Varathan

Varathan is a liberal Keralite couple's POV and experiences in a part of Kerala, which suspiciously feels more Bihar than Kerala (IMHO.) More on the Bihar situation later. In addition to having two stylish lead actors - Fahadh Faazil and Aishwarya Lakshmi, style has been injected into the track by the liberal use of slow motion. It is wonderful to watch Aiswarya Lakshmi evolve as an actress, although this movie is essentially a Fahadh vehicle where he headlines in and as the film title (character.) The easy going chemistry between the lead pair contributes much to the smoothness of the narrative.

Costumes, casting, BGM, sound track and production design are excellent. The frames are beautifully metaphorical. The cockroach-killing metaphor is an overkill, if you ask me, but then again you have to appeal to all sorts of audience.

The only unconvincing part of the story is the BIMARUfication of Kerala. The high range town/village where the movie takes place is shown populated with lecherous males with pent-up sexual frustration and out-dated ideas about women's place in society in the age of Whatsapp (which is Tinder, Snapchat, FaceTime - all combined for the Kerala populace.)

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CIA - Comrade in America movie review

Comrade in America (CIA) is a feather-light film drifting across borders, told through stories and lives it flits through on its way to the destination - a defined terminal point in a present day utopia (this promised land's promise is highly debatable these days, the film recognizes that.) 

The movie also features one of the most pumped-up entries for any young star I've watched recently in any movie in any language - the beat, the music, the rap, the Molotov cocktail, the blazing fires, the resolute red flag in the ascendant and of course the assured slow motion accompanying the grand entry of Dulqar Salman - if the youth of the nation does not fall for this, I do not know what else they will fall for. Except that most of the well-informed youth must have already fallen for the original Kanye West song, "No Church in the Wild" from which Dulquer's entry is copied scene to scene.

For Dulqar Salman, playing the protagonist - a young communist Aji Mathew, it is love that shines as a beacon on a distant shore. He scorns the idea of visas, distances and border walls in a way only foolish and impulsive twenty somethings in love can. It only seems natural that being a bona-fide communist Aji should have routine midnight conversations about his love life with his three trusted, official mentors - Marx, Lenin and Che (pretty good lookalikes for a Malayalam movie.)

If you can look beyond the foolhardiness of the central character and forgive Amal Neerad, the director for building a movie around such an inane cause, the film in fact is enjoyable with its sprightly dialogs, interesting vistas, well crafted side characters and informative like a memoir documentary.

Kudos to the director and team in attempting a subject - U.S (southern) border crossing in an Indian regional language film. It is also the first film, international or otherwise, that I have watched recently, dedicated to all refugees from all over the world. With refugee crisis holding center stage in the news I am sure there will be more and there should be more, but glad to have seen it first in a Malayalam movie.

The film rides on the star power of Dulqar Salman with good support from Siddique, Dileesh Pothan, Soubin Shahir, Parvathy, Jinu Joseph and new comer Karthika Murali. The only character that felt out of place was the Malayali girl with an unconvincing story who turns up in the U.S-Mexican border crossing group, named Pallavi played by Chandini Sreedharan - not to reflect adversely on Chandini's acting skills. Pallavi's grand father might have been the Malayali who had that tea-shop on the Moon when Armstrong made the giant leap for mankind and was (tricked into) thinking he was the first man on the Moon. Then again I can understand the director and writer's justification of allowing our handsome, charismatic hero an incidental female crutch, if the movie had to be a commercial success 😊 - which it was.

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