any impact on audience except a few oneliners on script. Though his looks & gestures were okay, his Thonnakkal slang seems to be a forced one as it seems unconvincing in many scenes. His innocence seems to be forced & inconsistent in the movie. Watch Mammootty's LOUDSPEAKER movie to see how well he handled that slang. Manoj K Jayan had a set of scenes in script to score but failed at many scenes though 1-2 situational ones makes us laugh. Bhama was usual only in songs & around 10 scenes. Sarayu was just OK. Jagathy had nothing much to do. Devan repeats his role in movie Priyam. Lalu Alex was usual only. Suresh as Manoj K Jayan's assistant tried to imitate Suraj in the beginning scenes, later it was OK. Anoop Chandran, Geetha Vijayan... were ok only.

Bheeman Raghu was wasted in not so well developed comic character. His gestures & mimicry in opening scene & other scenes failed to evoke laughter. Bheeman Raghu has got the best intro scene in the movie.

The real show stealer was SALIMKUMAR in his limited role. He simply steals the scenes in which he appear with smart dialogues & gestures. SUPERB!!!

Songs
Songs by debutant R.Gowtham were OK as audio only but works well with movie scenes. Remix of hindi version of Maadapraave from Madanolsavam was bad. BGM by BijiBal was usual only as for these kind of movies.

Technical
Cinematography by Pradeep Nair was good with some good frames in songs & Thonnakkal episode. Editing could have been much more better. Art direction was ok. Sound recording & mixing by R.Rajakrishnan(4 Frames) did a good job in the beginning, later it ended as a routine work.

Script & Direction
After the disaster Four Friends, Krishna Poojappura seems to be handling the script with safer department for him - the happenings in goverment offices. To an extent he tried to present the storyline in somewhat new package at parts of the movie. Character Priyan looks inconsistent as he was presented as too innocent at parts who has zero knowledge about cinema, who was given an intro song showing him he has got some info about everything. Script was just average only as it offers nothing new & less comedy compared to Krishna Poojappura's previous hits. Direction by Boban Samuel should be blamed for making this movie as what it is now. Direction was not at all racy. He handled many scenes carelessly. If some more experienced directors handled those scenes it would have been a jokebox. He was simply copying the script to screen with camera I think. The story telling episode clearly shows his lack of experience. But director handled song sequences very well. Most of the story happenings are in songs. After the hero meets heroine, immediatly comes a song in which hero & heroine hardly looks each other & after that a scene in which heroine says like I had fallen in love with the hero. Such a jetspeed love development was not seen even in Tamil Cinema. A movie which could have been a good entertainer with lots of laughs ended up as a strictly average movie with a very few laughs at parts.

Verdict : Striclty Average, recommended for a DVD watch
BO Verdict : May enter the safe side if production cost is low, otherwise flop as the word of mouth is not that encouraging.

Better invest your money for SENIORS or KO eventhough its a second time watch.

A fans association flex for Suresh was there in the theatre.

This one seems to be the first script of Krishna Poojappura which does not have SURAJ VENJARAMMOOD.

SENIORS

2011-05-07T14:17:00.003+05:30

SENIORS

Theatre : TVM Ajanta
Showtime & Date : 11.00am, 07-05-2011
Status : HOUSEFULL

After last year's superhit movie POKKIRIRAJA(a below average one in my opinion), director Vysakh is back with his new movie SENIORS, a multistarrer movie produced by Vysakh Rajan under the banner of Vaisaka Cynyma after the blockbuster Marykkundoru Kunjaadu & scripted by Sachi-Sethu team.

Story
As shown in poster, BACK TO COLLEGE is the theme of the movie. Twelve years after college days, friends Pappan(Jayaram), Rex Emmanuel(Kunchacko Boban), Idikkula(Biju Menon) & Munna(Manoj.K.Jayan) decides to join for PG course in the very same college & there was a reason behind that decision. Watch the movie to know more.

Performances

Jayaram as Pappu couldn't make any impact as it was a routine role for him. Kunchacko Boban steals the show towards the climax & his expressions & dialogue delivery & three getups was superb. Also in action sequences, he shines. Biju Menon steals many scenes with good one-liners which he delivers with such an ease which we have seen in the movie Pattalom. Manoj.K.Jayan couldn't make much impact as the character demanded but some good one-lines in the script helped him in some scenes. Padmapriya had only three emotions to be portrayed throughout the movie. Ananya does her part well with ease. Meera Nandan was okay in her cameo role. Jyothirmayi & Radha Varma were wasted in limited roles. Suraj Venjarammoodu does the same as in previous movies, even the dialogues were same. Some dialogues will make us laugh. Siddhique was good as always with nice dialogue delivery. Jagathy, Vijayaraghavan, Shammi Thilakan, Lalu Alex were wasted.

Songs
For the first time in malayalam, multiple music directors are joning for a single movie - Jassie Gift, Alex Paul & Alphonse Joseph. Aaraamam Niranje song, though music is not upto the mark, it perfectly fits the celebration mood of the movie. The item song in second half was not at all impressive. Another music director Gopi Sundar handled background score. BGM was loud at many parts of the movie. A haunting violin music as part of drama sequence in the movie composed by Alphonse was good.

Technical
Cinematography by Shaji and Editing by Mahesh Narayanan was racy. Art direction by Joseph Nellikkal looks usual other than some sets in songs. S.B.Satheeshan did a commendable job in Costumes department. Choreography by Shoby was superb as he managed to make all the four leasds dance well.

Script & Direction
Script by Sachi-Sethu team was predictable. The movie starts with a 1981 episode & 1996 episode. Then itself a normal film goer will understand the the answer for the question WHY. Some scenes in first half clearly gives him the answer for WHO too. But the dialogues in the movie were superb & could evoke laughter. If the opening sequence was avoided & started with Jyothirmayi episode, it could have been a much more better-atleast the answer for WHY would have kept as a suspense. Still the movie manages to entertain with racy first half. In second half, the item song episode & Lalu Alex scenes look totally out of place. Direction by Vysakh was racy & entertaining. It is his direction which makes the climax look this better & Editor Mahesh Narayanan did a commendable job to make it racy though predictable. Vysakh handled many scenes very usually & end up as spoilers. Still the movie is an engaging one with racy first half & an above average second half.

Verdict : Above Average Mass Entertainer
BO Verdict : HIT

SANTHOSH PANDIT's KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM AUDIO REVIEW

2011-05-04T10:53:00.010+05:30

KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM

AUDIO REVIEW

സന്തോഷ് പണ്ഡിറ്റ് രാത്രികള്‍ പകലുകലാക്കി പകലുകള്‍ ഗാത്രികളാക്കി
ഏകാന്തതയുടെ നിശബ്ദതയില്‍ നിന്നും പെറുക്കി എടുത്ത ഈ ഗാനങ്ങള്‍ക്ക് പണ്ടെങ്ങോ കേട്ട് മറന്ന ഏതെങ്കിലും ഗാനങ്ങളുമായി സാമ്യം തോന്നിയാല്‍ അത് തികച്ചും yaadrushchikam മാത്രം

After watching Oh Priye & Anganavadiyile Teachere songs, I was waiting for other six songs in the movie KRISHNANUM RADHAYUM featuring SANTHOSH PANDIT, the one man army.

After listening to the album, what I felt is Santhosh Pandit has some good music sense & he should concentrate on that area in future. I'm not going to comment about his acting as the movie is yet to be released.

A normal music listener may find these songs much better than any other malayalam songs in recent times.

LYRICS, MUSIC : SANTHOSH PANDIT

TRACK 1
OH PRIYE O PRIYE.....
SINGERS : SANTHOSH PANDIT & CHORUS

Don't listen to the lyrics. Just listen to music. Lyrics of this one is full of stuffs related to marriage - first night, marriage arrangement, ornaments, food(sadya)... Flute part used in this song is Excellent. This one is the best track in the CD & is already topping the charts with its video with "terrific" performance(including moonwalk) by SANTHOSH PANDIT & a small girl in lead. WHATEVER, the music is an entertaining one.

TRACK 2
ANGANAVADIYILE TEACHERE....
SINGERS : NO IDEA

The video of this one too released on youtube. This one too entertains with hummable music. Don't mind lyrics of this one too. Its full of nursery school stuff & food stuff. Another good number.

TRACK 3
MA MA MA MA MA MA MAAYAAVI.........(Video yet to be released)
SINGERS : SANTHOSH PANDIT & NIMMY(Asianet IDEA STAR SINGER fame)

This one is the fast number in the album & is sure to become a HIT song of the year. TERRIFIC LYRICS & fast music which you may feel like you have heard it somewhere before. The song may remind us of Vaaleduthaal Angakali song of MeeshaMadhavan. Don't just blame his song just because it's performed by Santhosh Pandit. If this kind of song appears in a Dileep movie saying like its for kids, the very same so called audience/critics would have accepted saying like the song is for kids & it does what it was supposed to. In my opinion a song which has all ingredeients to become a chartbuster.

TRACK 4
RADHE KRISHNA....
SINGER : VIDHU PRATHAP

The song had a promising start like a devotional album. But once the pallavi part starts, you'll realise that its just a rehash of Ouseppachan's music, Mounam Swaramayi in movie AAYUSHKAALAM which Ouseppachan himself rehshed in Kunchacko Boban starrer Mullavalliyum Thenmaavum in Chittukkuruvi song. Coming to anupallavi, many won't have listened to Sogasuchuda song of Mahesh Babu-Trisha starrer telugu flm SAINIKUDU. It's the rehash of the same song. If you can forget these stuffs, then the song is a good one with good lyrics.

TRACK 5
GOKULANATHANAYI.........
SINGERS : SANTHOSH PANDIT, BHAVYA, PRASEETHA CHORUS

The music is a blend of folk & modern music. The very same folk music has been used by great SILSILA HARISHANKAR in his Yanthrangalingane song titled as Yanthrappaattu. But the flute music used here is superb. Lyrics too is a better one. With video, iy may become a hummable one.

TRACK 6
SNEHAM SANGEETHAM.....
SINGER : M.G.SREEKUMAR

The song has slight resemblence to some christian devotional album songs & Paalappoovithalil song in movie THIRAKKADHA in pallavi. Lyrics of the song has good pallavi & not so good anupallavi & charanam. Anupallavi & Charanam music has resemblance to Ilayaraja's music in ManiRathnam movie ANJALI.

TRACK 7
DEHIYILLA....
SINGER : M.G.SREEKUMAR

This one is the sad song in the album. Bad lyrics in pallavi is the feature of this song. Pallavi of this song make you feel whether this one has beats sync problem with orchestra. But the lyrics of anupallavi & charanam was surprisingly better. You may feel like you are listening to some Yuvan Shankar Raja music.Much better sad love song lyrics of recent times(except Pallavi).

TRACK 8
GURUVAYOORAPPA....
SINGER : K.S CHITHRA

This song is another slow number in the album, a typical devotional album with good lyrics. Music in pallavi has slight resemblance with Ouseppachan's music in Chiriyoonjal song of Kunchacko Boban starrer CHANDAMAAMA. Overall a good one.

VERDICT : WORTH A LOOK

Don't approach this album as a SANTHOSH PANDIT movie album after watching Oh Priye & Anganavadiyile song. If someone who has not seen those videos may find these songs as much better songs in recent times & hummable ones though tunes are rehashed one at parts.

On repeat hearing you'll like these songs.

KO

2011-04-23T15:29:00.008+05:30

KO

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 11.15am, 23-04-2011
Status : Balcony Full, FC 99%

After Suriya starrer superhit AYAN, K.V.Anand is back with his new movie which also has an interesting title like AYAN(meaning THE ONE)- KO(which means KING) with Jiiva in lead(Karthi & Silambarasan were offered the same role). The movie is a political thriller.

Story
Ashwin(Jiiva) is a press photographer working for Dina Anjali newspaper. His co-workers include Renuka(debutant Karthika - daughter of yesteryear actress Radha) & Saro(Pia Bajpai). It's the election time & the main candidates are Yogeshwaran(PrakashRaj) who is the present chiefminster & Aalavandhan(Kota Sreenivasa Rao). In between comes Vasanthan Perumal(Ajmal Amir) who believes in clean politics. In an election campaign meeting by Vasanthan, a blast happens in which many of his friends & Saro gets killed. Ashwin & Vananthan's friends asks him to be in election. In election he wins & becomes the youngest chief minister of Tamilnadu. After that Ashwin founds that Saro was not killed by blast, she was murdered. The rest is how Ashwin traps the killers of Saro.

Performances
Jiiva as Ashwin was safe in his hands. But when we watch the movie on screen, we may feel like a much more energetic & somewhat more mature in looks would have done the role. Suriya or Karthi were the perfect ones. Still Jiiva potrays the role in his own style & succeeds with his high voltage energy performance. Ajmal Amir lacks the fire that the character should have in many scenes. Nothing new is there for him other than a lengthy role. In some emotional scenes he was a bit bore too. Debutant Karthika is not that promising. Her expressions were bad at times. She was acting as if she's doing an 80's stage drama. Pia Bajpai was energetic as Saro but offers nothing new. PrakashRaj & Kota Sreenivasa Rao were wasted in not so well developed characters. But the scenes in which they appear belongs to them. PrakashRaj makes his mark on scenes he appear. Sona as Sumitha(spoofing Namitha) has nothing to do. Editor Anthony makes a cameo appearance. BOSE VENKAT steals the show towards the climax with smart dialogues.

Songs
Music by Harris Jeyaraj is not that impressive & most of the songs are rehash of his own music. Ennamo Aedho & Venpaniye is my pick of the lot though it reminds me of songs of same genre by Harris Jeyaraj in his previous films like Dhaam Dhoom, Unnaale Unnaale, Bheema...Picturisation of songs offers nothing new still enjoyable. Placement of Venpaniye song reminds us of Nenje Nenje song in Ayan. Gala Gala song was an unwanted one. Aga Naga had cameo appearances by Suriya, Karthi, Jeyam Ravi, Bharath, Jai, Shiva, Tamanna...Amali Thumali song had nice locations. Venpaniye song was badly picturised with graphics background. BGM was good.

Technical
Cinematography by Richard.M.Nathan was superb. Anthony once again proved that he's the best editor in Tamil Cinema. Art direction too was good. Peter Hein did a commendable job in action direction.

Script & Direction
Script was done by Subha & director K.V.Anand together. Basic storyline has slight similarity with hollywood flick STATE OF PLAY. The framework of the script is similar to same team's previous movie AYAN. Only the basic plot changes. The movie had an engaging script focussing the press people, media, politics, youngsters.... Everything was blended well in an interestng manner. There are no surprise twists for audiences as it is predictable for an average cinema goer. The final two scenes of the movie was superb & it showed the press people's commitment towards the society. The second half of the movie should have some more interesting with thrilling happenings. Gala Gala song would have been avoided in second half as it looks unwanted & acts as speedbreaker. It is the direction by K.V.Anand which makes the movie much more interesting. K.V.Anand the former photojournalist presented the press related stuffs in convinving & realistic manner. Direction was racy & superb.

REELISM + REALISM = KO

Verdict : An interesting movie
BO Verdict : HIT

If compared with AYAN, KO is below only. Its the theme & presentation of the movie that makes the movie interesting.

Like for AYAN, you can carry your brain with you when going for this movie too, as it gives answers for many of your logic related questions.

One interesting scene I found is director question the logic of his previous film AYAN. Characters in this movie talks like a smuggler does his work well & in the end he gets job in Custom's department & the movie got 4 star rating.

CHINA TOWN

2011-04-14T22:49:00.008+05:30

CHINA TOWN

Theatre : TVM Kairali
Showtime & Date : 6.25pm, 14-04-2011
Status : Balcony Full, FC 99%

After CHRISTIAN BROTHERS, another multistarrer, that too which comes on the LABEL of comedy on vacation season, CHINA TOWN entertains the audience in a very few scenes only.

Story
Story is a mix of 80's Hindi movies & hollywood flick THE HANGOVER.
Xavier(Mohanlal), Jayakrishnan(Shanavas), Shankar & Wilson Gomez(Captain Raju) runs a 4 star casino in GOA in 1986. All except Gomez & the kids of all other three gets killed by baddie played by Pradeep Rawat(Ghajini fame). After 25 years, Gomez returns to GOA with his daughter Emily(Poonam Bawja). He brings together the sons of his friends to handover his casino. All three - Maathukkutty(Mohanlal again) was a goon and now he's in the path of peace because of Rosamma(Kavya Madhavan), Zackariah(Jayaram) who is in run for money to rescue his mother & Binoy(Dileep) who is a failed romeo in every six months. Wilson brings all three & asks them to takeover the management of Casino. Things change when villain realises them. Rest is the story of HANGOVER mixed in a bad way & movie ends in routine mass fight.

Performances
There are no show stealers in this movie, only scene stealers at times.
Mohanlal as Xavier was good in looks of 80s with no dialogues. Mohanlal as Maathukkutty failed to evoke any laughter as the character was not a well developed & script didn't provide him to perform anything other than routine action sequences & the very same drunk guy in RafiMecarti's movie HALLO. Except a very few expressions, nothing special. At times you may find artificiality in his acting like he's trying hard to make audience laugh. Also his makeup was bad at parts & looks so fat, especially in first action sequence. Action reminded me final scene of Mohanlal in ChottaMumbai. Introduction scene was bad and the dupe was not a matching one for Mohanlal. Jayaram as Zackariah was safe in his hands. He did well with ease & his mimicry background helped him a lot. He steals the scene in which he imitates actor UMMAR, TERRIFIC APPLAUSE was there for that scene. Also his SureshGopi act in jail scene too. Dileep as Binoy had a good start & he maintained it upto interval though went overboard at may parts. But in second half, he couldn't evoke any laughter.

If someone ask you who is the best dancer in the movie, you can blindly say it's SURAJ VENJARAMMOOD. He impresses us with his dance steps in "Aaranu koottu" song in second half eventhough Mohanlal, Jayaram & Dileep were there. Also his single step with Kavya & Poonam in "Innu Penninu" song.
Suraj as CV(Chandran Valavil) a wannabe DON tries his best to make us laugh. About 60% of that works.

Captain Raju as Wilson looks wooden & Pradeep Rawat was wasted. A sumo guy of 257 kg wwight, D'souza Libore was also introduced, may be to include in posters to attract children. PLEASE... our next generation kids are not so innocent or too liitle kids as we think to laugh at these kind of baffoonery. Kavya Madhavan, Poonam Bawja & newcomer Dipasha were there for namesake-songs & 5-6 scenes. Shankar, Shanavas, AppaHaja were wasted.

Jagathy Sreekumar in his cameo was impressive. He never looked so young in any of his recent movies. His looks reminded me of his role in THOOVANATHUMBIKAL.

Songs
Music by Jassie Gift had done justice as the music mixes well with the festive mood(as claimned by the team). Arikil Ninnalum song was good, but picturised badly & was a speedbreaker. All other songs were unnecesary. BGM by Rajamani really disappoints.

Technical
Everything as usual for a mass masala movie. Art director BOBAN needs special mention. Action was usual only.

Script & Direction
As I said, script by RafiMecartin was a mix of 80's hindi movie-kids after 25 years returns to seek revenge for killing their parents & last year's hollywood comedy flick THE HANGOVER. Problem was both were mixed in a bad way. First half had a good start & once the lead characters reaches Goa, script takes a break & ends up as a skit & once villain finds them again movi comes back to track. In between a so-called lovetrackand confusion making us remember Thenkasippattanam was also included with a song. Interval punch was like in Dharani's Vikram starrer DHOOL like hero threatening villain. But second half was horrible with HALLO mixed with THE HANGOVER. Actors & scriptwriters were totally out of idea what to do & what had happened. Somehow in between movie comes back to its track & slips to unwanted sentiments, misunderstandings & a mass fight where hero wins. Climax reminded me the climax of CHOTTA MUMBAI. Why Asianet's popular programme IDEA STAR SINGER participants & Ranjini was included in a scene to start a song, HORRIBLE. A scene from VINAYAN's Dileep-Jagathy starrer ANURAGAKOTTARAM was lifted as such and used here which fails to create any laughs. Directon was not upto the mark. SHAFI was the best person to direct this movie. Many scenes lacked punch though it had element to make thrilled. In second half, no elements of revenge were there though the hero threatens villain in Interval. The lead characters were like they are not at all interested in any kind of revenge games.It is the editor who saved the movie at many parts I think, especially climax fight was included with final title cards which were clear baffoonery. Next time concentrate on script & better give direction department to Shafi.

Verdict : Average, at max
BO Verdict : In a state where movies like POKKIRIRAJA becoming superhit, this one too will enter the safe side as there are no big opponents on BoxOffice & movie comes with the label of COMEDY in vacation season.

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS was a SUPERB ENTERTAINER compared to this eventhough predictable.

At times we may think is this the same Mohanlal who was back in form like in 90s about a month ago telling NJAN CHAADUM SIR in CHRISTIAN BROTHERS trying hard to make us laugh by simply screaming at other characters in the movie. The answer I got is JOSHIY sir, I think that explains EVERYTHING

AUGUST 15

2011-03-24T22:20:00.001+05:30

AUGUST 15

Theatre : TVM Dhanya

Showtime & Date : 6.15 pm, 24-03-2011

Status :Balcony FULL, FC not more than 35 people

In 1988, AUGUST 1..? by SIBIMALAYIL-S.N.Swamy team released with somewhat fresh theme at that time - an engaging thriller in which there was no suspense element to be revealed at the climax. The movie was a flop I think. The theme of the movie was a group of people plans to kill the Chief Minister(Sukumaran) of the state through a professional killer & an efficient police officer Perumaal(Mammootty) to safeguard him.

22 years later S.N.Swamy recreates the same situation with the current political scenario & this time too Perumal enters the scene to safeguard the Chief Minister. In my opinion, this movie is not a sequel, but a remake of the original with changes.

Story

Story is same as that of August 1..? as mentioned above with changes to suit with 2011 social & political developments.

Performances

Mammootty as Perumal had nothing much to do other than roaming in his bullet vehicle, a set of scenes with chief minister & senior officers. Siddhique as professional killer was nothing special. If compared to Captain Raju's character in the original, Siddhique's nowhere. Lalu Alex, Jagathy Sreekumar, Saikumar, Nedumudi Venu, Krishna, Renjith, Chalipala, Kiran, Johny, Balachandran Chullikkadu, Harisree Ashokan....many were there with nothing to do roles. Why Madhu was invited for such a small role? Shwetha Menon & Meghna(Yakshiyum Njanum fame) were there as unwanted female characters with nothing to do in the story's proceedings.

Songs & BGM

After watching the promo song by Shaan, I was disappointed. Is this the same Shaan who rocked with Shaji Kailas in THE TIGER & CHINTHAMANI KOLACASE???

BGM by Rajamani was loud and the remix version of classic theme music by SHYAM was used everywhere in the movie making the audience start hating that. The BGM used for Captain Raju in the original was missing here.

Technical
Prashanth Nair's cinematography was Ok only. Editing too.

Script & Direction

S.N.Swamy is disappointing us for last few years with movies like Sagar alias Jacky. The only better outing from him in recent times was JANAKAN. He just tried to modify his own original script to suit the current changes in technology. Ofcoure he updated himself this time by explaining the opening sequence with something happened in overeseas. But failed to present it effectively through screenplay. The problem with the script was in the original the process of how a genuine politician becoming chiefminister & how he became a problem for the villain group & how they planned to kill was there. Also Perumal character enters the scene & story unwraps through the journalist character played by Sreenath. Here everything starts from the post interval portion of the original. Also S.N.Swamy tried his own dummy game in CBI series here too. And how Perumal finds Siddhique's real face was funny. Check Swamy's brilliant way of that sequence in the very same team's movie THE TRUTH. Dialogues were very funny at times. To cite an example, Mammootty saying "കാക്കിവേഷത്തില് എനിക്കെന്നെത്തന്നെ കണ്ടൂട". Also Johny in villain team says a dialogue with modulation as if a boy talks to his lover like "കണ്ണടച്ചാല് policente മുഖമാ". Also there was a suspense in the climax which the audience knw who was the real villain from the first frame onwards was also there.

It's the direction by Shaji Kailas which makes the movie watchable. First half was en engaging one. But second half was totally out of track. With an unwanted badly made chasing & accident sequence with graphics spoils the show. Shaji Kailas avoided his usual team & takings but without a proper script he can't change or do anything. The fire brand show from Shaji Kails was missing

Overall an engaging first half & a bad second half with a highly predictable unwanted suspens revealing scene.

Verdict : If you have somefree time, nothing else to watch on theatres & Television, then take a look

BO Verdict : FLOP

I think Perumal was not affected by the petrol price hike. He was roaming in his bullet throughout the movie, don't know what for.

In August 1..? coling glass was used by Perumal in climax sequence only, here throughout the movie he's using that.

SHAJI KAILAS is the only director who attained a stardom among directors in my opinion. After NARASIMHAM in 2000, none of his movies had performed well meeting audience's expectations except CHINTHAMANI KOLACASE & THE TIGER.

SOUND OF BOOT, BABA KALYANI, NATTURAJAVU, THANDAVAM, DRONA, THE DON...Shaji Sir, please concentrate on script.Don't just direct a movie just because u got the dates of a star. Please understand script is the base of a movie.

So as shown in posters, HISTORY REPEATS. Both AUGUST 1..? & AUGUST 15 failed at BoxOffice

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

2011-03-20T22:45:00.001+05:30

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS

Theatre : TVM Sreekumar
Showtime & Date : 5.45pm, 20-03-2011
Status : Housefull

For the first time I have seen a movie with 2 censor board certificates as CHRISTIAN BROTHERS & CHRISTI AN BROTHERS for both halves of the movie. Hypes were sky-high as the movie was a multistarrer by Joshi-Udayakrishna-Sibi.K.Thomas team after the mega blockbuster mass masala entertainer Twenty-20. This time too, the team has come up with a somewhat same genre one, but not that impressive one.

Story
Kunnel family featuring Kumaran Thampy(Vijayaraghavan), his sons played by Parunthu Jayan, Hariharan Thampi(Bijumenon) who is Asst Commissioner of Police & son-in-law played by Subair- kills village Thahasildar played by Jagathy Sreekumar who is the brother of Varghese Mapla(Saikumar), an ex-service man, for not helping them for illegal land activities. Varghese has 4 children-Christy(Mohanlal), Joji(Dileep), Lakshmi Gopalaswamy & Kanika. Joji who went to Italy to become a priest falls in love with Kavya Madhavan, who is the daughter of Home Minister(Devan). Kavya gets kidnapped & Devan seeks Christy's help to retain her. Christy is now a highly paid police informer in Mumbai after he was asked to leave from home by his father. Christy saves her. Later police corners him as a murderer. Though he escapes in first attempt, later Joseph Vadakkan(Suresh Gopi) traps him. Then enters Andrews Bandra(Sarath Kumar) to kill Chrsity. Rest is a cat & mouse game laced with family sentiments in between.

Performances
Mohanlal as Christy was an action role for him after a long time. He performed well what he was given & in some scenes we can see Mohanlal in late 80's, especially in scene in which he says "Njan chaadum Sir". Other than this scene & some light moments in between, he is just for punchlines & action sequences. First half belongs to him. In second half, he got sidelined eventhough his character has got some punchlines, fights & emotional sequences. Those ended up as cliches. Dileep was wasted. He has got very few scenes in the movie. In first half, he was just okay & in second half, he had a few scenes. SarathKumar in cameo was also wasted in a not so well developed character with very scenes. He would have effectively used in action sequences especially in climax. Saikumar, Jagathy Sreekumar, Anoop Chandran, Devan, Santhosh Jogi, Kalabhavan Shajone, Suresh Krishna.....had nothing much to perform. Suraj & Salimkumar failed to evoke any laughter. Vijayaraghavan, Bijumenon, Parunthu Jayan, Subair plays routine vllains, nothing special. All of them were not a perfect match for the heroes.

We miss SPADIKAM GEORGE here who was a perfect villain for Mohanlal & SureshGopi.

All the heroines were just to add star value. Kavya Madhavan had a song in which she looks fat & few scenes like Shreya did in PokkiriRaja. Lakshmi Gopalasamy was usual. Lakshmi Rai was for skin show I think. With a single dialogue & 2 songs she offers nothing other than glamour show. We can see Lakshmi Rai as topic of VANVEEZHCHAKAL programme in Asianet News soon if she is planning to do similar role in another 5 movies.

Kanika was the best among the female leads. She did her part well.

The real show stealer was SURESH GOPI as Superindentent of Police-Joseph Vadakkan. He got the role with various dimensions. Though the script makes him fail in first half, in second half he simply scored-especially scenes with Kanika, SORRY-THANK YOU sequence & all.

Songs
Songs were tad above average eventhough lyrics were bad. Picturisation of all three were below average. Sayyave song was an unwanted one in the movie. BGM was loud at parts & not that impressive.

Technical
Technical side offers nothing new other than what we have seen in similar flicks of same genre.

Script & Direction
Script by Udayakrishna-Sibi.K.Thomas had nothing new to offer. It's a rehash of what the duo had done before. But did a commendable job in making the story into a multistarrer. The script works till the PokkiriRaja climax sequence included here. After that script had no idea how to proceed I think. Climax was horrible - an action sequence where heroes kill villains who will be there in a single place in between things to get exploded & to be broken into pieces. The best scene & best dialogues in the movie was in SureshGopi-Kanika scenes though it reminded me SureshGopi-Samvrutha Sunil scenes in movie Vairam. The dialogues in which both scores saying like I expected Thanks & I expected Sorry was surprisingly refrehing one in the movie. At that point I just thought whether I was watching a movie by VASANTH or GAUTHAM MENON. The so called twists were not that impressive & movie proceeds in very much predictable way. Its the multistarrer label which makes the movie works. Direction by Joshiy was racy in first half, but second half drags a bit compared to first half. Climax was a big letdown. Joshiy is the only director in malayalam cinema who updates himself with current trend, but the making of this one lacks freshness to make audience feel something fresh. The movie proceeds as a 90s movie only other than camera & editing gimmicks.

Overall a not so well made mass masala entertainer

Verdict : Strictly a one time watch

BO Verdict : Considering the budget, I dont think it'll cover the production cost.

It'll be the primary choice now for movie goers as there are no big opponents & movie entertains to an extent.

Movie is treat for Mohanlal fans as the actor returns to a mass hero role delivering punch lines.

If a person watch the DVD of the movie I'm sure he'll finish watching this 2hr 55 min movie in less than an hour & 15 minutes.

TRAFFIC

2011-03-06T21:09:00.002+05:30

TRAFFIC

Theatre : TVM Dhanya

Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 06-03-2011

Status : Balcony Full, FC 50%+

Watched this movie 5th time in the same theatre.

Even after pirated prints became available on pirated cd markets & on internet, I was happy to see this much audience for this great movie on its 59th day too.

People who are out there, yet to watch this movie, please do watch it in theatres or wait for its original DVDs and CDs to release. This movie is a must watch in theatre, if you want to know why, WATCH THE MOVIE

My 4 reviews of TRAFFIC CLICK HERE

RACE

2011-02-12T14:46:00.001+05:30

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

2011-02-10T18:22:00.001+05:30

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.

TRAFFIC

2011-01-26T22:24:00.004+05:30

TRAFFIC

Watched the movie for the fourth time

IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO SAY ABOUT TRAFFIC????

READ ALL THE THREE REVIEWS ABOUT TRAFFIC I POSTED.

Theatre : TVM Dhanya

Showtime & Date : 6.20pm, 26-01-2011

Status : HOUSEFULL

AND FOR YOU READERS, I'M CONDUCTING A SMALL QUIZ ABOUT TRAFFIC.

ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE ONLY CAN ANSWER.

WHATS THE NAME OF CHARACTERS PLAYED BY SAIKUMAR & LENA IN THE MOVIE TRAFFIC?

PLEASE POST YOUR ANSWERS AS COMMENTS

TRAFFIC

2011-01-13T13:52:00.005+05:30

TRAFFIC

What shall I do?

Saw the movie third time in a week after the release.

What a BRILLIANT execution of an EXCELLENT script in a new way.

Theatre : TVM Dhanya

Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 12-01-2011

Status : Balcony Full, FC 55-60%

Story

Already said, I won't tell u, go and watch the movie.

Performances

Read this http://vpn-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/01/traffic_10.html

Songs & BGM

Songs by Mejjo Joseph & Samson Kottoor matches the mood of the movie. Samson Kottoor's song, the one used in the climax was SUPERB which matches very well with the thrill in the scenes.

Mejjo Joseph scores very well in BGM department with a very nice theme music.

Mejjo, why u copied KRRISH music in first half, a few minutes before interval?

Technical

Debutant cinematographer Shyju Khalid was impressive with nice shots especially traffic signal shots and some fast racy shots both inside & outside of the van, avoiding cliche scenes.

Mahesh Narayanan, the editor of this movie is another DIRECTOR of the movie. Awesome Cuts. A movie like this was managed brilliantly with impressive editing of all the episodes. Finally, like Antony in Tamil Cinema, we have a Mahesh Narayanan.

Art Direction by SabuRam was Superb, especially the traffic signal & buildings there.

Another person who needs a special mention is costume designer S.B.Satheeshan. Costumes were very natural for the actors playing different characters and good colour combination which looks very natural.

Script & Direction

No other scripts in recent times was this strong, giving an identity to each and every character. An original script inspired from a true incident. Bobby & Sanjay had done a great work. Dialogues were classy.

Director Rajesh Pillai took the script to the next level giving audience a new feeling on screen. BRILLIANT work. U avoided every sort of cliche scenes and shots which would have been there if approached the script in a very usual manner. U gave a new experience to malayalam cinema audience. THANKS

VERDICT : WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? RUSH TO THE NEAREST THEATRE PLAYING TRAFFIC MOVIE

BO VERDICT : WE AUDIENCE ARE THERE FOR THIS MOVIE

IF THIS MOVIE BECOMES A FLOP, MALAYALAM CINEMA INDUSTRY SHOULD STOP MAKING MOVIES AS OUR AUDIENCE DON'T KNOW WHAT IS A GOOD CINEMA, A PERFECT ONE.

TRAFFIC

2011-01-10T16:18:00.010+05:30

TRAFFIC

Went for TRAFFIC, second time

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 08-01-2011
Status : Balcony Full, FC 60%

A movie which is forcing me to watch in theatres again and again .
Factors are many - Brilliant Script, exceptional narrative style & excellent direction, Brilliant Natural performances, Classy Technical part....

Story
If u want to enjoy the movie, don't read anything regarding story in any of the reviews u come across.

Performances
Felt a few more things while watching second time

Sreenivasan as traffic police constable Sudevan
Sreenivasan is the routine actor for directors who think something different or something new. As usual, he did his part well.

Kunchacko Boban as Dr.Abel Tharyan
Natural performance of a flawed character in a brilliant way. Very few dialogues were there. More importance for his looks & expressions which conveyed everything to the audience. Be it his smile to Asif Ali inside the van or how he message from his mobile after looking at others or his entry to hospital just before the mission, nothing but Excellent. VILLAINISM was done very well in a natural way. Also in the climax Bilal Colony sequence, he was good with some nice thrilling moments. Also the fight in second half was a natural one without cinematic gimmicks.

Anoop Menon as commissioner Ajmal Nassar
While walking we can see Mammootty in him
While acting we can see Mohanlal in him
If the role is something like an angry character, we can see SureshGopi's expressions in him
Atlast he did it, though traces of all above said comes in parts, he did his part well with high energy and good screen presence.He was natural when mission starts, especially, when wireless lost connection, his dialogue "u chk it, chk it."
Finally Anoop Menon behaved as a character, AJMAL NASSAR, keep doing these.

Asif Ali as Rajeev
Asif did the role of a true friend well especially in the Bilal colony sequence showing like he'll do anything for his friend Rayhan. His voice modulation needs to be improved. He spoiled a good scene with Sandhya with bad performance.

Vineeth Sreenivasan as Rayhan
Vineeth Sreenivasan was there in very few scenes only but made his mark and his presence was there throughout the movie. He did his part well.

Rahman as superstar Siddharth
This is the character which Rahman as an actor shines well in his third innings. As superstar Siddharth with head-weight, he simply scored in an interview scene in first half. At times, audience may feel like whether he's imitating Mammootty by wearing sunglasses, makeup in between, arrogant nature & driving car by himself.

Saikumar as Rayhan's father
Natural performance at its best, be it the hospital sequence talking to collector or calling his friends to watch his son's TV programme or asking his wife " Shall we go for a drive". Crying while driving the car, SMART PERFORMANCE!!!

Rony as journalist
Rony as journalist in Asianet was natural, nice work!!!

Vijayakumar as Mathew
Vijayakumar's role of Superstar Siddharth's right-hand Mathew may reminds us Antony Perumbavur or Anto Joseph, JUST JOKING!!!

Baiju Ezhupunna as Thanseer
With two dialogues and climax song sequence, he rocked especially the scene in which he blocks school children and clearing roads.

Krishna as Jicku
Krishna was there in a few scenes but did his character well.

Lena

As the mother of a ill-daughter, she simply scored especially in second half, Good Performance!!!

Sandhya as Adhithi
Sandhya got a nice role, she did it well in the beginning. After a few scenes, emotions were not that deeply presented.

Roma as Miriyam
Roma comes only in second half. She had a very few scenes & was very natural in performance. This role is an escape from her routine roles, what movies like Notebook & Chocolate gave her.

Remya Nambeeshan as Shwetha
Nothing much to do. Did her part well, especially the accident scene in second half without dupe, good work.

Namitha Prasad
Namitha, a debutant, as Siddharth's daughter had nothing much to perform. In the interview sequence and in opening scene she had some good moments.

Reena Basheer
As a middle class govt employee and wife of Sudevan's character , she nicely potrayed her role.

Jose Prakash in cameo as Dr.Simon D'souza
What to say, with brilliant dialogues and screen presence, he starts the game. Impressive effective cameo.

U won't find any unnecessary character in the movie.

VERDICT : We can watch the movie atleast once for these performances alone

TRAFFIC

2011-01-07T13:48:00.020+05:30

TRAFFIC

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 11.15am, 07-01-2011
Status : Balcony Almost full, FC 50-60%

After a not so impressive debut with Kunchacko Boban starrer HRUDAYATHIL SOOKSHIKKAN, director Rajesh.R.Pillai is back in tinsel town with his new movie TRAFFIC scripted by Bobby-Sanjay team, a perfect pathbreaking, original, first of its kind in malayalam cinema.

Story
The story revolves around 4 main characters - constable Sudevan(Sreenivasan), Dr.Abel Tharyan(Kunchacko Boban), journalist Rayhan(Vineeth Sreenivasan), superstar Siddharth(Rahman) and their families & friends. It's an emotional thriller. Watch the movie to enjoy to its core.

Performances
All were equally important characters. That was the beauty of the script.

Kunchacko Boban steals the show. He got the most emotional character. He did it very well. In second half he simply rocked. Sreenivasan was perfect. Vineeth Sreenivasan had nothing much to do. Asif Ali scored in the second half song scenes, but voice modulation needs to be improved which spoiled a good sequence with Sandhya where he was too dramatic. Anoop Menon was good. Rahman as superstar Siddharth was original and did it well, especially interview scene with Rony. Ramya Nambeeshan, Krishna, Roma, Sandhya, Sai Kumar, Rony, Lena all did well. Nivin Polly with single dialogue could not make any impact.

Baiju Ezhupunna as a fans association member simply rocked in the climax Bilal Colony sequence.

Jose Prakash in his cameo in two scenes scored with his dialogues.

Songs
Two songs by Mejo Joseph were apt and nicely picturised. BGM was superb. In the first half unnecessarily BGM of Hrithik Roshan starrer KRRISH was used. That could have been avoided.

Technical
Everything was perfect. No negatives.

Script & Direction
Script by Bobby-Sanjay team was excellent. HATS OFF!!!! The script was simply original and every character had individuality and a fast paced one. Nothing more to say EXCELLENT!!!

Direction by Rajesh.R.Pillai was SUPERB. Hardwork done by him was seen in each and every frame avoiding cliche scenes, even camera angles seems new.The climax episode, a Bilal colony sequence was very well taken.

Where were you these many years director & script writers????

Producer Listin Stephen should be congratulated for his brave attempt to produce this movie.

Altogether a very good first half, a double superb second half

Verdict : A must watch, Go for it.

Excellent pathbreaking first of its kind in malayalam cinema
Don't miss it. Watch it in theatres.

BO Verdict : Sure HIT

The whole crew promised an emotional thriller. They gave that with double effect.

It was not only the characters on screen, but the people watching the movie were also part of the mission in the movie. The applause from beginning to end for those shows that.

When final title card appears like "A Rajesh Pillai film" whole theatre applauded.

There was a scene in which Sreenivasan's daughter watching a song from movie Anwar on TV, KOOVAL FESTIVAL NADANNU Prithvirajne kaanichappol

MARYKKUNDORU KUNJADU

2010-12-30T22:09:00.008+05:30

MARYKKUNDORU KUNJADU

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 30-12-2010
Status : HOUSEFULL with 90% family audience
After Chattambinaadu, Shafi-Benny.P.Nayarambalam team is back with Marykkundoru Kunjaadu, a Dileep starrer after a long gap from Kalyanaraman.The movie is a routine one time enjoyable entertainer with some good lighter moments but nowhere near the humour situations compared to Chattambinaadu.

Story
Story happens in a village where christians are most. Solomon aka Kunjadu(Dileep) is a good for nothing coward person, son of Kapyar(Vijayaraghavan) and Mary(VinayaPrasad). He is in love with Mary(Bhavana), daughter of Ittichan(Innocent). Ittichan don't want his daughter to marry Solomon as Ittichan was the one who was supposed to marry Solomon's mother Mary. His daughter was named Mary because he still have that love towards her. Solomon always gets beaten by Mary's brothers played by Anand, Appa Haja & a newface. Then comes Jose(Biju Menon) to that village. Solomon makes Jose as his brother who left home 12 years before. Who is Jose? What exactly is his motive? Will Solomon marry Mary? The rest of the story answers these questions.

Performances
Dileep as Solomon aka Kunjaadu is nothing special for him. Though in the beginning, Dileep could make it somewhat different with some good lighter moments & expressions, once Biju Menon's character enters, Dileep's character changed to what he had done in his previous movies. Even traces of Chanthupottu & Chakkaramuthu were there. And the situations in the movie spoiled his show in second half.

The real show-stealer is Biju Menon as the mysterious character Jose. With limited dialogues, powerful screen presence & expressions, he simply stole the show.
Though the title of the movie had Mary in it, Bhavana was the one who is seen least in the movie. Another routine masala movie heroine role just for songs & 4 scenes.
Salimkumar, who used to be a show-stealer in Shafi movies(Remember Pulivaal Kalyanam, Chocolate, Mayavi, Chattambinaadu) fails here. He couldn't evoke much laughter. He did his emotional scene well.

VinayaPrasad looks too young to act as Dileep's mother. She performed well.
Innocent was good, Vijayaraghavan was perfect. Ponnamma Babu, Kochu Preman, Kalabhavan Shajon, Chalipala, Anand, Appa Haja.. were apt in their role.

Sad to see a great actor seems unutilised in such a role-I'm talking about JAGATHY SREEKUMAR. He did his part well as usual with finesse. If Jagathy-Ponnamma Babu episode was not there in second half, Shafi & Benny should have been blamed for bringing that actor to that role. Jagathy's expression while seeing Ponnamma Babu at church shows his acting range once again.

Songs
Music by Berny-Ignatious was below average. BGM by Bijipal was loud at times.

Technical
Stunts were good(thanks to BijuMenon's ease in doing action sequences). Cinematography by Shamdath was good at parts. Editing by Manoj was good. Art Direction was superb.

Script & Direction
Script by Benny.P.Nayarambalam was an engaging one with lighter moments at times. In the second half and towards the climax, script had traces of movies Pappy Appacha & MeeshaMadhavan. Also the emotional scene for Salimkumar seems unwanted for a movie like this. Script could have been better. Direction by Shafi was racy. he showed his finesse in taking action sequences & comic sequences this time too.

On the whole, a watchable entertainer with some light humour at parts. Don't expect a rollicking comedy entertainer like Happy Husbands.

Verdict : Above average
BO Verdict : Hit

Surprised to see 90% family audience in Anjali theatre. BEST ACTOR would have changed the mentality may be.

TOURNAMENT

2010-12-25T14:34:00.008+05:30

TOURNAMENT

Theatre : TVM SreePadmanabha
Showtime & Date : 11.13am, 25-12-2010
Status : Balcony Almost Full, FC 50%

Director Lal, as an independent director, after sequels of In Harihar Nagar, is back with new movie TOURNAMENT with comparitively newfaces & freshfaces in malayalam cinema in lead. The movie had a promising thread, but the paper ads & the intro about the movie by Lal before title cards spoils the whole show.

Story
Vishwanathan(Fahad Fazil aka Shanu), Balu(John Jacob, remember the dancer in the election song in Sakudumbam Shyamala) and Ummar(Praveen, a newface) got selected for APL cricket team selection from the club run by Siddhique. The selection was to be conducted at Banglore. Balu met with an accident. The other two with their friend Aswathi(Roopa Manjari of Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru fame) starts a road trip as their flight got cancelled along with another competitor Boby(Manu). The rest of the story is the betrayal by everyone to win the selection.

Performances
Shanu was cool and perfect as Vishwanathan. John Jacob as Balu has nothing much to perform. Also the fat guy, Praveen irritates us at times though good at some parts. Manu with Thrissur slang was the hero of the movie with nice expressions but not at all a hero material. Roopa Manjari offers nothing new. Newface Prajin was apt and Aryan was surprising.

Siddhique as usual made his mark eventhough he had just two scenes in the movie. Kochu Preman was superb while Bijukuttan was not upto the mark.

The real showstealer is SALIMKUMAR. Awesome performance with bad english, typical dialogues with his style and SILSILA song.

Indrans as a tribal person was horrible which evokes no laughter. Thesni Khan & Paravai Muniamma were wasted.

Songs
The real plus point of the movie were the songs by Deepak Dev. Good work!!! BGM by Alex Paul was not upto the mark.

Technical
Editing by V.Saajan was good. Cinematography by Venu was nice at parts. Art Director Prasanth Madhav did his part well.

Script & Direction
Lal handled both departments. Direction was above average. Storyline was good. But the screenplay lags in second half. Since the paperads & intro before the movie by Lal spoiled the whole show as the viewers were vigilant with each and every scene. That negligence by the viewers were the success point of his previous movies. Here he himself spoiled his work. Lal is rehashing the same formula he did in his last two movies, REPLAY everything to see exactly what happened. Here the problem is he starts his replay from the introduction of the lead actors itself. First half was an engaging one eventhough an unwanted action sequence was there. Salimkumar's character was a big plus point for the movie. Second half drags once the lead actors reaches a tribal area. Horrible sequences to make us laugh. Also traces of In Harihar Nagar godown sequences were there.

Overall, an engaging first half and a not so well made second half with expected twists.

Verdict : Strictly Average
BO Verdict : Does not deserve a HIT status, but LAL RELEASE will make it

Lal, you are beating around the bush. These kind of REPLAY sequences once again may not work at boxoffice.

Strong screenplay with innovative ideas only can make a change in Malayalam Cinema.
Rehashing of formulas always wont work.

FANS ASSOCIATION FLEX for John Jacob & Prajin were there in theatre premises. Many don't know who they are. John had a single song and 2 scenes. Prajin had 3 scenes, thats all.

Good Songs & Nice Marketing may help it to be in safe-side as the production cost is low

SAHASRAM

2010-12-19T19:05:00.009+05:30

SAHASRAM

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 2.25pm, 19-12-2010
Status : Balcony 60-70%, FC just 20 people

After an unimpressive directorial debut with Mahasamudram, Dr.S.Janardhanan is back with in tinseltown with his new movie SAHASRAM with SureshGopi in lead. The movie is a well-scripted one and to an extent well executed engaging suspense thriller with a dose of supernatural element.

Story
The whole story happens on the backdrop of a cinema shooting location. Story is not a great one. But how it unfolds through subplots and twists makes it interesting. So watch the movie.

Performances
VishnuSahasraNamam IPS was a cakewalk role for SureshGopi which he executed without the hangover of any other police roles played by him. Bala & Sandhya had performed well. Rest of the casts - Madhu, Jagathy Sreekumar, KochuPreman, Kottayam Nazeer, Sudheesh, Rizabava, Kollam Thulasi, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, V.K.Sreeraman, Indrans, Krishna, Kiran Raj were good in their respective supporting roles. Niyas(Remember the hero in Kshanakkathu) as SureshGopi's assistant was not that convincing. His big mustache and bad dubbing spoiled some scenes.

Songs
Music by M.Jayachandran was average only. BGM was ok only, but expected a much more thrilling one in a movie like this. BGM seems to be rehash.

Technical
Art Direction was superb. Editing by Mahesh Narayanan was apt. Cinematography by U.K.SenthilKumar was good. Finally a fire effect was neatly done in a malayalam movie in the climax scene.

Script & Direction
Dr.S.Janardhanan handled both departments. Story is a simple one but it is the screenplay which makes the movie an engaging one with twists and subplots. Visual cheating, usually seen in these kind of movies were absolutely absent here, Nice work. Though traces of bollywood flick Om Shanthi Om was seen, the whole execution makes movie enjoyable. Director presented SureshGopi in a police officer role without guns & fiery dialogues, but the seriousness was there with sharp dialogues which were tightly related to script. On the whole a nice work. The first few minutes were not so impressive. Other than that, I don't find any negatives.

Verdict : Well made suspense thriller
BO Verdict : Don't know, the verdict it deserves is a HIT

Hardwork done by Dr.S.Janardhanan was seen in screenplay. We can expect more tight scripted movies, whatever the genre, from him.

KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS

2010-11-19T17:25:00.006+05:30

KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS

Theatre : TVM New
Showtime & Date : 2.30pm, 19-11-2010
Status : Balcony 50%, FC 20-25%

After a long gap, director T.S.SureshBabu is back in tinseltown with his new movie KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS. This time he tries the new method of filmmaking which Prashanth Mambully introduced in malayalam with his debut film BHAGAWAN starring Mohanlal, shoot only limited scenes & make movie a lengthy one by showing it repeatedly.

Story
MohanShankar IPS(SureshGopi) is on leave after the failure of a mission. He leaves to Kanyakumari where his enemies got killed one by one. If someone who saw the movie, please post the story as comment. I didn't find anything like that.

Performances
SureshGopi as MohanShankar was usual. Babu Antony improved in voice modulation but his acting was wooden only. Jagathy was good. Bheeman Raghu was DGP was funny & good. Rest of the cast Shanavas, Baiju, Urmila Unni, Sarayu, KiranRaj, Krishna.......had nothing much to do. Heroine debutant Gowri was horrible.

Songs
Music by Sharath was horrible. SureshGopi sang the only song, so no comments. The song reminded me the end credits song of movie Bhagawan.

Technical
Everything was bad. Editing was very very bad. Donmax, we agree that u know a set of effects to edit the films. But make sure that you are using the techniques at the right movie & at the right scenes.

Script & Direction
Dennis Joseph was a promising name in yesteryears. His recent scripts proves one thing. The twists in his screenplay can be effectively presented onscreen by him only, remember Thudarkkadha & Appu. Direction NO COMMENTS. If you are planning to direct any more movies, please understand the script first.

Verdict : ESCAPE
BO Verdict : Super Flop

Whenever SureshGopi appeared as COP onscreen, the movie had a minimum entertainment guaranteed, atleast in some scenes.

But ithorumaathiri COP-le padamaayipoyi

BheemanRaghu acts as a la henchman police officer to Babu Antony's character. Don't know how Bheeman Raghu fans will tolerate this & how Babu Antony fans will celebrate this. But Bheeman Raghu was superb with his gestures & style.

SureshGopi was given a usual intro scene & Babu Antony was given an intro in which he gets down from a computer generated helicopter. But the best intro scene in the movie was for Bheeman Raghu as DGP opening the door of his car.

Movie started with title SUPERSTAR SURESHGOPI in&as ACTION KING BABU ANTONY & team in KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS

FOUR FRIENDS

2010-10-28T19:31:00.005+05:30

FOUR FRIENDS

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 2.30pm, 28-10-2010
Status : Balcony Full, FC 98%

Ater back to back hits, Ivar Vivahitharaayaal & Happy Husbands(one of the biggest hits of 2010), Saji Surendran-Krishna Poojappura-Anil Nair team is back with their new flick FO(U)R FRIENDS. I'll rate it as the disaster movie of 2010. Though movie had a promising team behind, nothing works on screen this time. CRAP MOVIE.

The positives I felt was
1. Kunchacko Boban's performance in the hospital scene in second half
2. Jayasuriya's oneliners in first half
3. Salimkumar's emotional scene
4. Suraj Venjarammood's dialogues, though repetitive

Story
So called story(which is missing here) revolves around 4 characters.
Roy(Jayaram), a multimillionaire and an orphan, Suriya(Kunchacko Boban), an MBA student, only son of Lalu Alex(Chackochan's onscreen father again after Niram & MummynMe) & Seema, Amir(Jayasuriya) an illiterate goon who will do anything for his sister & mother(Sukumari) & Gowri(Meera Jasmine), who too have an emotional flashback. All 4 are cancer patients & they meet at a cancer treatment centre run by GaneshKumar. All 4 become friends & they decides to enjoy life before they die. All 4 plans a trip to Malaysia to meet Vineetha(Sarayu), Suriya's lover.

Performances
Jayaram as Roy was a miscast and he looks too old for the role. Kunchacko Boban as Surya was apt. Though nothing special, the hospital scene in second half was a good one. Jayasuriya as Amir was also an apt casting. His oneliners were the only saving grace of the first half. Meera Jasmine as Gowri surprisingly didn't go over the board and she was ok in that role. Also she looked too young to be Jayaram's pair. Salimkumar had a senti scene which he did well, but none of the comedy scenes worked. Suraj Venjarammood was there with his trademark dialogues. Lalu Alex, Seema, Manikuttan, GaneshKumar, Sarayu were just OK.

Kamal Hassan in his cameo was unimpressive with lenghty unwanted documentary style of dialogues & his own experiences.

Songs
Music by M.Jayachandran was above average. BGM was too loud at many parts. Also using the remix of Sholay song "Yeh Dosthi" music for senti scenes were irritating.

Technical
Anil Nair's cinematography was good at parts. Editing, I won't say anything, because without a proper script what can be done by the editor with the scenes he got on his table. Art direction was good.

Script & Direction
After a hatrick, Krishna Poojappura fails in the script department. I doubt whether a script was there for this movie. The movie was a dull documentary style of one. Don't know why an unwanted action sequence was included in second half. Saji Surendran would have concentrated on script rather than locations, stills, costumes & song picturisation. A bad movie, that was never expected from this team. The sentiment scenes & comedies, nothing worked on screen. Tearjerker serials have much better script. Storyline was interesting. But without a proper screenplay & gripping dialogues, whats the use???

On the whole, a bad movie strictly recommended on TV, if you have no other movies on other channels.

Verdict : Escape
BO Verdict : Flop

Bodyguard, another disaster movie of this year was better compared to this.

People expected a fun-filled ride seeing stills & songs & starcast. People were laughing for senti scenes & crying for those crap scenes called comedy scenes.

ORIDATHORU POSTMAN

2010-10-08T18:28:00.024+05:30

ORIDATHORU POSTMAN

Theatre : TVM Kairali
Showtime & Date : 2.30pm, 08-10-2010
Status : Balcony Full, FC 60-70%

Shaji Aseez, one of the directors of Shakespeare M A Malayalam is becoming an independent director with new movie Oridathoru Postman scripted by K.GireeshKumar. The movie works well with the audience at many parts because of its packaging avoiding cliches, subjects it deal & an impressive starcast.

Story
Gangadharan(Innocent) is a lazy postman in Cherumkuzhy Village. He never delivers letters & money orders on time. His son Raghunandanan(Kunchacko Boban) is a very hardworking person who works as a PSC tutorial lecturer, real estate agent, LIC agent....His ambition is to become a govt employee. Once Gangadharan fails to deliver a hall ticket for Raghunandanan & this creates a separation between them which makes Gangadharan a responsible person. But that didn't last long. He got hospitalized & then Raghu came to know that his father was a heart patient. Gangadharan's last wish was to find his old friend Yaasin Mubaraq(SarathKumar) who is a wildlife photographer by profession, but mistaken as a terrorist by media & people. Gangadharan asks Raghu to find & give Yaasin the letters sent by his daughter. The rest of the story is whether Raghu finds Yaasin & the problems he face in his mission to find him.

Performances
Kunchacko Boban as Raghunandanan was simply superb. He's the backbone of the movie. His character was well-etched and presented well. He delivered a smart performance when he comes to know that Innocent's character passed away saying I have nothing with me to Kalabhavan Prajod. SMART PERFORMANCE!!!

SarathKumar as Yaasin Mubaraq was effective & fresh for the role. Innocent was regular. Salimkumar as lottery maniac was a caricature to many in the state, also IbrahimKutty. Kalabhavan Mani as Inspector Shahul Hameed delivered a decent performance. Suraj Venjarammood as constable Abhilash though reminds us of his character in Kunchacko Boban starrer GULUMAAL THE ESCAPE, he was given ample screenspace by script to evoke laughter which works on screen too.. Meera Nandan has nothing much to do. Rest of the characters by GaneshKumar, Shanavas, AnilMurali, Chembil Ashokan, Seema G Nair did their part well. Kalbhavan Prajod was impressive as lottery agent.

Songs
All the three songs by Mohan Sithara were situational ones, which works well with the mood of the movie. BGM was loud at many places & reused ones.

Technical
Cinematography by Anand Balakrishnan was impressive at many parts of the movie with nice visuals. Editing was apt. Art direcction was good.

Script & Direction
I will rate this as the best screenplay of K.GireeshKumar as it had no dull moments(screenplay wise). Also it had lots of social issues like terrorism, after effects of lottery in society, plastic & environment....The best thing was, all these were beautifully blended in the script. Usually movies dealing these subjects used to have dialogues with lots of advices. But here no such dialogues were there. Also characterisation of all were superb. Overall a nice work by K.GireeshKumar. Direction by Shaji Aseez was not so impressive. It had dull moments on screen. But many scenes were taken by avoiding lot of cliches like bomb blasts, public support sequences, dialogues to boost patriotism, advices, court scenes. Everything was executed in simple and clear manner. We can expect more good movies from this director if he improves handling scenes in m uch more effective & faster manner.
Usually these type of movies used to have a comic first half & a serious second half. But here comedy was there in both halves without disturbing the mood of the movie. All comedies were situational ones only.

Verdict : WATCHABLE AVERAGE ONE
BO Verdict : Average - flop

Good marketing might help this movie to be a big success.

ENDHIRAN the ROBOT

2010-10-01T19:29:00.006+05:30

ENDHIRAN the ROBOT

Theatre : TVM Ajantha
Showtime & Date : 1.20pm, 01-10-2010
Status : Balcony Full, FC 99%

Director Shankar's ENDHIRAN the ROBOT starring Rajnikanth, which were on news for a long time had finally hit the screens. But don't expect a usual Rajnikanth film here. The movie doesn't live upto the hype created by the makers.

Story
Vaseegaran(Rajnikanth) is a scientist who is working on robotics for 10 years to complete his dream of a ROBOT which can be used by the Indian Army in the warfield. Finally he succeeds in that. The Robot is named Chitty(Rajnikanth again). As in every superhero movie, here also a set of such events like helping the needy is there. But one such incident make Vaseegaran think to give Chitty human emotions so that he can behave according to situation. Sana(Aiswarya Rai) is in love with Vaseegaran. Once Chitty gets human emotions, it falls in love with Sana. Knowing this Vaseegaran destroys Chitty. Vaseegaran's professor is envious of Vaseegaran's work. He helps Chitty to get back into old form to get the technical knowhow of the robot so that he can use that for illegal matters. He programs Chitty with new code of destruction. Chitty abducts Sana to marry her. The rest of the story is how Vaseegaran wins over the robots.

Performances
Rajnikanth as Vaseegaran & Chitty had done justice to his role. Rajnikanth's Vaseegaran character has nothing much to do. But the character Chitty had many shades. In the beginning of the movie, he is clearly a robot. Then it changes to a normal human like one & in second half, the character clearly becomes a villain. At points he was boring, looks too. Aiswarya Rai as Sana has nothing much to do other than routine stuff, Songs, some romantic seq & some scenes. Make up was bad for her at many places. Rest of the characters were just cameo only. Santhanam, Karunas, Cochin Haneefa, Kalabhavan Mani, none of them could evoke a good laughter.

Songs
Music was the biggest plus point of Shankar movies till Sivaji. A.R.Rehman disappoints big this time. Music is a big letdown here, not even a single hummable song. Picturisation of all songs were not at all impressive, very routine tamil film song stuff, what extra is the robot costumes for dance troupe members. Not even good for a second time watch. Songs were misplaced ones. BGM too disappoints.

Technical
Cinematography was good. Editing by Anthony is OK only while considered from the film's flow viewpoint. Otherwise he had done a great job as many scenes were having a lot of CG(Computer Graphics). Second half needs trimming. Art direction was excellent.

Shankar's interest to introduce new technologies was clearly seen in this movie. As per reports, he had used Animatronics & other latest stuffs for CG work. In the first half, it works well. In the second half, it feels repeated & overdone. After spending lots of money for CG, still the scene where a building in fire has been done very badly.

Script & Direction
Shankar who did the script of the movie in late 90s itself(Shankar then planned the movie with Kamal Hassan & Preity Zinta & later Shahrukh Khan, both didn't happen) seems to be inspired from hollywood flicks Terminator Series, Bicentennial Man, Godzilla, i-Robot, The Mask at many parts & Shahrukh Khan's DARR in second half's basic plot. Though engaging, it is presented with routine masala stuff like hero helping the needy, saving heroine from goons, falling in love with another person's girlfriend & stuffs like that. Unnecessary songs were another negative. Dialogues by Sujatha, Shankar & Karky were good at first half. First half was an engaging one though masala stuff. But second half was a technical show but sadly the poor screenplay & weak plot makes it boring. Also the technical stuff shown were a bit over the board at many parts. Even the robot Rajnikanth, walks & talks like a normal Rajnikanth in Padayappa or Baasha may be be liken by Rajni fans, but for normal viewers it's too illogical. As a fantasy movie it works to an extent. Shankar's routine stuff- a court scene was there in this one's climax too.

Overall an engaging first half, boring & lengthy second half.

Verdict : Srictly a one time watch
BO Verdict : Considering the budget of the movie, it won't end up as a profit maker.

Shankar would have concentrated on script than in technical stuffs. All the technical stuff will work only on a solid screenplay only. MAGADHEERA is a good example I can say. Good CG works which suits well with what the script demands.

BOSS ENGIRA BHASKARAN

2010-09-26T22:06:00.014+05:30

Boss Engira Bhaskaran

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 26-09-2010
Status : Balcony : Almost full, FC 45-50%

Rajesh.M who delivered a box office hit with Siva Manasula Shakthi(SMS) is back with his new film Boss Engira Bhaskaran or Boss (A) Bhaskaran featuring Arya in title role.

Story
Boss aka Bhaskaran(arya) is a jobless youth yet to complete his degree arrear papers. His family consists of his elder brother a vetenary doctor, who is upset of not getting married, a sister who always talks as if she is a TV anchor & a temple crazy mother. Boss spends most of his time with his friend Nallathambi(Santhanam) who runs Thala-Thalapathy Saloon. Boss meets Chandrika(Nayantara) who is a trainee lecturer. Boss's brother's marriage happens with Chandrika's sister. Boss expresses his desire to marry Chandrika to her sister. She asks him to be responsible first & then think of marrying Chandrika. In anger, he leaves home to be successful in life. Whether he succeeds in life and how & whether he marries Chandrika is the rest of story.

Performances
Arya as Boss aka Bhaskaran was a role for him to explore his comic side, but sad to say he succeeded in parts only. Nayanthara as Chandrika has nothing much to do other than a routine Tamil movie heroine, just songs & few scenes. Santhanam as NallaThambi simply rocked with his oneliners. He got more screen space in many scenes. But at few parts he was boring. The guy who acted as Arya's brother was refreshing one on screen. He was excellent in first half with good expressions & superb dialogue delivery. Rest of the artists did their part well.

This time it's Jeeva's turn to do cameo appearance. Remember Rajesh.M's Siva Manasula Shakthi with Jeeva in lead had Arya in cameo. Though for very few minutes only he appeared on screen, he proved his comic timing, which the whole movie demanded from Arya.

Songs
Yuvan Shankar Raja remixes his tunes once again. "Yar Antha Ponthaan" is the pick of the lot. Except that song & first song "Boss Boss", rest of the songs acted as speedbreakers. Picturisation too lacks creativity.BGM was disappointing.

Technical
Cinematography was good at parts. Editing was good in first half, but needs trimming in second half. Art direction was apt.

Script & Direction
Rajesh.M handled both departments. Script by Rajesh.M is on the lines of Siva Manasula Shakthi only, a fast entertainer with light comedies in each and every scene. This time Rajesh tries Venkat Prabhu track too - spoofing situations of old hit films & songs & dialogues in the proceedings. First half was a good one with never a dull moment & the execution also was good. In the second half, the proceedings happens only in snail pace compared to the pace of first half. Also its too predictable once a particular situation is presented before the viewer. Second half needs immediate trimming as the length of the movie exceeds 2.5hrs and second half drags in parts. Direction by Rajesh was nothing special. He executed his script in a normal way only. Also he uses the cliche scenes which we have seen in many films to present it as comic situations in this movie.

On the whole a good first half, tad above average second half.

Verdict : Above Average Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : Already a HIT, may become SuperHit as families will enjoy this clean movie.

In my opinion Jeeva was the best person for the role of Boss. Comic timing of Jeeva was superb in SMS. In climax portion once Jeeva starts his play, Arya got sidelined.

ELSAMMA ENNA AANKUTTY

2010-09-10T14:07:00.007+05:30

ELSAMMA ENNA AANKUTTY

Theatre : TVM SreePadmanabha
Status : 50%
Showtime & Date : 10.20am, 10-09-10

LalJose's new movie ELSAMMA enna AANKUTTY is not as good as it was expected. But the movie is watchable because of LalJose's making and performances of Kunchacko Boban & Nedumudi Venu.

Story
Story happens in Balanpilla city. Elsamma(Ann Augustine) is the eldest among 4 daughters of KPAC Lalitha. After her father's death, she started working as a newspaper agent/ local reporter for her sisters. Paalunni(Kunchacko Boban) is a milkman and close friend of Elsamma who never revealed his love towards her. Kunnel Pappan's(Nedumudi Venu) close pals are Elsamma & Paalunni. Then comes Aby(Indrajith) & his friends to Balanpilla city. Whats happening there after that is the rest.

Performances
Kunchacko Boban's character Paalunni is not new for him except in looks & some good scenes. He had done a commendable job in a set of scenes like his expressions when Indrajith's character talks in English, his gestures & dialogues in the above shown poster scene & a very well done performance in a scene with Nedumudi Venu in the second half telling like "he needs some time". But sad to say even LalJose too didn't utilised his talent with a not so new character & scenes. Indrajith who had done good job in LalJose movies miserably fails here because of the character he got, limited screenspace & bad dialogues. Ann Augustine as Elsamma was wooden in some scenes & missed fire in scenes like while beating her sister & all. Not so impressive, but not bad. Nedumudi Venu as Kunnel Pappan has done his part well with nice expressions & voice modulation. Jagathy, Suraj Venjaarammood, Vijayaraghavan, Manikkuttan, Manianpilla Raju, Janardhanan.... many artist were there. But sad to say the not so well developed characters, screenplay & bad dialogues spoiled the show. Jagathy & Suraj fails to evoke laughter in most parts.Meera Nandan in her cameo was not impressive.

Kalabhavan Shajon as suspended SI who is mimicry artist too was impressive in toddy shop scene imitating PremNazir & SureshGopi. Also Kalabhavan Unni as a drunkard who sells his household articles for liquor was impressive with a dialogue " HAAI, ente veettil police".

Songs
Ithile Thozhi was enjoyable because of the visuals in parts. Aamodamaayi was enjoyable as it perfectly suited the situation. Kannadi Chirakulla was a misplaced one & unwanted. BGM was loud at parts & lacks the Rajamani touch.

Technical
Cinematography by Vijay Ulakanath was good at parts only, not so good compared to his Neelathaamara work. Editing was OK only, needs trimming in second half. Art Direction was good.

Script & Direction
The main problem with the movie is the script by M.Sindhuraj. Clearly a half baked one. The movie was expected like changes happen in Balanpilla city because of Aby's friends coming there. But sadly nothing serious happens because of them. If they were not there, then too the very same things in second half can happen. First half was entertaining compared to second half. From the dialogues in the title song itself, the movie creates a negative impact. Dialogues were bad at many parts. The interval scene was bad, the first sequence of post interval too. It reminded me MULLA's interval & first post interval sequence. Second half lags a lot with unwanted melodrama. Climax would have made better. Director LalJose carelessly handled the climax sequence and a set of other scenes, just like he don't have any interest to make this one.

Verdict : Tads above average
BO Verdict : Average----HIT(because of LAL RELEASE)

Never expected such a carelessness in making at many parts of the movie from LalJose

The positives I felt was the Kunchacko Boban-Nedumudi Venu sequence in the second half which was nicely taken with smart dialogues & the performances by them in the whole movie.

NAAN MAHAAN ALLA

2010-08-23T18:44:00.011+05:30

NAAN MAHAAN ALLA

Theatre : TVM Athulya
Showtime & Date : 2.30pm, 23-08-2010
Status : Balcony Full, FC 80%

Suseendran, who made his debut with Vennila Kabadikkuzhu joins with Karthi, who already delivered 3 hits(Paruthiveeran, Aayirathil Oruvan, Paiyya) in the new movie NAAN MAHAAN ALLA. Just like the title of the movie, the movie also is not a great one, but it's a better entertainer available now in theaters.

Story
Film opens with the brutal murder of a girl by 4 drug addict students. Jeeva(Karthi) is a jobless youth, a happy go lucky & a very frank person who belongs to a middle class family consisting of his father(Jayachandran) who is a taxi driver, mother & sister. Jeeva meets Priya(Kajal Agarwal) in a friend's marriage function & after a series of events they fall in love. Things change when those diabolic guys tries to kill his father to destroy evidence of a murder they committed. Later they kills Jeeva's father & rest is his revenge.

Performances
Karthi as Jeeva had done a good job. His oneliners & expressions were good. But the final action sequence lacks punch according to the situation which demanded a much more fire brand performance in action too. Kajal Agarwal as Priya looked beautiful & did her part well with nice expressions & far better lip sync from a non-Tamil girl. Jayachandran as Karthi's father had done a commendable job. Rest of the cast were apt for the role especially in looks. The 4 fearless diabolic characters & goons, especially the guy who played the character Royapuram Dada, looked very much convincing.

Songs
After Paiyya, Yuvan Shankar Raja is back with another Karthi movie songs. Though certain tunes were a rehash of his own songs, songs were enjoyable. "Iragai pole" is the pick of the lot which was beautifully picturised too.

Technical
Art direction by Rajeevan was excellent. Cinematography was good. Editing was good in first half, needs trimming towards the climax of the movie. Action by Anal Arasu lacks the punch & freshness at many parts.

Script & Direction
Director Suseendran had adopted the same formula story of Tamil cinema this time. But what makes this entertaining is the racy screenplay & a realistic approach. The first half of the movie was excellent with good oneliners & nice sequences especially the Karthi's scene with Priya's father & his meeting with Royapuram Dada. Fresh & good dialogues by Bhaskar Shakthi is a major plus point of the movie. The screenplay of second half of the movie could have improved with some interesting sequences. Kajal Agarwal had just two scenes in second half. Even Karthi, the lead role got sidelined in the first 30-40 minutes of the second half , which were fully focused of the villain characters & their planning to kill Jayachandran's character. But finally movie entertains us with the way it is executed. Direction was good. The movie never lacked the pace at any part of the film. Nothing more to say a good first half, an above average second half.

Verdict : Above Average
BO Verdict : Hit

In Kerala Box Office, this one is going to be the ultimate Onam Winner as there are no big opponents & families too prefer this movie only.

Cloud Nine started promoting their next venture MANGAATHA starring Ajithkumar & Nagarjuna, directed by Venkat Prabhu with this one. Exclusive teaser was there with the movie.

SAKUDUMBAM SHYAMALA

2010-07-23T22:28:00.009+05:30

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

2010-07-22T17:48:00.004+05:30

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.

MUMMY and ME

2010-05-21T22:36:00.010+05:30

MUMMY and ME

Theatre : TVM Ajantha
Showtime & Date : 6.10pm, 21-05-2010
Status : Balcony 99% full with 95% family audience, FC 30%

After an impressive debut in DETECTIVE, Jeethu Joseph is back after 3 years, this time with a family subject dealing with current generation problems & relationship of youth with their parents.Youth will find will this movie a bit boring one at many parts as many scenes seems to be a pin point advice to them but families can identify themselves at many parts of the movie.

Story
In the movie, the whole story is narrated by the heroine to the audience. Jewel(ArchanaKavi) is the daughter of Joseph(Mukesh) & Clara(Urvashi). Jewel always fights with her mother because of the indifference in the opinions in whatever matters they deal. She just don't want her mother to interfere in her matters. Clara is worried about her. Joseph deals her daughter in his own way, a friendly manner. Because of that Jewel has got a healthy relationship with her father. Rahul(Kunchacko Boban) is the only son of Thomachan(Lalu Alex) & Shari. They are family friends of Joseph's family as Thomachan & Joseph were classmates. Rahul studies in the same college where Jewel studies and is her local gaurdian too. Rahul has love towards her, but he's not ready to reveal as he don't know how Jewel will react. Jewel's main hobby is chatting in Internet. Inorder to avoid her late coming home, Joseph gifts her a computer with internet connection. Through chatting Jewel finds a friend Amir(Suresh Gopi), a fashion designer. The rest is how Amir changes her life & how Jewel & others are affected.

Performances
Urvashi as the title role MUMMY Clara had performed well with a set of new expressions & dialogue delivery styles. Her worry is shown in each & every scene she comes & Urvashi performed well too. Urvashi is still the best actress who can handle every situation, the script offers, watch the SUPER MOM song. Archana Kavi was not that good what the character Jewel has to be. Though she performed well to an extent her, repeated expressions will make us a little irritating. Mukesh as Joseph is the most powerful character in the movie. He very well expressed the feelings of a confused father in each and every scene, a tailor made role for Mukesh, the actor. His comic timing is excellent. Kunchacko Boban has got limited scenes in the movie. Though certain scenes are a rehash of his previous films, what makes this special is the way Chackochan handled this one. From Gulumaal, his comedy timing, expressions... has moved to the next level in this. His voice modulation was good. Lalu Alex as Thomachan was good in limited scenes. His dialogue delivery was superb expecially the dialogue to Chackochan " Mone, ee project workout aakumo??". Master Jeevan who acted as Mukesh's son was excellent with good comic timing. Anoop Menon was usual as psychiartist. Shari, Arun, Sudheesh, Janardhanan...perfectly fitted the role.

SureshGopi as Amir, an orphan & a fashion designer by profession made his presense from the first half of the movie itself with his voice. His presence in final scene was Superb.

Songs
Songs were above average, but the first half has got 3 songs in which 2 of them(Maalakha pole & Aarume Kaanathe) seems to be the speedbreaker & mismatch. Venmukilin & Super Mom were good. BGM was top class especially title music & when the end credits roll, the music still haunts me.

Technical
Vipin Mohan's cinematography was good. Editing needs o be a bit racy. Art Direction by Saburam was good. Makeup could have been better as the location Kuttikkanam was a cool area, the makeup mixes withe cold there which is clearly seen in many scenes for Urvashi & Mukesh.

Script & Direction
Both the departments are handled by Jeethu Joseph. He had taken a very serious issue happening in our society now as the core of the movie. Movie was engaging in the first half without a dull moment. The second half drags a little bit. Mukesh-Urvashi team's Joseph-Clara couple was excellent in many scenes where both don't want to make the other fail in front of her daughter in many situations, . Dialogues were excellent. Mukesh has got the best dialogues in the movie. The story starts & ends in the very same way & the last dialogue in which she introduces her to the audience as a narrator was superb. The scene in which Lalu Alex tells Kunchacko Boban to be flexible in life was very well taken with nice dialogues. The whole story is told like happenings in high class families. The club scenes could have been avoided. Jeethu Joseph's hardwork on screenplay is clearly visible in many scenes especially the mother daughter fight sequences. Once again Jeethu Joseph succeeded as a director and a script writer.

Family audience will thoroughly enjoy each & every scene as this had happened or is happening in their lives in one or another form.

Nothing more to say a good first half and an above average second half and a good simple sweet climax.

Verdict : Above Average
B O Verdict : SORRY DON'T KNOW, current trend make me say so

This one is clearly a multiplex movie. After a long time a feel good movie, which has got good light hearted comedies without any comedy stars.

Mohanlal was offered the cameo, which was done by Suresh Gopi here. Undoubtedly I will say Mohanlal missed the golden chance. After a point the character Amir was also there throughout the movie. The character was so effective, though it reminds me of the Mohanlal's character in Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare. The climax scene was simple & good which would have been double effective if Mohanlal had done that.

POKKIRIRAJA

2010-05-14T23:20:00.003+05:30

POKKIRIRAJA

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 14-05-2010
Status : Balcony Almost full, FC 35-40%

Many won't have seen Mammootty's first release in 2009, the box-office disaster, LOVE IN SINGAPORE. Those who haven't seen that movie, take a look at the scenes featuring JAYASURYA, who speaks English with its literal meaning in Malayalam ,next time when you get a chance. Mammootty clearly lifts the same talking style here.
POKKIRIRAJA is a movie on the lines of Rajamanikyam, Thuruppugulan, Annan Thambi & Chattambinaadu, all the previous Mammootty flicks. This one is a mixture of many previous malayalam flicks, especially the above said ones in story line. Also with variety in talking style of Mammootty. The making of the movie is strictly inspired from many Tamil & Telugu mass masala flicks. If the question is whether the movie entertains ultimately, my answer is NO.

Story
The story begins with childhood of Raja(Mammootty) & Surya(Prithviraj), sons of a schoolmaster(Nedumudi Venu) who belongs to Kunnathur family & rivals of PuthiyaTharavadu family featuring Kalashala Babu, Johny & Santhosh. Vijayaraghavan plays brother of Nedumudi Venu, who is a handicap because of the rivalry between the families on the matter of which family to conduct festival in the temple. In mistake, Nedumudi Venu kills the grandson of Kalashala Babu. Inorder to save his father, Raja surrenders to police. After five years, Raja comes back to his village from juvenile home. There he faces problrems from rival family and forced to leave to to Madurai. There he saves the son of a goonleader, which helps him to be leader there. The story proceeds 15 years after from there. Surya is now conducting the festival in temple & the rival family now tries to kill Surya. To avoid problems following that, Nedumudi Venu asks Surya to stay with his sister(Bindu Panicker) & co-brother Idivettu Sadasivan(Suraj Venjaarammood), a useless police officer. Inorder to handle a problem, Sadasivan asks Surya to wear his uniform & go there as a police officer. He meets Shreya in the college and acts as her bodyguard. Riyaz Khan, the son of Home Minister(Rizabava), is mad of Shreya. Siddhique plays police commissioner and stepfather of Shreya. Surya falls in love with Shreya. Siddhique traps him and plans to kill him. For that he gives quotaton through third party to MaduraiRaja. At the sametime NedumudiVenu comes to Madurai to request Raja to save his son. Raja comes to Kerala to save his brother and to solve problems.

Performances
As I said earlier, Mammootty imitates Jayasurya of LOVE IN SINGAPORE in dialogues & Tamil Actor Suriya of upcoming film SINGAM in looks. Other than looks, nothing was there in the movie for him specially. Prithviraj as Surya has nothing special other than he did in Puthiya Mugham in action sequences and imitates some other actors in certain scenes. For the very same sequence he does different at different parts of the film though no particular reason. Shreya was just to increase the star value of the movie & nothing else was offered in the csript for her. Nedumudi Venu was usual, Vijayaraghavan was wasted. Rest of the cast was just to make the scenes rich & nothing else. Thesny Khan & Bindu Panicker were just OK. Even the child artists were directly the same character as they do after 15 years from opening shot, especially Mammootty's child character did person with AAI. Siddhique's character is not new for him, but still scored in certain scens with his unique style.

The major plus points of same genre previous Mammootty flicks was comedy and Suraj & Salimkumar did a major part in that. In this one both were irritating & intolerable.

Songs
Music by Jassie Gift was average. BGM was too loud. Song picturisation was colourful bat lacks the thing for repeat watch. Dance steps were pathetic.

Technical
Cinematography by Shaji was good for a mass masala film. Editing by Mahesh Narayanan was good at parts, but action sequences were endlessly going especially the first action sequence featuing Prithviraj. Action choreography lacks novelty & on the air rope sequences were over the board after a while.

Script & Direction
Script by Udaykrishna-Sibi.K.Thomas team is just a rehash of many malayalam, tamil & telugu flicks. Salimkumar-Suraj scenes makes us think of Vadivelu sidetrack in Tamil movies. Lot of scenes & dialogues seems unwanted. Certain dialogues makes us remember tamil flciks VETTAIKKAARAN & DHEENA. Direction by debutant Vaisakh offers nothing new & not that promising compared to the directors of above said previous flicks. Also the director failed in keeping the characters look as if 15 years had passed. Paravai Muniyamma was looking the same for 15 years. Many tamil artists and dialogues were there in the movie. I think producer has plans to dub to Tamil.

Overall a strictly one time watchable in parts masala film on the lines of 80s & 90s tamil cinema in DVD.

Verdict : Below Average
BO Verdict : As there are no big opponents in BO, viewers first choice remains as this because of the rich starcast. And vacation is helping the movie a lot as the movie got a lot of a family audience.
Movie should become a flop or maximum average for the goodness of Mammootty and future Malayalam Cinema.

Mammootty(both in childhood and as MaduraiRaja) says AAI a lot of times. Not even Sarathkumar had said "AAI" this much times in his well-made mass masala entertainer by A.Venkatesh, AAI.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

2010-05-07T22:19:00.001+05:30

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Theatre : TVM Kripa
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 07-05-2010
Status : Balcony : 99% full, FC poor status

After an average flick WANTED, in which Mohanlal did an extended cameo, Murali Nagavally is back with a new movie which stars Mohanlal in lead role. This movie will tell you WHY MOHANLAL WAS, MOHANLAL IS AND MOHANLAL WILL BE the number one ACTOR in MALAYALAM CINEMA.

Story
Varma(Saikumar) is a business magnet in Dubai. After his death, his relatives come to know that everything will be for Alexander Varma(Mohanlal) who is his illegal son & three statements in the way that no one else could take those assets illegally. Bala, an IIM product & a failed business man, who is the son of Sakumar & Sudha Chandran, is in need of money. Bala goes to Mumbai along with his uncle(Jagadeesh) to find Alexander. There they come to know that Alexander is in a mental hospital in Pune as the court asked to put him there for treatment as part of the trials of a murder case. Bala, his girlfrend & Jagadeesh takes Alexander, the not so normal intelligent person, to get his signature to acquire the assets. The rest is how Alexander changes their lives.

Performances
Mohanlal as Alexander Varma is one of the best character he has got in recent times & he performed very well with his good comic timing, cute expressions & a very very stunning dialogue delivery. In one word, EXCELLENT, nothing more to say. Watch the movie, you'll understand. Bala has got a throughout role & he did it very well. Jagadeesh was good(except his starting few scenes) after a long time ithout much overacting & once again is chemistry with Mohanlal works. The rest of the cast Sudha Chandran, Saikumar, Siddhique, Ganesh Kumar etc were apt for the roles. The female characters in the movie except Sudha Chandran lacks originality. Kalabhavan Shajon was good in few scenes.

Songs
Music by M.G.Sreekumar was above average. The BGM for Mohanlal still haunts me, a good one.

Technical
Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction everything were usual only.

Script & Direction
Script by C.Balachandran was a refreshing one in Malayalam, though the basic storyline & Mohanlal's charcter seems to be inspired from Rajamanikyam & Dustin Hoffman-Tom Cruise starrer THE RAINMAN. Script Writer's hardwork in bringing fresh scenes & proceedings is clearly visible. Bu sadly, that susained till the some scenes in the second half only. Later it became predictable to a great extent. Direction by Murali Nagavalli was an average one only. It's the strength of the script & Mohanlal's performance made the movie, a nice one. Director handled certain scenes very carelessly, especially Climax, which would have made in a better way. PRIYADARSAN is the best person who would have directed this script, then this one would have become a GREAT ENTERTAINER. On the whole, a very good first half and an above average second half. This 2hr 40min movie has never a dull moment.

Verdict : Good
BO Verdict : Even first day evening show has got bad theatre status, hope in the coming days, Malayalee audience will realise good cinema.

IVIDAM SWARGAMAANU, LOUD SPEAKER.... all these good movies were not well recieved by Malayalee audience & they will be supporting so called mass entertainers in theatres & will tell like there are no good scripts or films in Malayalam now. After watching in DVD, they will tell, why this film didn't become a HIT then. Change Malayalee audience. Watch this in a cool calm atmosphere & not with fans of any stars.

Just like in Dasharadham(in which Mohanlal beautifully delivers a classic dialogue in the final shot), the climax shot of this movie will also generate a teardrop, here the difference is Mohanlal won't say a single word.

SURA

2010-05-02T21:50:00.002+05:30

SURA

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Status : Housefull with 60% family audience
Showtime & Date : 5.40pm, 02-05-2010

Expectations were high as this movie is the 50th movie of Ilayathalapathy VIJAY and was rumoured as a full length mass entertainer. But sadly, there was no entertainment as it had to be. Everything was bad except ManiSharma's music & Vijay who makes the movie sit & watch atleast once.

Story
Sura(Vijay) is the do-gooder leader of fishermen. His ambition is to build houses for all the 1400 families there. Samudram(Dev Gill) is a rowdy minister who wants to build a water theme park there. He tries to evacuate the place through illegal methods, but fails. The rest is the fight between Sura & the minister & ofcourse as every mass movie, hero wins the game.

Performances
Vijay as Sura is nothing new or special for him. He does everything what he had done in his previous movies. Tammanah is just for songs & 2-3 unwanted scenes. Vadivelu was intolerable. All his scenes in the movie must be immediatly removed from the movie(atleast in Kerala). Dev Gill as the villain is loud as in every mass movie. His lipsync was poor. He was no match as a villain for Vijay. The rest of cast is RadhaRavi, Riyaz Khan......has nothing much to do.

Songs
ManiSharma's music was good, though the copy of his own music from Telugu movies. "Bommayi" & "Naan Nadanthl" were the best, both from telugu BILLA. I think after Sivakasi, it's the first time Vijay was seen in a single costume in the opening song. Siragadikkum song was picturised in beautiful locations, but the bad editing spoild everything. "Vaanga Kadal" song was misplaced. "Naan Nadanthal was not that stylish it has to be as per the music. "Bommayi" song was colourfully picturised but nowhere near telugu Billa Bommali which was too good in style & misplaced one int the movie. WATCH THE ORIGINAL. BILLA BOMMALI SONG

Technical
As usual for a mass movie. Kanal Kannan's action was recycled and lacks style & freshness. Camera by Ekambaram was good at parts. Editing by Donmax was poor. He once again proved that Tamil Cinema is not his cup of tea. Action sequences were endlessly going on. Only saving grace were the slow motion closeup shots of Vijay. Art direction was good.

Script & Direction
S.P.Raajakumar handled both the departments. The story had the mass element in it, but sadly the screenplay fails to impress everywhere in the proceedings. Dialogues were good at parts but directed those scenes very pathetically. Direction was the another big problem here. Below average. Even a regular film viewer will think scenes in a much better way. The storyline had to be given to Dharani or Perarasu. They would have made this into a superb mass entertainer.

Verdict : Escape
BO Verdict : Flop, might end up as average because of the initials & no competition for one week.

It's high time for Vijay to change his style of movies to be part of.
Don't know why SUN PICTURES known for entertainers had chosen this.
VETTAIKAARAN is 100 times better than this. Oh Sorry, it's a crime to compare this with Vettaikaaran which was a well made entertainer.
Watch KURUVI or VILLU in DVD which were far better. Don't waste your money for this.

JANAKAN

2010-04-08T22:09:00.008+05:30

JANAKAN

Theatre : TVM Sreekumar
Date & Showtime: 08/04/2010, 6.25pm
Status : Balcony Full, FC 95%

S.N.Swamy, the master of crime thrillers in malayalam cinema is back with an engaging script which was presented without any heroism or lengthy dialogues of glorificaion of heroes. The one line of the story is written in the poster below. Watch the movie to know the answer to the question HOW????

Story
The movie starts with police chasing Vishwanathan(SureshGopi), Monayi(Bju Menon) & Pazhani(Harisree Ashokan) as three of them together killed three people. All three were asked to meet Advocate Sooryanarayanan(Mohanlal) before surrendering to police. The story unfolds as flashback like Vishwanathan's daughter was brutally raped and murdered and this was the revenge. The rest is how Sooryanarayanan helps them to get out of this case.

Performances
Before mentioning about performances, I want to mention one thing : All the characters in this movie are presented very natural without any cinematic gimmicks.

Mohanlal as advocate Sooryanarayanan has given a commendable performance, a very natural person who speaks frankly to all. Script had provded interval sequence & climax sequence for Sooryanarayanan to shine. Also some dialogues like "Njan Cheethakkuttyaanu"(I'm a bad person) in between. SureshGopi as Vishwanathan has given a commendable performance. He too is presented very naturally only. So don't expect fire brand dialogues from him as in most of his movies of his. But the whole theatre enjoyed the scene in which he threatens Minister. Jyothirmayi, BijuMenon, Harisree Ashokan, Shivaji Guruvayur were good. Ganesh, Kaveri & rest of the cast perfectly fitted the roles. Vijayakumar creates laughtr with his role as situation demands that.

The real show stealer of the movie is VIJAYARAGHAVAN as Police Commissioner. His character has got a number of shades : A loving father, a dutyful police officer(Watch the scene with Ganesh after seeing raped girl in hospital), an officer who fears persons above him in department, ministers & relatives of them. He's the one who got applause for all the scenes he got with his smart expressions, situatons povided by the script & a very natural performance. SUPERB SUPERB SUPERB!!!!!

Directors out there, this actor is still to be explored.

Songs
Olicirunne song was above average by M.Jayachandran. Background score by Rajamani was a disappointing one though the BGM for Mohanlal was enjoyable.

Technical
Everything was usual only. A movie like this needs crisp editing which was totally missing.

Script & Direction
Script by S.N.Swamy is a better one compared to his previous outings. He was able to make an engaging script this time & he's back in the track. He once again proved that he's the one in the malayalam industry to work on law points in the movies. The movie got lots of claps and here the script is the hero, not the superstars in the movie.

Direction by N.R.Sanjeev is promising but needs to be improved. Handling certain emotional scenes were not good & closeup shots were more. A script like this can be presented in two ways, either as commercial thriller like old Shaji Kailas movies or as a natural one. Sanjeev was successful in presenting the movie naturally & commercially at the same time.

Verdict : Far Above Average
B O Verdict : HIT

Word of Mouth is good and the star cast is impressive to draw the audience. Worth for a second time watch too(with a responding audience)

PRAMANI

2010-03-27T22:16:00.003+05:30

Pramani

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.30pm, 27-03-2010
Status : FC not more than 80 people, Balcony no idea(much better than FC, identified from claps & koovals during power off)

B.Unnikrishnan's new flick Pramani is a predictable flick with no surprising twists or turns in script, making & performances. He tried to make the movie, the same way he did Madambi. But what lacks here is a well packaging.

Story
Vishwanadha Panicker(Mammotty) aka America is a corrupt Panchayath president, who gets into other's issues and solves the problem thereby making money through illegal ways and makes official papers for what he gets in the name of Somashekhara Panicker(Siddhique) his nephew. There comes Janaki(Sneha) as a loyal Panchayath Officer who defends president's deeds. Caestro Vareedh(Janardhanan), the president of nearby village, is angry at Vishwanathan as he didn't allow the panchayath's development programmes. Vareedh appoints Mavo(Suraj Venjarammood) to destroy Vishwanathan. There comes Mangatt Vikraman(Suresh Krishna) who wants 100 acres of land for IT park, though not real. Eventhough Vishwanathan agress this in the beginning, he regrets for what he agreed as teacher(Lakshmi) reminded him of what was his mentor & her son's, Varkkichan's(Prabhu in a cameo) dreams. When Vishwanathan asks Somashekharan to stop the deal, because of the huge amount they're going to get, the whole family disagrees and asks him to leave as nothing was there in Vishwanathan's name. The rest of the story is how he stops the plan with the help of Janaki & Baby(Shanu), Varckichan's son.

Performances
Mammootty as VishwanathaPanicker has nothing much to do as the script demands nothing new. His dubbing also was not that good. Siddhique as Somashekharan, again a villain role & nothing special. Suraj was irritating and evokes no laughter, except 2 dialogues. Sneha has nothing to do and the dubbing artist's voice was not suiting for her. Lakshmi's role is a straight lift from B.Unnikrishnan's pevious flick, IG. Janardhanan was OK only. Salimkumar was OK in his 3 avilable scenes and succeeded in evoking laughter except his intro scene. Rest of the cast has nothing special to mention. Anoop Menon, Prabhu and Kalabhavan Mani in their cameos were unimpressive. KPAC Lalitha was an unwanted character for a single scene.

Shanu aka Fahad Fazil as Baby was refreshing but no scope for good performance. He performed well in limited scenes he got, especially the scene with Mammootty asking about his father's death.

Songs
Theme song was Average only. Karakarangana song was not that good. Oru Vennila song was good and well picturised.

Technical
Art diretion & Editing was OK only. Good cinematography by Sham Dutt though certain visuals seems repeated.

Script & Direction
Script vy B.Unnikrishnan has nothing new to offer. Each and every scene in the movie is predictable and something we have seen in many movies, even in his previous flick Madambi(which was a well packaged old wine in new bottle, even the Pathanamthitta slang). Script is an old wine tried to be packaged in new bottle but sadly, the bottle was the same he used for Madambi. An overdose of unwanted sentiments were there. As a dialogue writer, Unnikrishnan excels in many scenes, though screenplay fails. He could have worked a bit more to bring the freshness in screenplay. As a director too he offers nothing new in executing the scenes. Altogether Pramani is, at max average only movie mixed with serial kind of sentiment scenes & predictability.

Verdict : Average, at max
BO Verdict : Flop

Glorifying the hero towards the climax was a bit too over. The movie is strictly a DVD watch. Watch the movie in theatres if you have no other movies left in theatres.

VINNATHAANDI VARUVAAYA

2010-03-18T11:50:00.000+05:30

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya...

Theatre : Thiyagaraja
Showtime & Date : 2.45pm, 12-03-2010
Status : Balcony 70%, FC just 50 people

After Vaaranam Aayiram, Gautham Menon is back with a feel good love story Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa & this time A.R.Rehman deals the music department.

Story
Karthik(Silambarasan), a hindu guy, is a mechanical engineering graduate who wants to become a film director. Jessie(Trisha) is a Malayalee Christian girl staying in the first floor of his rented home. Karthik falls in love with Jessie. The rest of the story how he convinces her his love, different problems they face and whether they unite or not.

Performances
Silambarasan as Karthik is best character of him till date as this one has no punch dialogues, superhuman fight sequences, dappamkoothu songs. He performed well though his dialogue delivery style still has the traces of his mass hero roles. Trisha as Jessie is the character around which the whole movie revolves. The whole movie is the incidents because of the inconsistent mind of this character. Trisha was looking good throughout the movie but performance wise I don't think that she diid 100% justice to her role. Ganesh, one of the producers of the movie as the senior cameraman and friend of Karthik in the movie makes us laugh with his comedy timing. Rest of the characters perfectly fits their role though nothing much to do. NagaChaithanya & Samantha in their cameo roles were not that impressive.

Technical
Cinematography by Manoj Pramahamsa is top class, especially Alappuzha sequnces. Editing by Antony is excellent which makes the song sequences watchable repeated times though the way it is picturised is almost same. Art directon is superb, especially song sets & Trisha's home in Alappuzha on marriage day night.

Songs
Music by A.R.Rehman is good. BGM score was excellent.

Script & Direction
Gautham Vasudev Menon's screenplay is clear & superb without any subplots in between. Dialogues were fresh and excellent. The way the story is told to us reminds us of Gautham's previous outings Kaakha Kaakha & Vaaranamaayram, like the central character talking to the audience. Song picturisation also seems to be rehashed version of Vaaranamaayiram songs. Direction was top class. First half was excellent. Second half lacks pace as in first half & lengthy dialogue sequences made a bit boring. But the climax was superb and told in an excellent way. Altogether a good love story in Tamil cinema after a long time.

Verdict : Good
BO Verdict : Hit

In my opinion, new faces were the best option for the lead characters which would have been given a much more freshness.

THEERATHA VILAYATTU PILLAI

2010-02-12T15:55:00.003+05:30

THEERATHA VILAYATTU PILLAI

Theatre : Thyagaraja
Status : Balcony full, FC 80%
Showtime & Date : 11.45am, 12-02-2010

After the disasters SATHYAM & THORANAI, Puratchithalapathy Vishal & his brother's GK Films Corporation comes together for their fifth flick THEERATHA VILAYATTU PILLAI, which is marketed by SUN PICTURES, name known for minimum guarantee entertainers. This one too entertains us.

Story
Karthik(Vishal), a lazy tad, only son of bank manager couples, wants everything best in his life, from a pen to his wife. So for choosing his best life partner, he falls in love with three girls at a time. One is Priya(Sarah John Dias), who has a policy in her life that she'll marry a person whom she falls in love with. Second one is Jyothi(Tanushree Dutta), who don't like men at all. Third one is Tejaswini(Neethu Chandra), who is a millionare's daughter & had a failed love affair in her life. Karthik falls in love with all three & towards interval Tejaswini comes to know about Karthik's intentions from her father. From then onwards the movie proceeds with how Tejaswini tries to tell truth to other two & how Karthik manages those & finally who will he marry is a simple predictable one but told interestingly on screen.

Performances
Vishal as Karthik had done justice to his role & he performed well. Towards the interval, Vishal's character had some grey shades too. The character that demands performance was of Neethu Chandra's, which she done justice, though it reminds us of Reema Sen in Vallavan at times. Among glamour show too, she leads. Sarah Jane Dias is just to look pretty on screen & looks different in different portions of the movie because of bad make up, I think. Tanushree Dutta was having a good role demanding some performance & she did it well to an extent. PrakashRaj as Tanushree Dutta's brother, who is a goon is good in his 3 scenes. Mouli as Vishal's father had done a good job. He rocks wih his dialogue modulation & expressions in limited scenes. Sathyan & Mayilsami as Vishal's friends did their part well. But it is Santhanam who rocks as Vishal's friend with his one liners & dialogues especially in first half. Sneha & Mallika Kapoor has nothing to do in their cameo.

Songs
Except second song "En Jannal Vandha", none of the songs by Yuvan Sankar Raja impresses & picturisation is bad & feels repeated. But the BGM was good with some good hummable theme music type ones, especially a violin music.

Technical
Cinematography was good, but Editing needs some trimming in second half as the length is 2hr 45 min. Action by Dhilip Subbarayan offers nothing new.

Script & Direction
Debutant Thiru's script is engaging one. Direction by Thiru has nothing special or new, but he was able to make the movie engaging & entertaining because of the script. The glamour show of the heroines, especially Neetu Chandra's could have been reduced. Also the length of the second half could have been reduced and it lacks the speed of first half. All the songs were below average & seems misplaced. Towards the climax, it became predictable, but the final scene made everything enjoyable. A good comedy first half & above average second half. On the whole, a good comeback for Vishal.

Verdict : Above Average
BO Verdict : Hit

SUN PICTURES's marketing will surely help this to be a hit. A better film from Vishal after flops Sathyam & Thoranai.

THAMIZH PADAM

2010-01-30T14:39:00.003+05:30

THAMIZH PADAM

Theatre : Jayanthi
Status : 100%
Showtime & Date : 11.00am, 30-01-2010

We have seen many actors imitating characters of other hit films to make us laugh in almost all Indian & Hollywood films. But still we were missing a full-length spoofing movie just like Hollywood flicks, SCARY MOVIE series. Finally director C.S.Amudhan has come up with such a movie.

Story
The whole story is a fantasy type one. The story begins in a remote village called Cineapatti where Nattamai(Ponnambalam) orders to kill new born boy babies inorder to avoid those boys to go to Chennai & became heroes & become a problem for them. Those who refuse will be forced to leave the village & has to watch Simbhu(though not mentioned the name as such, said like one who do styles with fingers) movie, 50 times. When Siva(Siva) is born, his father asks to kill him. The woman(Paravai Muniamma) decides to kill the boy by giving kallippaal(poison). Then the newborn baby asks her to take him to Chennai so that he can become a hero. Then story happens in Chennai. Siva has friends Manobala, M.S.Bhaskar & Venneeradai Moorthy. There Siva falls in love & in between he does murders. Problem happens when heroine's father comes to know about the relationship. The rest of the story is how he wins her, who really he is, how he finds his parents, whether he able to find out the real villain named "D".

Performances

Siva has played his character with ease. Heroine Disha Pandey is good. Paravai Muniamma, Manobala, M.S.Bhaskar, Venneeradai Moorthy was OK only. Rest all did their part well.

Songs

Songs by Kannan are enjoyable. First song was a spoofing of all lead actor's intro song. Picturisation also simply rocks. Second one is an item number by former heroine Kasthuri. The first two lines reminds us fast version of "Njanum Varatte" of malayalam flick Chathikkaatha Chandu. Third was the rocking song sung by Hariharan, a melody one in which the whole song lyrics is the meaningless words of Tamil songs like "Omahasiya", "Nakka Mukka", "Dialamo", "Hasile Fisile".........The fourth song is OK only. Picturisation of all songs are good and filled with comedy scenes. BGM was superb.

Technical

Good Editing, especially titles. Cinematography by Nirav Shah is good.

Script & Direction

The real hero is dialogue witer K.Chandru, smart & witty dialogues throughout the movie. Screenplay by director C.S.Amudhan is engaging to an extent. The first half of the movie was 1hr length & was a rocking one with never a dull moment though no big twists or surprises are there(we do not expect one in a movie like this). But the second half of the movie is not that good as first half. From the point, when Siva went to Cinemapatti in search of his parents, scenes become a bit boring and the last 15 minutes was a disappointing one as the director could not keep the standard as the movie should have. Climax sequence was too childish and a bit boring and lengthy. On the whole, a good first half & tad above average second half.

Verdict : Above Average comedy entertainer

B.O.Verdict : Hit

What makes the story entertaining is the treatment. After Intro song, it's a scene from Thalapathy. Then develops with Baasha & Kandaswamy sequence. Then Kadhalukku Mariyadai, 7/G Rainbow Colony, Boys, Sivaji, Run, Ghajini, Kaakka Kaakka & lot others. If u have seen these movies, u'll enjoy the movie to its core.

GOA

2010-01-29T15:27:00.005+05:30

GOA

Two big Tamil movies : TAMIZHPADAM(*ing Siva of Chennai 600028 & Saroja fame as hero) & GOA(Venkat Prabhu's third flick after the above said ones) released today. Finally I decided to watch TAMIZHPADAM as the whole movie was a spoofing one & promos were promising. When I reached theatre, two housefull show crowd were there & I was sure that the chances of getting a ticket is less than 1%. So went for GOA. Around 75 people were there. Once the film started, the heavy returns of TAMIZHPADAM made the theatre status as follows

Theatre : Thiyagaraja
Status : Balcony Full, FC : 85%
Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 29-01-2010

After the success of smart entertainers, Chennai 600028 & SA-RO-JA, expectations were high for a Venkat Prabhu movie as the lead stars too were from his previous flicks. But sadly the movie doesn't live upto the hypes & expectations.

Story

The story happens in a remote village in Madurai where people are not allowed to go outside the village borders not to introduce new culture and other things to the village. Samikkannu(Premgi Amaran), Vinay(Jai) & Ramarajan(Vaibhav) tries to escape from village. Samikkannu was treated as God's son & a flashback is there for that too. Vinay is the son of a military person & Ramarajan, son a the landlord. All three were punished like not to have any communication anymore. All three escapes to Madurai & there they see Vinay's frined marrying a foreign girl. They also decides to love a foreign girl and settle in foreign. With this aim, all three goes to Madurai to find their love. What happens to them in Goa is the rest of the story.

Performances

As in previous Venkat Prabhu movies, Premgi Amaren steals the show. Don't expect anything new, it's a remix of his previous characters & some mimicking of hit characters of movies. Jai's certain expressions and his ENGLISH were good , otherwise nothing special. Vaibhav scores in certain scenes. Aravind Akash & Sampath as gays were used for comic elements. Sampath played his role with ease with good voice modulation. Heroines Sneha, pair of Vaibhav has nothing special to do, Pia, as Jai's love interest is just for glamour show. The foreign girl who played Jessica as Premgi Amaren's lover was good. Rest of the cast did their part.

Simbhu in his cameo in climax does Manmadhan role again. Prasanna as Sneha's ex-husband was good in one scene because of his dialogues and comic timing. Nayanthara also has nothing to do other than a single smiling shot in the film.

Songs

None of the songs impresses. Some seems to be misplaced and became speedbreaker for the movie. Most of the scenes has BGM of many movies as in other Venkat Prabhu flicks. BGM of Jai-Pia episode was good.

Technical

Editing & Cinematography were good at parts. Only stunt for Premgi Amaren was enjoyable, though a bit over the board. Picturisation of songs were not upto the mark.

Script & Direction

Script by Venkat Prabhu had a promising start. But in the first half, once the characters reached GOA, lack of story & interesting twists made the movie a bit boring one. Director tried his best to make the movie an engaging one & the lead actors did their best for that, but without a proper script, what use??? No elements were there in the movie which makes the audience think what happens next. One such was made towards climax and miserably failed to entertain. Love track of Jai was boring. Director tried to make a fun holiday film, but succeeds only to an extent, only in parts of the movie. Songs in second half were boring and misplaced. The movie strictly remains as a one time watch. On the whole, GOA is a half-baked entertainer.

Verdict : Tads above average
BO verdict : Average

Venkat Prabhu + Chennai 600028 actors always cannot make good entertainers without proper script. If Chennai 600028 was a fun film & SA-RO-JA, a fun thriller, this one makes the audience bored at many places because of no surprises and twists.

BODYGUARD

2010-01-23T22:02:00.001+05:30

BODYGUARD

Theatre : TVM New
Status : Balcony full, FC 70%
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 23-01-2010

The much hyped Siddhique movie, which was meant to be Dileep's comeback to series of hits miserably fails in every department to entertain us. Everything was bad here except Mithra Kurian & Guiness Pakru.

Story
Jayakrishnan(Dileep) comes to Ashokettan's(Thyagarajan's)home to become his bodyguard. Ashokettan asks him to go to college with Ammu(Nayanthara ) and Sethulakshmi(Mithra Kurian) as their bodyguard . There Ammu fools Jayakrishnan by calling from a ID restricted mobile phone & tells him that she's a girl in the same college and she's in love with him. Towards interval she originally falls in love. How they unite is the rest of the story.

Performances
Dileep was a bad choice for the role of Jayakrishnan. Dileep misrably failed in handling the character in second half. At times, he tries to evoke some laugh, but a pure failure. Dileep couldn't handle the loverboy character & mature character transformation towards climax. His action scenes were pathetic as the story requires a better hero who could punch atleast five villains. Nayanthara was a total failure, especially in sentiment scenes. There is no need of Thyagarajan to do this role which resembles Urmila Unni's character in Sargam towards climax. Harisree Ashokan's character Neelambaran was a straight lift from his same role in Chronic Bachelor. Janardhanan, Cochin Haneefa, Appa Haja, Nandulal has nothing to do. Zeenath was doing overacting. As in Chronic Bachelor, here too Seema.G.Nair was there as Dileep's mother with overacting.

Mithra Kurian as Sethulakshmi was the only character which was developed well & she performed well, especially in climax sequence. Guiness Pakru entertains us with his intro scene & some one-liners & gestures.

Songs
Songs by Ouseppachan is just OK. BGM was too loud.

Technical
Editing was pathetic. Cinematography was OK in parts. Costumes were bad. Action sequence was bad.

Bhagyalakshmi, the voice of 99% malayalam actresses dubs for Nayanthara & she seems to dub for Ganga(Shobhana) in Manichithrathazhu, rest of the time she does like a Fazil's movie heroine. Poor dubbing.

Script & Direction
I strongly doubt that the script was written and directed by Fazil & gave Siddhique's name to make it a crowd puller. Pathetic Script with bad comedies. No genuine comedy scenes were there. Everything was predictable comedies. There was no particular twists in the story as we have seen in his previous films. Script seems to be inspired from various other movies. Especially climax sequence was a mix of bollywood blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai & Sargam. Is there a person like director in the sets of this movie. Poor direction. All scenes which were meant to be comedies ended up as CHALUS with extra dialogues o explain that. There was no continuity in the proceedings of the movie. Utter crap script & direction. Siddhique seems to be following 80's style of script & direction which won't work with today's audience.

Verdict : Big Bore
BO Verdict : Flop

KOORA PADAM, The first disaster malayalam movie of 2010 is here. Save your cash and invest it for watching HAPPY HUSBANDS.

HAPPY HUSBANDS

2010-01-18T21:47:00.002+05:30

HAPPY HUSBANDS

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Status : Balcony Full, FC 75%
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm 18-01-2010

After Ivar Vivahitharaayaal, Saji Surendran-Krishna Poojappura teams together for HAPPY HUSBANDS, which is a remake of bollywood flick NO ENTRY, though it's shown in the titles like it's adapted from Prabhu-Prabhudeva starrer tamil fick Charlie Chaplin. Anyways, Saji & Krishna managed to make an engaging movie without dull moments.

Story
Mukundan(Jayaram), MD of Kerala Today magazine is a loyal husband of Krishnendu(Bhavana). But Krishnendu always had doubts on her husband. John(Jayasurya) works on Mukundan's magazine as photographer. Rahul(Indrajith) is a Romeo, but a loyal husband in front of Shreya(Samvrutha Sunil). Krishnendu & Shreya are friends & Krishnendu asks Mukundan to become Rahul's friend. Through Rahul, Mukundan mets Diana(Rima Kallingal). At a point Mukundan introduces Diana to Krishnendu as John's wife. By the time, John is in love with Zarina(Vandana). Rest of the story is how these three husbands manages in front of their wives without revealing the truth.

Performances
Jayaram is the backbone of the movie. He performed Mukundan with such an ease and evokes laughter with his own style of expressions. Indrajith as Rahul is good and refreshing, especially dialogue deliver style. Jayasurya has nothing much to do and is OK only. All the four female characters, Bhavana, Samvrutha Sunil, Vandana & Rima Kallingal has nothing much to do. Bhavana seems too young to become Jayaram's wife. Rima Kallingal's make up was horrible. Suraj Venjarammood entertains us again with his TVM slang, though repetitive in certain scenes, enjoyable at many parts. Salimkumar in double role scores with his dialogue delivery styles and looks. Manianpilla Raju is wasted. Sadhique scores in his opening scene. Rest all fits their roles.

Songs
Though songs & its picturisation are below average, while watching the movie, those will fit the bill.

Technical
Manoj's editing was superb. Anil Nair's camera fails to experiment in good available locations in the movie

Script & Direction
Krishna Poojappura has translated NO ENTRY to malayalam with malayalam flavours for our audience and he succeeded in that. Saji Surendran was able to make this an engaging movie without much lagging. The first half of the movie lacks much interesting sequences. Also Jayasurya-Vandana track was out of place and was not good compared to the whole movie speed & comedy. The second half of the movie was a roller coaster ride which makes the movie a fast comedy entertainer of recent times. Don't think of anything else. If you want to enjoy 2hr 40minutes, GO FOR IT!!!!

Verdict : Fast Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : Sure Hit

After Gulumaal, another bollywood remake is becoming a winner in Kerala Box Office. We have only a James Albert now who has come with no cliched scenes in script in recent times.

EVIDAM SWARGAMAANU

2010-01-02T12:02:00.001+05:30

EVIDAM SWARGAMAANU

Theatre : TVM Sreekumar
Status : 99.99%
Showtime & Date : 6.00pm, 01-01-2010

Director Rosshan Andrrews is cheating Malayalee audience by making movies once in a while. A director like this, who handles the script very well must do atleast one movie a year. Once in a while only movie like this happens, a movie in which characters can be identified by all with some new info to audience. It's a superb entertainer with no sidetrack slapstick comedies, songs & a love affair.

Story
Mathews aka Mathevoos aka Mathachan(Mohanlal), son of Jerumias(Thilakan), is the owner of 3 acre land in which he is running a farm. Aluva Chandy(Lalu Alex) is a land mafia person who wants to buy Mathews's land too. Problem starts when Mathews tells Chandy that he won't sell his land. Chandy, the man who has influence in govt offices tries his best to acquire the land by creating unnecessary problems with the help of officers and using forged certificates created by Bhuvanachandran(Jagathy Sreekumar). The rest of the story is how Mathews overcome these problems and protects his land.

Performances
Mohanlal as Mathews is not a different or special role for him. But the actor playing such a kind of role after a long time gives some freshness. Lalu Alex as Aluva Chandy is good. All the three female leads are apt, Lakshmi Rai's lip sync needs to be improved. Shankar, Innocent, Sadhiq, Chalipala, Edavela Babu....all did their part well. Baiju Ezhupunna as Aluva Chandy's supporter is a refreshing one on screen. Thilakan has nothing much to do. Kaviyoor Ponnamma is a big minus. Sukumari is wasted.

Though in limited scenes, Sreenivasan as Prabalan/Koshy, Jagathy as Bhuvanachandran & Manianpilla Raju as lawyer simply rocked. Jagathy as certificate maker was excellent in his expressions & dialogue delivery styles. Sreenivasan acted as a catalyst for the second half of the movie's proceedings. Manianpilla Raju in his climax scene was good.

Songs

Director has taken a bold decision that not to have a single song in the movie. If there was a song, it would have been be a speedbreaker for the movie. BGM by Gopi Sundar was good. But repetition of the same BGM in many scenes could have been avoided.

Technical
Art directon was excellent, Cinematography too. Editing was good, action too.

Script & Direction
James Albert, the script writer once again proved his talent. EXCELLENT!!! EXCELLENT!!! EXCELLENT!!! James developed the story through sequences which will give some freshness to the audience. All the characters in the movie, even an actor appearing in a single scene has got a characterisation. He was able to increase the pace in development of the story gradually and able to make it racy towards the climax. Dialogues are EXCELLENT. The home work done by Script Writer is clearly visible in all scenes, especially court matters, register office proceedings & above all Jagathy's character and his LAB.

Directon by Rosshan Andrrews is good. He was able to make the audience travel through the problems of Mathews. SUPERB DIRECTION with great technical perfection.

Nothing more to say, GO FOR IT!!!

Verdict : Very Good
BO Verdict : Super Hit

I felt only one negative in the movie. The opening school visit sequence of Shobha Mohan was a bitlengthy. Watch it atleast 2-3 times in theatres. ENJOY!!!

CHATTAMBINAADU

2009-12-26T13:43:00.000+05:30

CHATTAMBINAADU

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Status : 100
Showtime & Date : 6.30pm, 24th Dec 2009

After the lukewarm response of Shafi-Benny P Nayarambalam team's LOLLIPOP, they are back with a Mammootty starrer one which has nothing new to offer but an entertaining one with never a dull moment.

Story
Veerendra Mallayya(Mammootty) comes to ChembattuNaadu aka ChattambiNaadu. He comes there to buy the properties of Manoj.K.Jayan's character who is the son of Vijayaraghavan's character. Nagendran(Siddhique) is the rival team. The rest of the story is the acton-reaction play of Mammootty and Siddhique & a flashback episode.

Performances
Mammootty as Veerendra Mallayya is good in his Kannada Malayalam slang. Siddhique reminds us his role in Maadambi & Prakash Raj's role in Ghillli in two scenes. Vinu Mohan repeats his Kunchacko Boban-Jayasurya play again. All the thrre female characters Lakshmi Rai, Maidhili & Meenakshi has nothing to do. Maidhili has only one dialogue. Janardhanan, Vijayaraghavan, Saikumar all are apt for the role.

As Benny's previous Mammootty flick AnnanThambi, here too Suraj Venjaarammood & Salimkumar are the big plus points of the movie. Salimkumar reminds us of his role in Mayavi. But his dialogues are good. Suraj was good in certain scenes but went overboard on certain scenes. His Bheeman Raghu act was entertaining.

Technical
Action by Anal Arasu was good. Rest all were usual only.

Songs
Below Average.

Script & Direction
Script by Benny P Nayarambalam is mix of Rajamanikyam & Annan Thampi. An entertaining one till the preclimax episode, a misunderstanding, then truth reveals, film over. Direction by Shafi is racy, but nothing new.

Verdict : Tad above Average Mass Entertainer
B.O Verdict : Above average

When I came out after watching the movie, I saw a flex ALL KERALA VINUMOHAN FANS ASSOCIATION, CHENGALCHOOLA UNIT. Not a single comedy scene in the movie will come anywhere near this COMEDY.

GULUMAAL THE ESCAPE

2009-12-20T22:49:00.006+05:30

Gulumaal the Escape

Theatre : TVM Kripa

Status : 100%

Showtime : 6.15pm

After a series of flops, V.K.Prakash has finally come up with a movie which entertains the audience. This time VKP has come with a comedy genre one.

Story

Ravi Varma(Kunchacko Boban) needs some money to release his father(Nedumudi Venu) from jail. After trying all possible ways, he decides to do Tharikida to get money. He joins Jerry Mathews(Jayasuriya) who is a hardcore conman. They decides to sell a copy of a rare painting to an NRI Emir(Devan). In between Shambhu(Suraj Venjarammood) & assistant(Bijukkuttan) is in search of these two. Also Jerry's sister Saira(Mithra Kurian) works in the same hotel where Emir stays. The rest of the story is how they are selling the painting to NRI and some surprising twists.

Performances

Kunchacko Boban as Ravi Varma has come up with a good performance in his new look, especially in jail sequence with Nedumudi Venu. This one will be a good comeback for him. Jayasuriya as Jerry did his conman role with ease. His hospital sequence in second half was good.Though Suraj and Bijukkuttan track was totally out of the storyline, it was enjoyable, though nothing special. Mithra as Saira has nothing much to do. Devan, Manianpilla Raju, Nedumudi Venu had done their roles well in limited scenes, especially Devan in climax scene was good. APPY BIJU played by Kottayam Nazeer needs a special mention as he rocks in his single scene he got.

Songs

Manu Ramesh has come with songs which stays true to the genre of the movie. Kilukilukkum is my pick with 80's orchestration. Voice modulation by Sithara Balakrishnan was superb.

Technical

Camera Woman Fouziya Fathima has done a great job. Editing was good. As 2 cameras were used, assistants need special mention.

Script and Direction

Script by debutant Y.V.Rajesh is a straight lift from Argentenian movie Nueve Reinas. But he succeeded in making it an enjoyable one with changes for malayalee audience. It is the energy level of the lead stars which makes the movie enjoyable with beautiful sequences. Sequences in which Ravi and Jerry cheating each other was superb. Dialogues were not that powerful in certain scenes. Length of certain scenes should have been reduced. Also climax should have been made in a better way, atleast as in the original which was much more effective and superb. VKP, as usual was able to show something different on screen, this time audience too liked it. On the whole, it is a watchable mass entertainer.

Verdict : Above average

BO Verdict : Already a hit, may become a big hit because of low production cost

As 98% of the audience were families, claps and koovals were not there much. Only for three scenes the whole theatre applauded.

1. Suraj's Chirappunji & Sadashivan Maaman dialogues.

2. Jayasuriya's dialogue "Hey man, come and THORA"

3. Kunchacko Boban's expression when Devan says 3 lakh, DOLLARS, 1.5 crore