FACE 2 FACE

FACE 2 FACE

Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 30-11-2012
Status : Balcony No Idea, FC 40%

Mammootty after a string of flops is back with new release FACE 2 FACE directed by V M Vinu. Interested to read more???

Story
Balachandran(Mammootty) is a police officer under suspension is now a real estate delar & share market broker. He's a drunkard too which created a seperation in family life in the past with Jayasree(Ragini Trivedi). A murder happens in the town & Balachandran's former colleague Prasad(Siddhique) deals the case with Kalabhavan Mani. Initially Prasad suspected Balachandran & later Balachandran decides to find the truth.

Performances
Mammootty was good in parts. For the first time, Mammootty looked very bad in a police uniform on screen like Suraj playing dummy police officer role. Radhika Trivedi was just okay in her 3 scenes. Siddhique as usual was good. Vijayaraghavan repeats his role in movie Nasrani again. Don't know what was the relevance of Roma & Vineeth Kumar. Kalabhavan Mani & Mamukoya shines in their roles. Rest of the cast including newfaces were horrible.

Songs & BGM
Both departments by Alphons. Songs were too loud mixed with rap music & executed very badly with worst picturisation. BGM, though lacks thrill, but was fresh for the theme in first half.

Technical
Ajayan Vincent's camera was good at parts. Rest were nothing worth to be mentioned.

Script & Direction
Theme was a socially relevant one debutant Manoj executed the screenplay in a very bad manner. First half though predictable had enough moments to keep the audience engaged with fine oneliners in between. Second half was a big letdown without a proper ending. Direction by V M Vinu was good in first half. Second half looks like it was directed by someone who came to see shooting. Performances by newcomers in second half was enough to make the audience boo. Songs were misplaced ones with bad picturisation

On the whole, an engaging first half & bad second half with no climax.
Verdict : Watch first half in DVD and trash it
BO Verdict : Disaster

Anyone interested to know the reason behind the title FACE 2 FACE?? Here's the clue


തോക്ക് താഴെയിടെടാ

എടാ തോക്ക് താഴെയിടാന്‍


നിന്റഛനാടാ പറയുന്നെ തോക്ക് താഴെയിടെടാ

101 WEDDINGS

101 WEDDINGS

Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 6pm, 23-11-2012
Status : Balcony Full, FC 55%

Shafi after box office debacle Venicele Vyapari teams up with Kunchacko Boban after Ordinary & Mallu Singh this year along with Biju Menon & Jayasurya. Whether movie entertains us?? Lets see

Story
Film starts with childhood of Krrish aka Krishnankutty(Kunchacko Boban) - son of Munshi Parameshwara Pillai(Vijayaraghavan), a true Gandhian and Antappan(Biju Menon), son of a fraud played by Kochu Preman. Munshi acts against illegal works done by Kochu Preman using police. In return, Antappan always hits Krrish. To get rid of him, he makes Antappan a thief purposefully. Years later, now Krrish is a careless youth thinking of making easy money. Munshi wants him to marry Abhirami(Samvrutha Sunil) in a marriage function arranged by Kasthurba foundation. Without knowing that Abhirami is the daughter of a rich man, Krrish tries to stop the wedding by bringing Jyothish(Jayasurya) into picture as Krrish. By the time Antappan also enters there. When knowing truth about Abhirami, Krrish wants to marry her. Jyothish too wants to marry. When Jyothish comes to know about the past of Krrish & Antappan he blackmails & things become more complex when Abhirami's father too agrees for the marriage. What happens next is the rest.


Performances
Kunchacko Boban as Krrish was good. His comic timing was good with a set of well written dialogues. In sentiment scenes too, he shines. Biju Menon once again repeats his Ordinary play leaving Palakkadan language. He shines in a set of scenes & action sequences. Jayasurya as Jyothish was just okay. His sentiment scene was fine. Samvrutha Sunil looked more beautiful and did her part neatly. Bhama as Rukiya was fine. Her sentiment scene expression was horrible. The person who played Biju Menon's pair(the one who played Rima Kallingal's friend in 22 FEMALE KOTTAYAM) should have given more screenspace. Vijeesh was cool as Chackochan's side kick. Dialogues were funny at many parts. Suraj Venjarammood & Salimkummar were good in parts. Sunil Sugatha was a surprise package with good comic timing. Rest of the cast were fine.

Songs & BGM
Songs by Deepak Dev were hummable. Changathi & Muthodu  were fine. Sajalamai is the pick of the lot. Nice picturisation with good visuals. BGM was fine

Technical
Cinematography was good at parts. Editing was good. Art Direction was superb.

Script & Direction
Script by Kalavoor Ravikumar was a fine entertaining one with a set of fresh scenes and dialogues. A simple oneline, a complexilty & confusions blended neatly & presented well with a set of nice scenes & dialogues. Direction by Shafi was fine. The packaging was good presented in a nice & new atmosphere. Jayasurya's guiness performance was out of place in second half. Shafi's packaging was good as usual and with the fresh plot & atmosphere, he delivers a fine entertainer.

Verdict : A Simple Timepass Comedy Entertainer
BO Verdict : Hit

Movie heavily banks on the new team Kunchacko Boban - Biju Menon.

THUPPAKKI

THUPPAKKI

Theatre : TVM SreePadmanabha
Showtime & Date : 8.45am, 18-11-2012
Status : Housefull with terrific atmosphere

After hatricks - Kavalan, Velayudham & Nanban, ILAYATHALAPATHY VIJAY is back with his new film THUPPAKKI - written & directed by A R Murugadoss after not so well accepted 7am Arivu. This time he created a movie that is fresh screenplay and execution, executed through not the star VIJAY alone but through the actor VIJAY too.

Story
Jagdish(Vijay) - DIA specialist in Indian Army comes to his home in Mumbai for leave. By coincidence, he catches one of the sleeper cell, who made a blast in a bus. Rest of the story is how Jagdish intelligently tracks the whole team.

Performances
Ilayathalapathy VIJAY takes the character to next level with his awesome performance. This time he's not rendering any punchlines, but the simple lines he speak in the movie makes the whole audience clap. Thanks to his immense screen presence, voice modulation & style which took the superb screenplay to a great level. The scene with retired army men was superb. A VIJAY SHOW all the way.

Kajal Agarwal as Nisha was fine in first half where she had something to do. In second half, her role was limited. She was good in her with emotional scene in restaurant. Jayaram in his brief role will make us laugh, Sathyan too. Vidyut Jamal as baddie was fresh and convincing in looks. Rest of the cast did their parts well.

Songs & BGM
Harris Jeyaraj disappoints this time. Google Google sung by Vijay & Andrea was foottapping. Vennilave, Antartica, Kuttippuli were fine with visuals though lacks the punch of usual Vijay movie songs. My pick is POI VARAVAA in climax. Awesome lyrics, superb & touching picturisation. Vennivale & Google were speedbreakers. BGM was awesome, especially the theme music was adrenaline pumping one on screen.

Technical
The whole team was superb. Considering the technical perfection from Santhosh Sivan, cinematography lacks the magic though a set of scenes looked good & the final railway station scene was awesome. Editing by Sreekar Prasad was superb. Art direction by Sunil Babu was cool. Action by Kecha needs special mention - another Peter Hein on the way I think. Hope we can expect fresh action seq from him.

Script & Direction
Both departments handled by A R Murugadoss. Though the oneline seems to be simple, the screenplay was awesome with fresh sequences - especially Interval and one in second half. SUPERB!!! Though Vijay-Kajal scenes & songs in second half were speedbreakers, we can easily forget that negative considering the whole movie. After JULAI, another movie with villain with intelligence. Direction was topnotch. Even simple things were made special with his direction.

On the whole - a great entertainer movie for those who love their nation.

Verdict : GO FOR IT!!!
BO Verdict : BLOCKBUSTER

A R Murugadoss had made not only INDIAN ARMY proud but also their families. Really great and wonderful!!!

BANKING HOURS 10-4

BANKING HOURS 10-4

Theatre : TVM Kripa
Showtime & Date : 6.20pm, 07-08-2012
Status : Balcony FULL, FC 65%

K Madhu, the master of investigative flicks in malayalam cinema is back with his new film BANKING HOURS 10-4, a bank robbery turning to a murder investigation happening in a time gap from 10am-4pm. Lets look in detail

Story
Sravan IPS(Anoop Menon) & his gang is there in LEMO Bank(the bank named after the production banner of this movie Lemo Films I think) as they got an anonymous call regarding a robbery there. In a gap of 20 seconds, a power failure leading to a murder & identifying the murderer within 4pm forms rest of the story.

Performances
Anoop Menon was fine though his Mohanlal play is there to an extent, this time Mammootty play too enters. Tiny Tom delivers a good set of laughable oneliners. More than that, its his true identity revealing scene which made the whole theatre laugh. Jishnu is still at his first movie, may be below that. Kailash was fine at parts & horrible too at parts. Ashokan fails to evoke laughter and his character was too predictable. Vijay Menon was cool as always. Sudheesh was ok. Shankar Golden star Arun, Beyon Gemini, Midhun Ramesh, Arun, Sathar, Meghnaraj, Raghavan...........all were KIDU. If someone sees any advt regarding acting courses, just get two application forms atleast - one for Shafna & other for Vishnupriya. The whole cast seems to be in need for an acting course I think.

TV Serial performances were far better you may feel after watching this one

Songs & BGM
No Songs in movie. Is it the same Rajamani who made us thrilled with his BGM worked for this movie??? Horrible.

Technical
Everything was bad

Script & Direction
Script by Sumesh-Amal team had a good plot. But the screenplay failed. It seems they were in a confusion to make it a murder mystery or a bank robbery or another TRAFFIC by forcefully making things non linear in first half which has got no relevance in the movie. Dialogues were bad though some were fine. Direction by K Madhu was too careless. Though tried to make something new, the shoestring budget, the GREAT performances, bad screenplay, bad technical crew...everything gave company for director to make the final product like this one. Second half was better compared to first half & suspense elements were good though the reason is cliched presented in a very silly manner.

On the whole, a onetime DVD watch

Verdict : Not so thrilling thriller
BO Verdict : One week, MAATTRRAAN intha padathe theatresil irunthu MAATTRRUUM

GAJAPOKKIRI ( JULAYI )

GAJAPPOKIRI(Malayalam version of Telugu movie JULAYI)

First of all, thanks to r Ganesh Kumar for his idea of theatre grading which makes the screen, seats & overall atmoshpere off Anjali theatre looks better. Happy to see a well made reservation counter too in SL Complex

Theatre : TVM Anjali
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 29-08-2012
Status : Balcony No idea, a pretty good status was there I think as the claps from balcony was superb, FC 50%

Allu Arjun, after the much hyped failure BADRINATH is back with his new movie JULAYI which made a release in malayalam as GAJAPOKKIRI after 1 week of Telugu release. Trivikram who made one of my all time favourite telugu flick ATHADU is the director of this movie. Lets take a look

Story
Ravi(Allu Arjun) is a youth dreaming of becoming rich in short time span. On the way to a bidding centre for IPL match, he accidentally meets a bank robbery gang of Bichu(Sonu Sood) planning a Rs.1500 crore robbery from a nearby gang. Ravi with his intelligence traps Bichu. From then on its a cat & mouse game - An intelligent hero and an intelligent villain.

Performances
Allu Arjun delivers a cool performance as usual in a role in which he is at his best - Happy golucky easy careless youth. Ileana was usual in a typical telugu film heroine. Her looks in initial few scenes looked superb. Rajendra Prasad as timid police officer was awesome. Brahmanandam as a thief was funny, M S Narayana too. Sonu Sood as intelligent villain Bichu is his recent best role.

Music & BGM
Music by DeviSri Prasad disappoints a bit this time. Julayi & Osey Osey were the best. O Madhu also works with the movie. Picturisation lacks freshness & most of them looked same except in location & costumes. Placement of songs kills the thrill. BGm was good

Technical
Cinematography was good. Editing was crispy though second half needs a bit trimming. Art direction was fine. Action scenes were typical.

Script & Direction
Both departments are handled by Trivikram. Plot was a supercool one which he succeeded in converting to a mass entertainer. The biggest plus point is the baddie is also an intelligent sometimes more intelligent than hero. A superb first half with all ingedients to make viewers happy is the main plus point. INTERVAL sequence was one of the best one in recent times. Compared to first half, second half is a bit down though enjaoyable. Climax episode was also a cool one except Sonu Sood's comic acting in climax similar to PrakashRaj in Pokkiri. Second half could have been a better as the plot & proceedings were superb. Intelligent is the word that can be given to the script as it proceeds with simple dialogues in first half for future proceedings. Thanks to the malayalam dialogues by Sathish Muthukulam, even comedy scenes worked well in theatres in dubbing edition. Producer Khadar Hassan had made lots of changes in banners & other items in movie to make it a malayalam cinema which is very much appreciable.

On the whole an enjoyable mass movie

Verdict : Intelligent Entertainer
BO Verdict : Hit

RUN BABY RUN

RUN BABBY RUN

Theatre : TVM Sreekumar

Showtime & Date : 2.30PM, 29-08-2012
Status : Balcony FULL, FC 60%
Joshiy is back with another ONAM release RUN BABBY RUN,after Kunchacko Boban starrer SEVENES last year, this time with Mohanlal after the hit movie CHRISTIAN BROTHERS - scripted by Sachi of Sachi-Sethu team. Whether movie entertains us, LETS SEE

Story
Venu(Mohanlal) - a stinger cameraman of Reuters returns to Kerala as part of a case in court. Accidently he met with Renuka(Amala Paul) who was his ex-lover who were seperated of the similar reason we saw in the case of Mohanlal & Priyamani in recent Mohanlal flick Grandmaster. Both were assigned to work on a single case which makes their life keep on running.

Performances
Mohanlal as Venu was safe in his hands. Though the flashback episode was bad, soon after the flashback episode, Mohanlal delivered a fine performance with cool oneliners. Amala Paul was okay in her role Renuka. At parts she was good. BIJUMENON as Rishi is the one who stole most of the smart scenes in the movie with well written dialogues. Superb dialogue delivery in many scenes. Vijayaraghavan, Saikumar, Siddhique, Shammi Thilakan, Anil Murali, Aparna did their part.

Ameer Niyaz makes his appearance in this movie too as Abu after SEVENES, good role though a small role.

Songs & BGM
Only the song Aattumanal sung by Mohanlal was there in the movie. Makers please dont air this song video in TV channels as it'll give only negative publicity. BGM was ok  only, lacks freshness.

Technical
R D Rajasekhar's camera lacks the magic which the theme demanded. Editing was fine at parts. Art direction was superb. Action by Anal Arasu & Pazhaniraj lacks freshness.

Script & Direction
Script by Sachi(Sachi-Sethu team) had a great plot to be a super racy entertainer. But the screenplay couldn't rise to the level of the plot. Compromise is the word which killed the party I think. Unwanted romance track, songs, a heroine, hero praising by other characters, a predictable flashback..... If these things were avoided, then it would have been a better one. The first 45 minutes were just oke with a predictable flasback & romance. After that the movie took a turn to a racy thriller with witty oneliners by Mohanlal & Bijumenon. 15 min after interval the plot became great, but screenplay became more & more predictable with a very much predictable climax episode. Villain teams were not at all convincing for the plot. Movie focuses on News TV channel wars than any other surrounding things which makes things look bore at parts. Sachi - please watch the movie KO

Direction by Joshiy was incnsistent. Direction lacked the usual Joshiy signature. The whole movie starts 20 min before interval only. To a large extent, it is this master craftman's talent which made the climax portions this engaging.

On the whole, a uninteresting 50 min & an engaging 20+ minutes firsthalf & a good set of moments alone in an average predictable climax

Verdict : Tad above Average
BO Verdict :  HIT, at max

After watching the movie, we may feel like the apt title for the movie was the previous one - CAMERAMAN VENUVINOPPAM RENUKA

THAAPPAANA

THAAPPAANA

Theatre : TVM New
Showtime & Date : 6:30 pm, 19-08-2012
Status : Balcony FULL, FC 95%

Expectations were very low as THAPPANA is the latest outing from Mammootty after 8 consecutive flops & Mammootty again with Johny Antony after Thuruppugulan & Ee Pattanathil Bhootham who himself was delivering flops, the latest being MASTERS released this year. When the song started airing, the movie gave some expectation as it was picturised well. Whether the movie succeeds as an entertainer??? Lets see

Story
Samson aka Samkutty(Mammootty) - a small time good hearted thief who has difficulty in pronouncing "Sa" while talking and Mallika(Charmi Kaur) got released from jail on same day. When Mallika mets with an accident, Samson saves her & takes her back to her village. On the way both shares their flashback & Samson stays back in Mallika's village for her. Watch rest on screen.

Performances
After a long time, a full fledged energetic performance from Mammootty. Superb expressions, dialogue delivery, action & smart comedy timing. Watch the movie for Mammootty.

Charmi as Mallika was fine though second half didn't provide ample screen space except two good scenes. Vijayaraghavan, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Muraly Gopi, Suresh Krishna, Mala Aravindan, Anil Murali, Irshad, Geetha Vijayan were fine in their roles. Happy to see the very same good hearted character role of Sadhique which we last saw in LalJose's Arabikkadha if I'm not wrong. Finally Sajitha Betty performed well in a movie. She was good in the climax performance.

The actor who simply rocked, though a brief role is none other than VIJEESH aka NOOLUNDA who played the quotation gan leader SABU aka CHETTATHY SABU(Watch the movie for the reason behind the name & his terrific HHHOUUU)

Songs & BGM
There was only one song in the movie - "Oorum Perum Ariyathe" which worked well with the audience. Superb Music. "Kallan" theme song was used in between a robbery episode. BGM was cool though one was rehash of Dingiripattalam song.

Technical
Cinematography by RajaRatnam was good. Editing was good in first half, needs trimming in second half. Art Direction was good. Title animation was cool.

Script & Direction
Script by Sindhuraj was super cool in first half with witty oneliners throughout & an engaging screenplay on the lines of a road movie though no storyline was developed much till few minute before interval. Post Interval screenplay was a repeated edition of sequences though oneliners were enjoyable. Second half could have been a lot lot better with the plot, but the screenplay killed the party. There were lots of characters which were half baked. Still it works on screen with dialogues & Mammootty. The pre written predictable climax was the problem, the same we have seen in Thattathin Marayathu second half too. Direction by Johny Antony was good in first half, but lacks the sincerety in second half. Action sequences could have been better though the one presented is good. Second half lacked the punch both in script & direction.

Overall a good enjoyable first half & an average second half with good set of dialogues in both halves.
Verdict : Above Average
BO Verdict : HIT

Finally MAMMOOTTY - the ACTOR & STAR is back!!!