Movie Reviews: Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Hollywood and International

Christian Brothers

2012-01-19T17:24:00.000-09:00

In tough economic times a paisa vasool movie is a blessingfor the audience. Paisa vasool is desi way of saying, ‘to get bang foryour buck’. Movies that fall into this category give you a chance to see allthe major heros in one place and will be also be a veritable avial showcasingcomedy, tragedy, songs, romance, hot babes, cool cars, reunions, breakups, action, reaction and whatever else you could ask for in a 2.5-3 hourpackage. You purchase a ticket to watch a movie and come out feeling likeyou’ve watched 5 movies for the price of one. The producer is pleased and theaudience satiated and Christian Brothers avial clinches number #1 spot at the boxoffice.

Mohanlal (who else can play a Mumbai underworld don inMalayalam cinema) is the foundation of this movie’s brotherhood.Mohanlal has the copyright of don roles from the early nineties ever since hebecame the good boy turned goonda in Kireedom and moved to Mumbai in Adhipan and came back to Kerala in His Highness Abdullah. Too bad that Mammootty missed that boat.

Dileep is the other brother and he fields all the comedyballs and Suresh Gopi is the brother(-in-law) who like Mohanlal has a copyrighton a certain type of hero - the policeofficer who swallowed an English dictionary. (Isn’t it time we awarded ahonorary IPS to Suresh Gopi like Lt.Col title conferred to Mohanlal by the Indian Army (122nd Infantry Battalion)?) Sharat Kumar, the manliest of actors from Tamil in the 50-60 age group is imported to be Mohanlal's buddy.An interesting face that flickered by was Vivekandan, the actor who played the teen lead in 1990 movie - Kshanakkathu, as one of Mohanlal's sidekicks.

Saikumar is the father who created these brothers and theentire Christian brotherhood is often challenged by another set of brothers froma different mother, this one led by Biju Menon and fathered by Vijayaraghavan. Motherfigures are non existent, no wonder the boys are running wild. Female actorsare all damsels in distress waiting to be rescued by the appropriate Christianbrother. Infact cars and guns play more important roles than ladies in thismovie. This is our very own Guns, Gems(of actors) and Steel, for your daily dose of the aforementioned three items watch this movie in installments.

Shutter Island

2012-01-14T17:34:00.000-09:00

Shutter Island is a little late for me, Memento, Requeim fora Dream, Mulholland Drive, Inception and a handful other movies whose names Idon’t remember have already taken the viewers down the path of alternate realitiesplayed out inside character’s heads. If you are the analyzing type, this is onemovie whose real meaning you can dissect to death after multiple viewings.

Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers of casualfiction. I loved his Mystic River and remember eagerly waiting for the film versionwhen I heard Clint Eastwood was directing it. I have not read this work of his –Shutter Island but if Mystic River (the book) is anything to go by ShutterIsland the movie has been glammed up a bit into a Hollywood script under MartinScorcese. Of course when a movie is set in or before 1950s, the leading man canbe no one else but Leanardo Di Caprio, the real Benjamin Button of Hollywoodwho is perpetually stuck in a screen time somewhere between the GreatDepression(‘30s) and the Great Prosperity(‘50s)

This time he is stuck for real in an islandpenitentiiary/mental asylum called Shutter Island as US Marshal Teddy Danielsinvestigating a mysterious disappearance of a femal inmate. That is just thestart. Things get murkier and stormier as the film progresses. But somehow fromthe very beginning I had the feeling that Mark Ruffalo was acting. Another reason to doubt the story was, didScorcese have the guts to cast Ben Kingsley, the man who played Gandhi, in anegative role?

All that said, Shutter Island has an interesting story, the director has delivered it as a tight almost waterproof package, although the movie's predominant element is water. There are metaphors, allegories and symbols placed through out the movie left for audience's interpretation including the famous last line that Di Caprio's character utters at the end of the movie, throwing a monkey wrench into the already confused machinery of audience's mind.

Madrasapattinam

2012-01-09T20:26:00.000-09:00

As a topophiliac I am partial toward movies with place nametitles. Changes in geography shaped and reshaped under the wheels of time interestme to no end. Madrasapattinam made melook at the origins of the so-called authentic Tamil name, Chennai which becameMadras’s official name in 1996. Wikipedia says Madrasapatinam and Chennapatinamwere two different but nearby places. Madrasapattinam was a fishing hamlet nearPortuguese fort St. George and Chennapattinam was the settlement which sprang upnear the fort. Both their histories go back to 15^th century. Betweenthe two how did the administration decide which one was more original?

Madrasapattinam, the movie favors Madrasapattinam overChennapattanam. It is sort of like Tamilian’s Titanic cleverly adapted forpre-independence era Madras. There are telltale signs of Titanic strewn throughout the movie starting with the old lady, the necklace, the old lady’s grand daughter, flash back to a doomed and fleeting love story and a handsome selfsacrificing hero who never gets old. Like Titanic – the movie, Madrasapatinamwas created to ride the box-office waves, not to sink without a trace. It hasromance of the most forbidden kind – gori mem falling for a dark skinned dhobi,in the backdrop of the simmering Indian freedom struggle almost nearing itsdate of fruition.

Arya and Amy Jackson play the roles of lovers separated byclass, race and political tensions. One of the positives about this movie is wedo not have Indians in crusty pancake makeup and blond wigs playing the role ofthe British. Although twenty first century British dialogs sound Dickensian, viewers’misery due to this strait-jacketed languageis restricted to a few opening scenes.

The city of Madras plays itself. The director had me in hispocket when he showed the transformation of Coovum river from a scenic serenewaterway to a narrow channel between trash heaps in the present day Chennai. CGIalthough not seamless as historic Hollywood movies, is definitely betterthan Salman Khan’s Veer a period piece from Bollywood with more money and CGI.

Madrasapattinam has a lot of flaws in the script andstory department if you go at with a magnifying glass. Most of the public whospends money to watch this movie in Chennai’s cinema halls won’t be having sucha glass in their possession. This is dreamy movie for the underdog, aboutsomeone who attained the unattainable, with a strong thread of love and relatedemotions binding it together, movie success at the box office is a proof that we Indians always fall for that time tested trick.

Boss Engira Bhaskaran

2012-01-06T20:20:00.000-09:00

Jamshad Cethirakath aka Arya – a Malayali from Trikkaripur(Kerala)brought up in Chennai with Diana Kurian aka Nayantara – a Malayali fromKottayam(Kerala) brought up in Gujarat and Kerala, both find stardom inTollywood and join hands as hero and heroine in the 2010 super hit Boss Engira Bhaskaran.

It was touted as Nayantara’s comeback hit and breakthroughcommercial hit for Arya. With all this Mallu pride overflowing in the firstparagraph it should be self evident that this review is written by a Malayaliwhose distinction is that I have not watched many Tamil movies. But I have beentrying to correct this drawback this last week by multi-threading a few Arya and Dhanushmovies.

Bhaskaran otherwise known as Boss(Arya) amongst his friends and family is a happy go lucky unemployed youth living in Kumbhakonam. A lot of middle class Tamil film-goerswill be able to identify with his story and the surroundings. Arya’s naturalcomic timing and strong support on the comedy front from Santhanam makes themovie a laughter-fest from start to finish. In this they are aided by ahumurous and unexpectedly sound script. Even the supporting characters haveengaging dialogs, except for Nayantara’s ‘pardon’, which was a tad irritating but it was afterall intendedto annoy Boss.

Boss Engira Bhaskaran is funny romcom perfect for lazyafternoons. Even the villians are cast in a witty mold. There are not manylessons to take home except to take life light-heartedly like Boss.

Top Malayalam Movies of 2011

2012-01-04T17:45:00.001-09:00

2011 was a milestone year for the discerning Malayali movie-goer, one who was tortured years on end with too many Dubais, Naatturajavus, Christian and UppukandamBrothers. It goes without saying that I consider myself belonging to this category. Thiswas the year I finally found some contemporary Malayalam films I can recommendto my film-buff friends (non-Indian and therefore non-Malayali) and did not haveto go into hiding after the recommendation for fear of losing theirfriendship.

2011 was also the year when Malayalam cinema woke up andsniffed a new formula and started playing with it – integrated multi narrative track, already perfected byAlejandro Inarritu, Wong Kar-wai and David Lynch, so there are plenty of placesof draw 'inspiration' from. In the process of learning there were some misfireslike The Train and The Metro, but some like Traffic and City of God hit the target.

Another surprise winner of 2011 is the non-superstar, in theline of Times Person of the Year – Protestor, Malayalam cinema’s star of the year was not Mohanlal, Mammootty ,Prithviraj or Dileep, (or not even Suresh Gopi,) it was the dependable secondbenchers, the reliable middle-of-the-pack actors like Lal, Jayasurya, ShwetaMenon, Kunchako Boban, Indrajith, Asif Ali, Salim Kumar, Reema Kallingal, Indrajith,Vineeth Sreenivasan, Remya Nambishan, Fahad Fazil and Samvrutha Sunil who tookthe cake this last year. Also worth mentioning is the new crop of movie-makerswho were instrumental in bringing a paradigm shift in the way we make movies inKerala – Lijo Jose Pellissery, Samir Thahir, Aashiq Abu, Listin Stephen, Bobbyn Sanjay, Rajesh Pillai and the like.

On to movies, my three favorite films of the year in noparticular order,

Salt N Pepper (Woohoo! Malayalam has its first real…..Read more)

City of God (The end is the beginning is the end as….Read more)

Chappa Kurish (Chappa Kurish - Kochi speak for heads ortails, whatever the outcome of this coin flip…Read more)

Also rans :

Gaddama : (Women in flight (no, not Amelia Earhart), escaping their wretched existence make... Read more )

Traffic: Probably the most commercially successfulmulti-narrative movie of 2011, it not only is technically sound but has dramaand melodrama to top it off. Read more

Adaminte Makan Abu: A typical festival circuit movie,Malayalam budhi-jeevi(intellectual) directors have been churning out since thefifties and sixties, because third world poverty and desperation sells, tugsthe heart strings of movie intelligensia at Cannes and Berlin and Toronto helping to bring home an award or two. Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab havefaithfully executed their roles as an aging couple waiting to go on apilgrimage to Haj and the rest is textbook award movie stuff.

Dr Love

2012-01-03T17:45:00.000-09:00

If you are in a mood for a semi-decent campus movie ofrecent origin in Malayalam, Dr-Love might be worth looking into. The movie hasno super stars or so says Kunchako Boban, the only star in the movie.Considering his advanced age and receding hair line, the film makers gave him avery important role in college canteen, which is where you’ll find aging movieMalayalam movie stars who just can’t get enough of college life even if theyhave sired grandkids of college-going age. College Kumaran Lalettan is theprime representative of this species. Compared to that Kunchako could easilypass off as a PhD scholar at SB College, Changanassery.

But Kunchako’s character – Vinayachandran is not intostudying to gain a doctoral degree. Vinayachandran, a struggling writer managesto get a Dr prefix by offering consultations on love and romance, thus becomingeveryone’s darling Dr.Love.

The most convincing apsect of this movie is all college kidslook like college kids. Sudheesh and Idavela Babu have been given a rest andtheir roles given to real youngsters like Bhagat, Hemant, Vidya Unni, Ananya, Manikuttan and others. Since justhelping a few love lorn teens is not going to sustain the image of Dr.Loveforever, the film makers introduce a cliched and predictable twist in the formof Bhavana in the second half. Thankfully the movie gets over before it twistsitself into a knot.

Filmstar

2011-12-31T10:17:00.002-09:00

Filmstar – another movie about movie industry, for a changethis time we have a different set of movie stars than what we got to watchUdayanaanu Tharam or Katha Parayumbole. Infact it is like Katha Parayumbole without a solid katha(story)/scriptand some politics of the red kind thrown in for the masala(spice.)

Kalabhavan Mani plays superstar SuryaKiran and Dileep is adown and out commoner turned script writer Nandhagopan. In the age of tersetexting it is hard to believe that vacuous scripts like this will sell. Did it?

My hand on TV remote’s forward button did get any rest whilewatching this movie, maybe you should take it as a sign.

Chappa Kurish

2011-12-25T13:01:00.001-09:00

Chappa Kurish (Kochi speak for heads or tails), whatever theoutcome of this coin flip was for its producer, is a definite winner in mybook. With a mere 65 lakhs investment(you won’t be able to buy an apartment inKochi for that amount), I am pretty sure Listin Stephen did get more than hermoney back.

Samir Thahir, cinematographer turned director has created atechnical poem of a movie(if there ever was one) using Canon 7D.

Red One(Yakshiyum Njanum, Unnaipol Oruvan), Canon 7D – digital is surely makinginroads into our movie industry. For Malayalam film industry where Indian Rupeeis still a scarce commodity, producers will possibly get to spend the money theysaved by switching to digital in other much needed areas.

Chappa Kurish is supposedly a lift-off of a Korean flim,Handphone. I haven’t seen the Korean one but from its synopsis and reviews itlooks to me as if the copy was better than the original. Thank your luck,Malayalis! Like many movies of the recent past(Mammootty starrer The Train forone), cell phone plays the leading role and it is not just any cell phone, itis the special one with an I prefix. Mac and its brand placement has it eyes onthe right prize – the nouveau I-nternetenabled I-billion of I-ndia. Blackberry and Android try harder and come up withmore candy and icecream, Indian sweet tooth is legendary.

Trying to steal I-balls from the I-phone are our two leadingmen – Fahad Fazil(Arjun) and Vineeth Sreenivasan(Ansari). It is essentially aguy vs guy over a cell phone story with some girls in the background. Both theguys have played it to perfection. Aiding them in this endeavor is the simpleand genuine feeling script which had lots of opportunities to go overboard butconducts itself with restraint.

From Kaiyethum Doorathu(2002) to Chappa Kurish(2011)via Kerala Kafe and Tournament – Fahad Fazil has done quite the impossible – a longinvisible absence followed by a reinvention of a comeback.

Rex Vijayan (guitarist of rock band Avial) has composed verycontemporary background music to go with the mood of the movie. RemyaNambeeshan who plays the most prominent female character – Soniya fulfils her rolewith an understated ease. Other low-key but strong performances come from Jinu Joseph as Arjun’s Man Friday and SuniThrissur as the manager of the grocery mart where Ansari .

The attention to details – starting off with one of the mostbeautiful love scenes ever filmed in Malayalam, leading to the nakedvulnerability of Arjun when he learns what he has lost and the dark, gritty andrealistic fight finale which ends with the protagonists sitting facing eachother – two sides of the same coin, make Chappa Kurish a primer of later day(asin post 2010) Malayalam movies.

Karyasthan

2011-12-06T09:29:00.000-09:00

Karyasthan is the on-screen version of Malayalam soaps.Where else, except in Malayalam TV serial land will you find big joint familiesstill in existence, ready to put on a show at moment’s notice, armed and ready withcopious amount of pancake make up, layers of lipstick and draped in heavy silksaris even at 1am at night.

Considering the unsatiated hunger of Malayali audience forsuch masterpieces of familial theatrics and histrionics, I should say, Dileep madea wise and safe choice for his 100^th film. He is the misplacedfamily scion faking as a manager(Karyasthan) to bring together two feudingfamilies and working to regain his father’s lost status.

The story is forgettable, but be assured, like a zombie it’llcome back in the next couple of months with a different hero belonging to ajoint family(prestigious nevertheless) with a different name. Provided the herois a super star, Malayali audience will embrace the zombie yet again with openarms with all the charm that they should’ve reserved for their own pennukaanal.

There is a host of supporting characters to provide foressential elements of a family drama like pride, arrogance, evil, superiority,helplessness(only female characters),benevolence(father/mother figures), massappeal & courage(hero’s essential attributes), stupidity, ignorance(the last two translateas comedy). Actors who were fortunate enough to be be cast in these supportingroles were Madhu, G.K.Pillai, Janardhanan, Sidhiq, Ganesan, Biju Menon, Lena, Suraj,Salim Kumar, Jagathy and umpteen others.

If this zombie has not caught you yet, stay that way.

Inspirational Songs : Tamil, Malayalam & Hindi

2011-12-03T21:06:00.001-09:00

Almost a year ago, I compiled a list of inspirational /motivational songs in this blog. Though all of these were in English that postshows up as one of the top results in Google if you search for Tamilinspirational songs and a lot of people seem to be searching for inspiration inTamil.

If you are seeking uplifting Tamil songs I am not the bestperson to provide an answer. But one Tamil song has been making rounds in ourhouse(and probably every South Indian household with an internet connection) for the past week. It is one of the most viewed songs in YouTube thispast month, with 15 million views and counting, you know what I am talkingabout – Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Di. Way to go Dhanush, Aishwarya and AnirudhRavichander. It is from the movie 3 starring Dhanush and Shruti Hassan.

From Tamil onto Malayalam - one of the most difficultlanguages to write rock songs and my native language. When I saw VineetSreenivasan’s Malarvadi Arts Club, the closing scenes of the movie feature‘supposedly’ a rock song. At that time I had wonderedand wished out loud that Vineet should’ve let Avial – the first real rock bandto come out of Mallu land to compose and perform that song instead of theinsipid piece that was in the movie. It looks like some film maker had the sameidea as me (and a million others, I am sure.) Salt N Pepper one of the reallywatchable movies of 2011 hands the screen over to Avial and their musicalextravaganza to provide a rocking end to the film. Performed by Avial for Saltn Pepper, here’s Aanakallan. Rock on, Malayalis!

With Tamil and Malayalam covered, how can I ignoreBollywood? Everyone might have an opinion about Ra-One and I have an opinion abouthis Chammak Challo. With music by Vishal Shekhar and sung by Akon, aimed torope in a global audience, Chammak Challo is guarenteed to sizzle you. Foradded entertainment watch the video instead of just the audio, Bollywood as youknow is all about color, emotions and music, it has to be enjoyed as a combopackage and Chammak Challo will not disappoint.

That's inspiration X 3, in three Indian languages - Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, take your pick.

Salt N Pepper

2011-11-30T12:28:00.000-09:00

Woohoo! Malayalam has its first real food-porn film. We did not have Babette's Feast, Ratatouille, Julie & Julia or Chocalat but we now have Salt n Pepper.

For a film that is path breaker of its genre Salt N Pepper has managed to set high standards to anyoneattempting a food-centered film in the future. At the same time, it has remained a highgrosser appealing to different sections of 'discerning' Malayali populace.

Lal, the lead actor in the role of an officerin the State Archeology department(in the pic: wearing blue shirt on the left) whose passion in life is food, looks like he had his kattan chaya(or kaappi)in the morning and walked right into the set, into the movie and into yourlife. Shweta Menon has carved a niche for herself in Malayalam with hithertonon-existent roles being written for herconsidering her talent and ‘advanced age’, which is a good sign for allactresses in Malayalam film industry. Shweta is in her mid thirties in anindustry where it is the norm for actresses of that age to play mother ormother-in-law roles for our forever young fifty and sixty year old super stars.Asif Ali(in the pic: sporting neon green jacket) – the easy going, probably the one of the best in the new cropyoungsters in Malluwood has a role that suits his style.

The actor who hits a gold mine with this movie is none of the above, it is Baburaj(in the pic: guy in the center murdering the chicken) who has appeared in umpteen Malayalam movies as the quintessential bad guy. Baburaj plays Babu the bachelor, hanuman-devotee super-chef with a personality to match. As an actor, this movie has to be a milestone, giving him a new image to explore.

On a personal front, Salt N Pepper is more attractive to me because it showcases my home city - Thiruvananthapuram and its more likeable parts like the Rajaveedhi from Kawdiar to Vellayambalam, the new underpass at Palayam, Napier Museum and other familiar landmarks.

The opening and closing segments of the filmare entertaining and innovative. Various famous restaurants and foods in Keralaare featured as the opening credits role in, which sets your lip smacking forthe movie to begin. Once the whole fare is served – which was indeed a feastpar excellence- we have the Malayali rock band Avial (coincidentally ‘avial’ isthe name of a Kerala vegetable dish usually served with rice) signing off withfoot thumping song, Aanakallan.

Ashiq Abu has directed an irresistible hit, a delightful entertainer.

Mujhse Fraandship Karoge

2011-11-29T20:40:00.001-09:00

If I am not mistaken(which I often am) Mujhse FraaandshipKaroge is Bollywood’s first movie directly based on Facebook social networkinginteractions. Starring four youngsters,set in a modern day fictional campus director Nupur Asthana manages to keep ourattention on a much rehashed plot through a fast and fashionable story line.

Saqib Saleem and Saba Azad play the lead pairwith Nishant Dahiya, Tara D'Souzah whohave strong supporting roles. It is a easy breezy campus flick if you are inmood for one. It is good to see old war horses like Yash Raj films moving withthe times, promoting young directors and contemporary ideas.

City of God (Malayalam movie)

2011-11-25T19:46:00.001-09:00

The end is the beginning is the end as Smashing Pumpkins had it figured out, on behalf of Batman. City of God, the newest movie from Lijo Jose Pellissery lives by this rule. I have decided to craft this review in the same vein – results first, facts later. I liked City of God, one of the better movies to come out of Malayalam in the recent past, Prithviraj’s superman act could’ve been toned down a bit. Well, you can’t have it all, right?

Multi narrative tracks are the flavor of the season in Malluwood. City of God joins Traffic, The Train and The Metro in an ever lengthening list, which I am sure is only in its infancy. I am expecting to see the list mature into a full-fledged Godzilla at the end of this decade.

City of God is comparable to its Brazilian namesake in that the favelas of Rio are replaced by the cheris (slums) of Kochi and both are multi narrative films portraying the chaotic lives of a bustling, breathing third world metropolis. But I find the story structure more similar to another multi narrative film – Crash, where everything begins and ends with a road accident and the viewers are taken down different threads at the same time to be led back to the beginning in the backdrop of the City of Angels (LA.)

Prithviraj as Jyothilal, a high profile bodyguard/hitman/buddy of young industrialist Sony(model turned actor Vinod Pillai) has been bestowed with a fist and physique to deliver dialog, so he broods a lot and talks less. Reema Kallingal has juicy role as an actress under duress. She delivers a good performance talking in her own voice, literally without any dubbing artists to share her success. So does Shweta Menon in a short but strong role. Indrajith lands a winner again with Swarnavelu, a happy go lucky Tamil laborer and we get to see a very different Parvathy (debutante in Notebook) in her comeback to Malayalam as a migrant laborer with a lot of dark grease makeup.

Lijo Jose Pellissery, the director has created an interesting, true-to-life movie, esp. when compared to other movies of the same genre, maybe that's why it didn't set the box office ablaze. Despite its obvious Hollywood and international 'inspirations', it is one of watchable new movies(not for kids though.)

Shaitaan

2011-11-21T20:48:00.000-09:00

Shaitan is like an Indian tribute to Tarantino. It is an A-list film in terms of technical quality with fast paced camera and editing keeping in track with it. Running around trees when boys and girlsmeet of the traditional Indian past has been completely abandoned in favor ofcruising around in a gas guzzling Hummer. ‘Bade baap ke bigade hue aulaad’ (Hindi for rich spoilt brats) form oneteam of actors led by Kalki Koelchen and other talented new comers.

On the other front we have the locals, everyday Indian andpublic servant policemen led by Rajeev Khandelval. It's a good long while after Aamir, Mr.Khandelwal. It was good to see Nikhil Chinnappain a non-VJ/RJ/DJ role. Pawan Malhotra has an interesting role too.

In the audio segment, Shaitaan has an awesome remix of Khoya Khoya Chand. IMHO this is the first time a modern remix is as good or better than the original classic(from Kala Bazaar sung by Mohammed Rafi.) Produced by Mikey McCleary and sung by Suman Shridhar it jives well with the spirit and pace of the movie.

From the production houseof Anurag Kashyap, directed by debutante director Bejoy Menon who comes fromthe Mani Ratnam line of movies Shaitan is a slick movie to watch. If you are anadrenaline junkie even when you are couch-prone and watching a movie this mightbe a good choice.

Three Kings

2011-11-20T01:32:00.001-09:00

If there is a category called self depracating comedy moviesor what I’d call a contemporary version of slapstick humor, Three Kings willfall into that group. When a movie knowsit is not trying to sell a moral but only some cheap laughs and the audienceknows that the movie knows, all that its creators have to do to make itsuccessful is to bring on the laughter.

Three Kings is a happy go lucky movie with characters tomatch. Indrajith, Kunchako Boban and Jayasurya are three kings without akingdom, in search of a lost treasure. To help them in this quest we have threedamsels – Samvruta Sunil, Ann Augustin and Sandhya. The movie tries to be funny andnothing else and succeeds for the most part, except when the humor becomes tooslapsticky.

Just make sure not exercise your brain at any time whilewatching the movie.

Goodbye Solo

2011-11-18T20:47:00.000-09:00

Goodbye Solo is a film festival circuit movie - produced cheap with lofty ambitionsstarring talented but not big name actors and zero CGI. You’ll like it betterif you like the way people from Africa speak English – I like it, the way they talksound to me like if there was a big-hearted way of speaking English their way would be it.

Solo is an immigrant cab driver in NC and just as I’d haveguessed from his accent and place of birth(Senegal) a guy with a generous heart.He befriends an old guy, William who hires his cab once, though William doesn’t caremuch about Solo’s friendship as he is intent on turning his back on everythingincluding life and the relationships it brings with it.

Nothing much happens, can be used by someone who isinterested in studying the art of movie making.

The Adjustment Bureau

2011-11-13T15:23:00.001-09:00

Philip K.Dick's stories are becoming more relevant as years pass or Hollywood seems to think so. The latest one of Dick's fictional contributions to roll down the California movie conveyor belt is The Adjustment Bureau.

Any futurologist, by which I mean anyone who has ever read their own daily horoscope in a newspaper will find this new class of movies interesting to say the least. If it features Matt Damon, the super flexible man of all trades, the movie is sure to find easy doors to dollars. Doors, by the way are important elements in this film.

The movie starts out with an up and coming young politician, played by Damon caught in an election scandal and has to quit running for whatever political office he was running for. But that's really not the film is all about and you don't want any spoilers, right?

The subject of the movie requires a technical perfection only Hollywood bucks can buy and they do the task as is expected. The Adjustment Bureau is a good watch for anyone who likes romantic sci-fi, Matt Damon or Philip K.Dick or all of those.

Aarakshan

2011-11-12T09:30:00.001-09:00

The triumph of the little guy is often irresistible moviematerial. In this film the little guy is the tall old man(used to be the angryyoung man) of Indian cinema – Amitabh Bachchan. The issue it has tried to tackle, I’d say boldly, because not manymovies attempt it in this age of the rising, economically empowered Indianmiddle class who are not overpowered by the ‘glamor’ of government jobs. Andtherefore caste-based reservation, which decided the availability ornon-availability of a government job to a person belonging to a particularcaste is not a hot topic as it used to be.

Much like the reservation becoming a non issue in the realworld, the story of the film also switches its priorities midway. Yeah, it keepsthe title the same through out the movie (Aarakshan = Reservation), but thefocus shifts towards private coaching classes or tuition centers. The leadcharacters also go through a confused and stunted growth period in between.When we had just started thinking Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone will bethe focus of the story, Saif is torn away from fighting for his burning causeand sent abroad.

With Saif off the scene and Deepika fading into thebackground, it is Bachchan all the way. The talented and experienced actorthat he is, he handles the movie with right amount of restraint and starts afree coaching class for poor students when he is fired from his job, whichturns out to be the right thing to do. Manoj Bajpai gets to play the schemingprofessor and Tanvi Azmi is the loving and dutiful mother and wife.

It is an interesting movie to watch movie about socialissues and you’d rather watch something Indian than say, Erin Brockovich.

Violin

2011-11-10T19:46:00.001-09:00

Sibi Malayil is a director known to spread emotions realthick on his films. From Kireedam and Dasaratham via Aakashadoothu to Apoorvaragam(2010), many of these hit the right spot with Malayali movie audience who wear emotionson their sleeves. Violin is yet another attempt at the same. Apoorvaragam had anovel story despite the hackneyed currency of emotions it was trying to trade,which made it a surprise hit at the box office. Unfortunately Violin lackssorely in the story department.

Fort Kochi, Anglo Indians, old money, characters walkingaround in outlandish 19^th century European costumes are all themesthat have been done to dust by our idea hungry movie writers.

Now that “nightie”has been anointed as the official casual wear of Kerala women, why are theladies in this movie still wearing frumpy frocks?

Violin is another example ofa recent movie that I’ve seen which is thirty years too late.

The only bearable part of this film is Asif Ali. NithyaMenon’s role demands her to be over the top which she adheres to faithfully.The rest are best forgotten just like the movie.

Pyar Ka Punchnama

2011-11-06T18:32:00.000-09:00

A twenty something software guy from a middle class Indianfamily, working his as$ off at some corporate code(sweat)shop in Noida, wheredo you think his priorities lie? Where else, in girls of course.

After probablytwo decades of strait-jacketed life India’s society prescribes to its kids andyoung adults, twenties is that short gasp of wild breath before it is all smothereddown by an arranged marriage. Pyar Ka Punchnama is peek into that wild place,through guys’ eyes. I am sure there are girl versions of this movie, the mostrecent one I remember seeing is Turning 30. Compared to that, I like Pyar KaPunchnama better.

Three guys who write code for a living, share an apartmentsomewhere in Delhi and get caught in some serious girl trouble. This is themale chick flick that Bollywood sorely lacks, in the lines of Superbad or 40year old Virgin.

It is not a great script but its success lies in the fact thatmany young males in 20-35 age group can identify with the characters and thelife portrayed in the movie makes sense to them.

Divyendu Sharma, Rayo Bakhirta and Karthikeya Tiwari - all three new comers handle the role of the three male protagonists with ease, with Sharma taking the gold medal had they been awarded medals for their acting. Another actor worth mentioning is Nushrat Barucha who delivers a convincing performance.

You've seen chick flicks like this before, now you know if someone had kept a hidden camera in the lives of guys in those movies this is what you'd get to see.

Bubblegum

2011-11-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Jamshedpur, Jharkhand is transforming into ‘the’ place forcoming of age movies. Maybe lot of new crop of directors/writers grew up as offspringsof steel plant or ONGC employees which provided stable white & blue collar work inNorthern India from seventies onward.

Bubblegum is teen coming of age story narrated in firstperson by a guy who is probably in his thirties looking back at a Facebook-lesscellphone-less world. A time of sweet innocence, right? Wrong, FB, Twitter andtexting might be new but teenage was a wicked time since time immemorial, evenbefore language and written word started making matters worse.

A housing society in Jamshedpur is the setting of thisgood-natured teen drama which has the fourteen year old Vedant(Delzad Hiravali)in lead vying for the attention of girl next door, Jenny(Apoorva Arora.) Twoother significant characters are Ratan, Vedant’s arch enemy who has his eyesset on Jenny as well and Vedant’s deaf and mute brother – Vidur.

The life of teens back in that era has been vividly capturedby the script and characters, so is the life in a housing society (apartmentcomplex in urban India) of the eighties shown with its small but importantnuances. The events of the story happen around the days leading up to Holi andthe festival forms the thread that holds the story together.

Stanley Ka Dabba

2011-11-05T18:19:00.001-08:00

Stanley ka Dabba is a fresh faced children’s movie about Stanley’s Lunch box. Stanley is an 8-9 year old kid who comes without lunch box to school every day. The interesting thing about the movie is the way it was shot at a Montessori school in Bombay as a part of acting workshops on Saturdays. It has the feel of a movie shot with an invisible camera in an actual class room and school environs.

All the kids look and act natural and the easy going script allows them to be just kids. Amole Gupte, the director plays one of the important roles in the movie as Kadoos, the Hindi teacher and his son Partho Gupte is Stanley.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

2011-11-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

To be serious on a Friday evening is sacrilegious. It is also a good excuse not to go at My Brother Ki Dulhan (My Brother’s Bride) with a cinematic laparoscope, when it is not pretending to be anything other than a vehicle for fun. If you want to watch a Bollywood movie, with its staple of North Indian wedding, a few colorful songs, eye candy actors and toned down drama suited for a global audience My Brother Ki Dulhan is a light entertainer for you to consider on a weekend.

Katrina Kaif is getting better as an actress though she is not playing a character far removed from her real life references. Dimple Dixit, a boisterous, fun loving girl had all the fun in the world and is ready to settle down with the man her parents will pick for her via the arranged marriage route. Then the unthinkable happens, that is if this is your first Bollywood film ever. If not, go to kitchen, grab a bag of chips, get back into the story without missing a beat.

Imran Khan, not a comedian by nature, fits well into comic story lines as I had witnessed in Delhi Belly. Ali Zafar is a comedian at heart kept in check by his London address in this movie. I’d like to see more of this Pakistani music star’s Bollywood forays (maybe start with Tere Bin Laden.) It was good to see Kanwaljeet Singh and Parikshit Sahni, old horses from Doordarshan’s hey days, back together in a main stream film.

Music is forgettable, cinematography is neat with shots of Taj from across the Yamuna as our Bollywood cinematographers prefer to show it and the director holds the game together without getting lost in creating spectacles for drama or tears.

Manikyakallu

2011-11-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

A selfless teacher on a mission to set straight a bunch of unruly kids - where have I heard this theme before? Every language in human history with an established film industry might have tackled this subject in one form or the other at some time. Hollywood produced classics like Blackboard Jungle, To Sir with Love and Stand and Deliver where an inspiring educator elevates underprivileged or inner city kids who have no interest in education to shiny beacons of the future.

In 2011 movie Manikyakallu, Prithviraj – Malayalam’s leading contender for the next superstar, goes noble as newly appointed teacher Vinayachandran at Vannamala High School notorious for its 100% failure rate. His altruistic mission to make prodigies out of distracted kids is beset with troubles and trouble-makers. But as expected of an upcoming superstar none of these can rein in our self-sacrificing man on a mission for long. Every enemy is brought to his/her knees through an event or incident reminiscent of Aesop’s fables. Lessons on morals and ethics are served to these fallen adversaries and thus indirectly to viewers in the form of fawning dialogs, songs with lyrical messages and implausible character turnarounds.

Most characters in this movie fall into either black and white category with only a few showing shades of grey. Those who are fortunate to play these roles include Samvrutha Sunil, KPAC Lalitha, Nedumudi Venu, Jagdeesh, Anil Murali, Jagathy Sreekumar and others. By the end of the movie though every part actor has given up his dark aspect and joined the forces with the light, thanks to our self-effacing hero. All I can ask at this point overpowered by a story of gooey-goodness is, isn’t this movie fifty years too late?

Kaavalan

2011-10-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

Dileep and Nayantara vs Vijay and Asin – which combo is better? I have not seen a full length Vijay movie before, only bits and pieces or songs from his movies made up my fleeting impressions of Vijay. Now after watching him with Asin in Kaavalan I can see how he is an actor at home in Tamil movie industry and having a producer-director father definitely helps. What really surprises me is this guy trumps Shahrukh Khan at not looking his age. He is playing a dude in early twenties in this movie and he doesn’t look a day older, definitely not 37 - his real age

Kaavalan is a remake of Malayalam movie Bodyguard starring Dileep and Nayantara, directed by Malayalam’s ace director Siddique – formerly of the famous Siddique Lal duo. The success of Bodyguard spawned a slew of remakes in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. I am glad I watched the Tamil version for Dileep could’ve caused a Repetitive Stress Syndrome to my eye muscles. Though he is overwhelmingly funny, if you have seen one Dileep movie you’ve seen them all.

Asin and Vijay are supported by Vadivelu, RajKiran, Roja, Mithra Kurian and a journal. Kaavalan’s story and execution smells of a movie dressed for success. It is the tried and tested to death formula of Indian movie-dom : guy meets girl in the backdrop of a college or university where they can party their days away wearing outrageously colorful clothes, sing around trees, make room for some villains to create a much needed climax and then guy and girl goes off forever-happy land. Same old comfort movie food in a shiny new package – we starry-eyed Indians always fall for this kind of emotional atyachar.

Plus Two

2011-10-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

Plus Two is the newest addition to Malayalam's list of high school romances. Plus Two in India corresponds to junior and senior years at high school in the US. This period is often cited as the years when teenage emotions go haywire in the subcontinent, as rightfully documented in Malayalam movies like Notebook, Kshanakkathu and Venal Kinavukal. Yeah, we are late bloomers, goes well with our arranged marriage system.

Sheby Chavakkad – a first time director uses the niche access door of teen angst and romance to enter Malayalam filmdom. It must have worked as blessing to him and his producer as this kind of entry undeniably cuts production costs by not needing a super star. M&Ms are only in their fifties and it’ll be a few years before they can get past the late 20s characters they are doing right now and tackle more complex teen roles. Till then people < 20 still have a chance.

Even with all new faces, it is a watchable movie. Roshan Basheer and Shafna play the lead pair, with four sidekicks(Justin John, Vishnu Mohan, Deepak Murali, Sajin), all of them are actual teens which also must have saved a lot on wig and makeup costs. Just imagine the state of producer’s wallet if Jagdish was to play one of those roles. Salim Kumar, Maniyan Pillai Raju, Sona Nair, Sai Kumar, Geeta Vijayan and Suraj Venjarmood play supporting characters.

There is not much of story, dialogs are tolerable and I don’t remember the songs (could be me.) What I remember is Shafna walks too slow even when situation demands her to be P.T.Usha and acts timid and helpless enough as is required of Malayalam heroines. Roshan has telltale signs of a newcomer, but as they say – that too shall pass. But what in the world made them name him Prince? Was he MJ’s lost son while he did his secret sojourn in the 90s through Kerala? Michael, rest in peace, I will not blame this on you. Meanwhile if you come across +2, it is an easy watch, go for it (without many expectations.)

Elephant

2011-10-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

Elephant could pass off as a documentary if you didn’t know it was a feature film by Gus Van Sant. It is a typical high school day in the US of A – jocks, nerds, hicks, geeks, druggies, emos and freaks and sometimes that means a gun(or more) might creep up in the middle of all these social strata.

Based loosely on Columbine massacre, it received the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Like people looking at an elephant from different perspectives and trying to describe it, film’s camera follows different students in long tracking shots on the fateful day.

Shot in an autumnal Portland, van Sant’s hometown, Elephant is a powerful examination of teenage mind within the framework of a single day.

1408

2011-10-10T18:51:00.000-08:00

Had I known it was a Stephen King story, I'd not have taken it. Nothing against the author, just not my style. It is an interesting movie if you are in the mood for some horror. With money, motivation and talent at its disposal nobody does CGI better than Hollywood, so 1408 is riveting, although the premise of a haunted hotel room is as old as bed bugs. The story recognizes this and shows our hero, horror writer Mike Enslin (John Cusack) tracking haunted rooms across the country finally finding the real McCoy at Dolphin Hotel, Room 1408.

This can easily be transformed into a one act play because most of the action takes place inside one hotel room. In addition to John Cusack, Samuel L.Jackson appears in a small but significant part.

Delhi Belly

2011-10-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

If this film was made in Hollywood, ideally, it will be titled Hershey Squirts or McShits, had it been a Canadian indie Beaver Feaver will be the name, in Arabic hands it’d have been called Yalla Yalla. For more ideas for suggesting a location-specific name for Delhi Belly when Aamir Khan Productions dubs the film for international audience and holds a public competition for the title of the dubbed version, visit Wikipedia.

With a team of Indians with roots and learning experiences from outside India, it does not come as a surprise when the movie speaks to the audience in English and identifies more with slick story-telling style of a Guy Ritchie or a Quentin Tarantino flick, with lot less gore and lot more $hit. Script writer Akshat Verma who went to film school in LA to make non-Bollywoodsy films in Bollywood finds his luck with Aamir Khan Productions and director Abhinay Deo.

Imran Khan, Aamir’s US born nephew and an actor in own right plays one of the major roles. The ensemble cast comprises of LA based actor Poorna Jagannathan, stand-up comedian Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Shehnaz Treasurywallah, Vijay Raaz and Paresh Ganatra among others.

This is not a film you’ll take your family out to the theaters to watch. It targets the 20-50 urban demographic with connectivity, access and an open mind to non-traditional India. There are not many LOL situations but rather some well-timed brain chuckles and farts (what else do you expect from a film named after traveler’s diarrhea) packed in a tight script.

Quite unlike a typical Bollywood movie there are no song interruptions in the story line. It does have a few songs, the controversial Bhag Bhag D.K.Boss amongst them, but they form part of the background score like in Hollywood movies, marketed later as from the sound track of the movie.

If you are not from India, but would like to get a taste of Bollywood movies and prefer to take it slow and easy, this’d be a good starter. Enjoy!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobarah

2011-10-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

India’s yuppie film genre is coming of age. It has been a ten year long trek from Dil Chahta Hai to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobarah while the film going populace became economically empowered with BPO jobs, nano (as in the size) cars, cellphones and ‘phoren’ vacations. All those cars and vacations have increasingly led to the development of a new breed of Indian – a road-tripper with an indulgent wallet.

Bromance movies are no strangers to Bollywood – the original woods where the bromantic saga Sholay played out for years in front of generations of changing audience. Today’s crowd will still lap up the bromance, but they know ‘zindagi na milegi dobarah’, so please make sure to delete Gabbar and all the related blood and crime. Keep the motorcycle and the chicks. Better still let’s change the Enfield into a convertible and a SUV, in tune with the changing times. Since everyone Rampur is an NRI, let’s go to Spain.

Road trip + Bromance in an exotic locale and we have Zindagi Na Milegi Dobarah. It is a bachelor-party road trip through a Spain tourism commercial. We have the San Fermin running of the bulls festival and Tomatina festival in Bunol. Had the characters really stayed in Spain and went to Tomatina festival first and then to San Fermin as it is shown in the film they’d have road-tripped thru’ Spain for a year for the Tomatino festival happens in August and San Fermin bull run in July.

Since our director Abhinay Deo is not training to be Ken Jenkins or Watson, only trying to achieve a minor task of scoring a Bollywood hit which I believe he does succeed in doing, I will not engage in a trivial pursuit . Farhaan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Kalki and Katrina Kaif supports Deo in his efforts. Although Javed Akhtar’s poetry is nice, had it not been there it’d not have made any difference to the viewing experience (atleast not to mine) or the box office bucks.

Milh Hadha al-Bahr (Salt of this Sea)

2011-09-30T23:32:00.002-08:00

It was time to give Palestine a shot. I had seen a few Israeli movies like Late Marriage, The Band's Visit and Paradise Now(the best of the three), Salt of this Sea is my first true-blue(or kufiyyah) Palestinian film. Made by Annemarie(is that an uncommon name for a Palestenian?) Jacir, supposedly first woman film director from Palestine, this film made it to Cannes in 2008 and received Camera D'Or nomination.

Soraya, born in Brooklyn to exiled Palestinian immigrants, travels back to rediscover the land of forefathers, the land from which her parents had to escape as refugees. The best thing about the film is it shows how ordinary Palestinians go on about their daily lives and the stark contrast of Palestinian areas with Israeli territories which are usually just separated by a wall and guarded check points. The ordeal of tough scrutiny, pat downs and questions on faith, dignity and last names every person of Palestinian descent has to go through at check points , counters and even on open road surveyed and manned by Israeli guards is an eye-opener.

Every year thousands of Western tourists arrive in busloads to visit the holy sites in Israel. Sometimes, on rare occasions they encounter stone-throwing Palestinians – the one and only face of Palestine they see while they are in Israel – the militant face. Salt of the Sea, shows you the other side, Palestinians as ordinary people trying to make ends meet, who wants to make movies, sing and study, presenting them as a bunch of people with aspirations like the rest of us. The only difference is, they are foreigners in their own land, living under a grim exclusionary shadow which makes them carry visas, IDs and endure fierce police questionings while they go on with the business of life.

My only gripe with film is, can a person who has not grown up or lived in Palestine who only came to know of it from the stories and thoughts of her parents be so attached to a house which she is seeing for the first time? I cannot empathize with the character, a progeny of displaced people maybe because I have not undergone a similar experience. Still I could not justify Soraya flaring up at the Israeli woman who welcomed three complete strangers to stay at her house as long as they wanted after they told her that it once belonged to Soraya’s grandfather. The reason for Soraya’s outburst was that the affable Israeli woman refused to take up Soraya’s offer to get kicked out of her own house since the Soraya’s grandfather used to own it 70 years ago before he had to flee Palestine and Soraya who has never lived in that house wants to have it back.Talk about trying to cash in on generational guilt.

Another way of looking at it is metaphorically – similar to Israeli justification of its occupation of Palestinian lands based on Biblical and pre-Biblical facts/stories. If that is the case, point taken, Anne Marie.

Sankaranum Mohananum

2011-09-22T18:32:00.000-08:00

This is Malayalam’s own “I can see dead people” film. Here Jayasurya has the Haley Joel Osment condition otherwise known as the Sixth Sense. He also gets to play double role as brothers Sankaran and Mohanakrishnan. Sankaran - an itinerant spirit is dead for most part of the movie but shows up in interesting costumes throughout and Mohanan, an ad photographer represents the living world.

Jayasurya has bagged many interesting roles these days – from the incidental villain in Cocktail and the happy go-lucky dude in Payyans to a forty five year old balding ghost spouting perfect Kannur Malayalam in this movie, he has shown quite a range. He is supported competently by Reema Kallingal, Meera Nandan, C.V.Sreeraman, Valsala Menon and others. Except for Kalpana who felt like an import from Travancore to Malabar, everyone else seemed to belong.

Most of the reviewers have been hard on this film, maybe they were expecting a more heavy-duty product from T.V.Chandran. Oh, can’t a man let his guard down once in a while? I, for one, in fact liked the existential comedy, a tad ‘Woody Allen’esque had Allen moved out of Manhattan to Malabar. The idea of 9 months grace period after death, the explanation for it and the new take on life after death titillates me enough to find pleasure in the film.

Wikipedia informs me that there is an autobiographical aspect to Sankaranum Mohananum. T.V.Chandran’s own brother died in Nigeria at an early age and the story setting in North Malabar where T.V.Chandran’s own birthplace(Thalassery) is serve as pointers to this fact. Now if I could lay hands on Alicinte Anweshanam and Susanna, I can be pre-qualified to give free unsolicited opinions on T.V.Chandran’s films, the only one I remember watching is Padam Onnu: Oru Vilapam.

Band Baaja Baaraat

2011-09-15T07:01:00.002-08:00

If anything sells in India, weddings will top the list.Band, Baaja and Baaraat, the three irreplaceable components of a typical NorthIndian wedding make the title of this recent sleeper hit movie from Delhi boy –Maneesh Sharma and his script writer Habib Faisal. I had no clue it was HabibFaisal who wrote BBB before I googled, although it strongly reminded me of Do Dooni Char – another one of Faisal’s scripts. No wonder.

BBB does not approach the wedding using the tried and tested Bollywood formula where the whole movie is a giant excuse to showcase hero-heroine's wedding. In BBB the spotlight is shifted towards the back, behind the scenes of a planned wedding - a role traditionally played by parents but fast being taken over by professional wedding planners.

Like Do Dooni Char, Band Baaja Baaraat is a tribute toDilli. Dilli 6 may have Dilli in the title and Chandni Chowk’s galis asshooting locales, but Band Baaja Baaraat and Do Dooni Char live and breatheDelhi. Punjabi infused Hindi delivered effortlessly by Anushka Sharma andRanveer Singh – the actors who play the two main characters of Shruti Kakkarand Bittoo Sharma, lifts you from your couch and puts you right into aJanakpuri kind of day.

The film is also an acknowledgement to a new brand of Indian - the young entrepreneur. Shruti Kakkar - the wannabe business woman who dreams of making it big as a wedding planner personifies the optimistic and daring new India. Anushka Sharma gives her best shot to-date as Shruti Kakkar. So does newcomer Ranveer Singh, a virtual nobody before he landed this gig.

It is good to see production houses like Yash Raj films coming out with quality films, giving opportunity to emerging directors - Chak De India, Rocket Singh and Band Baaja Baarat, the list is growing, these movies can cover up their mistakes like Pyaar Impossible.

Definitely, Maybe

2011-08-30T18:14:00.001-08:00

An urban love story. New york and the interesting political climate of the 90s form the backdrop of an otherwise ordinary story. The creators have tried to inject a sense of mystery by hiding the identity of her mother from a child so that the whole movie could be passed of as a child's cryptic bedtime story. Somehow unlike the child the viewers never get drawn into the mystery. Fail.Then again love stories are always a fail with me. Meh.

Gaddama (Khaddama)

2011-08-29T07:45:00.001-08:00

Women in flight (no, not Amelia Earhart), escaping their wretched existence make good movie material. If they are fleeing Middle-East, the place already has a shady reputation when it comes to women’s rights, it is even more convincing. Or ask Betty Mahmoody. Hollywood took a stab at this subject with Mahmoody’s real life escape from Iran with her little daughter in the film "Not Without My Daughter" adapted from her book of the same name.

Kerala, the Indian state which sends the largest number of workers to the Gulf countries in the Middle East should definitely have some stories, right? But who cares about the stories of maids and ayahs, drivers and construction workers unless there was a Cinderella factor at the end.

Looks like Malayalam director Kamal does. He knows a sellable story when he sees one. He chanced upon the harrowing real life story of a maid named Subaida from a Malayali journalist in the Middle East, K.U.Iqbal . It had the makings of a best-seller, no doubt. If it was in the US a paperback would have been out first. To Kamal’s credit he put Subaida’s story on fast track, skipping the book stores and direct to the big screen.

Kavya Madhavan gets to play the role of Aswathy, the Khaddama(Gaddama or the house maid), the lead character. Since it is a story of escape, the captors(or the employers) are not shown in a flattering light. Suck it up, one family does not make a country, the director is not here to make generalization he is presenting a story, of which he does a commendable job. He is aided by a set of talented actors including Kavya, Sreenivasan, Suraj Venjaramood and Murali Gopi. Kavya as always, has acted well, she is such a seasoned actress. Then again this is like "the" default role for a Malayalam actress – defenseless, teary eyed, at the mercy of man- her protector, speaking volumes with huge helpless eyes rather than using real dialogue.

It was interesting to get a peek into the social fabric of Middle East composed of two distinct layers (maybe more if you count the Western expats, but I am not going there)– one, of the rich natives and a nether world of their coterie of servants and aids, two streams running parallel but never polluting each other by crossing. Khaddama is a window in to this sub strata of Middle Eastern society, made up of foreigners, whose survival in the desert is at the mercy of their rich Arab employers. Definitely worth a watch.

My Top Ten Hollywood Movie Recommendations of 2000s or A Movie 101 for N00bs

2011-08-24T18:10:00.001-08:00

If someone who is new to this whole Hollywood business(any takers? aliens, you guys listening, maybe they are already watching our movies before they have their earthly releases, anyway), wants to know what are the best movies to watch to get an intro about the 'stuff' that goes on in Beverly Hills, then this list will be useful. And oh yes, the requester has also put in a conditional clause - only the movies made in the last decade or so. This eliminates some movies I desperately want to include like Office Space, Happy Accidents, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, American History X etc, but I can always have a list for each decade, right?

Unlike me, I hope all the readers (if there are any) will be more considerate and won't blame me if this list includes more English movies made outside Hollywood than the native-born and bred ones. So here is my list of top 10 Hollywood / English movies of the noughties which defies any sort of sorting.

In Bruges: Con men in Belgium. Comedy dunked in powerful script.

Hot Fuzz: Action + Comedy, no one does comedy better than the Brits, they are learning to do low-cost action that looks good.

Inception: Brain crackling entertainment, a mega movie Hollywood style.

Kick-ass: Comic book lovers and those waiting for second comings and super heroes, this one's for you.

Idiocracy: The closest you can get to time travel in the US, brilliant low budget caper.

Babel: Multiple narratives racing against time, Inarritu directs for a global audience.

Avatar: If you missed Dances with the Wolves, this one's even better, it is set in a different planet!

Blood Diamond: Ladies, this is the one about your engagement / wedding rings.

Source Code: Included because I watched it recently and it is fresh in my mind.

White Chicks: I love black(oops, politically incorrect, shame on me) comedy with white titles.

Paul

2011-08-12T14:51:00.001-08:00

Paul, the movie is more English than American. Paul, the alien, is well…an alien who wears shorts and talks street-smart English in the voice of Seth Rogen. This is going to be a biased review because I am awed by the creative aura of Simon Pegg – Nick Frost duo. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People are all nerdy movies I recommend to other people.

Greg Mottola – the director of Paul has a very different take on films, his movies Superbad and Adventureland were as American as it gets, but nerdy nevertheless. Paul therefore had to be an interesting product, a fusion of British humor and American nerdiness.

Paul does not disappoint. The British lads (Simon Pegg & Nick Frost) land at Comic Con in San Diego and take off on a road-trip through the sci-fi ridden landscape of America’s Areas 51 through 100 and all that comes after that. On the way they give lifts to a friendly alien and a bible quoting All American Girl (Kirsten Wiig.) Their interesting social encounters provide insights into differences between things American and non-American. Paul is not Hot Fuzz, but it is definitely a good entertainer.

Source Code

2011-08-10T22:35:00.000-08:00

In another world this movie might be called 8 Minutes. Somehow that reminds me of Eminem and 8 Mile which is totally irrelevant to this movie because in this world it is called Source Code. Computer geeks amongst us might think the story may have something to do with hacking, computer programs or how the mighty can be brought down to its knees by changing a few lines of code here and there. Others might have visions of neon green 1s, 0s and other related jumble scrolling down their giant flat screens. This movie is not about that either.

Although the core of Source Code is a scientific break-through which facilitates a short rewind of time in the minds of those involved, the story asserts again and again through its characters that it is not dealing with time travel. What it is about is, the human longing to outlast beyond our times, to poke a finger into the great beyond and feel what it is like, even if it is for a tiny fraction of time. Jake Gylenhall gets to push the envelope on life as Captain Colter Stevens in Source Code where he is supported by Vera Farmiga, Michelle Monaghan and Jeffrey Wright.

This must be what a romantic sci-fi story should be like, we are not talking about the boy-meets-girl kind of romance, though shades of that is there in this film. It is romantic as in the yearning for life, being so overwhelmed by the beauty of it that brainy scientists develop source code for life (in terms incomprehensible to most viewers including myself but that’s beside the point.) It is a starry eyed what-if of alternate worlds and thwarted disasters thrown on the face of the audience by director Duncan Jones and screenwriter Ben Ripley. It is the soothed ache of soldiers who get to say their last words to the people they intended to deliver it to. In short Source Code is pure desire for life and all that is beyond, a sci-fi romance at its best.

Traffic - Malayalam Movie Review

2011-08-05T20:06:00.000-08:00

Is this the first multi-narrative movie in Malayalam? I do not rememberwatching any other good one. (Good being the operative word – I am thinking ofThe Metro which was released a month before Traffic and was a letdown on allfronts.) It is an easy formula for success, provided you have a fast-pacedstory to back it up. AlejandroInarritu's Death Trilogy - AmoresPerros, 21Grams and Babelemploy this narrative style to keep audience at the edge of their seats whileraking in awards and box office bucks. Even the Hollywood namesake of this movie,Traffic(2000) is also a multi-narrative movie. It looks like Malayalam Trafficalso fared predictably as its illustrious predecessors and gave back theproducer - Listin Stephen, his dues and more.

Bobby and Sanjay, the writers of Traffic get the credit of bringing a newwave of stories and narration to Malayalam cinema. Remember Notebook, aboarding school drama with a touch of seriousness, just like a Malayali wouldlike to have his movie with his parippu vada and chaya and a topical issue withsome gravitas – a teen pregnancy in Notebook. Unlike Notebook, Traffic does notreally allow the viewer to relax before introducing a somber twist. Traffic isintense in the story department with a frantic build up within a fixed timeframe which is a pre-requisite for multi-narrative story lines.

One of the benefits of having intertwining plots is the variety of actingtalent viewers will get to see representing equally important characters.Traffic has Vineeth Sreenivasan, Asif Ali, Rehman, Sreenivasan, Sai Kumar, KunchakoBoban, Sandhya, Lena, Anoop Menon and others sharing screen time. Except forthe Namitha Prasad, the actress who played Rehman’s 13 year old daughter, wholooks too old for 13(and we know the movie is not about 13 going on 30) everyonefits well into their roles.

Traffic is interesting because it is the first successful movie of its kindin Malayalam. The inevitable fate of this kind of success is a deluge of moviesmade in the same mold for a foreseeable future. In such a case, Bobby, Sanjay and directorRajesh Pillai can be held responsible, in the mean time - enjoy the movie while the theme is still fresh.

Gandhinagar 2nd Street

2011-07-26T20:00:00.005-08:00

Old people are notorious for perpetuating a dreamy dewy eyedview of the past – a bygone better age. A golden era whenteens listened to mellow music and respected their elders, milk came in glassbottles, mail was delivered by mail man instead of Google and NASA was stillcapable of putting a man on the moon. Yeah, the good old days!

For Malayalam cinema, old is gold is a truthiness a Malayalicannot deny. Things were reallybetter for Malayalam movie industry back then and don't doubt for a moment that it is my age doing the talking. For if you ask me the samequestion about Hindi movies I’d say Bollywood never was half as good as it isnow, their eighties were trash or travails.

If one decade has to be chosen to represent the entireMalayalam movie industry, it has to be the period from 1985 to 1995. Or maybe wecan restrict it to include, just the late eighties (85 - 90). And if there is one comboyou are going to order again and again from that time period – it has to be –Sreenivasan(script writer + actor), Sathyan Anthikkad(director), Mohanlal(actor) combo. Gandhinagar 2^nd Street is one ofthe best flavors from this team of three at their prime.

Mohanlal living a double life to make ends meet plays one ofthe most unforgettable roles in Malayalam cinema as Gurkha Bheem Singh ka beta Ram Singh (..hoom hainhoom..) at a housing colony, Gandhi Nagar in Anywhere-City, Kerala circa 1980s. Like all Sreenivasan scripts ofthose days, Gandhi Nagar 2^nd street is a brilliant social commentaryof the times. Each character however small or big, is a well thought-out, developedand executed. Its simple but succinctly humorous dialogs have stayed on inMalayalis’ shared memories ever since.

The movie is so powerful (without flexing any visiblemuscles) that sometimes I wish there was a housing colony called GandhinagarSecond Street, for real. I wish, if we walk down that street we will accidentlyrun into Ram Singh or Nirmala Teacher(Seema) or Maya(Karthika.) We can chat up how they are doing after all theseyears, who got married to whom and who moved away to where.

If wishes werehorses there’d be a sequel, but the first major obstacle would be the man whowas the life breath of Gandinagar, Ram Singh aka Mohanlal, the actor. Today’sMohanlal would be a Godzilla to Gandhinagar’s little Tokyo – uncontainable, alien andultimately a nightmare. The secondproblem will be Harihar Nagar, the other famous housing colony from the worldof Malayalam movies which has spawned a few sequels. If Harihar Nagar sequelsare any indication to what lies in store for Gandhi nagar(I cannot imagine itbeing any different), then one Gandhinagar 2^ndStreet is enough – letit remain a beautiful memory in our collective consciousness.

Guzaarish

2011-07-24T16:11:00.000-08:00

Sanjay Leela Bhansali School of Cinema is where you should enroll in if you are interested in perfecting set and costume design and the visual art of cinema as a whole, with emphasis on 'visual'. Every frame in a Bhansali movie is a consummate painting, to the last detail of a withered plant, out of focus in the right shade of yellowish green tucked away in a hazy corner. Like one of those Dutch masters’ works done in the medium of motion picture, four hundred years later with richer colors and crores at his disposal. If there was a court painter for Bollywood, Sanjay Leela Bhansali will hold that title for life. From Khamoshi and Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam to Guzaarish, his films have taken the meaning of visual extravaganza to new heights.

But personally I’d rather watch his movies with my fingers in full control of the fast forward button. Well, that’s me, spoiled by the fast and the furious flicks. Somewhere along the way my slow movie appreciation gene mutated, succumbing to the pressures of reality real time media. Guzaarish, despite the art appreciation class I tried to view it as, was painfully slow for me.

The magic of the story was bed-ridden along with the magician in the story – Ethan Mascarenas, played by a wide-eyed crazy Hrithik Roshan. Aishwarya Rai as home nurse Sophia, in gorgeous foreign costumes shed by the Portuguese when they first arrived on the shores of Konkan and Malabar half a millennium ago, makes an a-muse-ing distraction. Aditya Roy Kapoor was brought into add some youthful energy – a bold swash of color in a house of impending death and grays. Some Indians, who look European, like Nafisa Ali and Shernaz Patel, in spite of their six yard of saris, also made the cut.

Most of Bhansali’s movies give me the impression of a baby switched at birth. Actually it has to be more specific than a simple switch of similar looking babies, it always look like a gora or gringo baby mistakenly given to a dark-skinned couple. Everything about his movies is so nobly European – the costumes, the characters and their interactions, most of the times the core story itself. This finds Bhansali running back, time and again to the most “European” of India’s states – Goa.

In Bollywood anything goes, if it is dressed in a frock and speaks pidgin, provided it is from Goa. So in Guzaarish we have a paralyzed magician and his coterie of mismatched assistants grappling with the very un-magical concept of mercy killing in a crumbling old mansion located where else, in Goa. You watch the rest, if you’ve time to kill.

Tournament

2011-07-19T22:57:00.005-08:00

Lal is one of the underestimated directors in Malayalam. Hispairing with his childhood friend Siddique gave us some of the game changers ofthe 1990s. Majority of Malayalam movies made today for the commercial marketstill follow the formula perfected by Siddique-Lal duo twenty years ago.

Lal’s real name is Paul Michael? Wow! That’s a revelation tome. I did watch the Harihar Nagar sequels he directed on his second coming as adirector – To Harihar Nagar and In Ghost House Inn , both were commercial successes.Although aging dudes (Mukesh and co.) in garish garbs, decorative facial hair (purportedto be representative of present day youth culture) and fake hair-pieces failedto elicit any laughter or interest in me

Tournament, Lal’s latest offering evoked a differentresponse. It was in fact interesting despite heavily borrowing cinematictechniques from world over. Malayalis were never too big on road trips, whichwill explain the lack of Malayalam road trip movies till now. As residents ofKerala forced to use Kerala highways to get out of the state we used to heave asigh of relief when we finally left the pot-hole ridden Kerala section ofNational Highway behind and entered the smooth tarmac favored by Tamil Nadu andKarnataka. Does a road movie like Tournament mean our highways are gettingbetter or our railways are getting worse?

Replay or rewinding the movie to explain the story for theviewers, borrowed from Run Lola Run is used in abandon. Using cricket as thebinding theme also serves the purpose of using replays to unravel the innerworkings of characters. I don’t mind, we live a TiVo world, after all. Then there is a bit of Gods Must Be Crazy withIndrans and a runaway jeep. There might be other cinematic ‘tributes’ includedthat I am not aware of. What pleases meis there are no tributes to mega-serials or there is no pancake –laden Revlonlipped Malayali penkodi traipsing across green fields with a thulasi kathir in her blow-dried and straightened hair, fluttering her false eyelashes.

In Tournament we have 3 main players and a female lead.Replacing Kunchako Boban, Sudheesh and company(who have interminable no-bid contractsfor playing college students in Malluwood), with fresh new actors is a boldmove from Lal. That and the script which stays true to the characters are thestrength of the movie. I love the way the guy from Thrissur sounds exactly likea guy from Thrissur and the Malayali cricketer brought up in Mysore soundsexactly like my cousins in Bangalore. Details,God is in the details, usuallyan area Malayali film makers stay out of. Bravo, Lal!

Two Weeks

2011-07-08T15:16:00.004-08:00

If you are ready to watch a serious film, a family drama which is not a concocted fake 'Hollywood-sy' version, Two Weeks is a good pick. Oh, and it is about death, if you are not in the mood for dying today, skip it.

If you do, you'll miss Sally Field - yes Forrest Gump's mother, of course. I think there is something instantly likable, motherly yet the same time peppy about Ms.Field. The dying character(Anita Bergman) she portrays deals with death like a good sport, at no point asking for audience's mercy or tears. As the mother lies dying, her four children descend upon her home she shares with her second husband, to be with her in the final part of her journey.

Steve Stockman who wrote and directed Two Weeks takes his material from his own life and his mother's death for this semi-autobiographical work. There are minor flaws in the characterization of the four children, Ben Chaplin as the eldest son Keith gets most of screen time. I didn't really get the funny parts, maybe it was my upbringing in a different culture. Despite all these the film gets many things right, like the finer aspects of care, the final farewells, the hospice situation, sibling rivalries and the life-like portrayal of a dying person (no pun intended) by Sally Field. Watch it for her.

Patterns

2011-07-07T16:05:00.001-08:00

Patterns is more relevant today than it was in 1956 when it was written by Rod Serling, he of The Twilight Zone fame. This is the age of corporations, we are at that stage in the circle of economic evolution where the small and the meek gets taken over and are merged into big corporations. The corporate ruthlessness of the character Walter Ramsey(Everette Sloane) can be easily identified by majority of world’s urban population who have at some point in time worked for a conglomerate or a company.

It is a short and perspicacious film, directed by Fielder Cook and starring Van Heflin, Everette Sloane, Beatrice Straight, Ed Begeley and Elizabeth Wilson in main roles. If you want to know how it was like working in corporate America after WW2, this could be a good choice especially because it is reality and not Ayn Rand.

Nizhal

2011-07-06T15:17:00.003-08:00

Nizhal probably was a low budget movie considering its choice of actors. Directed by Venu B.Nair, it is a movie that’d not make its presence known unless you accidently find yourself watching it, lacking anything better to do. It turned out to be a not-so-bad one at that.

The best thing about Nizhal is its script and dialog – which seemed natural. My peeve with it is, its lead character played by Jagan. There is nothing unbearable about his acting. But who are you trying to fool here with a man who looks old enough to have children who can enroll in engineering colleges and calling him a first year engineering student? Well, may be that’s a bit of a strectch, but still Jagan and his foot wide moustache does not look 17-18 years old from any angle, the current normal age of a freshman engineering student. Other than that it is a watchable movie, one of the few recent ones which feels less like a mega-serial and more like what is meant to be.

Lovely Bones

2011-06-26T20:55:00.004-08:00

Lovely Bones was devastating when I read it long time ago. It made reserve every book written (or about to be published) by Alice Sebold at the library. Not many favorable reviews for the movie though. For one thing, it is more Peter-Jackson than Alice Sebold which I don't mind much. It is like a different take on a same dish even if it came of the same recipe. Those slight differences are exciting to me.

Peter Jackson's Lovely Bones is awash in a perpetual CGI autumn. It is heart wrenching as the book was but somehow the depiction of heaven or the whole concept of it becomes lame when presented visually. In the book it had seemed okay. But I'd feel the same for any movie that shows the non-existent universe that goes by the name 'heaven', it is not the movie maker's fault. He had to show it in someway without being over the top, for the whole story rides on the premise of main character's musings on earthly going-ons from the celestial beyond.

Actors including Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon and Rachel Weisz did justice to their parts - big and small. I can turn a bit judgmental of Weisz's mother character but that'd be unbecoming of this blog, so I will stop here. If you need a tear-jerker for a Saturday night without the unnecessary romance thrown-in, Lovely Bones is it.

Angadi Theru

2011-06-22T18:45:00.000-08:00

Angadi Theru is one of those no holds barred movies which wants to do a show-n-tell how unfair life really is. It grabs you and thrusts your face on that gritty reality and lets you go after two and a half hours. It is like a good cry you needed to let all the emotional burdens flow away, it is melancholic yet it releases your mind. In those two hours you’ll live with those characters, identify with them and fight their losing battles.

Angadi Theru is the Salaam Bombay of Chennai. The hopeless, helpless lives of Ranganthan street might not capture a foreign award committee’s attention as easily as a festering red-light district in a third world metropolis, but a discerning audience can find parallels. I have heard that more than half of the movie was shot with hidden camera in actual locations. From the cinematography and the choice of lead actors, who were either making a debut or were only a couple of films old at the making of this movie, that seems totally plausible and it is one of its strengths.

Mahesh, Anjali and Pandi who plays the main characters steal the show. Even others who had small roles are very non-filmish and natural. The film maker has also inserted some documentary-like scenes into the story line which although doesn’t relate to the main story, adds to the knowledge base of the viewer. Now I’d like to see all the previous films of director/writer Vasanthabalan. The best lesson I took away from this movie. Respect. Treat every fellow human being with respect, they deserve it.

Payyans

2011-06-10T12:24:00.000-08:00

Payyans is Malayalam version of dude or chap or lad, depending on your location in the English speaking world. The informal nature of the movie title means that I should go easy on it, for it is not pretending to be His Highness Abdullah or Pazhassi Raja, it is a story of an everyday youth not pretending to be anyone else but himself.

Jayasurya is the Payyans or Josey John - that is the name Payyans go by. As expected of his fashion sense (a weird Mallu mullet?) and carefree ways, his character is another brick in the Great Wall of Engineers of India. Everyone who is literate and is under twenty-five is an engineer or an engineering drop-out in our little sliver of a state of Kerala. Engineering being the gateway degree for any kind of job ranging from vegetable vendors to the President of India and everything in between, it comes as no surprise to the viewers when Payyans finds a cosy spot somewhere in the middle as a radio jockey.

The story is oh-so predictable. **SPOILERS** The moment we see Lal's garlanded high resolution photo on the wall (as Payyan's posthumous father) we are guaranteed a back-from-the-dead twist. Rohini's overly loving and naive mother is similarly assured an early demise for the requisite sentimental edge. Jayasurya is funny and convincing in his acting but he looks older for the purported 23 years Payyans is supposed to have spent on this planet. Anjali, a Tamil-Telugu actress gets to be Payyans' girl friend. As all good Malayali girls are supposed to behave, her character is first intent on murdering Payyans for his eve-teasing, then makes a 180 degree turn, falls for the eve-teaser and afterwards is seen pestering him to marry her.

Suraj Venjaramoodu, the salt of current-day Malayalam cinema curry turns into an Anglo-Indian from Kochi for this movie. Accessorized with subtly colored locks and a cap-wearing Anglo-Indian Dad(Janardhanan), the Nedumangad (Trivandrum) accent he continues to spout could only be blamed on the geographical proximity of Kochi and Nedumangad, a mere 200 kms.

The movie is a romp, it definitely won't make the 2010-2011 merit list. If you like the actors who play the main characters it is worth a watch.

Karayilekoru Kadal Dooram

2011-06-07T16:36:00.000-08:00

An Ocean to traverse before reaching shore - is the most literal translation of this movie's title. I cannot be more poetic than that because I am still at sea after watching the movie. By the way the official English title is 'A Sea Away to the Shore.' It has one of those Kafka-esque themes that Malayalam movie intelligentsia is obsessed with, where a thoroughly perplexed audience is taken as the sign of movie's complexity and therefore its superior art quotient. BS.

The actors have performed their parts the best they can. Indrajith, Mamta Mohandas, Sarayu, Dhanya Mary, Lakshmi Sharma all try to guide you through the maze, but to no avail. Will Vinod Mankara pleae stand up and own this? Yes, that is our director right there, a national and state award winner for numerous documentaries he directed, he also won the the best directorial debut award with this feature film. Well, in a way you cannot blame the award committee, it is a world better than what is offered by commercial Malayalam cinema these days.

Tanu Weds Manu

2011-05-18T17:21:00.000-08:00

Tanu weds Manu is a new-age Hindi rom-com starring R.Madhavan(Manu) and Kangana Ranaut(Tanu) in leading roles. It is an interesting movie at many levels at the same time there is something missing from its core. To me that something missing was the lack of believability of Tanuja Trivedi aka Tanu's character. She is a small town girl exposed and transformed by big city glitz thanks to a stint at Delhi University. Her boyfriends are temporal as Julian Assange's looks. She smokes, drinks and swears in abandon. In short she is Billy Joel's woman. Now what is guy like Manu(Madhavan) - docile and homely, doing with The Piano Man's rambunctious lady is anybody's guess.

Tanu is overly made-up all the time, that seems to be a Kangana Ranaut trademark. Madhavan is older, chubbier, but his understated acting keeps it in tune with his character. There is nothing that keeps you at the edge about the story, it has all been said and done in the title itself. In the absence of excitement in the big picture, it is the small stuff that help us stay in our seats,the little goodies in the film in no particular order are,

Deepak Dobriyal's earthy and natural right-hand man act as Pappi.
Jimmy Shergill, in a small but crucial role with a heart-rending closing dialog which all the toughies should learn by heart for their own good.
Kanpur and Kapurthala and the life and sights in small-town North India have been captured beautifully.
Most of the supporting actors have done their parts well, whether it is K.K.Raina or Rajendra Gupta, Eijaz Khan or Swara Bhaskar.

Saat Khoon Maaf

2011-04-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

PriyankaChopra must have a very good manager or the girl has got brains. Her last fewoutings as a leading heroine could be considered as paranormal phenomena in amale-centric Bollywood. I go by the Merriam Webster definition of ‘paranormal’ –something that’s not scientifically explainable. Or how else could you explainFashion, What’s your Rashee or this one I am attempting to review – 7 KhoonMaaf.

Fashion won her the national award for best actress, maybe she didn’thave to do much acting in that role being a fashion model herself, it was astrong performance nevertheless. Then comes What’s your Rashee and 7 Khoon Maaf– two movies in which the strong female character had to carry the bulk of thefilm and to my surprise Priyanka shouldered the burden competently.

I am not abig fan of Miss India being a platform for launching future Bollywood leadingladies, much like using the Kalathilakam award as a short-cut to becoming aMalayalam movie heroine. Whether I like it or not, both these have served asvehicles of entry to filmdom for many of our heroines.

When Priyanka Chopralaunched her Bollywood career courtesy of her Miss India title, there were several othersattempting the same route – Yukta Mookhey, Lara Dutta and Celina Jeitley toname a few. I had thought Priyanka was not the typical Bollywood beauty andtherefore will be ousted in no time. But time and Priyanka’s career managementhas proven me wrong and here we are at 7 Khoon Maaf.Adapted from aRuskin Bond story. Susanna’s Seven Husbands and directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, 7Khoon Maaf produces a slew of adjectives in my mind – in no particular orderthey are - odd, sensual, imaginative, remarkable, different, dark, comical and interesting.

With Vishal Bharadwaj you can always expect a movie a little off the beatenpath, usually adapted from a literary work. It is nice to see Ruskin Bond’swork in Bollywood. But the one who really hit the jackpot is definitely thelady who has occupied most real estate in this review – Ms.Chopra. She gets toact with six different leading men – ranging from Neil Nitin Mukesh toNaseeruddin Shah.

Much of the charm of the movie is its story, the anticipationof who and what will the background of Susanna’s next husband and the nexthusband and the next.Like otherVishal Bharadwaj films, it is not what the mainstream Hindi audience expectsand therefore I believe there will be more who won’t like this movie and thanthose who will. It didn’t do well at the box-office, had Mr.Bharadwaj been moremoney-conscious he’d have cast ShahRukh Khan as one of the seven, but thenagain would he agree to be 1 in 7 when he is really number 1 and only?

Four Friends

2011-04-18T16:58:00.001-08:00

Four Friends is Aashayein, Malayalam style. Both are based on the same theme - friendships at the end of life. It is even more unbearable than its Hindi cousin.Jayaram, Kunchako Boban, Jayasurya and Meera Jasmin play the title characters. The film exploits every cliche associated with a terrible disease which does the villain's role, thus saving production cost and saving us viewers from fake stunts and related audio visual effects. It reaches a point when we'd realize that a real human villain would have been more bearable. Lots of sacrifices and money flow through the story line, which finally comes to a screeching halt a top a bridge in Malaysia (brought to you by budget airlines and cheap international air fares.) This movie forgot to include this statutory warning, "Friends don't let friends watch Four Friends, if they really care about their friends."

Let Me In

2011-04-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

I am no sucker for vampires (pun intended.) Nor do I understand the identity crisis that afflicts New World people which is cured by them joining clubs like Trekkies, Pagans, Goths or the Twilight Series fan club. If I knew "Let Me In" was a story about a blood-sucking being I'd have stayed clear of it and I'd have missed something truly excellent.

From the director of Cloverfield, Matt Reeves, comes Let Me In, a Swedish vampire story/movie adapted for an American visual palette. It is supposedly a scene by scene remake of the Swedish movie, 'Let the Right One In', which kind of lives up to its original in most aspects, as per the reviews I've read.

It gives an interesting new perspective at vampires, young, refreshing and smaller than the classic Count Dracula original.If it was not so gory it could have been a kids' movie since both protagonists are tweens. An interesting movie, definitely worth a watch after midnight (timing is to set the mood.)

Udaan

2011-04-11T16:37:00.001-08:00

Udaan must be Vikrmaditya Motwane’s brilliant debut as a director, Rajat Barmecha’s dreamcomes true as leading actor in a Hindi movie propelled by a strong script byAnurag Kashyap, but to me the revelation of the movie was Ronit Roy!

The lasttime I saw him was when I was a teenager and he was prancing around singing “Firsttime dekha tumhe hum kho gaya second time mein love ho gaya, ye akkha india jaantahai hum tum pe marta hai , dil kya cheez hai jaanam apni jaan tere naam karta hai” –in Jaan Tere Naam.It was a peppy song, but very dated, the one that’ll definitely find a place inthe ‘I am ashamed to admit I used to like this song’ list. Ronit Roy was a onemovie wonder. In the almost two decades in between Jaan Tere Naam and Udaan Googlehas informed me that Mr.Roy had gone from being a jobless one hit wonder tosmall screen’s Amitabh Bachchan and an owner of an renowned private securityfirm. Lack of Indian TV signals in my part of the globe kept me blissfullyunaware of all that, till Udaan.

Udaan is a neatlymade coming of age movie from an industry that doesn’t make many coming of age movies.I wonder whether there are any autobiographical aspects to it. Gorakhpur, UP whereAnurag Kashyap grew up and Jamshedpur, Jharkhand where Udaan is set, can claim geographicproximity in the greater order of things. Besides, like Rajat Barmecha’scharacter in the movie, Mr.Kashyap is also a product of boarding schools. RajatBarmecha, got a role of a lifetime as a small town kid, Rohan, trying to findhis own identity from under the shadow of his despotic father, BhairavSingh(Ronit Roy.)

There a few othersmall but significant characters played by Ram Kapoor, Anand Tiwari and ManjotSingh. A natural narrative, characters that audience can relate to and a great scriptcontribute to the quality of the film. It does remind me of 80s art-housemovies.

Aashayein

2011-03-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

Nagesh Kukunoor is losing his touch. You mean there are still educated people who believe that one can become an unfortunate victim of AIDS being in the same room as an AIDS patient?!!?! Agreed Kukunoor star hasn't really been shining after Hyderabad Blues 2, Dor was good but it was a lift-off the original Malayalam Perumazhakkaalam, still Aashayein imparts a sense of director-fatigue. Has he run out of good stories?

John Abraham has acted better than he usually does, he even lost weight to keep with his character, but we all know he is not a Naseeruddin Shah or Abhay Deol in the acting department. Anaitha Nair is good, although she doesn't look as young as movie purports her to be. Other notable actors who make appearance in this movie are Farida Jalal, and Girish Karnad. Well, if you have no other DVD in the house and the internet is down, then maybe Aashayein.

Old Boy

2011-03-21T17:15:00.001-08:00

Oldboy slices your head with its cold psychological edge. It starts of like a home video footage, at least the lighting made me think so. A bumbling comical drunkard in a police station, everyday event, right? It is pretty sane Saturday-'nighitsh' start for a psychological thriller. Then it puts you in prison with the main character for 15 years!

You don't know why this sh#t happened. More importantly the main character, Dae-Su is totally in the dark about it as well. He used to be a happy go lucky guy with a wife, a little daughter, a job and a few friends who you might find at a downtown bar on a Friday after work. Who would want to put him in prison for 15 years, feed him, clothe him, shave him - all this costs money. The film doesn't let the protagonist languish in prison for long, it quickly pans over the decade and a half in half hour and the rest is tightly gripping drama that you wouldn't see coming.

Very interesting story and an interesting movie. The fight scenes, the comedic aspect of those, reminds of Takeshi Kitano's movies. Definitely worth a watch.

Dances with the Wolves

2011-03-18T17:17:00.002-08:00

It is like reading a book backwards. I saw the 1990 movieDances with the Wolves two years after I had seen the 2009 movie Avatar. Bothare based on a similar theme, a soldier going native amongst the natives, inwild country. In 2009 space is the final frontier, in 1990 they were doing aperiod piece set in the 1800s when the unconquered West was the edge of theknown civil world.

It is an impressive directorial debut by Kevin Costener,though it is sad to note that none of his later outings as a director lived upto the promise this first one held. It is Hollywood, yet Costener has shown self-control,letting the Indians speak in their own native language instead oftribal-accented English. I do not, but it could very well be that this was thefirst mass market movie which portrayed Indians in a favorable light.

Mr.Smith Goes to Washington

2011-03-16T17:16:00.003-08:00

Mr.Smith Goes to Washington is part of the Hollywood 101 curriculum, 101 Hollywood films you should watch to learn about Hollywood,well, that’s according to me. Directed by Frank Capra, this whistle blower of amovie established Mr.Smith aka James Stewart as one of the leading actors ofthe time. It is essentially the 1939 version of taking on the system frominside the system, the triumph of the small man against the gargantuan machineryof politics and money.

James Stuart fits the bill as the young naive Senator andcarries the film through with Jean Arthur as his secretary. This was also the time I saw a ‘filibuster-in-action’which brings to mind the apparent increase of filibusters in the U.S.Senate inthe recent past. Blame it on Mr.Smith, he started the trend.

Best of Luck

2011-03-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Best of Luck is a dare, a provocation in the name of film tomake you watch the insufferable movie. To add insult to the injury they throwin a taunt as the title which could only be translated as a meaningless goodluck wish to anyone who’ll attempt to watch it.

The only person who has acted halfway decent in this movieis Prabhu, mostly because he is kind of playing himself – a vast, jovial,big-hearted Tamilian big brother. Themost unbearable actor Razzie award of the year goes to Urvashi. She is attempting to do a Suraj in a movie thatalready has an overload of Suraj, that too in ill-fitting, incredulous costumesand a Nedumangad dialect which has seen much wear.

The main actors also do their fair share of over-acting.Kailash, Asif Ali, Archana Kavi and Rima Kallingal perform like there is notomorrow. After this movie, I for one, am doubtful about their tomorrows inthis field. I cannot believe these werethe same actors we saw in films like Rithu and Neelathamara, which makes mewant to point my finger of blame at the director, M.A.Nishad. Is this his firstattempt at comedy? If so, it’ll be better for all concerned if he sticks tomore serious subjects like his first film, Pakal which was in fact bearable, even good for a first-timer. Less said the better, let me not waste anymore of my precious web page real estate on this movie.

Malarvadi Arts Club

2011-02-28T15:12:00.004-09:00

Einstein once famously said, the secret to creativity is knowinghow to hide your sources. Only creative people know how messed up it has beenever since Google made its appearance. I read some reviews comparing MalarvadiArts Club (MAC) with Subramaniapuram and Rock On. Why stop running the similarity-checkerafter coming up with just a handful of films, that too in “foreign” languages.If you feed in the same variables - friendship, unemployed youth and music – a truckloadof movies will come up. Throw in a filter for Malayalam and we have amanageable quantity. “Ganamela”, “InHarihar Nagar”, “Friends” etc come to mind.

This is to say the theme of Malarvadi Arts Club is notanything new. There have beeninnumerable movies which showcase a bunch of jobless youth (the species wasmore rampant in the eighties, now call centers have become their calling) extollingtheir fathomless friendship set in a particular geographic location whichbrings with it, its own quirks. There will be a singer in the group belting outEkantha Chandrike …while others provided the chorus. These days the one guy whocan hold a tune inevitably finds himself as a participant in a music game show(Malarvadi Arts Club, Katha Thudarunnu.)

What is an Indian movie without its trademark romance angle,right? For this we will employ heavilymade-up ladies who have escaped from teary-kajal-laden-soaps for their chanceon the celluloid. The whole package of drama, mellowed drama and over-the-topdrama will be propelled towards the inevitable climax (or climaxes) to bring inthe money and keep people guessing. Onewould think all the guessing should be done by now, after a generation of suchmovies.

No, Malarvadi invites us to play the same old guessing game.In MAC Vineeth Sreenivasan returns to his roots - North Kerala. Gibranis good guide for those of us who make the mistake of thinkingVineeth as a clone of his father, Sreenivasan. I don’t think I can imagine Sreenivasansinging without a seriously raised eyebrow(mine), while Vineeth is a fairly decentsinger. In the same vein, Sreenivasan in his heyday wrote several noteworthy scriptskeeping his funny pen moving in tune with the pulse of society. If Malayalamhad an urban dictionary, the dialogs from Sreenivasan scripts would own half ofit. But MAC is no world changer when it comes to scripts, it has an averagescript, tolerable by current standards, nothing compared to the witty eightiesspearheaded by the director’s own Dad.

Despite all such flaws I liked Malarvadi Arts Club, thereason is personal. I am from Malabar. Manassery, the fictional village inwhich it is set, could be my village. I feel kinship with the carom board inthe Arts Club, the red flags, the slogans, the framed portraits of European andLatin American comrades in the party office and the revolution simmering inyoung heads. The five guys, the lead characters, whom Vineeth had the goodsense to cast all new comers, could’ve been my brothers growin’ up. He has captured the essence of a North Malabarvillage/small town and the lives of youth (male) in a way no one has ever donebefore. He has done it so well that I felt the characters of Jagathy Sreekumar,Kottayam Naseer and Suraj Venjaramoodu were misfits in a perfect Malabari smalltown.

The new kids on the block are good, although I don’t thinkany of them has the guts to take a stab at the superstar crown Prithviraj hashis eyes on. Dileep proves he has goodbusiness sense and luck on his side investing in a movie that was guaranteed tobring him profit and trusting a new director based on just his genes.

The songs are hummable from my tin-eared receiver. The lastsong which signed off the movie should have been more of a power ballad withuplifting, foot thumping rhythms. Instead what it felt like was actors were tryingto lip and body sync to a rock song in their heads while an insipid Malayalamsong played in the background. The kind of language that Malayalam is, it ishard to come up with something that will sit pretty with a rock tune, butVineeth Sreenivasan was/is a singer before he became a director or he could’velet Avial compose that one song ;-)

p.s: Young directors, and old ones too, who is going to do a Malayalam padam just like that Thamizh Padam?

Tees Maar Khan

2011-02-26T11:29:00.000-09:00

Tees Maar Khan has Bollywood's most reliable profit-guarenteed star in the lead - Akshay Kumar as Tarbez Mirza Khan, the super thief. There is nothing cerebral about the movie, does Akshay Kumar make the mistake of acting in anything cerebral? He knows what he can do - he can be the earthy Punjabi munda who will laugh showing his gums through his mistakes, silly to comical and everything in between. That is what Teez Mar Khan tries to bank on, I hope the producers got some money back banking on Akshay.

The husband-wife team of Shirish Kunder-Farah Khan and Akshay Kumar-Twinkle Khanna are behind this movie, keeping it all in the family. Shirish did the editing, story(inspired by Hollywood's After the Fox), little bit of music whatever Vishal-Shekhar let him do and a bit of production. Farah directed and Akshay played the lead role, while Hari Om Producations, Akshay and Twinkle's production company footed the bill.

Tees Maar Khan is a spoof built of spoofs, I don't think they were concerned about quality more than saleability, looks like it achieved those ends. As far as the viewer is concerned if you are in need for mindless comedy, doesn't mind Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna and Katrina Kaif(the gori mem wearing Indian dresses), the last two, both have self-depracating comical roles, go for it.Better watch it at home where you have the remote handy and you have the power. The power to fast forward !

Oru Naal Varum

2011-02-25T16:56:00.000-09:00

It felt too good to be true, as if the unbelievablechemistry of Mohanlal and Sreenivasan that once lighted up the screen twentyplus years ago had finally succeeded in making a comeback. Not like the botchedup attempt in Udayanaanu Tharam, this was almost like the real second coming. Then the tape got stuck. Ouch!

In Oru Naal Varum, for a brief span of time, poetically akinto a single wing flap of a humming bird we could catch a glimpse of that oldMohanlal, before the weight of superstardom and wig was added to his persona.Mohanlal – Malayalam’s original bumbling, likeable, mischievous dude-next door.His old pal Sreenivasan was there to keep him company, in another of his self-deprecating,slightly dark roles. Then the story took a turn for the worse and the Superstaremerged.

After that, the fall was quick, the illusion of a secondcoming of the legendary pair shattered mercilessly by a weakening plot and asuperstar gaining power by the minute. Have you ever felt like rooting for theenemy, wishing corruption had gotten the upper hand and signing a pact with theDevil ? I get that feeling once in a while, especially when watchingself-righteous characters, which Mohanlal seems to do in abundance lately,including the one in this movie as vigilance officer Nandakumar.

Devayani and Sameera Reddy are odd choices for the film’stwo female roles. It was good to see Devayani after a long while, though whoever did the dubbing made it sound as if I had heard this female a zilliontimes in a zillion Malayalam movies. Why, Sameera Reddy, I have no clue, wewill have to ask Maniyan Pillai Raju, the producer. The kids in this move arenormal, it was refreshing to see a change after the hyper-active 'smart' kidsinfesting present day Malluwood.

The lesson learned again today, if it is too good to be true,it is not true.

Phas Gaya Re Obama

2011-02-24T11:37:00.000-09:00

Yes, we can! Possibly this is the first mass market commercial movie in the world with President Obama's name in the title. Yes, Bollywood, you can and you did too! The movie is what is part of the thriving Bollywood indie movie genre, the one which replaced the award-hauling parallel cinema of the eighties, which were made under an altruistic sky with little or no profit motive. The new indies are funny, contemporary and bring in the bucks, good for them!

Looks to me it was a low budget film which trusted on its strong actors and tight script to see it through. Rajat Kapoor, Manu Rishi, Sanjay Mishra, Neha Dhupia reigning and rising stalwarts of the new Indian parallel cinema shoulder the film as it takes dig after dig at the contemporary politics and policing in bhaiyyaland. Obama's inclusion as an invisible but driving force and the pervading ambience of recession reflects on the trickle of globalization that has reached even the remotest corners of India's heartland.

It is an interesting movie for someone who loves current politics and comedy(one and the same), intelligent caricatures of everyday people and is interested in the way India is developing in the global scene as echoed back from its villages.

Alexander the Great

2011-02-23T17:26:00.001-09:00

Alexander, the original Greek version must have belonged to the prestigious royal lineage of Mediterranean Varmas because his Malayali namesake definitely does. Varma, a surname attributed to the ruling Kshatriya clan(back in the days when royals were still in fashion) in Cochin and Travancore is a favorite class of Malayalam film makers. Anyone with the name Varma is attributed the extremes of everything - money, power, greed, beauty, intelligence, good nature, evil. You say it Varmas have it.

Alexander Varma is the out-of-wedlock son of a major Varma in a major Varma family, who is now spreading their wealth all over Middle East, as if the sheikhs haven't gotten it right. Mohanlal, not to be left behind Shah Rukh Khan(My Name is Khan), Hrithik Roshan(Koi Mil Gaya), Anil Kapoor(Yuvvraj) and Dustin Hoffman(Rainman, which is supposedly the inspiration for this movie, looks like even inspiration is affected by recession, nothing much can be seen) takes on the role of an autistic genius. His acting reminds me of early 80s kids' dubbing in Malayalam movies where you know the words spoken by the kid on screen is actually mouthed by someone middle-aged who think they are doing a pretty good job of impersonating a child's voice, when in reality they sucked, big time. If only they had let the kids use their original voices.

There is Sudha Chandran, surprised to see her here, did Ekta Kapoor let her go? Then there is Bala, Jagadeesh, Nedumudi Venu providing the necessary moral support for the autistic genius and also a host of others like Siddique, Ganesan etc who are waiting for the genius to bite the dust, as if that'll ever happen. But I've to appreciate the film-maker for showing restraint in one thing - not conjuring up a nubile 19 year old heroine for our wig-clad hero. Bravo! Keep it up.

Action Replayy

2011-02-22T20:31:00.000-09:00

The outer package is India's version of That '70s show, inside you'll have the familiar flashbacks from Back to the Future(1-3) , all this packed and released under the 'numerologically'-deemed-safe title with an extra y at the end - Action Replayy. Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai are at the helm of this retro Hindi movie, playing the same characters in two scenarios(in their youth and middle-age) twenty years apart.

Akshay Kumar and his bucktooth, ages well, whereas Aishwarya just does a dress change from polka dot bell bottoms to silk saris to age twenty years. Curiously enough she doesn't look a day older than when she was twenty, maybe the makeup wasn't right. Former Channel-V DJ Aditya Roy Kapur stars as the couple's son who is into time travel. Om Puri and Kiran Kher has the roles of feuding in-laws, which they'd do in their sleep if needed.

Action Replayy is essentially what you watch when you have run out of watching re-runs and replayed your entire dvd collection. I cannot even bring myself to conjure a closing sentence for this review.

Alaipayuthey

2011-02-21T16:26:00.000-09:00

It is a wonder to me that I missed this movie all this while. I had seen Saathiya - the Hindi remake around the time it came out and thought it was ok. It never crossed my mind Alaipayuthey might put a different spin on the same story.

The credit for this beautiful movie should go to the script, its lead actors - Shalini and Madhavan and the director, Mani Ratnam. There is nothing new with the story, it is an ordinary everyday love story that happens in every railway station / bus stop in urban India. That is also its selling point, that it could talk to the average Indian viewer and the language - the script of the film, achieves in reaching out to the audience in a simple unhurried fashion. Shalini and Madhavan, the lead couple in Alaipayuthey are definitely better choices and have better chemistry than Rani Mukherjee and Vivek Oberoi in Saathiya.

The songs are incredible, we have hummed those for the last 10 years ever since the movie hit the screen in 2000, some of the very best of A.R.Rehman. Growing up in urban India of the late nineties I love this movie because I can relate to it, I know those characters. Shalini is the girl next door, Madhavan is the representative of motor bike romeos which is an ever present species in all Indian cities.

And just in case, I am not bowled over, Mani Ratnam has included Kannur(my real home town) and the laterite cliffs of Payyambalam beach which buys my loyalty every time. If there is a love story/movie I'd be asked to pick, Alaipayuthey will be it.

The Social Network

2011-02-05T21:04:00.000-09:00

You are not on Facebook? You are kidding, right? No? Of course, you live in Brazil then. No? You mean to say you are not a flickering dot on the virtual social network that wraps around the planet million times over and can stretch all the way across to Alpha Centauri and back? Then this movie is not for you. If you believe in parallel universes and login into one called Facebook multiple times a day then you must have already watched this movie by now and must be singing praises of it, then you shouldn't read further. Stop, go back to your facebook page, check if anybody made any updates during the time you wasted reading this post so far. Others read on.

Social Network is a well-made movie. The actors are good, they fit into the movie like parts of a Swiss watch. My bouquet stops here. It is very documentary-ish, but the word on the street it is far-removed from reality of the real Facebook story although the characters and the general flow of events are similar. If you are not in the US of A, this movie might not mean sh#@#t to you, it is a very American movie, very Silicon-valley, start-up saga.The people who will like, identify with this movie will be in the 20-35 age group, preferably tech savy, Gen Y or the Millenials. My gripe with the movie, there are no tech-savy girls, it looks as if boys do all the coding and the cool stuff, when girls are shown as mindless idiots who light up fires with silk scarves or take off their shirts so that others can snort coke off their belly button.

I still believe it is a good movie for a very specific group of audience. If you belong to that group, you'll think this movie is the best thing to come out in 2010, otherwise....whatevah.

The Age of Dreaming (Book review)

2011-02-05T16:52:00.000-09:00

When you watch old black and white movies from the twenties and thirties, do you ever wonder what happened to all those people? It is much easier nowadays because we have IMDb and the Wikipedia. I sometimes wonder how many of these people might be still alive. Those who have the highest chance of being alive are the children who appear in crowd scenes. Did they know they were caught in a moving image and where are they now? Random thoughts on a random day by a random being, totally inconsequential in the giant scheme of things, but what can stop of us from wondering and dreaming, right?

The Age of Dreaming by Nina Revoyr is a book about a silent movie star looking back into the 1910s and 1920s, the beginning of Hollywood from the 1960s. It is a book for the serious reader, it is also a page-turner if you are interested in the past. The book has just enough 'masala' to keep the reader hooked without going overboard. It definitely won't come out as a paperback nor will it grace the counters of the airport bookshop, but if you could land a copy it won't disappoint you during your flight.

I found this book browsing thru' the library stacks, the same way I usually find most of my reading material. I liked the cover and the excerpt and I watch a lot of old timer movies, I love the art-deco architecture of the twenties, I love the reading about the history of places before they became places of repute(Hollywood in this case.) The Age of Dreaming fulfilled my quest in these aspects. There might be some short comings for the books, the main character being a tad shallow(?), I really don't care for I can fathom how hard it is to write a book. If you are a serious reader, not the one who falls for the cheap thrills of paperbacks, this might be an interesting read for you.

How to Train Your Dragon

2011-02-04T17:18:00.000-09:00

Avatar for kids? Dragons are having a commercially successful run from 2009 onwards and this "training" movie cashes in on the trend. That said it is an interesting movie to watch, kids will love it for sure. It's about Vikings and dragons and everyone speaks English with a Viking accent(if there such a thing) except for the main character, a tween(or a budding teen?) called Hiccup. He sounds American as Dreamworks Animation Studio.

Even back then it was written in Vikingese that geek shall inherit the earth, so the movie is pretty predictable. The best actor in a comic role Oscar should go to Toothless, the lead dragon in this movie. So if it is a bring-on-em-dragons day at your village, this is the movie to choose. Haven't everyone watched Avatar already?

Raavanan

2011-01-28T20:52:00.001-09:00

Raavanan is good. I have always believed Raavanan, the real one in the real epic, suffered misportraiture at the hands of victors. The inescapable short end of the stick that favor the vanquished might have distorted the real Raavanan character as well. Mani Ratnam in AD 2010 tries to bring some justice to the man and he recruits actor Vikram(real name John Kennedy, no Fitzgerald) to the task.

Vikram is magnificient in his portrayal of twenty first century Raavan. I saw the tamil version. Prithviraj is the anti-hero, aka Ram aka the bringer of justice. If you had any doubts, you can lay them to rest after watching this movie, it is indeed Kaliyug, where else can you find Lord Rama as the anti-hero?

The same Kaliyug is also responsible for Aishwarya Rai (aka Sita Maiyya) pancake make-up. She is gorgeous at 37, but Prithviraj who plays her husband is a good ten years younger and it shows despite the make-up. Indian movie industry is hard on women, Aishwarya is going as far as it'd let any woman to go without becoming another Rekha.

Cinematography(Manikandan and Santosh Sivan) and locales are brilliant. Maybe this film will win the best movie award for national integration based on just the shooting locations. Raavanan's village is set amidst the picturesque sarson ka khet (or mustard fields) of Punjab, they go to temple to perform pujas and weddings at the architecturally quaint Lakshmi Narayan temple at Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, they hide out in the scenic surroundings of Athirappally waterfalls in the forests of Kerala, sometimes hiking over to Malshej Ghats near Pune or Saheb Kuthi in Agarpara(WB) for a neighborly chat. The whole of India is Raavan's one village, ""Yatra Viswam Bhavathyeka Needam"" as they say in the Vedas.

Raavanan is a brilliantly executed film. It should have been a hell of a task shooting simultaneously in two languages with slightly differing set of actors. Definitely worth a watch.

Hot Fuzz

2011-01-27T20:48:00.001-09:00

Action and comedy (of the British kind, non-slapstick) in an exhilarating package - that's Hot Fuzz. My needs are simple, I like movies that provide entertainment value while keeping me hooked , Hot Fuzz fulfills those needs.

A super cop from London is transferred (demoted?) to a placid village where there has been no crime for the last twenty(? not sure) years. Look at the picture on the right, if that doesn't say 'bad-ass', what would? Simon Pegg(the guy on the right) and Nick Frost(the chubby guy) rock the sleepy village of Sandford in the climax of this movie. It is the second one in the series of Blood and Icecream Trilogy also known as the Three Flavors of Cornetto trilogy.

The team of three, Edgar Wright - the director, Simon Pegg(actor and writer) and Nick Frost are the perpetrators of the ice cream trilogy. The first movie in the series was the super hit zombie thriller comedy Shaun of the Dead. After watching the first two, I cannot wait for the third one - The World's End.

If you haven't watched Hot Fuzz, it is a good buddy movie, to be enjoyed with your friends on a Saturday night maybe. It is like that upbeat song you'd sing aloud in the car at the top of you voice and maybe if you have a crazy buddy to join you in your private concert, it'll be all the more fun.

Kutty Srank

2011-01-26T12:58:00.001-09:00

Watched Kutty Srank after staying off it for long. The reason for my hesitation was, as I have grown older I have become much wary of the "award-winner" type movies which is typically what you expect from a director like Shaji N.Karun. His 'Vanaprastham' only served to increase my skepticism. It is the same reason I do not want to watch his 'Piravi' again, it might feel too slow for me and ruin the good opinion I had for the film when I first watched it way back when I was a kid.

Maybe because I didn't have expectations and was geared up to thrash it, to my own surprise, I liked Kutty Srank. Kutty Srank is like a lesson in the text book of movie making. The director himself wrote the story of a mariner(Kutty Srank means boat captain in Malayalam) who moors at different ports and as we all know a sailor cannot escape being a sailor, there is indeed a woman at every port. Three ports, three women. Now don't get your hopes high on sleazy and rein in those wayward thoughts - can't it be that these three women could be an embodiment of three main female roles one comes across in life? I think maybe that is what the director-story writer intended them to be.

There is Revamma, the local aristocrat's daughter, her part of the story is set in Malabar("Yeah yeah yeah, I am a believer" in the director, that definitely bought me off.) Padmapriya plays her, a Ceylon returnee, newly converted Buddhist doctor turned nun. Padmapriya is becoming the Smita Patil of the South, if there is strong female character role, directors choose her by default. The film is also set in three seasons. Kutty Srank(oh, that's Mammootty, if you didn't know it already) arrives in Malabar in the middle of summer. He is the boat captain and the right hand of the local Mooppan who takes care of all Mooppan's dirty tasks.

The one time the movie turns slightly artsy is when there is an allegory of a wounded swan depicting Revamma's state. But that's ok in my books, the director doesn't repeat it. Kutty Srank see the shades of his mother in Revamma. The other two women are in the other two principalities which merged to form the current Kerala state, in addition to Malabar - Kochi and Travancore.

We meet Pemmana(Kamalinee Mukharjee) in Kochi during the monsoons and Kali in Travancore in winter. I didn't know there was winter in Travancore. After living in Arctic for almost a decade I could snub at a Kerala winter but the people of Travancore(or Kerala) I know would kick me off the planet if I denied them winter. So don't tell them of my transgression.

The story and the script is rich in the ways of the land, as it was 70-100 years ago. For me Anjuli Shukla's cinematography is the highlight of the movie, of course I cannot comment enough on the talents of the director and the actors.The movie pays tribute to the verdant landscape of Kerala, himself a whiz behind the camera I can understand the director's foresight while creating his scenes and characters making maximum use of the the visual bonanza provided by nature herself.

One thing I found jarring was the location and the set of the police station. It looked like a set, erected on the beach, flouting CRZ(I know there was no CRZ back then, that's just an additional jab), looking and smelling of cardboard and new paint(made to look old of course.) I don't care much about music in a movie like this, I vaguely remember there were songs, native folk song type. Other than that I draw blank when it comes to the sound track treats.

The film won the National award for the best film and best cinematography and 3 other awards(see, my expectations were not far off the mark.) I wonder about the etymology of the word Kutty Srank in Malayalam. Did it come from Cutty Sark - the British clipper chip, whose name is from Scotland? As I have become acquainted with different English accents, I am amazed how much of Indian English accent is shaped by Scottish and Welsh influences.

My final verdict: Give Kutty Srank a try, it might surprise you.

Mummy and Me

2011-01-14T12:40:00.007-09:00

Kunchako is almost ready to taken on Shivaji Ganesan. Used to be a time in Tamil cinema when a 60 year old Mr.Ganesan will wear shorts and show up nonchalantly at the neighborhood primary school reciting Thiruvalluvar verses and no one will even bat an eyelid. At that time a 60 year old playing his 6 year old self was perfectly normal, even if he had a mustache that might have taken 50 years to reach its full bloom.

Kunchako Boban is not Mr.Ganeshan's competition yet, but with every passing year he is getting closer to that goal. His time machine is stuck at Aniyathipravu and Guinness book of Records is about to award him the MBA student of the century, which is given to people who take 100 or more years to complete an MBA.

All said Kunchako is the most bearable of the characters in this film. Urvashi needs a shoot-at-sight restraint issued against her, she is just plain unmanageable. Archana Jose Kavi had chosen a movie that had the spotlight on her, can't blame her for the director or the audience who made this movie a roaring success at the box-office. Malayalam movie goers, you deserve this and nothing better, you are the culprits. Suffer biatches!

Apoorva Ragam

2011-01-14T12:39:00.001-09:00

Something that was personally 'apoorvam' (apoorvam = "out of the ordinary", "strange") for me while watching this movie was its ability to keep me hooked. It started out as a college romance and to its merit I should say it didn't deteriorate to become just another college romance movie. When it was about to reach that stage interesting things began to happen which kept me riveted on my place before the screen.

Young faces are a treat to watch - Nithya Menon, Nishan Naniah and Asif Ali play the main characters. Script is not bad, heard that it was written by newcomers, if so then it is good for it had all the making of being a run-of-the-mill story, but it didn't, thanks to the director and script writer(s).Speaking of which, I don't know how I could've been oblivious to a Malayalam movie titan like Sibi Malayil for this long that I do not have a label in this blog for him. The maker of all those big hits like Kireedam, Dasaratham, Mutharam Kunnu P.O, Kamaladalam etc and I didn't even acknowledge him in this measly blog, too bad. Today I stand rectified.

Apoorva Ragam is definitely an interesting movie to watch. I approached it without expectations and was rewarded, maybe that'll work for you too.

My Best Movies Picks of 2010

2011-01-02T19:58:00.001-09:00

Another best of 2010 list, includes Hollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood and Malluwood movies in random order. Some of these were released at the end of 2009 and I watched them in 2010.
1. Avatar
2. Kickass
3. Karthik Calling Karthik
4. Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya
5. Inception
6. Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year
7. Ritu
8. Qurbaan (review coming soon)
9. True Grit (review coming soon)
10. Neelathamara

True Grit

2011-01-01T16:53:00.014-09:00

History fascinates me when it is played by true-to-lifecharacters. Coen brothers are masters of re-telling old tales. Plain earthystories where there are no exalted glories or flag waving millions or stiff paradesof generals, history of O,Brother Where Art Thou variety.

Stories like True Grit is the meat and potato of Coen brothers. It takesus back to the turn of the century to the Deep South bordering the unruly West.The land of outlaws and bounty hunters, landscape stretched as wide as it isearthly possible, forlorn outposts manned by lost souls at the frontiershumanity where someone is always on the run and somebody is always in pursuit.

This is the un-chartered territory where a young girl goeslooking for her father’s killer. Her interesting journey made all the moreinteresting by a couple of quirky companions – unadulterated account of theWest when the frontier was still a wild country, now it has shifted to thesouthern fences of Arizona, but that’s another story. Hailee Steinfeld,Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin make up the cast of this remake.

Theoriginal 1969 movie was a western adapted from a serial in a magazine and theoriginal also spawned a sequel called Rooster Cogburn. It is the kind of moviethat runs on the strength of the screen play and its characters, with someoneas colorful as Rooster Cogburn it is hard not to notice it and Jeff Bridges is the perfect dude for this part. An interesting movie for the lovers of good scripts.

Re'kindle' Your Reading : Best books of 2010

2010-12-29T01:44:00.001-09:00

People are rediscovering reading, thanks to Kindle™ and Nook™. Those who used to get books for Christmas as gifts now get e-readers. And if you want to go beyond reading there is always IPad. I do not have any experience with any of these e-readers to do a review. The title and opening lines were to bait Google's spider and naive reading enthusiasts into reading/crawling the rest of this post.

What I really like to do is to showcase some books I read (or heard, audio books) in 2010. In short, these are some of the best books I read in 2010. They are not necessarily those published in this year I just happened to read them sometime during the last 12 months. If you think you'll like these books you can buy those to read in your e-reader. Maybe I'll pull out my charitable keyboard and type out 5 reviews. BTW this reviews are not really in the order of preference, they are according to my memory time line, those I read earlier in the year come in the first spots and vice versa.

First in the list is Open: An Autobiography :- I am not an authority on sports autobiographies unless you consider Kite Runner an essential guide to running kites. I love films based on sports stories(Escape to Victory, Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Breaking Away, Chariots of Fire, Field of Dreams etc) though this is my first time with a book on any kind of sports. Despite my naivete in the subject matter I will still take a bet on Andre Agassi's autobiography, 'Open', to be one of the best of the lot. It is frank, down to earth and exuberantly American - in short very much Agassi, the real man behind the facade of pink lava compression pants and acid wash denim shorts, tennis's original rebel without a cause. More about Open, if you are interested.

Next comes, Mike Leonard's ride across America with his eighty plus year old parents and his grown-up kids called The Ride of our Lives. Mike Leonard is a feature correspondent of Today Show on NBC, his garage(which might probably looks like yours or mine) won't qualify him as a celebrity on Today Show. It is an interesting journey into life, through life and across life with Mr.Leonard, his parents and his children, something I'd love to emulate if I could get them all together in one place and in one time zone.

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely comes next. Every aspiring writer at some point in time has read a must-read book for aspiring writers. The one I can remember reading,... oh, you think I cannot aspire? Everyone can aspire, respire and perspire, it was too fundamental to be included in any constitution or Bill of Rights. Anyway the one book on writing I read, was Stephen King's On Writing. I don't remember much of it, I did what I do with books, read and forgot. But Steve Hely I like. If you want to write popular sale-able fiction this is one book you shouldn't miss. I have a strong feeling that Dan Brown stole the manuscript of How I Became a Famous Novelist to figure out the right way to write all those trashy best sellers. (I shouldn't be trashing Brown, I cannot even come up with a 100 word story, but then reviewers are people who can't write to save their pens/typewriters/IPads, right?) Hely is an insider in this book business and he knows what he (or rather his hero, one book wonder Pete Tarslaw) is talking about. How come I read two books in a year written by correspondents/writers for late night shows? Steve Hely is one of the writers for The Late Show with David Letterman.

I got to read one of the controversial books that came out in Malayalam in the recent past Njan LaingikaThozhilaali: Nalini Jamilayude Aatmakatha (Translated into English as Autobiography of a Sex Worker, by Nalini Jamila) this year, five years after it took Kerala and Malayalam literary circles by storm. I am glad I am one of the Malayalis who can actually read Malayalam and speak Malayalam differentiating between the different bha, ba, ta,tta, da, ddas unlike the present day Malayalam TV anchors. When some one like Nalini Jamila, who is not a literary scion by far, writes in her native language it should be read in the same, no amount of honest translation can give it the right kind of honesty it deserves. Jamila's book is an interesting insight, a cart load of information for most of us who don't know what goes on in the red-light areas of life. I'd not call it a literary masterpiece, it is a memoir told in simple straightforward everyday language, about a life 99% of us have no clue about, but are secretly interested in knowing, that is what sells(sold) it.

The other fiction book in my list of five is this last one by Assaf Gavron called Almost Dead, English translation of the Hebrew original. When we get up in the morning aren't we plagued by the same old question getting up from the bed along with us, the way it always did ever since we could think - "what is really going on between Palestine and Israel?" Oh, a different question wakes up with you? No way! Well I have always wanted to know about house prices, high school syllabus and real house-wives of Gaza Strip. This book looked like it had the answers to some of my burning questions, the added incentive was the metaphysical/paranormal aspect of the story - the hero escapes suicide bombings not once but thrice. I swoon at stories that offers a view into the mysterious other side of life - you know where time machines are what you drive to work, coincidences are commonplace, well you get the drift, the cover of this book promised something similar and the cover-art is pretty cool too, isn't it? The book doesn't disappoint but it is not a thriller either. It is the writer who interests me, it kindles(kindle strikes again)in me an interest to read his other books, namely Hydromania.

There are more books that I'd like to review, like Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner which had been incalculably influential in my life that I am thinking of replacing Gideon's Bible with a copy of Freakonomics in every hotel room I ever stay in. I do not remember whether I read it in 2009 or 2010. Then there is the very feminist The Women's Room by Marilyn French, first published in 1977 which eventually reached my hands after a long journey of 33 years, losing none of its impact in the transit. I read(listened to audio books) Obama's two memoirs - Dreams from my Father and The Audacity of Hope this year, both testaments to the incredible writer, statesman and the Grammy award winner that he is. Reviewing all these will require patience and time and my anti-procrastination pill is already wearing thin. If I finish everything now, what will I do in 2011, that is one whole year before the world ends and all will be well. Later.

Grown Ups

2010-12-20T09:20:00.001-09:00

It is supposed to be a funny movie and it tries very hard at achieving that end. It should have been called Half-Baked, not Grown Ups. Wait, there is already a movie called Half-Baked and it is more grown up that Grown Ups.

I cannot believe this movie has been in the oven for this long(James Farly was slated for the role played by Kevin James before his untimely death and production of this film was shelved indefinitely), it had the potential to be a good comedy movie considering the main cast - Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider and David Spade are all actors known for their comic talents. Over and above that Adam Sandler is one of the writers, but the script is hodge podge, there are one liners at awkward places, with no cohesion between the script and story, nothing much for actors to do. It looks as if the actors came for a day job, mouthed their lines in between the breaks from their real life and left in the evening.

Kick-Ass

2010-12-04T01:20:00.027-09:00

Comic book lovers will love this movie. But they are such a marginal section of the population that they alone cannot be trusted to make a movie profitable. If you like movies that kick ass, not with the help of extra-ordinary super heroes but someone from your own high school or your boring work place where you wouldn't suspect in the next cubicle resides a masked super-hero(his night job, of course) then this movie is your type.

Aaron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz and a very 'mature' Nicholas Cage pushes the envelope for super heroes in an ordinary world. Directed by Matthew Vaughn it is an off-the-rocker entertainer that you wouldn't want to miss if you walk a bit apart from the crowd.

Mr.Brahmachari

2010-12-02T01:20:00.025-09:00

It is 2003 and Mohanlal is middle aged and is a Brahmachari. You wish! Well, this is about Thulasidas movie Mr.Brahmachari, where Mohanlal plays the Hanuman worshipping main character in an effort to make a come-back with more down to earth roles. Ananthan Thampi alias Mr.Brahmachari does get the short end of the stick many a time, but it is hard to exorcise the ghost of a super star completely and therefore Lal doesn't make a full touch-down as an ordinary man. Yet movie does have some funny moments at the expense of Mohanlal. Nedumudi Venu, Kaviyoor Ponnamma(if there is a mother role required in a Mohanlal film, only Kaviyoor Ponnamma has the physical stature to be Lal's mom and is chosen by default), K.R.Vijaya, Meena, Jagathi, Jagdish, Prem Kumar and Vijaya Kumar make up the supporting cast.

Inception

2010-12-01T01:19:00.036-09:00

Dive in to the dream and let the inception begin. If there is a movie that can be a one word answer to the term - "movies that blow your mind", Inception is it. It is as Hollywood as only Hollywood can be, you get your money's worth and more. I wonder how Di Caprio finds himself in all the mega hits and how Ellen Page often finds herself as the off-beat female? Christopher Nolan can be appointed as a messiah for mind candy movies and can start a religion for the same soon. I hope this is just the inception of things bigger down the road for Nolan, which will mean an era of brain crackling entertainment for us, viewers.

Dabangg

2010-11-24T15:48:00.002-09:00

Salman Khan or is it Arbaaz pulling the hare out of the hat, anyway Salim Khan's sons prove that they are indeed their father's sons, story tellers weaving tales out of India's heartland. At a time when most successful Bollywood flicks have stories set in the Western hemisphere, where dashing heroes in Armani jackets woo their heroines prancing around the planet in Jimmy Choos, Dabangg is set firm in Bhaiyya-land, UP(Uttar Pradesh.)

I have always thought that if Salman had any appreciable talent as an actor, it is his perfect comic timing. Right from his fledgling days in Andaz Apna Apna to Dabangg, he is at his most natural when his role has a slightly comic edge. For Dabangg he gets full stars in my book ( I have never been a big Sallu fan, but still) because not for once does he take his shirt off. Wah bhai wah, if you can exercise such control you surely do believe you have more talent than muscle mass.

Sonakshi Sinha, who plays Salman's love interest and Sonu Sood, the villian are good choices for their roles, make the whole story more believable. (Not to forget Arbaaz himself, he does get some good roles like the one in this, the fashion mogul in Fashion etc.) The story as such is not something we haven't heard before but it is the presentation and the presence and acting of Mr.Khan which make the impact. In Dabangg they have successfully translated the stereotypical old style Hindi movie in to a contemporary framework. Chulbul 'Robinhood' Pandey steals the show and probably the cash registers are still ringing in the cow belt. Good work, Abhinav Kashyap(director, script writer) and Arbaaz Khan Productions.

Race

2010-11-17T19:36:00.001-09:00

Race is just a vehicle to showcase sexy sizzling Bollywood babes and leading desi hunks in an exotic locale. The babes in short dresses are Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif and Sameera Reddy. The men muscle power is provided by Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna and an eternally young Anil Kapoor and the locale is South Africa. Most people in government offices in S.Africa are Indians, those whose forefathers didn't have the foresight of M.K.Gandhi who left Durban in 1914 for a meaty role in Indian Freedom Struggle (Original, Version 1.0.) The real race was between me and the movie, who will retire first in the race, RACE the movie won, no guesses there.

Robinhood (Malayalam movie review)

2010-11-14T22:33:00.000-09:00

The only reason you should watch Robinhood is Prithviraj. His good looks cuts like a knife, the rest of the movie is just 'knife'(kathi in Malayalam) if you can bear for 2.5 hours the way it will take repeated stabs at your intelligence.

Kochi, is the modern day Sherwood, ATM robbery is what Robinhood excels in these days. Traveling across 800 years of Robinlessness, the new Robin in the hood seems not only to have lost most of the characteristics of his namesake but also has inherited a few Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde genes. He is an entrance tutor by day and a high-tech swindler by night. The rest of the cast is all high-tech as well, Naren is the flirtatious hacker computer whiz kid detective, Bhavana is the lead systems administrator and the only one who has a little less number of 1s and 0s in his system is Jayasurya's character who is the investigating IPS officer, but he has been to the famed Mussorie training camp and we all know who goes there, right?

The story is wrought with technical errors, which I'd not even dare to question because that'd be like insulting my intelligence and wasting my time. Yet I am grateful to director Joshiy, an old war horse of Malayalam cinema still going full steam ahead, that he used a young story which needed younger actors, thus giving them an opportunity. For once he restrained himself from casting M & M's for the leading roles, I mean he could've very well gone ahead and done that and malayali audience would have given 5 out 5 points for perfect casting. My guess is that Joshiy might have even lost some revenue having cast Prithvi and Naren, we need more directors like him who will make that gamble.

Aisha

2010-11-08T20:28:00.047-09:00

Aisha is Jane Austen on Janpath. I was never a big fan of Jane Austen's novels, though I do understand they filled social and literary vacuum in nineteenth century chick-lit. To me Austen's novels gave a thru-the-looking-glass view into the world of 19th century English ladies, their frivolous concerns and travails, in the end everything boiled to one(or many) "man"-hunt. I didn't know Aisha was an adaptation of Emma, not that it'd have made any difference to me since at this late age I'd not be able to distinguish one Austen heroine from another even if they came with name tags.

In Aisha, Sonam Kapoor has been offered a generous role and she does make use of it perfectly, so does all the name-brands with over-the-top brand placement. The movie looks like a fashion magazine, which taunts their middle class readers with glossy ads of unattainable yet coveted bric-brac like say a Versace scarf for $5000 or a Hermes purse for $8000. It always makes you wonder about the kind of people who'd own such a thing, Carly Simon once wrote and performed a hit single about this particular sub-species: Here it is, take it as a unisex message.

The rest of the cast is well chosen, from Abhay Deol to Ira Dubey to Cyrus Sahukar, everyone plays the stereotypes they have been entrusted with quite convincingly. The film is a chick flick and has to be taken lightly if your wife insists that you watch it with her.It is well shot and executed(thumbs up to the director, Rajashree Ojha) and has a decent sound track by Amit Trivedi and lyrics by Javed Akhtar.

Bhargavi Nilayam

2010-10-05T01:22:00.001-08:00

Bhargavi Nilayam is one of the best ghost stories to come out of Malayalam ever. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's literary gem was transformed for screen by director A.Vincent. It was probably a high grossing film of those days with two dashing young heroes and a beautiful heroine at the helm of a haunting and popular story.

I saw this movie a long time back. The reason I am writing a review now when my memories of the movie is almost unreadable is because today I read an article about Madhu, one of the heroes of the movie. Madhu is perhaps 'the' unsung hero of Malayalam film industry. He was a mainstream actor, had done considerable number of hero roles during his heyday and is perhaps the only remaining member from the old school of Malayalam cinema who is still acting. He indeed did have an incredibly long innings, I hope he continue to prosper.

In Bhargavi Nilayam Madhu plays the character of the novelist(Mr.Basheer himself) who rents a house inhabited by a young female ghost(Vijaya Nirmala). He befriends the ghost and thereby comes to know the story behind her untimely demise. In true Basheer fashion, even though it is a ghost story, it is a light-hearted romantic flick. Prem Nazir plays the ghost lady's love interest in her life before death.

The movie has some incredibly melodious and yet simple songs, which became a part of Malayali's musical heritage once they were released in 1964. The hit song machine team was composed of P.Bhaskaran, Baburaj, Yesudas and Janaki.

I read some interesting trivia about Madhu(of course that is why I wrote this post.) Madhu's original name was P.Madhavan Nair. He began his career as a Hindi lecturer, quit it to pursue his dream of acting. He had acted in a Bollywood movie in a major role before acting in Bollywood movies had become a fashion or news. It was Saat Hindustani, which was also Amitabh Bachchan's debut vehicle. Madhu got several Bollywood offers after this to be cast as a handsome villain which he rejected because of longer shooting schedules of Hindi movies and also to avoid being typecast a tall handsome villain who didn't do much else than kidnap the heroine and get beaten up by the hero in the climax scene.

10 Most Inspirational Songs : My List

2010-09-22T13:28:00.001-08:00

This is the tin-eared music lover's list of the ten most inspirational songs ever. If music was a parking lot, I'd be using the handicapped parking spot, because my genetic makeup lacks enough music genes for genuine appreciation of the subject. As a result, I am prone to go for the lyrics(I ♥ words) and even include some rap tunes in my list. Some of it might be cheesy or country, loud or mushy, but this post is my bookmark - a personal list tied to events, people and places in my life, a mix-tape for the long journey home, whenever I need to come home.

10.John Mayer: Waiting on the world to change
Music man with his fingers on the pulse of change, reflecting on our times.

9. Alles: Sabrina Setlur and Xavier Naidoo.
I do not know German, but I used a translator because this song was so soothingly likeable, esp. Xavier Naidoo's part.

8.I'll be Missin' you : Puff Dady, Faith Evans,Sting
(not the original but the tribute to Notorius B.I.G.) A song of tribute, memories.

7. UB40: Higher Ground
Reggae effortlessly lifts you to a higher ground

6. Blake Shelton: Some Beach Somewhere
A simple American pleasure, go to Hawaii or the Caribbean when you need sunny skies.
Link to the music video

5. The Last DJ: Tom Petty
Get back at the system that got you down song.

4. Tim McGraw: Live Like You Were Dying
Carpe Diem. 'nuff said.

3. Vangelis: Chariots of Fire
Only instrumental in the whole list. Even without words it soars the spirit. Wonderful movie too.

2. Baz Luhrmann/Mary Schmich : Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
The ultimate advice column ever, in a good away. Mary Schmich, I like you better than your mistaken identity - Kurt Vonnegut.

1. Lee Ann Womack : I hope you dance.
This songs pops up like my guardian angel, quite unexpectedly in the darkest of the hours.

Karthik calling Karthik

2010-08-27T12:31:00.001-08:00

Don't tell me Farhan Akhtar is not Karthik and that he is really a Bollywood actor called Farhan Akhtar. No way! Are you sure? Incredibly amazing transformation. Where is the "I like" button for Mr.Akhtar? Will anyone know if I press it more than once and rig his ratings chart?

Karthik Calling Karthik is a contemporary movie with faces to match. Oh, Bollywood I never thought you'd come this far from the cheesy melodramatic eighties and nineties. I am glad I was wrong.

Keeping Farhan company is a sauve Deepika Padukone. I love the her makeup and clothes for this movie, very believable and real for a young architect in a corporate Indian office. Her acting, just where it should be. Despite their height difference they make a nice screen couple.

To me the trump card of this movie other than the perfectly cast hero is the story and screenplay. I googled to find out whether it was lifted out of some unknown Philippino or Thai flick, couldn't find any leads. I read people comparing it to Phone Booth! Yeah, Titanic was a remake of the biblical Noah's Ark since both involved ships, get a life. Vijay Lalwani's story is enigmatically original(at least for me I have not seen it anywhere else) and it seamlessly fits into the current professional and personal life of a young, emerging India. The script is noticeable by the absence of cliched scenes, direction by Lalwani(again) is slick, there are some nice songs and of course, a part of the movie is shot in Kerala(the icing on the cake for me) and the director has restrained himself from adding the prototypical South Indian with his 'madrasi' accent. Well done Lalwani, Akhtar, Deepika and the team. My rating: Cool

Extract

2010-08-21T12:31:00.003-08:00

Extract is funny, funny in the way it portrays stereotypes. Since it is from Mike Judge you watch it with a certain expectation, it didn't fail me. It is the kind of movie you'd want to rent because it is not much about visual gimmicks but more about the story, characterizations and dialog.

Mila Kunis as the scheming beauty with a criminal record, Ben Affleck as the bar-tender jack-of-all-trades, Jason Bateman the innocent geek who is a company owner, Dustin Milligan's as gigolo Brad(that dude did some awesome acting for the small role he had), Clifton Collins Jr as Step are some of the distinct and well-developed characters in the movie.

It is hard to live up to the cult status of Office Space, but Mike Judge is trying. A nice movie for a popcorn and a movie day at home.

Sarvam

2010-08-17T15:17:00.001-08:00

An interesting Tamil movie. I haven't seen Arya before, but there were other familiar faces like Trisha, Indrajith(yeah strange to find him here) and Chakravarthy. It is a love story/thriller.

The best thing I liked about this movie is the way the songs have been shot. Great camera, unusual choice of locales not very exotic but looks good on camera, neat props, angles, costumes and digital manipulations. This means no money spent on a thousand extras or a bevy of Russian beauties(both same cost, I guess), their costumes and no expenses to travel to distant locations. Easy on producer's pocket at the same time looks good on screen to attract the audience.

The movie is a good looking one, story is ok, Trisha provides eye candy and disappears after a while. Chakravarthy has tried hard to look menacing, partially succeeds, all credit to his omnipresent beard. A movie for time-pass, if you care to bear some 'horror'.

The Paradine Case

2010-08-05T18:39:00.001-08:00

The Paradine Case, it is Hitchcock for sure, but may be the master should've stayed clear of boring courtroom dramas. Starring Gregory Peck, Alida Valli (an Italian actress of royal heritage in her American debut), Louis Jordan(a famous French actor of the time making his American debut in this film) and Ann Todd, the Paradine Case tells the story of a lawyer(Peck) getting involved with his client(Valli) accused of murdering her husband.

I do not know the story somehow didn’t jive well with me. I’ve read that Hitchcock wanted Garbo for the part played by Valli, but in my opinion even Garbo wouldn’t have fared much better. There is nothing really wrong with the actors, but there is something elementally wrong with the story that no amount of acting can make it better.

For example Ms.Paradine(Valli) is supposedly a gold-digger from fringes of society who marries into money and distinction, thanks to the blind and rich, Mr.Paradine. But she is almost regal in her conduct, only thing missing is a tiara, maybe if you are a really good actress of a gold digger that must be the way you present yourself.

I had wanted to see a less famous Hitchcock movie, this fit the bill.

Happy Husbands

2010-08-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Husbands is a bearable comedy movie of the recent past. I had higher expectations after seeing Krishna Poojappura’s name as script writer and with the movie being a hit in Kerala, I was looking forward for two hours of non-stop laughter or something similar.But I was disappointed, not very sorely though, because my senses go on automatic lowering of expectancy threshold these days if film is comes with a prefix ‘Malayalam’.

The most atrocious eye sore(save the good things for last) was the set design and costumes. The color palette of the sets would have made KPAC of the 1950s proud, but this is 60 years hence and we are supposed to have done away with cardboard cut-outs and red curtains for every window, at least the art guys should have photo-shopped those out, right? Costumes, the kind that made Reema Kallingal look ugly, thought that was an impossible feat, but no, the costume designer accomplishes it with ease.

The movie got more bearable for me after the first half hour. All of the actors are good with whatever role they’ve been given. Bhavana looked a little bit too made up for a housewife or my information could be a bit dated when it comes to Kerala housewives these days. I last had a glimpse of a Malayalam mega serial in the pre-2000 era when ‘Sthree’ had just taken Malayalakkara by storm, house-wives had mutated beyond recognition ever since.

Happy Husbands also takes us to Malaysia, just in case the Kochi traffic was getting on your nerves. I am running out of steam to do a proper review, after all it is a time-pass movie, doesn’t need any serious surgery to cure its ills. Considering other products available in the market, I’d seriously consider buying a ticket(had I been in Kerala) and going to watch this movie just for the colors and actors.Saji Surendran scores with the Kerala movie-goer.

Summertime

2010-07-27T17:47:00.004-08:00

Summertime has Katherine Hepburn as a vacationing spinster in Venice. To me it was charming to see Venice of the 1950s, in the company of Ms.Hepburn as lonely Ms.Jane Hudson. She wonderfully emotes the loneliness, despair and craving for human company while on her dream vacation in the middle of a crowded and colorful city. Venice was all gondolas, piazzas, canals, architecture and alleys then(maybe more so then) as it is now. In the midst of her forlorn vacation(it is never portrayed as such but the heroine's emotions and her conversation convey this idea to the viewer) she meets a Prince Charming(Rossano Brazzi). But as human as the story is Prince Charming's presence in the story is transient and not very fairy-tale-ish. Rossano Brazzi oozes with Italian charm and fits the role perfectly. I loved the ending of the film, so un-cinematic. It is film that has to be ruminated rather than watched, I liked it all the same.

Paleri Manikyam : Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha (Oru review)

2010-07-20T15:36:00.005-08:00

If Paleri Manikyam was a Miss World contestant in a throng composed of recent Malayalam movies, it'll definitely win one or two of those special awards. Ones I have in mind are Miss Personality, Miss World Best National Costume(which in this case will be period costume) and probably Miss World People’s Choice as well.

Now who would win the Miss World title itself is left to debate. If it was in my hands I'd suspend giving the main award altogether until we can secure a time machine and go back to the future to that golden era of Malayalam cinema, the latter half of the 1980s and exhaust all the Miss World Malayalam Cinema awards till AD 2100 when there could be some hope of recovery, because all the current audience(the worst culprits, including me) and the film-makers will be dead by then.

Back to 2009-2010 and Ranjith’s latest offering, Paleri Manikyam : Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha. I am picky so be assured that even in this model of a contemporary malayalam movie I’ll find some flaws. But let us hear the good news first.

As a born-North Malabari I am excited by the trend of Malayalam movie hits moving northward, beyond the Northern edge of the Nila(or Bharatapuzha, M.T’s favorite haunt) and embracing newer writers for their source material. Case in point: Paleri Manikyam, Pazhassi Raja. As Dylan strummed famously, ‘old road is rapidly agin’.

Point # 1+ Original story

By a Malayali writer – T.P.Rajeevan about a in a distinctly Kerala village of the fifties. I read somewhere that Paleri is a real village in Calicut, near Perambra and the case of Manikyam is the first ever recorded murder case in the history of Kerala Police, after it was formed in 1956.

Point # 2+ Art direction

By Murugan Kattakada, the period feel, costumes of the characters and locations reflect the amount of thought and work that had gone into them. Manoj Pillai’s cinematography is also praise-worthy to some extent.

Point #3+: Mammootty.

Although I strongly oppose the reign of M & Ms, there is a reason why Mammootty and Mohanlal are where they are. Mammootty’s multiple roles in this film showcase his range and flexibility as an actor.

Point #4+ Other supporting actors

Like Shwetha Menon, Sreenivasan and the actors who played Velayudhan, younger Sreenivasan and Pokkan.

Point #5+ The director’s restraint

In not giving into the temptation of inserting a few foot-tapping songs.
Now for the Razzies.

Point #1- The script and screenplay

By Ranjith. It sounds too bookish, and explicitly suggestive, which instead of letting the audience decipher, kind of pushes and shoves them onto a path intended for them by the director. I have not read the original novel, so I am not sure whether the blame could be the script writer’s alone.

Point #2— Sarayu Sharma

The character seems out of place, patched on to a script at a later date when director failed to tie up all the ends in the story in a convincing way. Like a Microsoft Windows Service Pack or the iPhone4 rubber band, with a smoking cigeratte propped onto her hand just before someone shouted ‘Action’.

Point #3- The sepia filter

For flash-back scenes. Not sure what could be an alternative, but that’s why I am on this side of the screen, nitpicking on the movie makers.
My overall review: Paleri Manikyam has more stuff going for it than against it, no wonder it was a hit. A welcome drizzle in a season of endless drought. I am not going into an in depth analysis of the story and the characters as many bloggers have gone that way before and carved out a readable path if you care to read.

La Misma Luna (English title: Under the Same Moon)

2010-07-19T15:46:00.003-08:00

It is the ideal mother's day movie, it is my kind of chick flick, it's what the doctor will prescribe when you need a dose of the best medicine to reinstate your faith in humanity, it's a movie that makes a statement - a very relevant one in the light of United States Govt vs The State of Arizona over the controversial SB1070, it is a fail-safe formulaic movie - the hard working immigrants, families separated by borders, visas and passports, an angel of a kid who'll steal all your hearts with his eyes and his smile and it is not just me who is bowled over by this movie. La Misma Luna had highest opening weekend for any Mexican film for all of 2007.

The boy who plays Carlitos, Adrian Alonso is a perfect catch. Once an actor for this role has been cast the fate of the movie is almost sealed, either he will steal the show or drag it down the drains. Adrian Alonso doesn't just sell the movie to you, he's a pirate of the hearts, making the audience root for the boy with their smiles and tears.

The characters whom he meet on the road, although most of them have only small parts, are remarkable and well developed within the small time frame each of them has been allotted to. Written by Ligiah Villalobos and directed by Patricia Riggen , most of the movie was filmed in Mexico, even the many locations depicted as the US of A(like the US-Mexico border crossing, towns in Arizona etc.) It is a modern day fairytale,with its guaranteed happy ending.

Loudspeaker

2010-07-02T17:00:00.001-08:00

Loud and atrocious and it is a super hit! Praise the Malayali viewers swooning at the acting prowess of Mammootty and sending the cash registers ringing all the way to the bank. I don't blame the film maker, he explicitly stated in the title it is about a bullhorn and if you wholeheartedly bit the bullet, why complain now, right?

The story is about a loud mouthed simpleton(who else but our megastar), who becomes a kidney donar for a rich NRI for money. My problem is I can endure the audio levels, but it is hard to disguise a superstar as a simpleton, even if he tries his level best, the admiring gazes and gestures of idol worship are hard to hide from the body language of other actors and on-lookers. The story as it progresses just adds and abets the icon making process with every detractor falling away one by one in cliched clashes.

It was interesting to see Sashi Kumar, the former Doordarshan newscaster turned founder President of Asianet, playing the NRI astro-physicist. The role of a non-resident Malayali fits him like a well worn glove. The other surprise was Gracy Singh(she of Lagaan and Munnabhai fame), maybe not enough work for her in Bollywood ?

The child characters in these contemporary Malayalam films makes me want to make sure that my travel or moving plans for the next 20-30 years will stay clear of God's Own Country by a thousand miles. What passes of as smartness in Kerala kids would get them branded as a$$holes in any other part of the world. Why are movies bend on promoting such behavior so that a generation of kids can turn out as morons with an attitude problem?

Snow Cake

2010-06-29T12:29:00.001-08:00

Finally Sigourney Weaver is not the headstrong scientist or the alpha female anymore. Snow Cake has her in the role of an autistic woman, an accidental mother and one in the center of a horrible tragedy but unaware of it. She is brilliant, so is Alan Rickman who has the other best role in this movie. It is a British movie by Marc Evans shot entirely in Canada, probably that is why it didn't capture much of US's indie audience attention. An interesting movie could also be considered a window in to the world of autism without being very technical about it.

Seeta Kalyanam

2010-06-18T16:48:00.001-08:00

Seetha Kalyanam or holy (cinematic) wedding (the term owes it origin to the wedding of Sita and Rama in Ramayana) of Jayaram and Jyothika lay in the cans longer than most films awaiting release. When it did finally come out during last Onam(2009) Jyothika had already left movies for a blissful family life, Jayaram – lesser said the better. What ever happened to the tall fresh-faced youth who was presented to us by Padmarajan in Aparan(1988.)

All that said, Seeta Kalyanam is a tad more bearable than Rajasenan’s farce of movie where Jayaram had paired with Urvashi called MadhuChandralekha (2006). In Seeta Kalyanam director T.K.Rajeev Kumar borrows the legendry theme on which Bharjatya School of Movies survives on – multi-day long wedding in a traditional Indian joint family. Since Tamil Brahmin community is perhaps the only community in Kerala where such weddings still take place, we have Jayaram as a Brahmin bride-groom going thru’ these rituals to wed Geetu Mohandas.

Jyothika’s character is Jayaram’s friend from work. They both don’t realize till very end of the wedding celebrations that they love each other. Geetu conveniently has another man in waiting, Indrajith, - a character necessitated for a potential happy ending. A wigless Siddique provides sufficient villainy as is required for a movie taking place in a placid agraharam. Other actors include Oduvil Unnikrishnan, Sukumar, Manorama, Devi Ajith, Baiju, Kalpana, Jagdish, Janardhanan and a host of others.

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya

2010-06-16T17:53:00.002-08:00

Will You Cross The Skies For Me?

After having seen three Gautham Menon movies so far, I can boil them down to three statements or formulas.

Hero + Heroine1 = First part of the movie

Hero-Heroine1 = Middle portion of the movie

Hero + Heroine2(w/ Heroine1 optional) = Second/final part of the movie.

Proportion of Heroine1: Heroine2 will depend on which part the more box-office worthy heroine plays.

The above formula will be juiced up with music from Harris Jayaraj or A.R.Rehman. The hero, although his story will start in Chennai and thereabouts, will take a B1/B2 visa to the United States at some point in the movie and will invariably find himself in a major American city with a prominent bridge (which takes all US cities except San Francisco and New York out of contention.)

By now you might have deduced which of Mr.Menon's movies I had the privy of watching. Yes, Vaaranam Aayiram, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya.

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya is the least 'filmy' of the three. The positive aspects of the movie for me:

1. Cinematography

All I carry back from the movie is the cool blues and greens, fluid likes of water and traffic, instead of the dusty grimy India that one is used to, here we have a vibrant refreshing country and what is more, it has one of the best shot movie scenes in Kerala's landscape. Shame on you Malayalis, a Tamil film had to cross the ghats and come to Alleppey to do that. Beautiful.

2.Script

Natural, off the cuff dialogs go with the age and subject of the movie, so does the snippets of technology like texting. I also like the way they have interspersed dialogs in Malayalam when it is an internal dialog in the girl's family(whose character is that of a Malayali Christian settled in Chennai.)

3. Art direction

Set design, locales - thought of and brilliantly woven together into the fabric of the story

4. Actors

Simbu and Trisha look very much the part and seem to have a good chemistry between them which they don't spoil by their 'acting'. Neat.
What I didn't like was the that the movie started losing its pace in the second half, dragging along at parts. I wanted to fast forward but didn't do it so as not to miss the amazing camera work. A.R.Rehman's music, didn't really click for me this time, maybe it'll grow on me like Yuvvraj(another A.R.R musical I didn't appreciate much in the first place but ended up doing rounds on my music charts.) Overall a good entertainer.

Swantham Lekhakan (Swa Le)

2010-06-11T16:32:00.001-08:00

A newspaper man's life in a land before mobile phones: That is Swa Le in a nutshell. Swa Le stands for Swantham Lekhakan who is the anonymous writer whose words fill up most of the pages in a newspaper since columnists usually cost money and only deal with a few columns in one paid session.

In this movie Dileep dons the role of the hard working, chained to the print-grunge newspaper reporter who is worked to the bone by his bosses, has a pregnant wife(Gopika) to support, lives across a river with no bridge and doesn’t own even a bicycle(But there is a bicycle in the promo stills, did I forget?) It is a not-so-bad Dileep movie considering the toned down version of the actor that is on display.

There are not so veiled references to Kerala's major newspapers and a major literary figure who is shown at the verge of death with the newspaper men keeping vigil in front of his house for 'breaking' news story that might break at any time. Innocent, Ganeshan, Ashokan, Nedumudi Venu, Vijayaraghavan, Salim Kumar Jagathy, K.P.A.C Lalitha and a forgettable Harishree Ashokan forms the supporting cast.

An off tangent observation: Sona Nair as the gynecologist will hereby be instrumental in spreading the false myth in Malayali society that psychological disturbances arising from lack of spousal support during pregnancy will lead to false labor. Can’t blame her, can't blame the script writer either, doctors in Mallu land rarely discuss technical details of the illness with the patient, silencing all discussion with a question, "Who is the doctor, you or me? Then leave the technical details to me, don't bother your little cranium with such heavy stuff."