ALEXANDER THE GREAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.