A movie and book review blog

Showing posts with label fahad fazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fahad fazil. Show all posts

May 16, 2019

Njan Prakashan

Njan Prakashan is very much a Satyan Anthikkad movie, with occasional strokes of brilliance from Sreenivasan's pen. Sreenivasan continues being Sreenivasan. Njan Prakashan's script is Sreenivasan's opportunity to speak his mind, deliver a social commentary to the masses, packaged in a  wholesome Sathyan Anthikad movie. He does not waste the opportunity, although with the intermittent voice-overs in Sreenivasan's voice it is established that it is an older person's take on the current Kerala society.

Sathyan Anthikkad is the Head of Wholesomeness in Malayalam movie industry, he will not have it any other way. The audience is guaranteed they can take home the feel good vibe after watching an Anthikkad movie, this one is no different. It is funny and light-hearted, almost tricks us to ponder about the variety of human personality types on this planet. Somewhere towards the end it runs out of ideas to liberate P.R.Akash from himself, so Sreenivasan, Anthikkad and Co. recruit Grim Reaper as the villain, very much in line with pre-1980s Indian movies.

P.R.Akash, Fahadh's character is the new generation M.A.Dhavan. He is a caricature of a man and Fahadh delivers without much effort. Nikhila Vimal's role is much smaller than I had anticipated. Devika Sanjeev is a find. Anju Kurien could've used less make-up for a girl who harvests 30-40 lbs cassavas with her bare hands. 

A light entertainer, I found myself smiling most of the time I was watching this movie. What else is a lazy Saturday afternoon flick supposed to do?
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Dec 29, 2018

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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