Theevandi

Theevandi has an old-timey charm. It brings to mind the un-pretentious story lines about the common man that was symbolic of mid to late eighties Malayalam cinema. In an age of omnipresent cellphones, missed calls, Whatsapp groups and Facebook posts it is quite an achievement for the story and the script writer to create a realistic blend of digital and analog worlds we seamlessly inhabit.

Tovino Thomas is Bineesh Damodaran, a chain smoking, unemployed young man who dabbles in politics as a hobby in a North Kerala village, somewhere near Kozhikode, would be my guess. The movie tracks his progress from his induction to smoking as a high school-er to the event that leads him to quit it years later, with several comedy gold instances that keep the audience entertained.

Vini Viswalal’s story and script directed by T.P Fellini has in addition to Tovino, Suraj Venjaramoottil, Surabhi Lakshmi, Saiju Kurup, Samyukta Menon, Sudheesh and a bunch of other talented actors. The music by debutante music director Kailas Menon is a perfect fit for the simple yet meaningful lyrics penned by B.K.Harinarayan.

Mayanadhi, Maradona, Theevandi – 2018 has been a rewarding year for Tovino, his smart choice of scripts and directors is paying off pretty well.

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Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial

True Crime is a burgeoning genre, with it early beginnings in literature (Truman Capote's In Cold Blood comes to mind) and moving on to television with America's Most Wanted and similar shows.If the culprits were caught and justice had prevailed every a time a crime was committed this genre would have never existed.

We can thank our much flawed criminal justice system and the government for keeping the true-crime genre alive and thriving. The cases taken up by The Innocence Project, the cases like West Memphis Three , Central Park Five and Fairbanks Four are some of the instances that showcase the monumental failure of United State's criminal justice system. Thousands of wrongly convicted innocents languish within the confines of the U.S's biggest money making machine - the America's prison industrial complex (PIC).

PIC thrives on the constant injection of minority blood. Minority young men and women (and also poor white youth) are wrongly convicted or slapped with atrocious prison terms that are no match to their minor crimes. They are brought in young, grow old and die chained to the PIC conveyor belt.

I was introduced to one of it typical victims - 17 year old American from Baltimore, MD - Adnan Sayed, wrongly convicted and incarcerated in 1999, through his friend, neighbor and lawyer Rabia Chaudry's book called Adnan's Story: The Search For Truth And Justice After Serial. More on Serial below. Adnan was a perfect candidate for PIC to devour, as a representative of minority two times over - brown and Muslim. It hardly counts that he was American, born and bred.

Adnan's story might not have seen the light of the day had not Rabia Chaudry become the torch bearer of the crusade to bring justice for Adnan and find the real killers of his friend Hae Min Lee. Rabia brought Adnan's story to the attention of This American Life's Sarah Koenig who made into a podcast called Serial in 2014. Serial became the most downloaded podcast in the history of podcasts bringing national and international attention to this monumental botch-up which destroyed a promising young man's life and messed up an entire community.

Rabia's meticulous deconstruction of Adnan's case, as a friend, a lawyer and a brilliant narrator, picks up the thread from where Serial left off. This gripping real life account adds and fills in the gaps Serial did not bring to light. There is also a newer podcast, Undisclosed, bringing in data and evidence, not presented in Serial. Undisclosed also has a huge fan following as it explores and presents evidence against (wrongful) convictions handed out by the U.S criminal justice system.

On July 22, 2016, right on heels of Serial's success and a couple weeks before Adnan's Story was published, a Baltimore circuit court judge Martin P. Welch overturned Adnan Syed's conviction for the 1999 murder of his friend Hae Min Lee. But as we all know the states do not accept their guilt or wrongdoing as easily and quickly as they handout guilty verdicts to the innocent citizens. The State of Maryland has succeeded in keeping Adnan's fate in limbo for another year.

The latest status (Sep 2018) of Adnan's case as per the law firm representing him is as follows,
"To recap, we won a new trial for Adnan more than two years ago(2016). Since that time the State of Maryland has been appealing the ruling granting the new trial. First the State appealed to the Court of Special Appeals (and lost). Now they are appealing to the Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in Maryland. The State, as the Appellant, filed the first brief a month ago. Today’s filing is our response. You can read the filing HERE."

Reading up on Adnan led me to revisit Damien Echols book - Life After Death and I watched the HBO documentary series Paradise Lost 1,2,3 in a couple of sittings. Maybe I will get around to write a review soon. After being immersed in such accounts of injustice it seems incredulous that we continue trusting our lives to these fallible human institutions like courts and governments. They are supposedly designed to serve and protect us, citizens, but many times they end up doing just the opposite.

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'96 - a tamil movie review

96 is a very topical movie. The only question was who would make the topic (more on the topic right after this) into a watch-able movie. Like many ground breaking moves they make (discovery of A.R.Rahman for one), Tollywood claims the story and victory.


Chat apps like Whatsapp, WeChat, Line or Telegram didn’t make any significant inroads in the U.S because the U.S already had free SMS and free calls with most cell phone bundle plans. But for the rest of the world and emerging markets like BRIC, these chatting apps are huge players with about 70-80% market penetration. This gave rise to school and university alumni Whatsapp groups, a la  Snapchat for adults with privacy and secure territoriality packed into an instant message environment.


There was only a matter of time before someone made a movie out of this ubiquitous social networking phenomenon. High school and college Whatasapp groups provide ample material for sentimental, nostalgic stories. There is always ‘the one that got away’ and the ‘could-have-beens’, but ’96 directed by C.Prem Kumar, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan does not dissolve into a syrupy emotional mess, it could have become with a different script and a different director.


Tamil movies rarely operate at the pace of real life, but ’96 takes the slow lane. Although it was dragging at places, it can be excused for keepin’ it real.

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Ranam: Detroit Crossing , A Review

Close-ups framed by somber voice-overs in down and out desperado jargon paints a picture of a big specter in the offing - a fight for the dangerous under belly of Detroit. This is where Ranam (transl: the battle) happens - at Detroit Crossing. And guess who is trying to lay claim to the ruins of America's original motor city - some South Indians and a few Poles! I don't know what the Black Mafia or the Flatheads will have to say about that, but I am guessing the film maker will pull up his creative license card if questioned.

The director, Nirmal Sahadev, teases the audience with the prospect of an ever-present menace in the motor city, employs tightly framed shots so that none of its mundaneness leaks in. To up the danger quotient and maybe also as a nod to his inspiration (the 2014 movie, Drive), there are plenty of red lighted scenes, red pills, blood, guns, germs and steel. The last two were thrown in by me for the Jared Diamond effect, they do not feature in this movie to any significant degree.

The people who feature in Ranam are Malayalam's own answer to Hollywood - Prithviraj and Isha Talvar who is miscast as usual. Giju John as the lead detective is impressive in his debut while Rahman with his remarkable onscreen presence is a great pick for the mob boss, Damodar Ratnam. He reunites with his co-star from the Tamil noir movie Dhruvangal Pathinaru - Ashwin Kumar, who plays his side-kick Selvan. Jakes Bejoy has scored the music for the movie, which includes a decent mixed-rap title track.

Ranam comes off as a forced chronicle. Prithviraj's rigidity, even if his role calls for some of it, does not help the case. The dialog sounds lame, especially the cynical, street smart musings in English delivered in half-baked scenes. The most unconvincing part of the story is the entirety of the Tamil gang trying to control Detroit is comprised of all of two people - Damodar Ratnam and Selvan. One Prithviraj with a hammer, which he brings to all his gun fights, is more than enough for these two people - I cannot even begin to understand why he wasted two hours doing it.

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