It has been a week of paranormal movies for me. I watched
Malayalam movie Ezra followed by Tamil's contribution to the week -
Dora. First let's see how Ezra fared.
Ezra
is a well-put together movie. Is it a great horror film? It is not a
horror film; it is a ghost story, you earth bound being. It did not work
for me as a horror movie at all because horror means I am looking for
something that would
bring on the chills like The Shining or The Silence of the Lambs or The
Vanishing.
I could easily watch Ezra in the dead of the night
without any one around. Even with the menacingly dark shapes of trees moving outside the window it miserably failed to create even a flinch in my
ghost film meter needle. Movies with paranormal perpetrators
do not make much of an impression on me, so that is not a huge minus. I
could even predict who the ghost was trying to take a shot at.
*SPOILER* Even ghosts cannot resist the handsome and intelligent
Prithviraj, just like us girls. You cannot blame the ghost for
choosing wisely 😉
For a first time director, directing experienced
actors like Prithviraj is a commendable achievement. Good job, Jay K.
Now do not ask the question whether Prithviraj swapped seats with the
director anytime during the shooting of this film.
When Prithviraj is acting in a new director’s movie I have a feeling
that he gets possessed by the director persona quite often – ghost flick
or not.
Prithviraj has controlled and contained himself,
maturing further as an actor. I can see he had nursed a secret wish to
play a 'nukular' scientist and he got to do it in this film. Soon as he
donned the 'nukular' outfit it was obvious who would
be irresistible (more irresistible than usual I mean) to the paranormal
(and normal folks.) Priya Anand - good to see the Fukrey actress after a
long time, although she has nothing much to do as a stand-in
temp.
The Jewish backstory is the real hidden gem in this
whole movie. Don’t go looking for other gems, there aren’t any.
Beautifully filmed with great cast and production design it is almost
like a self-contained short film within the main movie.
My general impression about Ezra is it is an effort
in the right direction to introduce exotic spirits to Malayalis who are
all round ‘spiritual’ people. But there is nothing really scary in
there. If you want a real scary movie I just
remembered a better one from our next door neighbors from not too long
ago -
Yavarum Nalam or 13B.
Dora is
not any more scarier than Ezra. But the reason I watched Dora was not
actually to test out its paranormal mettle. But rather to see how
Nayantara has evolved as an actor in more than a decade since we first
saw her onscreen. To entrust a movie on the shoulders of
one character, that too female, is a commendable effort. As a representative of the female audience community I applaud the producers for making that leap of faith and thumbs up to Nayantara who has acted satisfactorily well in return.
Revenge
rather than ghost is the driving element of the movie, *SPOILER* just
that the instrument of revenge is a ghost. The dialogs between
Nayantara's character and her Dad are entertaining and light-hearted.
Nayan's character for some reason is shown as a tomboy, as if a
real woman would not have the guts to act like she acts. The other main
actor in this movie is a car named Dora, which has the body of an Austin
Cambridge - a cousin of India's trusted Ambassador car and the soul of
an Aston Martin.
I believe I had read a Stephen King story long ago about a possessed Buick (From A Buick 8). The ghost in the machine theme is nothing new. Although there are no surprises in the story, the revenge element has me rooting for the revenge-taker and if it's a solo gutsy female it all becomes very relate-able. Isn't that a what a watchable movie should strive for?
0 comments:
Post a Comment