Road trip movies seem to be the route of choice for Mollywood actors
for their Bollywood debut. If it is a Bollywood road movie, it invariably
has Irrfan as
the laid back, philosopher of life who nurses a can of worms of his own – not
too lethal, just enough to cause some minor hiccups to spice up the story line
(Piku, Qarib Qarib Singlle, Karwaan)
We had Parvathy making
her Bollywood debut with Irrfan in an Indian take on eat-pray-love called Qarib
Qarib Singlle. Now we have Dulqar Salman taking
the south Indian scenic route with Irrfan in Karwaan.
In addition to the gorgeous Nilgiris and Kerala lagoons, the other key
elements in this movie are an indian youtube sensation – Mithila Palkar, a
couple of dead bodies and Hindi – the lingua franca of southern India, if
we are to believe Karwaan.
The story is by ad-man turned director Bejoy Nambiar and directed by Akarsh
Khurana. The dialogs are natural, photography showcases the best of South India
and the actors have tried – but the story lacks juice and feels forced in most
places – I made full use of the fast forward button.
Dulqar’s acting was the most believable and Irrfan plays Irrfan – a
slightly off the rocker, lovable eccentric. This could be a short film for Kerala
(and Tamil nadu) tourism, starring a Mollywood celebrity and a Bollywood
celebrity – if we can edit this down to about 15 min.
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.
You have reached one of the oldest, continually updated blogs on Blogger / Blogspot. Active since 2003. Twenty three years and counting. Enjoy your stay. If you are interested, you can read the beginning of my blogging journey here
This blog started as a movie log way back in 2003. About 20% of the movies I watch makes it to these pages, the rest are gobbled up by my powerful Procrastinator machine. I, the author of the blog hides under a fictional profile called Different Drummer. But please don't misunderstand that I am an authority on drums. I won't be able to tell a snare drum from a bass drum and the only drums I've ever owned are ear-drums. Nor am I any different from any of you. It is just a name. For more, read the About page.
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