NORTH 24 KAATHAM

NORTH 24 KAATHAM

Theatre : TVM Dhanya
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm,16-09-2013
Status : Balcony Almost FULL, FC 21 persons
A small movie with Fahad Fazil in lead released this Onam season - NORTH 24 KAATHAM by debutant Anil Radhakrishnan Menon. Does the movie offers anything interesting?? Lets see.

Story
Hari(Fahad Fazil), an IT professional at Ernakulam is an introvert and a person who has a disciplined life and more concerned about cleanliness. He was forced to attend a meeting at Trivandrum on a Harthal Day. On the way, situations made him to be with Saghav(Nedumudi Venu) and Narayani aka Nani(Swathi) on their way to Kozhikode. How they reach Kozhikode from Paravur near Kollam on a harthal day, the persons they meet and how everything changes Hari's life forms the story.

Performances
Fahad Fazil as Hari delivered a brilliant performance with less dialogues and more expressions. Nedumudi Venu delivered another terrific performance especially towards climax. His dialogues about his wife while travelling in an auto was awesome. Swathi did a notable performance as social worker Nani. Premji Amaran in his cameo made his mark. His trademark dialogue recieved terrific applause. Sreenath Bhasi, Geetha, Thalaivasal Vijay did a neat job so as rest of the cast.


Songs & BGM
Govind Menon handled both sections. He did a great job. Especially the last song and climax episode BGM was top noth with nice lyrics.

Technical
Everything was perfect - be it Jayesh Nair's Cinematography or Dilip Dennies's Editing or Sameera Saneesh's costumes.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Anil Radhakrishnan Menon. A simple story presented in a beautiful manner. Though climax was predictable, the packaging was too good and the lead actors' performances took the movie to another level. Dialogues were natural. The best one being Nedumudi's dialogues about his wife.

Nothing more to say, the best movie of this Onam season is undoubtedly this one
Verdict : Go for it
BO Verdict : Multiplexes and Balcony hit, Audience out there, please support this one.

AMEN

AMEN

Theatre : Aluva Madhurya
Showtime & Date : 11.30am, 07-04-2013
Status : 45%
AMEN, the third movie by LIJO JOSE PALLISSERY who created NAYAKAN & CITY OF GOD before, is turning out to be a serious threat to malayalam movie makers. Lets see HOW

Story
Its as old as a hill storyline : Poor hero, Rich heroine, Heroine's relatives & others as villains. How they unite. Difference is the story is happening in  60s/70s. Solomon(Fahad Fazil) is in love with Sosanna(Swathy) though her father and brother are against this. Solomon wants to be part of band team run by the chruch. But he couldn't. Then comes Fr.Vincent Vattoly(Indrajith) as priest to the church. Watch the rest on screen.

Performances
Fahad Fazil as Solomon was good with his trademark innocent smile which we saw in Annayum Rasoolum this year. Indrajith as Vincent Vattoly was effective. Swathy steals the scenes in which she appear. Anil Murali as in every Lijo Jose movie was superb. Nandulal though good, reminds us Jagathy Sreekumar. Sudheer Karamana was typical. Sunil Sugatha was apt, Rachana was fine. Kalabhavan Mani reminds us Thilakan in his role. He did it well.

It is the rest of the supporting cast which makes the show entertaining with their fresh faces and performances.

Songs & BGM
Songs fitted perfectly to the treatment of the movie. BGM was top class. Prashanth Pillai did a good job.

Technical
Cinematographer Abhinandan Ramanujam makes the movie an experience with his work. Kuttanad was picturied in a mesmerising way. Top angle camera works were awesome in lake shots. Editing was good though final band competition & second half at parts lags. Art Direction, though good lacked perfection especially flexes and other things towards climax parts.

Script & Direction
Story by Lijo was a cliched one. Its the screenplay by P S Rafeeq makes it different. Dialogues by Lijo & Rafeeq could have been a bit more better atleast in certain scenes as it does not fit well to the mood and scene. Second half was a bit lagging and predictable one with lengthy proceedings. Could have been better.

It is direction by Lijo Jose Pallissery that takes the movie from pass mark level to A grade. In his first movie NAYAKAN itself he proved his approach in making cliched scenes a different one. In this one, it was evident in each frame amply supported by cinematographer. EXCELLENT FIRST HALF and a GOOD SECOND HALF DIRECTION


Overall an entertaining movie that can be watched for the director's craft

Verdict : Director's movie
BO Verdict : HIT

Coming to the opening line, how Lijo becomes a threat to Malayalam movie makers. 90% of Malayalam movie makers including debutants tries to make movies for audience and tries to make it a hit with the formula created by predecessors enjoyed by audience before. Lijo takes it other way. He makes movie from his point of view and make it liked by all. So movie makers and future movie makers out there, remember, this director is setting standards on how to approach a scene eventhough a cliched one and make it appealing to all. You people have to work hard more to satisfy audience from now on.