NERAM

NERAM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another new director for malayalam cinema with new visions

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

Verdict : RACY ENTERTAINER
BO Verdict : Sure HIT

After AMEN, another movie fully belonging to director.

BHARYA ATHRA PORA

BHARYA ATHRA PORA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On the whole a good family entertainer.

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

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

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

HOTEL CALIFORNIA

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUMBAI POLICE

MUMBAI POLICE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verdict : Average(at max)
BO Verdict : Flop

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.

IMMANUEL

IMMANUEL

Theatre : Aluva Matha
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 06-04-2013
Status : Balcony Almost FULL, Fc 30%+

First of all, special thanks to SIFY website which gave verdict for this movie as AVERAGE in their website.

After "Puramkazhchakal" episode in KERALA CAFE, Mammootty and LalJose joins together for a new movie IMMANUEL scripted by newcomer Vijeesh A C. Is this movie an average one only a SIFY rated??? Or is it below that?? Or ....???? Lets see

Story
Immanuel(Mammootty) a good kindhearted man with wife & a son Robin, loses his job in his publishing house as Josephettan(Sunil Sugatha) had a lot of debt. To survive, he joins a Life Insurance Company. Rest is his life there & about his good heart.

Performances
Mammootty-that may be the only name, even a debutant director too will think for this role. Tailor made one which he performed, sorry lived on screen. What to tell more especially about his voice modulation in certain scenes.

Fahadh Fazil in his brief role was fine. Reena Mathews(Is she the one who played Chakky aka Nisha Varghese in DECEMBER MIST, the telefilm) was fine. The kid who played Robin was good. Mukesh, Innocent, Devan, Salimkumar, Ramesh Pisharady, Anil Murali, Bijukuttan all in their limited screenspace was good.  Suni Sugathan was superb in his role as Josephettan.

Sukumari made her final role an emotional one with a fantastic final dialogue.


Songs & BGM
Both departments handled by Afsal Yusuf. Immanuel title song was good. Rest were ok. BGM had a GopiSundar touch in initial sequences, later it was fine.

Technical
Art Direction needs special mention. Cinematography & Editing were apt.

Script & Direction
Script by debutant Vijeesh A C needs mention. Story was a cliched one only. But screenplay was refreshing one. Dialogues were the main plus point of the movie - simple but powerfull and hard hitting. Though Mukta episode in second half was a lengthy one in second half, later it managed. Also mentioning newgen as villains through Salimkumar also could have been avoided. Though predictable things only, overall a good work. I think script writer worked in an insurance company before, good homework on script was evident.

LAL JOSE - the master craftsman. An ordinary script when comes through the frames of LAL JOSE will be something welcomed and loved by all kinds of audience. That MAGIC worked here may be to a great level. EXCELLENT WORK

THERE IS AN IMMANUEL IN EACH ONE OF US. WATCH THE MOVIE & REALISE OUR MISTAKES & BE ANOTHER IMMANUEL ATLEAST AT TIMES, GOD BLESS!!!
Verdict : Very Good
BO Verdict : Nalla Cinemaye ishtappedunnavar ee moviede koode

Tears of happiness can be experienced in many scenes.

Coming to SIFY matter mentioned in the beginning. I think the person who wrote the review was a kind of person which Fahad enacted in the movie. I think he/she watched the movie and reviewed it as part of her job mentioning only Fahad as a positive factor. Mr/Miss/Mrs REVIEWER, please understand that people watching movie in theatres are not watching it for the sake of it like you did. Kerala Audience are still the same old audience who always welcomes these good movies.

3 DOTS

3 DOTS
 
Theatre : Aluva Zeenath Screen 1
Showtime & Date : 6.15pm, 22-03-2013
Status : Balcony Full, FC 70%

Kunchacko Boban-Biju Menon team joins again after the first hit of this year ROMANS along with the director of ORDINARY - the blockbuster of last year which made the combo a magic one. So will they repeat the magic of ORDINARY in box office??? Lets see

Story
Vishnu(Kunchacko Boban) is a petty thief stealing mobile phones, Louiy(Biju Menon) a goon and Pappan aka Pappettan(Prathap Pothen) meets at jail. After the counselling programme by Dr.Issac(Narein), they decided to start a new life after releasing from jail. Vishnu & Louiy goes to Pappan's flat and there they starts a new life. Vishnu is now a private ambulance driver & Louiy and Pappan runs a kindergarten with the help of Dr.Issac. Their life changes when they involve to solve Dr.Issac's problem. Watch the rest on screen.

Performances
Kunchacko Boban as Vishnu has delivered a smart performance. His intro scene was stylish to the core. As usual, the romantic scenes featuring Chackochan was a treat to watch. Climax protions belongs to him. Once again his chemistry with Biju Menon works in many scenes. Biju Menon has got a good set of oneliners this time too though his performance was dull at parts especially in second half. Pratap Pothen was good as Pappettan especially his scenes in flat and gestures were funny. Narein got a good role but failed to raise to the level except in climax action sequence. Heroines had nothing much to do. Rest of the cast did their part well.

Songs & BGM
Vidyasagar was not in good form this time though the theme music and the song version was fine. Kannil Kannil is the pick of the lot. Songs were picturised very well with smart visuals. BGM was fine.

Technical
Art Director Suresh Kollam and Cinematographer Faisal Ali are the show stealers here. Awesome work by both. Editing by V Saajan was good in first half but needs trimming in second half.

Script & Direction
Story by director Sugeeth is as old as hill plot only - a rehashed version of Ramji Rao Speaking & tamil movie SA-RO-JA. Screenplay & Dialogues by Rajesh Raghavan was entertaining in first half though no major story started in first half. Not a single dull moment in first half. Second half moves in a predictable way and once Narein's plot starts the movie starts lagging. Still the climax was entertaining though predictable. Direction by Sugeeth had a fresh approach especially in first half. The way the characters were introduced and till Interval portion was visual treat. Romantic scenes were taken in a beautiful manner - with close up shots and slow motion with apt BGM. Second half faced the problem of lagging for audience due to predictability and lengthy scenes of Narein. Climax was well executed.

On the whole a good first half & tads above average second half with a fine climax

Verdict : Above Average
BO Verdict : Hit

The movie is a perfect vacation entertainer but chances for another ORDINARY show in box office is less.

Once again Kunchacko Boban-Biju Menon combo is encashed in many scenes, the title sequences is the best example for their chemistry