Movie Reviews

August 15 Review

2011-03-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

I saw this movie couple of days back, but had to wait till now to write this, to regain my confidence that I am a person of normal intelligence.

August 15 is a basic school drama type movie. Known plots, obnoxious characters and irritating dialogues.

And remember to leave your intelligence at the door, you won’t need them while you watch this movie. Even the producer, director or script writer never used it, then why would you?

The plot is the same, a good CM, and villains targeting to kill him. The basic problem with this plot is that, it is way too predictable and it takes a genius to present it in an intelligent manner. Think of “Catch me if you can” – it was predictable too, but see how well it was presented. That shows the intelligence and caliber of the movie makers.

As always, there is a person who is given a negative shade so that naturally, the audience will suspect them (In this movie, the director is kind enough to explain the plot in the first 10 minutes in a detailed manner. So that the dumb witted people like me can understand what is happening on the screen. Here it’s established that mafia has hired Siddique to kill the CM). Now this being a typical S.N. Swamy movie, we always know that there will be a twist (if I can call it that) so to confuse us, there is a character( Aravindakshan played by Jagathy), given an extra shade of goodness, so that we may think that he is behind all this.

Then twist on twist, a character in the sidelines is the actual person who planned all this. (Remember Vijayaraghavan from CBI 1?) It could be anyone, you choose- it could be even CM’s wife. Then the hero explains and gives weird reasons why he/she is the villain. We have no choice but to accept it, and wonder the brilliance of the hero and go home happily. Justice is done. Peace.

But justice is not done to the audience. Remember Manichitrathazhu- the scene in which Shobhana goes for the neck of Mohanlal long before the suspense is revealed- It was shown to us, right before our eyes, but we still missed it. If you were smart enough, we could have caught Shobhana there. There is nothing like that in this movie, Not even a spark.

And the interesting part is the movie makers know all this, but they don’t care. They try to give explanations for minor things like why Mammootty doesn’t wear a helmet and leaves all the major loopholes in the movie open.

Super hero Mammootty, is the CB CID. He is all in all, knows it all, and just below god in knowledge and status. He doesn’t believe in helmets, rides his Enfield in slow motion, wearing low- waist pants.

Let me ask you- if we know someone is poisoned, what do we do? We try to find what poison it is, its availability and access to people we can suspect. We trust the lab to give us the report. That is their expertise. But not for Mammootty- He searches Wikipedia and finds everything about poison and explains those to the core team. I even saw him typing frantically with Wikipedia page open- maybe he fixed some errors while he was there.

Then the Villain, obsessed with killing the CM, shoots from a roof top. Ha Ha ! Not with clever Mammootty around. He had put a dummy in the car. ( For once, I wished the dummy was me, it was far better). Then, remember there is a battalion of policemen around him, but only Mammootty with his zoom vision spots Siddiqque, and runs behind him alone. It is my humble request to the director, out of respect to the age of the actors, please don’t make them do all that.

Yes, the director got some young and fit stunt men to do the jumping etc, But still there is a lot of running around and movements, Can our actors in their present age, do all that? I wouldn’t take that risk.

In the good old days, Prem Nazir knew a stunt to jump backwards to the top of a building, there are similar scenes in this new age modern flick!

Mammootty also makes the portraits of the Villain, in Photoshop, sticks everything on to a wall and randomly shoots at the images. Suddenly, one portrait comes apart, and that is the villain’s image !

Who is he? The parrot in a cage? To pick a card, that predicts the future?

Mammootty, once says, that he doesn’t need an office for some weird reason, but after a while he is in a beautifully decorated office with some 2-3 beautiful girls from Police CyberCell. And you know what the Cybercell does? They have hired a few good looking girls, they call up the mobile operator guys and sweet talk to them to give them the required details. WTF? It shows the bloody ignorance and attitude of the script writer and the director. I say, if there is anyone who is working in cybercell, who has dignity, should file defamation case against this movie. What a shame!

Everything takes time in this movie, “it will take couple of days to get the lab report” “it will take couple of days to get that report” so that the movie can go on for about 2 hours or more. If the reports come fast, which I bet it can, there is no story, there is no movie, and there is no money. In this way, “it will take couple of generations for these super directors and script writers to mature and create something watchable”

The DGPs runs to Mammootty whenever they are confused or tense- like school children to the teacher- Mr. Know it all, consoles them, explains things to them and sends them back clearing all their doubts, but stops short of giving them homework.

And finally, Mammootty kills the villain in a theatre which is on fire. Surprise! Who would have thought?

I think the lead characters name was Mammootty itself. All I saw was Super Hero, Demigod Mammootty on the screen. No character.

And in this election time, the movie says that there are no issues between the CM and the party secretary. But we knew that already. Didn’t we?

Technically speaking

For shooting movies, and to ensure that the shots are steady, there is this new fangled contraption called a camera stand. Pradeep Nair, if you are unaware of this device- it will help you stabilize your shots and offer the viewer a better viewing experience. I got squint eyes and neck is still sprained watching this movie. Completely unnecessary pans and zooms- a typical aspect of Shaji Kailas movies- which was a trade mark of old B grade movies still continues in this. FEFKA or PEPSI, whatever is its name, please pass a resolution to Never ever again give Pradeep a zoom lens. He will play around with it like a kid with a new toy and make the whole experience a painful one. Maybe it’s my eyes, but I am pretty sure that I saw some shots which were completely out of focus.

Set direction- check any scene, which has a table- there is a pencil holder with multi color pencils. Be it DGPs office, Mammotty's home, CM's home or anywhere. Did the director parallely announce an art competition among the characters?( as a sample see here, here, here and here )

The shoddiness of the director is such that, even the false beards of the priest are so evident as if it’s a kid's fancy dress. Havent you guys figured how to fix a beard till now? Come on, really ?

Technically, this movie sucks. (as if it doesn't suck otherwise!) Typical marriage video standard editing/animations, audio and video unsynchronized multiple times, oh and did I say about the shoddy and pseudo action film camera work?

Only one good thing about this movie is that there is no Kavya Madhavan and Dileep and a song in London streets. And hence I generously give .1/2 marks more than Christian Brothers.

August 15 is a cheap, boring and silly high school drama.

August 15 Rating: 2.5/10

Christian Brothers

2011-03-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Direction: Joshiy / Joshee/ Josh-hee or some other funny spelling. Other crew: I don't know, and I frankly don't care, because, they are not even worth mentioning.

Well, we have all seen this- a hundred times. A father of high moral values - misunderstands his son- thinks son is gone rogue - dad supports the villains - kicks the son out of his house - later when the villains attack the father, son returns - saves him - father says sorry and dies.

Just to refresh your memory -Sphadikam, Balettan, Chotta Mumbai - a few in which Gentleman Cadet Mohanlal himself starred. So if you have seen any of those, save yourselves from this one, go buy a bottle for the cost of the ticket and enjoy your evening.

~~Josheeyi~~, ~~Josh-hee~~, ~~joshy~~ ~~josh hey~~ Joshey after the hangover of 20-20 is stuck in the same soup formula, mega movies, huge stars(literally!), larger than life roles and cheap slap stick comedy.

Here is the story, or what is left of it: Rtd. Captian Vargheese Mappila (Saikumar) marries off his daughter Jessy (lakshmi Gopalaswamy) to Krishna(Goergootty) who is actually a pimp in Mumbai. Christi(Mohanlal ) who is a decent god fearing, family loving son, as he always used to be in all movies, goes to Mumbai and finds out the dealings of Georgeootty. Georgeootty kills the goondas who were chasing them for no apparent reason, while he could have run away, hands over the gun the Christi and escapes. The police arrests poor innocent Christi(violins in the background, please). Georgootty doesn't stop there- he goes home, kills Jessy, his wife, again for no apparent reason. The clever villain then goes to Kerala, to Saikumar and tells him its Christi who did all this.

Tang da-dang !

Poor Christi out on bail, returns to his father to explain these things- Then the familiar thing happens-
Christi: "Dad, I have to tell you something"
Vargheese Mappila: "No, I dont want to hear anything! You have spoiled the family's prestige ! you killed my daughter! Get out ! I dont want to see you again!"

Christi: " But dad, its kind of important, you should hear this"
Vargheese Mappila: "No! I dont want to hear it! Get out!"

(well, if you remember seeing such scenes a 2983 times before, starting from Satyan-Sheela movies, its your fault, you don't forget anything, do you?)

Christi, is disappointed as much he would be if he didn't get ticket to a movie, walks out of the house, promising never to return.

That bugger pimp Georgeootty, killed his sister, put him in jail, blamed him for everything, won the trust of dad, and is staying in the same house with your other sister- and Christy cool, simbly walks out.

If you are still with me, there is more- Suraj Venjaranmoodu is irritating( if i had a cook like him, he wouldnt last 2 days at my home- got to admire the patience of the Home Minister(Devan)), Harisree ashokan( his 24th time in the role of a broker) is damn irritating. Guys, wake up! the name of what you did on screen is called cheapness, not comedy. I had a better laugh when I watched clowns in cheap circus tents.

The intro scene of Mohanlal: After the usual build up, there is fire all over the screen- Mohanlal appears and floats horizontally and fires bullets at the audience, then he splits into 3 and joins back again. What an amazing skill! I hear that Mohanlal recently mastered this trick while training with the Indian army.

Then there are the main villains- Vijayaraghavan and co. They just drink scotch whiskey near the pool and randomly stab and kill people.

The average age of all the actors in the movie is 53 years, 9 months.

A fat and old Suresh Gopi, a faint shadow of his former movie image, mouthing rhyming dialogues and marching here and there in uniform.

The fight scenes at regular intervals of 20 minutes are perfectly choreographed by Disco Shanti. No body gets hurt.(nothing spectacular here, go out for a smoke if you like. if you have seen one Mohanlal fight, you have seen it all)

Its a 3 hour 15 minutes of non stop torture. Wait for a few weeks and the theater projector operators will do some editing for you, and hopefully make more sense then what is presently there. I am sure with some lavish use of scissors, we can recycle the rubbish and re create a 10 minute crisp completely different movie. or maybe a couple of them.

Other than to show a bit of skin and also to show us, the stupid audience, that Christi is a man with emotions and is capable of loving and caring, there is Lakshmi Rai, and two completely unnecessory songs.

Dileep blabbers his usual stuff and roams around through screens, well, I don't know what else he did in the movie, other than being a reason to bring in Kavya Madhavan and an irritating song in foreign locations.

This is the kind of nonsense movie these old Jurassic age directors churn out. These are the kind of movies the stalwarts like Mohanlal and Suresh Body choose to act.

And these are the kind of movie that we, poor Malayalees, deserve to see- because its us, and no body else, gave the movie makers the feeling that we will gulp down any sh*t that is presented to us packed in colorful superstar wrappers and tied with the ribbon of over hype.

Enjoy your evening watching the news at home, it will be more entertaining than this movie

Christian Brothers Rating: 2/10

Bhargavacharitham Moonam Khandam

2006-08-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

Director: Joemon // Producer: Noushad, Najeeb // Cast: Mammootty, Sreenivasan, Johnny, Mohan Jose, Saikumar, Rahman, Salim Kumar // Editing: PC Mohan // Screenplay: Sreenivasan // Story: Joemon, Sreenivasan

Undoubtedly one of the worst movies i have ever seen. There is not even a single moment which is enjoyable. This will not even qualify as an okay movie in a high school project.

The plot is interesting. The Hero( iam not sure who is the Hero, since Mammootty and Srinivasan share the screen space equally.. More over there was no song sequences of hero and heroine in foregin locales, so I really dont know who is the hero. But since our super heros does not act in anything less than a hero role, i guess it is Mammootty. ) is an underworld don, with ganja plantations and other criminal acts to his credit. He one day suddenly looses his confidence, and cannot shoot or smash the head of his opponents. He seeks the help of a crazy psychoanalyst (sreenivasan). Have I seen an english movie with almost the same plot ?

But the whole thing goes for a toss in the execution of the idea. The script seems to be is written by a 10th grade student who just saw a movie for the first time in his life. Mammootty is wasted in his role. Srinivasan is okay, trying to do a "udayananu tharam" kind of role. Salim kumar will have to look for other job options if he is planning his career this way (he could ask harisree ashokan, who walked the path before him)
The scenes are not connected, the audio/visual not synchronized, nothing is good in this movie.
I can go on and on.. but I am not wasting any more time writing a review on this s***t.

It’s a crap, dont even go near the theatre which plays this movie.

Bhargavacharitham Moonam Khandam rating : 1/10

FAQS

2006-07-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Who are you ?
Pretty old song, but I like it. If you are interested check here.

Why do you write movie reviews ?
Because I am passionate about movies. Movies are the only place where I reach always before time, and never leaves till they turn off the projector.

So are you a professional movie critic or what ?
Nope. I am a software engineer/designer. I write code/draw graphics for a living.

Then what makes you think that you can write reviews ?
I am a member of the public to whom the movies are targeted to. That gives me the right to comment about what I see. And I know exactly what I like and what I dislike. I write just my views.

I dont agree with your views about "xyx" movie.
This is the FAQ section. and thats not a Question.

Okay, I dont agree with your views about "xyz" movie. what do you have to say ?
What I write is not the last word. Its my sincere attempt to start a discussion. If you have differing views, please write them in the comments section. You are also free to email me your views. Lets debate.

Why dont you write about the good things in a movie, than pointing out the bad things ?
Thats what the reviews in news papers and websites are for. They have to promote the movie. They always have to be *politically right*. I dont have to be.

Does anyone read this stuff ?
I am not sure of others, but I know for sure, that you are reading this now.

Can I write a review for your site ?
Sure, send me. If it passes the test, I shall put it up with due credits.

What test ?
I check the bits you send for atmoic radiation using Geiger counters and scintillometers. If the radiation is less than 50 mrem (.5 mSv), I send it across to the approvals and denials committiee of intergalactic movie review nodal center(IGMRNC). After processing, they send back a subatomic particle, if its a proton, i publish. If its an electron, sorry, i dont.

Hmm. Whom do I complaint to if you dont publish my review ?
The Grievance Redressal Forum(TGRF) of IGMRNC

What if i have a question that is not covered in this FAQ ?
Then obviously, its not a FAQ. Mail it directly to me.

Rasatanthram

2006-04-16T04:49:00.000-07:00

//Director:Sathyan Anthicaud // Producer:Antony Perumbavoor// Cast: Mohanlal,Meera Jasmine,Bharat Gopi, Siddique, Innocent, Jagathy Sreekumar // Music: Ilayaraja // Lyrics: Girish Puthencherry //Screenplay: Sathyan Anthikkad //

You guys expect a lot. But when you walkout as the credits roll up, I am not sure if you could be satisfied with what you got.

For any movie, the base is a story or one-line. It’s the foundation on which the movie is built up. If its not strong enough, sure, whatever u build above it, will collapse, even if you support it with national award winning actors, pull in all the comedians and coat it with family sentiments.

Premachandran(Mohanlal), is a carpenter, living with his father(Gopi). He is supposed to be an expert in his work (what did u expect, after all he is the hero if the movie, right ? )

His colleagues, Innocent and others love him much.

Premachandran, Once sees heroine, naked(?) taking bath. I don’t know why they always do this shot. Take 100 movies and in 10 of them, the hero sees his heroine in her birthday suit first ! In the past, Mohan lal has seen other heroines too nude, Remember Indraja in “Ustad” ?

He then finds out that she is a poor Tamil girl, Kanmani, working as a maid in a rich house, often ill treated. He saves her from suicide and she ends up dressed as a boy, and living among others who never suspects her to be girl. Wait, wait.. I will agree that there are a few girls who can dress up as a man and go unnoticed. But Meera Jasmine ? No way!

Mean while the police hunts for the girl, and a local Romeo, is under arrest. He ‘confesses’ to the police that he has send that girl to Tanjavoor. That’s only piece in the movie which is humorous.

But before long, the police find out about the drama and in the court Kanmani says that I am not forced and would like to live with the Hero.

That’s all.

Producer: But its only 1 hour now!
Director: Hmm.. let me see we will add some flashback

Director brings in the past of the hero being in jail for a murder case. (of course, he didn’t commit it ! Hello, our heroes are soo nice that they can’t do any sin.)

Producer: okay some 20 more minutes gone. But we need more!
Director: we need some sentiments. Let’s try the angle of land recovery and the houses of poor people being demolished for development. You know it works well with the masses!
Producer: But the Hero’s house is not a set! The real owners will kick our asses!
Director: No, No, we will cut before that.

The houses of premachandran and his neighbors are demolished.

Producer: 1.40 hours. What do I show the people for the rest of the time? Your old movies ?
Director: How about some old people neglected in the society? I tried that in my last movie, manassinakkare, and it worked well.
Producer: what ever! I need a two and a half hour movie!

Cut to the old age home, sentiments.

Producer: Fine, Its hardly 2 hours now.
Director: wait, I have a few aces up my sleeve! You saw my movie, Veendum chila veettu karyangal ? In that I have used this, Rich bro and sis of the hero, ignoring the parents, but the hero, though poor, takes care of them. How does that sound ?
Producer: Great ! do it !

The Hero has a brother and sister who lives their own high profile lives in the society. But they are rich but our hero is rich in love. The hero is not invited for his bro’s daughter’s marriage ! Cry, audience, cry !

Producer: No one would cry for such a simple reason.
Director: okay, lets take the 19^th adavu !

The heros father passes away, peacefully.

Producer: Wow ! that’s good ! now they will cry.
Director: You bet !
Producer: but aren’t your movies known for comedy ?
Director: ooops ! I forgot ! Do you have jagathy’s phone number ?

Jagathy comes in as muraimaman of Kanmani with intentions of marrying her.

By that time the hero realizes that the only one who loves him in this world is Kanmani and marries her.

Shubham !

I told you, you expected a lot. But you will be disappointed in this.

No story no movie !
The director should be made to write this imposition 1000 times.

But there are a few good points in this movie, the music by Ilayaraja is soothing and cool as the village breeze. The plain and simple life of the villagers. The chemistry between Mohanlal and Gopi. The camera that captures the beauty of the locations.

Watch at your own risk, and don’t forget to tickle yourself when you want to laugh.

‘Rasatanthram’ rating: 4/10

Chintamani Kola Case

2006-04-16T03:48:00.000-07:00

The hero, Lal Krishna Viradiyar, aka Suresh Gopi, is a criminal lawyer, He not only lets the criminals go scot free from the law, but follows them and kills them the same day !
Intelligent, i should say, he makes money by appearing for them and also makes sure that the justice is done, by killing them!

Chintamani Kola Case portrays Suresh Gopi in the lead role, a character with some sides of a psychopath. (As in any Malayalam movie, there has to be explanation for everything. why is the hero a psychopath? Oh .. that’s because he witnessed his teacher being brutally killed when he was a kid. problem solved !) He quotes from the holy books at any given time and preaches of cosmic law. The Hindu symbols, slokas, rudraksha, and the multicolored threads, are in place, typical of Shaji Kailas movies.

He kills two people who have committed heinous crimes in the start of the movie, with a lavish overdose of special effects. I wouldn’t be wondered if the special effects guy billed right next the hero or the director. He had a truck load of work to do. I wouldn’t mind being killed by someone, but all the verbal torture about the cosmic law, and the special effects are unbearable.

Cut to the good old village girl, who gets admission to the "new evil" in the kerala society, self financed private colleges. There a gang of 9 girls, overly colored, ready for anything girls are waiting to strike against the village belle. Those mirchi girls reminded me of the masks we use to scare children, simply lacking life and believability.

They rag her, to an amount less than I, or anyone who has gone into a professional college, have personally experienced. But the poor girl is so ‘feather touch’, that she decides to leave the college. She is found murdered a few days later.

Enter the hero as the lawyer for the suspected mirchi girls. What happens then is unbelievable. Not even in a movie.

Its a typical Shaji Kailas movie, with all the unwanted cuts, special effects and woosh-swoosh.
The movie was made in a hurry, for they didn’t even have the time to check the spellings of the titles or the audio video synchronization.

The story, inspired by the likes of Anniyan and other random stuff, is made up from the news paper cuttings with serious loop holes and too sloppy. The characters are too overly colored and hyped up which creates nausea. Many characters are completely unwanted and just pulled in for just a scene and few punchy dialogues. (Kalabhavan moni, Vani Vishanath, Rekha etc..). Suresh Gopi goes over board, by heights of over acting, however you try to explain it with his psychopathic nature.

The music is a torture with remixed versions of "asato ma sat gamaya" and other slokas. No aspect of the movie is above the mediocre level.

I will resort to a Tamil phrase, to describe this movie, for want of a better usage. "Romba ovar !"

Chintamani Kola Case Rating : 3/10

Malamaal Weekly

2006-04-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

Hmm.... Well if you go to theatres without much expectations than to see an average sitcom over lot of popcorns and coffee, you wouldnt be disappointed as long as your expectations are low enough.

This is about a bunch of poor people from a poverty stricken village in north india, haunted my the money eyed Thakurani. The local drunkard, wins a lottery of One Crore and dies in the shock of the news. Others gather around to trick the lottery inspector and whisk the money off, giving rise to many a comic scenes.

I am almost sure the story is flicked off from somewhere, yet i dunno from where, you know, someone needs to show the remake raja, priyadarshan, how to shoot movies first. Only after that the mallu director adopts the movie and remakes it.

A few things that you can always expect in a priyadarshan movie- great sets, beautiful cinematography, and an item number. The same is true with Malamaal weekly too.

I have seen a few other movies made by Priyadarshan, and this one narrowly misses the worst spot to garam masala. You dont need a director of the proclaimed status and calibre of Priyadarshan to make a movie like this !

In the acting front, Paresh Rawal and Ompuri.. only because of these two guys i didnt walk out half way through the movie. Innocent, (its a noun, not an adjective !) a wonderful comedy actor from malayalam, is wasted and is struggling to fit in. Blame the bad dubbing !

so, to conclude, if you just want to laugh at your own tastelessness in selecting movies to watch, go watch this one !

Okay from now on a rating system is in place. Its on a scale of 10. 10 being the best and 1 being the worst, as if you didnt know it.

'Malamaal weekly' Rating: 3/10

Lion

2006-02-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

Director:Joshy::Cast: Dileep, Kaavya Madhavan, Vijayaraghavan, Jagathy, Innocent
Music: Deepak Dev:: Lyrics: Kaithapram :: Cinematography: P. Sukumar ::

Nothing in this movie- nothing new, no creativity, no fun, no thrill.. nothing
just the old fashioned 'scripted from the newspapers' movie.

The hero changes the state over night, and finally is accused of killing his father.

Mother: " Get out of my sight, i dont want to see you !
Hero: "Mother, please listen to me.."
Mother: "No,I dont want to hear a thing ! get out !"

Hero is broken and goes ahead and finds the killers of his father, returns to his mother.
Mother: "ss.. Son... !"
Hero: "mm.. Mother ... !"

C'mon, Mr Director, how long will u give us this shit ?

Oh yea, the hero has a childhood sweetheart too, who sings and shakes her fat body with the hero, who adorns costumes hired from the local drama company, to the amazement curious onlookers in Newzealand/switserland/someotherland.

Not good, dont waste your time watching this.

Bus conductor

2006-01-19T15:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I didnt see the movie. But I planned to. Decided not to waste two and a half hours after reading this.

If even the multiplex which shows the movie says "only Mammootty’s fans can enjoy the film..", why should I waste my time ?

I have been seeing too many bad movies these days. Need to see one good movie for a change.

These guys are honest, I guess. :)

Tiger

2006-01-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

Language:MALAYALAM :: Director:Shaji Kailas :: Cast: Suresh Gopi,Rajan P Dev, Murali, Saikumar, Siddique, Suresh Unnithan,Gopika:: Cinematography: Shyam Dutt

This one breaks the concepts of a movie.

Conventionally, you buy a ticket-get in the theatre-movie starts- you watch-movie ends-you come out., right ?

But in the case of The Tiger, a better option would be

Instead of fixing show timings, they should run this movie from 10 in the morning to 10 in the night. If you buy a ticket you will be let in, and you can watch it for 2 and a half hours.

Does not make much difference either way.

This movie is like a festival. You can walk in anytime of the festival, you get to see the people, the music, and the elephants.

Same is the case about this movie. You can walk in any time, you see the fight, the dialogues and the Suresh Gopi. Dont bother about the story or other aspects of the movie. There ain't any.

The movie is the usual stuff you will expect from Shaji Kailas and Suresh Gopi. As expected, the story is made up from the newspapers. All the recent incidents mentioned, including smart city and peedanam.

Suresh Gopi is a know-it-all police officer, who can even guess your hotmail passwords within seconds. He is fat, and his fight scenes add to the comic value of the movie.

It is funny when the directors who claim to use the latest technical gadgets portray one in their movies. Have you ever seen Hotmail.com saying “WRONG PASSWORD” or PASSWORD ACCEPTED in Arial bold, 20 points, red color?

Have you seen a guy reading abstract, screensaver like images while doing a polygraph test? He reads the images and gives a ‘thumbs up’ if the subject is saying the truth!

See for yourselves how a polygraph test is done.

There is a suspense in the movie too. You know, as usual, from start of the movie, they show you a guy in negative shade and another in an extremely positive manner. You don’t need much brain to know who will be good and who will be bad at the end of the movie.

I feel that, of late, Shaji Kailas came to see some movies made by Quentin Tarantino. And he set out to make a movie with the over enthusiastic Suresh Gopi.

I am bored of seeing the fight scenes which if played in slow motion looks like synchronized acrobatics. We have been seeing this from the B&W movies. Then the whole fight was in a single shot, now we have multiple shots. But the fight is the same !

And whatever guns and weapons you have, it isn’t over till the Hero thrashes the villain with his bare hands.

Caution:
When Suresh Gopi is traveling through a Highway in a Jeep, shut your ears. Then comes the BG/ song of this movie. Believe me, when I say it’s Horrible. I mean HORRIBLE! Later don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you!

What is new about tiger is that they used on-the-spot editing. They shot the scenes, and edited it then and there. I don’t think anyone, or they themselves will try this again. Thanks to the messy editing interspersed with the close up shots. (trademark scenes of the director)

I suspect the Cameraman was drunk most of the time, you almost feel dizzy watching the unsteady shots. A vain attempt to make you feel that the movie is moving fast. Really the movie has a fierce pace, with shots cut pretty fast, so that you can’t blink your eye. But don’t strain yourself, its not worth it.

In everyone there is rebel who wants to break loose. Such movies feed to that sensation of yours. Nothing more.

The so called film makers of Kerala or any other place, for that matter, should know that the audience is not the same anymore. They get to see the latest techniques used in the Hollywood movies. Selling the stuff that Tiger is made up of, to them is hard. The little boy who sat next to me in the theatre couldn’t control his laughter in some scenes and that’s not because the scenes involved anything funny. If you don’t want the new generation to laugh at you, do your home work, please.

Trivia
Did you know that Suresh Gopi tried to be the next James Bond?

He sent the DVDs of Commissioner and some other movies in which he acted to the Braccoli group. I am not joking, He really did.
I hear that they have kept the DVDs safely in the comedy section.

You can walk in any time, see the fight, hear the dialogues and worship the Suresh Gopi. Story ? what is that ?

Thavamaayi thavamirunthu

2005-12-28T17:09:00.000-08:00

This is the last time that i write a review for a movie which does not keep up even to the kindergarten standards.

Thavamaayi Thavamirinthu is a (pseudo) movie made by Cheran.

Plot spoilers ahead : don’t worry, there is nothing new here.

Story line

A family- father, mother and 2 sons
Elder son gets married to a lady who is not very appreciative of her husbands family.
Younger son loves a girl and when she is pregnant, elopes with her to chennai.
They have a kid and returns to their house/ family in their native village
His mother passes away-His dad passes away

That’s all !

Really, thats all !

The story portrays in every little detail, all those happens in the family. I would have accepted it if the movie was titled differently and categorized in the documentary section – “An average life of a man from Tamilnadu”

If Cheran *acts* in a movie again, I am going to file a case with the consumer protection counsel on the charges of "failure to deliver the goods/services promised"

A movie necessarily include acting, does it not ?

Cheran portrays a good-for-nothing hero, who does not even know that if his wife is pregnant she will have to be admitted to a hospital after nine months and he will have to take care of the expenses. Instead we see Cheran running around for money to pay the hospital charges- a vain attempt to create a pity feeling from the audience.

Cheren does not know how to act and very conveniently for him (as he is the director too) all the scenes where he has to *act* he is in shade, you know, very dark. So that we don’t know what’s happening there.

Despite of the fact that the father role is handled well, all others give us the feel of *acting*. Which we thought ended with the era of black and white films.

He sold us his first movie Autograph, it was different from the normal movies that we see in Tamil- so we accepted it. But how many times will you feed the same shit life that we all are in, back to us, Mr. Cheran ?

I hear that the movie is doing well in the box office. Nothing to wonder- to a person who is from a small town in Tamilnadu and who moved to the city for a better living- he will be able to relate it very much to his life.

Do not watch, if you have anything better to do.

Thanmatra

2005-12-18T12:55:00.001-08:00

Language:Malayalam :: Director:Blessy :: Cast: Mohanlal, Meera Vasudev, Nedumudi Venu, Jagathy :: Music: Mohan Sithara :: Lyrics: Kaithapram

Keep your handkerchiefs ready, This is one senti soaked movie.

If you left the theaters with a heavy heart after Kazhcha, this is a tear jerker. The movie is directed by Blessy after his first movie which fetched him quite a few awards and name in the industry. Normally people expect a lot from such a talented director. As far as I know, Kazhcha was not only good in the sense of a movie worth watching, but commercially too it made sense. So the apart from the audience, the producers also expect a lot of from the new star director. That explains why 75% of his new movie, Thanmatra, is inundated with tears.

Different emotions sell a movie- humor(kilukkam, CID moosa) action (commissioner, mafia) love (nammal, aniyathipravu) and of course, sentiments(vasanthiyum lakshmium pinne njanum, thalavattam) so commercially the movie makes sense as no one can walk out of the theater without shedding a few tears. Remember the huge hit, I don't remember the name, murali, madhavi and a few kids ?

About the movie, Blessy has demonstrated his exemplary skills in handling human emotions, in his first movie. Here the into the first few minutes of the movie, you will know how hard its to hold the tears.

WARNING: Plot spoilers ahead !

The story is inspired from Padmarajan's story 'orma'. Ramesh Nair is a middle class clerk in the govt secretariat, with two kids and a loving wife. The biggest dream of Rameshan was to become an IAS officer- which didn't happen and he ended up as a clerk. He plans to make his son an IAS officer fulfilling his dream.. Everything goes fine.. son is great in studies and a rank hope for his school.. happy family scenario .. till when Rameshan suddenly start forgetting small little things in his life. He forgets the pet name of his child hood friend (murapennu), and the lines of the poem which he sang all thru his life. You know, the itching feeling that we always had- you-know-it-but-just-cant-say-it feeling. things get complicated suddenly when rameshan confuses his offices for his house and behaves as if he is in his house oneday[photo] [photo].

Enter the Doctor, and the normal dialogue " this is a typical type of <put a strange disease name here> " No, that is not what he says exactly. Ramesh's disease is diagnosed as Alzheimer's. destroying his grey cells day by day. As Ramesh explains to his son, before he is affected by it- "forgetting everything that you learned from this universe and going back to 'brahmam' with the clean slate as you came into this universe."

we have seen this happen in "Unnikale oru katha parayam", "kalipattam", and many other movies. But, that is a huge BUT, Blessy has handled it with elan. You just cant resist giving him a standing ovation for the way he handled the delicate subject. An art that he must have mastered from his Guru Padmarajan- which people like Vinayan will never understand even if he takes 9 more life's.

The story shifts to Ramesh's village, while he remains helpless and his son goes ahead to chase his fathers dream. There are a few things which I didnt like though- one is the abundance of tear jerker scenes and the other is the reference of rameshan appearing in his sons dream and giving him clues about the final interview questions for IAS. Clearly snatching the credit from the son charector's determination and strong will power to fight all odds and win an IAS seat. An attempt to give credit to the Hero for his sons success. Yes, Ramesh is a major factor in his sons success, but do you have to make it soo evident ? And I thought in Blessy's movies the theme is the superstar.

On the acting front, Mohanlal has again proved what he can do best- getting the sympathy of people- be in the form of a next door boy( TP Balagopalan MA) or the innocent victim of circumstances (Bharatham, Thalavattam). A few movies back I thought Mohanlal was a overly fat creature which rested under the water and came out with his spiked up moustache and chanted rhythmic rhetoric to the villains before knocking them down.(ranjith movies, Naran) But he has taken great efforts in this film, right from the helplessness, pain and innocence in his face to his mannerisms- the way he holds his fingers- and the whole transformation scenes. ( remember the transformations scenes of Devasuram ?) I wouldn't wonder if he gets a National award for his controlled performance. This is a guy who can make you cry easily.

Lekha, portrayed by Meera Vasudevan, haunts you with her tear filled big eyes, hurting you somewhere. Great performance by her, particularly when she learns her husband mistakes her as his childhood sweetheart. In Rameshan's Fathers role, Iam unable to comment on a person who is a university of acting all by himself. just the name- Nedumudi Venu.

The new comers, The son of Rameshan, Manu ( I don't know his real name), requires special mention for his great Debut. He enacts with ease the role of a responsible but helpless son. Jagathy had proved himself to be a matured actor far ahead from a comedian- but I dunno why people start laughing when they see him even in serious role. Obviously not his fault, though.

The Camera, needn't do wonders unless, its a mystical-scientific movie. In this movie too, the camera is unobtrusive, making you a part of the family. The music by Mohan Sithara is okay, but, nothing to write home about.

This movie is not going to get off your mind the second you leave the theater to a 100 distractions of the daily life. The helpless people in this movie are going to haunt you for a while.

A great movie to watch, but don't forget to take your handkerchiefs.

UPDATE:
Thanmatra's bags 5 state awards
Best Feature Film: Thanmatra
Best Director: Blessey
Best Screenplay:Blessey
Best Actor award: Mohanlal
Special Jury Award: Arjun Lal, who played Mohanlal's son

Great going, guys ! and many more to come !