Thadakam (The Lake, 1982)

Before Pavanai, there was Jabbar Khan. Captain Raju makes his appreance as Jabbar Khan in an almost comical but imposing getup of a Pathan in Thadakam (The Lake), an I.V.Sasi film set in Kashmir. I.V.Sasi is true to the locations and the culture, unlike the Punjabi Houses produced twenty years hence. Thadakam is extensively shot in Kashmir, some local characters are portrayed by local actors speaking Hindi (not Kashmiri though) and there are even Hindi songs sung by Kashmirir characters in this Malayalam movie. 

Thadakam (1982) must have been I.V.Sasi's second outing set in Kashmir, after Thusharam (1981) having caught the Kashmir bug. Script and screen play are never the strong suite of I.V. Sasi movies, there are also unnecessarily sleazy situations as was required for early eighties Indian movies. Seema, Mammootty, Sumalatha, Ratheesh, Captain Raju and Balan K.Nair play some of the main characters in a movie that deals with a reincarnation episode in the life of its leading lady. There must have been a spate of reincarnation movies after the blockbuster success of Karz (1980), this must have been one of Malayalam's contributions during that cinematic season of rebirths. 

It is a low effort movie from the director after Thusharam, with a lot of B-grade sound and camera effects. It almost makes me wonder whether they did back to back shoots of both the movies at around the same time with the effort and the money put more towards the earlier movie.

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Bramayugam

The age of black and white is here in director Rahul Sadasivan's The Age of Madness or BramaYugam. It was a brilliant idea to post-process the entire movie to monochrome black-n-white which not only elevates the story but also makes it easy for the production design team. If the mana (translation: mansion) in the movie was in color it would have looked like a stage prop strongly giving off western false-facade vibes. 

The cinematography by Shehnad Jalal is enchanting making the mansion a strong contender for the supporting lead. Here below is one of the powerful introductory shots from the movie where Arjun Ashokan's character, Thevan wandering lost in the jungle finally chances upon what looks like an abandoned mansion.

BramaYugam, while it may not be considered as a horror movie in the traditional sense, is a quality period-horror or psychological thriller. The tight setting of the eerie abandoned mana and its jungle environs, the three main characters who are pretty much the only characters in the story and a yakshi to add an extra dollop of Malayali authenticity, all hold the well directed movie together. 

The casting is on point. Mammotty essays the role of Kudomon Potty, the lord of the dark mansion with Sidharth Bharathan as the caretaker and cook of the mansion. Thevan is a paanan or a traveling folk singer who had escaped the Portuguese slave traders in this 17th century Malabar tale, who seeks refuge in the mana. 

Arjun Ashokan's portrayal of Thevan is raw and intense, capturing the essence of a man trapped in a world of shadows and secrets. With his half a century of acting experience Mammotty leads the charge of the trio of characters, while  Siddharth Bharathan's portrayal as the servant of the house is not far behind the other two either. Amalda Liz's Yakshi who has no dialog and a few minutes screen time in the entire movie is the only miscasting (in my eye.) She has a very modern face for 17th century female vampire. 

BramaYugam is a roller-coaster ride through a world where nothing is as it seems, and danger and dark secrets lurk behind every shadow. An atmospheric horror (or thriller?) movie that cleverly uses monochrome to take us back to a bygone era of yakshis and chathans, it is a successful cinematic experiment and a must-watch.

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Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha

Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (transl. A Northern Ballad of Valor) is Malayalam literary giant M.T. Vasudevan Nair's retelling of a sub plot from Vadakkan Pattukal (transl. Northern Ballads), directed by Hariharan. Mammootty essays the role of Chandu Chekavar, a negative character in the ballads, who was given new life and a positive spin by the magic of M.T's pen. In 1989, this film (along with Mathilukal) brought Mammotty his first Bharath award - India's national award for the best male actor in a leading role. It also won the best screenplay award at the national level.

Mammootty as Chandu and Madhavi as Unniarcha in Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha (1989)

Malayalam movies nor audience are big on historical dramas, unlike the rest of India or south India. It was an ambitious project for the eighties. Comparing the magnum opus-es of the present day like PS1 or Baahubali, the production design of this eighties movie is almost at the level of a school play. But the screenplay and dialog is beyond compare. The casting and the acting elevates the frames and takes your eyes away from the plastic bead necklaces and cardboard sets.

In addition to Mammootty, Madhavi and Suresh Gopi, Balan K. Nair, Captain Raju, Geetha, Rajalakshmi, V.K. Sreeraman, Sukumari and Sanjay Mitra play other important characters. The soundtrack had some memorable tracks that still maintains their irresistable charm, all these years later.

Madhavi as Unniarcha, Mammootty as Chandu Chekavar and Suresh Gopi as Aromal Chekavar

While Mammootty's Chandu is one of the most unforgettable characters in Malayalam cinema ever, the hero, the villain and the creator of this landmark movie is M.T. Vasudevan Nair. M.T, the author is quite a maestro when it comes to giving under-represented mythical and historical characters their due, by offering the readers/audience a different and nuanced perspective of the character through his work. Before resurrecting and reshaping Chandu Chekavar's traitorous destiny half a millennia after the original ballads (which were based on true life stories of the warriors of north Malabar in the medieval era) were composed, M.T had successfully broken the ground for such character facelifts in his brilliant novel, Randamoozham in 1984.

Randamoozham  (transl. The Second Turn) is his retelling of the world of Bhimasena, the second in line of the Pandava clan in Mahabharata who was always pushed to the sidelines by righteous first-born Yudhishtira and the brave and glamorous younger brother Arjuna. It is one of my favorite Malayalam novels ever.

After re-watching Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha as an adult, I realize Chandu's cinematic and literary makeover was at the cost of shifting the blame to other lead characters. Aaromal Chekavar and Unniarcha drew the short straw in M.T's version of the story. I don't remember any of this kind of passing-the-buck happening in Randamoozham?

Aromal, the original hero of the ballad becomes a one-dimensional guy much in contrast to the legendary multi-faceted hero that he was. Instead of urumis and swords he should have been using, under M.T's masterful character correction, he is left with just an axe (to grind, with Chandu.) 

Unniarcha, the fabled warrior princess of Poothuram, is stricken by an acute case of men-writing-women in Malayalam. As the story takes place in the medieval times the focus is less on women's body parts and more on their fickle emotions like deceit, pretense and cunning. These universal characteristics of womenkind are embodied by Unniarcha in the movie and Chandu's dialogs to Archa (written by M.T) are used to rub it in at turning points in the movie to paint her as the fall guy (gal.)

Despite these persona revisions, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha is a watershed movie for Malayalam movie industry. A native ballad, re-written for screen by one of the masterful talents of Malayalam literature, performed by some of the best actors in their prime against the backdrop of a spectacular soundtrack, no other historical or mythological costume drama has ever come close to it in terms of overall impact. In 1989 it was the longest running Malayalam movie in theaters ever, running for more than one year at Sangham theater, Kozhikode and the biggest blockbuster of the year.

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Oru CBI Diary Kuripp : Reviewing the diary entry three decades later

TL;DR : Re-watching Oru CBI Diary Kuripp thirty plus years later was somewhat anti-climatic. 

Oru CBI Diary Kuripp (transl: A CBI Diary entry) is a Malayalam police procedural movie from 1988. It introduced one of the iconic film characters of Malayalam movie world - Sethurama Iyer, a CBI officer (Central Bureau of Investigation, India's premier investigative agency, like the FBI in the U.S) and a master investigator par excellence. 

L to R: Mammootty as CBI officer Sethurama Iyer, Janardhanan & Prathapachandran, Oru CBI Diary Kuripp (1988)

Oru CBI Diary Kuripp has a decent storyline, albeit slow paced. At the center was a murder that looked like a suicide which a corrupt nexus of policemen and rich businessmen were trying to quash.  In addition to Mammootty as the lead, there were some memorable performances like Sukumaran's DySP Devadas and Captian Raju's  DySP Prabhakara Varma. The script was alright, nothing I would go ga-ga about. At the time though it was considered a pathbreaker in terms of how the story was presented and had several one-liners that were often repeated and re-used in other movies and in real life.

One of the most recycled concepts from the movie was the detectives' use of a humanoid dummy to rule out the possibilities of suicide vs murder. Several movies, plays, comedians and even us little kids would bring up the need for using a dummy for anything that required any sort of investigation. From missing erasers to stolen vehicles to movie murders, the dummy test was an essential requisite to solve the issue at hand. The most famous nod to the dummy test is from another super hit Malayalam movie released later that same year, Pattanapravesham, here it is @22:10 min.

Suresh Gopi and Mammotty - the CBI detectives attempting the dummy test from the terrace of the victim's house

Oru CBI Diary Kuripp was so influential that it led to 4 sequels, the latest one released in 2022, called CBI 5: The Brain. In all the five CBI movies, Mammotty plays the same character, Sethurama Iyer at various stages of his life. The other movies in the series are Jagratha (1989), Sethurama Iyer CBI (2004), Nerariyan CBI (2005) and the last one CBI 5 released this year. 

With the kind nostalgic buildup yesteryears' hits bring up, I was hoping to get the same feel for the first Sethurama Iyer movie I had experienced as a kid. But I had overlooked 30+ years of steady and diverse movie diet I had been consuming and the experiences of the person I am now.  In fact some other Malayalam investigative movies from the same era like Padmarajan's Kariyilakkattu Pole (1986) or V. K. Pavithran's Utharam (1989) or Joshiy's  Ee Thanutha Veluppan Kaalathu (1990) are investigative crime dramas that have aged better. In the last two Mammootty plays the role of the investigator. 

The biggest bone I have to pick with the movie is with the character of Sethurama Iyer. He is a la Sherlock Holmes with a government job (much coveted in India) and a Brahmin to the boot. The latter part is crucial in establishing the ace detective's credentials since no Indian worth the centuries of casteist indoctrination  will dare to question the wisdom or intelligence of a Brahmin, since these qualities are god-given to Brahmins and therefore indisputable.

Although the older me is not happy with a brahmin detective I recently read that it was the business acumen of the actor Mammootty (who btw is a Muslim IRL), when approached to play the lead, made the suggestion to change the character to that of a Brahmin detective. Originally the makers had named the character Ali Imran, a Muslim CBI officer. But Mammootty felt the film will be more successful and unique, if the lead character was a Brahmin. The man had foresight and knew the pulse of his audience. No wonder even in his seventies, his choice of scripts/roles is impeccable and he still rules the Kerala box office.

Mammootty as Michael, a 'retired' don in 2022 movie Bheeshma Parvam

Whether Oru CBI Diary Kuripp belongs to the fine wine category or not, whether Sethurama should have been an Iyer (a Brahmin last name) or not, the CBI series of movies gave Malayalam movie industry a long running, unforgettable character with charismatic gravitas that fit Mammotty's acting style to a T.  

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Mattoral -a K.G. George film

K.G. George movies explore the darker side of human nature. If you go to the movies for the popcorn, you should never go watch a K.G. George movie in the theater. Not that they are playing in movie-halls anymore unless there is a retrospective of old 80s movies. These movies are heavy, the kind where it is better to nurse a whiskey on the rocks and chew the cud on the vagaries of human mind the film showcases. 

 

I have been on a K.G. George rediscovery spree during the past one year. I think I am old enough to understand them now. Except for his Yavanika, Adaminte Variyellu, Panchavadi Palam and Ulkkadal - the four I had watched a million times during my childhood, I have re-watched most of K.G. George's filmography in the last 12 months. He directed a total of 18 films during the period from mid-seventies to 1990 and one in 1998.  

K.G.G's films are not intended for 8 year olds or 12 year olds for that matter. No wonder I was scared of them as a kid, not in the Frankenstein kind of way,  but more like being made aware of the human monsters in our midst. The unfathomably dark depths of human mind was not an area I wanted to be made aware of that early. The seemingly ordinary themes and characters of his movies made me uncomfortable with their layers of psychological intrigue.

 

Seema and Karamana Janardhanan Nair in Mattoral

Mattoral (The Other Guy along the lines of the other woman) is a study of a husband-wife relationship in the 1980s Kerala. Karamana Janardhanan Nair and Seema essay the lead pair. There are other husband-wife pairs in the film, as if to show the contrast and variety of the same relationship between different sets of people.  Karamana is a government officer while Seema is a typical Malayali housewife toiling away in the kitchen, without much exposure to the outside world. Their relationship have reached a plateau after having done the necessary procreation to propagate the species. 

Mammootty and Urvashi play a younger couple who are the family friends of Karamana-Seema duo. Theirs is a more modern and liberal relationship with Veni (Urvashi) working at an ad company and Balan (Mammootty) is an intellectual and Karamana's best friend. Also making appearance is Jagathy and another lady whose name I do not know, as his wife, whose raison d'être is to interfere in other people's lives. 

The director has taken the actors from their comfort zones and placed them in roles we do not usually see them doing. Seema as the naive house-wife and not playing Mammotty's love interest is unusual, so is Mammootty playing second fiddle to Karamana's more central character. This is a film that would make no sense to teens or younger audience. There are so many nuances and subtleties in the frames, dialog and the story. No wonder I went to sleep when I had watched it for the first time thirty plus years ago.

 

There is more to the story, but I will leave it here. The revelation I had as I tick off my list of K.G.George movies is that he was/is a director or a man who could truly think like a woman and bring out the woman's perspective through his female characters. There have only been a few men authors or directors that I have come across who understand and can present believable women characters in their work, K.G. George is one of those rare species, especially in Malayalam movie world.

 

 

 

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John Jaffer Janardhanan

After countless searches to fill “My List” with movies and shows to watch on Netflix, I usually reach an impasse. There is too much stuff on Netflix that I like and I cannot decide which one to watch. The only way out of this deadlock is to switch to YouTube. On YouTube I usually end up watching old Malayalam movies, usually the first one YouTube suggests.

That’s how I landed upon John Jaffer Janardhanan (1982) This masala potboiler directed by I.V.Sasi is a remake of the Bollywood film Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) Many movies from the Indian subcontinent from 1960s to 80s had successfully exploited the formula of lost and found families and siblings. Some of the most famous ones are - Waqt (1962 Bollywood) and it remakes (Kolilakkam – 1981 Malayalam being one of them), Talash (1976 Pakistan), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977 Bollywood) and its regional remakes,  Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) and it regional remakes (Himam 1983 Malayalam was one of the remakes.)

The formula goes like this. A family of 2-3 kids (usually male siblings) and their parents are scattered to the four winds by the cruel hand of fate. This literally happens in John Jaffer Janardhanan where the mother of the family gathers her 3 kids in a forlorn spot and then goes out seeking food and help. On the way back she gets blown away by a localized cyclone or something similar(a very local weather phenomenon for sure.) She is thrown off course and struck down by the force of the gale and a broken tree branch while her 3 kids wander off crying and are picked up and raised by kind strangers.

At this point the formula calls for a song. All the three kids are shown growing up in different households subscribing to different religions and social classes. During this song the mother might become blind or handicapped, practically rendering her useless for anything other than pining her days away thinking about her lost kids. The father is shown becoming a Don or a mafia boss or a rich entrepreneur. In the five minutes, that takes for the song to end everyone will be 20 years older.  Now we are ten minutes into a 180 minute movie.

The next  two and half hours we see the three brothers engage in their professions, court girl friends from their respective religion and sing some more songs. One is usually a crime fighter or a cop, another one is a criminal but with a good heart and the youngest is usually a singer / dancer. In John Jaffer Janardhanan, Mammotty is the oldest brother – Janardhanan, the police officer. Ratheesh is the middle one raised as John at a church orphanage and is a small-time crook. The youngest Jaffer (Ravindran) has been raised as a Muslim and is a qawwali singer. All three have a rare blood group and are always up for voluntary blood donations.

Swapna, Madhavi and Sumalata play their girlfriends. All they must do is act pretty and coy and have the right connections to the right characters. K.R.Vijaya is the mother. She was the default mother in these types of movies, who was adept at losing her kids whenever the winds picked up. Balan K. Nair plays the father who becomes a mafia don. 

Finally there is the bathrobe clad, pipe smoking villain. In Malayalam this role used to fall on the capable shoulders of Jose Prakash or K.P.Ummer. In JJJ, it is Jose Prakash who draws the short straw. He is also the thread that brings all the separated siblings and their father together. Their common quest to bring down this villain also serves as the cinematic tool to unite them.

As film progresses, the brothers are united one by one through even more ludicrous acts of fate than the one that separated them in the first place. The same happens with their father and mother. In the last 10 minutes, there is a long fight sequence followed by a teary-eyed but joyous family reunion. All is well that ends well.

Trivia that I get fascinated by: The entire movie is shot in studio (indoor and outdoor) or in and around Chennai. As a post 2000s movie aficionado, I could feel something lacking in the ‘atmosphere’ of the movie. The familiar Kerala landmarks and landscape that I am used to seeing in Malayalam movies were missing. The shooting location of Malayalam movies had not yet shifted from Chennai to Kerala when this movie was made, although it would happen in the next couple of years. Most of the female actors are also non-Malayali. Swapna (Manjari Dhody) is a Punjabi while Sumalata & Madhavi (Vijayalakshmi) are Telugu.

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Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal

I write movie reviews for a couple of reasons. One is to keep my writing from becoming rusty. I write nothing much these days – no poems, no journals or blogs, only occasional hashtag sentences without spaces. All part of being one with the times. Alternatively, I could use the oft-resorted excuse of people with multiple progeny – busy as a bee about to go extinct.

The other reason for keeping this movie log is to keep track of the movies I watch and to capture my reaction and recollection of those movies. Unlike many film fiends that I know, who can belt out dialogs or keep track and explain back to me all the multi-linear narratives in Memento several years after they had seen the film, I tend to forget the details of a movie soon as I turn off the TV and put down the remote.

One night this week, between the evening rush, dinner and getting into bed rituals I watched a Malayalam movie I must have watched as a child, but have absolutely no recollection of. I can blame the passage of time, a quarter of a century or more, for my memory loss. Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal is often mentioned as one of the milestone Malayalam movies from the eighties. Directed by Fazil, it had beautiful songs and a leading pair who were pure eye candy at the time – Mammootty and Suhasini.

The story, as I rewatch it now, is pure Mills & Boons or Malayala Manorama – pick your poison. I wonder whether we (Malayali audience) were so melodramatic in the eighties that we could consume this movie without batting an eye. Not just that, we even made Fazil’s script and movie a big hit. Considering Puli Murugan’s success last year, we have not grown any wiser, only worse.

One thing I notice now about Fazil’s female characters is in most of his movies one of his pivotal female characters will die. This death becomes the undoing of all his other female characters who are then relegated to the sidelines and most often require a compassionate knight to see them through choppy waters. The box office success of Fazil movies were directly tied to the ability of his movies to work the tear glands of his female audience (in Malayalam  - sthree janangale aake motham kanneer aniyikkunna katha)

The female lead in Manivathoor, played by Suhasini leads a sheltered life that involves driving a Fiat (she is the default chauffer for all the male members of her progressive family) and idling around idyllic Ooty locales singing top 10 songs. She has absolutely no ambition other than making kanji (rice porridge) for her physician Dad and brother at dinner and chauffeuring them around, despite an early upbringing in the ultra-modern but morally corrupt London town.

It would be fair to say that a film with a female lead with such an uninspiring prosaic outlook is not going to get good grades from me and Manivathoorile Aayiram Sivarathrikal gets a meh in my books. On to other forgotten(by me) eighties Malayalam movies on YouTube.

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Kutty Srank

Watched Kutty Srank after trying to stay clear it for long. The reason for my hesitation was, as I have grown older I have become much wary of the "award-winner" type movies which is typically what you expect from a director like Shaji N.Karun. His 'Vanaprastham' only served to increase my skepticism. It is the same reason I do not want to watch his 'Piravi' again, it might feel too slow for me and ruin the good opinion I had for the film when I first watched it way back when I was a kid.

Maybe because I didn't have expectations and was geared up to thrash it, to my own surprise, I liked Kutty Srank. Kutty Srank is like a chapter from the text book of movie making. The director himself wrote the story of a mariner(Kutty Srank means boat captain in Malayalam) who moors at different ports and as we all know a sailor cannot escape being a sailor, there is indeed a woman at every port. Three ports, three women. Now don't get your hopes high expecting sleaze and rein in those wayward thoughts - can't it be that these three women could be an embodiment of three main female roles one comes across in life? I think maybe that is what the director-story writer intended them to be.

There is Revamma, the local aristocrat's daughter, her part of the story is set in Malabar("Yeah yeah yeah, I am a believer" in the director, that definitely bought the Malabari in me off.) Padmapriya plays her, a Ceylon returnee, newly converted Buddhist doctor turned nun. Padmapriya is becoming the Smita Patil of the South, if there is strong female character role, directors choose her by default. The film is also set in three seasons. Kutty Srank(played by Mammootty) arrives in Malabar in the middle of summer. He is the boat captain and the right hand of the local Mooppan who takes care of all Mooppan's dirty tasks.

The one time the movie turns slightly artsy is when there is an allegory of a wounded swan depicting Revamma's state. But that's ok in my books, because the director doesn't repeat it. Kutty Srank see the shades of his mother in Revamma. The other two women are in the other two principalities which merged to form the current Kerala state - Kochi and Travancore.

We meet Pemmana(Kamalinee Mukharjee) in Kochi during the monsoons, i.e  winter in Travancore. I didn't know there was winter in Travancore. After living in Arctic for almost a decade I could snub at a Kerala winter but the people of Travancore(or Kerala) I know would kick me off the planet if I denied them winter. So monsoon = winter it is.

The story and the script are rich in the ways of the land, as it was 70-100 years ago. For me Anjuli Shukla's cinematography is the highlight of the movie, of course I cannot comment enough on the talents of the director and the actors. The movie pays tribute to the verdant landscape of Kerala, himself a whiz behind the camera I can understand the director's foresight while creating his scenes and characters, making maximum use of the the visual bonanza provided by nature herself.

One thing I found jarring was the location and the set of the police station. It looked like a set, erected on the beach, flouting CRZ(I know there was no CRZ back then, that's just an additional jab), looking and smelling of cardboard and new paint(made to look old of course.) I don't care much about music in a movie like this, I vaguely remember there were songs, native folk song type. Other than that I draw blank when it comes to the sound track treats.

The film won the National award for the best film and best cinematography and 3 other awards(see, my expectations were not far off the mark.) I wonder about the etymology of the word Kutty Srank in Malayalam. Did it come from Cutty Sark - the British clipper chip, from Scotland? As I have become acquainted with different English accents, I am amazed how much of Indian English accent is shaped by Scottish and Welsh influences.

My final verdict: Give Kutty Srank a try, it might surprise you.

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Paleri Manikyam : Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha (Oru review)

If Paleri Manikyam was a Miss World contestant in a throng composed of recent Malayalam movies, it'll definitely win one or two of those special awards. Ones I have in mind are Miss Personality, Miss World Best National Costume(which in this case will be period costume) and probably Miss World People’s Choice as well.

Now who would win the Miss World title itself is left to debate. If it was in my hands I'd suspend giving the main award altogether until we can secure a time machine and go back to the future to that golden era of Malayalam cinema, the latter half of the 1980s and exhaust all the Miss World Malayalam Cinema awards till AD 2100 when there could be some hope of recovery, because all the current audience(the worst culprits, including me) and the film-makers will be dead by then.

Back to 2009-2010 and Ranjith’s latest offering, Paleri Manikyam : Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha. I am picky so be assured that even in this model of a contemporary malayalam movie I’ll find some flaws. But let us hear the good news first.

As a born-North Malabari I am excited by the trend of Malayalam movie hits moving northward, beyond the Northern edge of the Nila(or Bharatapuzha, M.T’s favorite haunt) and embracing newer writers for their source material. Case in point: Paleri Manikyam, Pazhassi Raja. As Dylan strummed famously, ‘old road is rapidly agin’.

Point # 1+ Original story

By a Malayali writer – T.P.Rajeevan about a in a distinctly Kerala village of the fifties. I read somewhere that Paleri is a real village in Calicut, near Perambra and the case of Manikyam is the first ever recorded murder case in the history of Kerala Police, after it was formed in 1956.

Point # 2+ Art direction

By Murugan Kattakada, the period feel, costumes of the characters and locations reflect the amount of thought and work that had gone into them. Manoj Pillai’s cinematography is also praise-worthy to some extent.

Point #3+: Mammootty.

Although I strongly oppose the reign of M & Ms, there is a reason why Mammootty and Mohanlal are where they are. Mammootty’s multiple roles in this film showcase his range and flexibility as an actor.

Point #4+ Other supporting actors

Like Shwetha Menon, Sreenivasan and the actors who played Velayudhan, younger Sreenivasan and Pokkan.

Point #5+ The director’s restraint

In not giving into the temptation of inserting a few foot-tapping songs.
Now for the Razzies.

Point #1- The script and screenplay

By Ranjith. It sounds too bookish, and explicitly suggestive, which instead of letting the audience decipher, kind of pushes and shoves them onto a path intended for them by the director. I have not read the original novel, so I am not sure whether the blame could be the script writer’s alone.

Point #2— Sarayu Sharma

The character seems out of place, patched on to a script at a later date when director failed to tie up all the ends in the story in a convincing way. Like a Microsoft Windows Service Pack or the iPhone4 rubber band, with a smoking cigeratte propped onto her hand just before someone shouted ‘Action’.

Point #3- The sepia filter

For flash-back scenes. Not sure what could be an alternative, but that’s why I am on this side of the screen, nitpicking on the movie makers.
My overall review: Paleri Manikyam has more stuff going for it than against it, no wonder it was a hit. A welcome drizzle in a season of endless drought. I am not going into an in depth analysis of the story and the characters as many bloggers have gone that way before and carved out a readable path if you care to read.

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Loudspeaker

Loud and atrocious and it is a super hit! Praise the Malayali viewers swooning at the acting prowess of Mammootty and sending the cash registers ringing all the way to the bank. I don't blame the film maker, he explicitly stated in the title it is about a bullhorn and if you wholeheartedly bit the bullet, why complain now, right?


The story is about a loud mouthed simpleton(who else but our megastar), who becomes a kidney donar for a rich NRI for money. My problem is I can endure the audio levels, but it is hard to disguise a superstar as a simpleton, even if he tries his level best, the admiring gazes and gestures of idol worship are hard to hide from the body language of other actors and on-lookers. The story as it progresses just adds and abets the icon making process with every detractor falling away one by one in cliched clashes.

 It was interesting to see Sashi Kumar, the former Doordarshan newscaster turned founder President of Asianet, playing the NRI astro-physicist. The role of a non-resident Malayali fits him like a well worn glove. The other surprise was Gracy Singh(she of Lagaan and Munnabhai fame), maybe not enough work for her in Bollywood ?


The child characters in these contemporary Malayalam films makes me want to make sure that my travel or moving plans for the next 20-30 years will stay clear of God's Own Country by a thousand miles. What passes of as smartness in Kerala kids would get them branded as a$$holes in any other part of the world. Why are movies bend on promoting such behavior so that a generation of kids can turn out as morons with an attitude problem?

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Twenty Twenty

This movie is a buffet lunch for Malayali - all the various dishes for the price of one dinner. Although how much of a dish each Malluwood actor is, is a question of debate. You get to see M & Ms , Dileep, Suresh Gopi, Mukesh - all in one movie. Of course there are female actors included for the sake of inclusion - like Bhavana, Kavya Madhavan, Gopika and a bone in the form of an item number thrown to the Generation Y of Malayalam cinema viz Prithviraj, Jayasurya, Kunchako Bobban and Nayantara. There, that took care of them, most of the movie belong to the mighty M & Ms - Mohanlal and Mammootty, the Generation A or B or something which has not exited Malayalam cinema even when they have completed half a century on the screen of life.

A mega hit in Kerala, all the actors play the part they are now assigned to in Malayalam cinema, not the one assigned to by the script, not that the script was very different. It was written with the signature elements of each actor and their place in Malayalam filmdom. In that way you can say the actors were not really acting, just living their real life roles in film industry.

20-20 was produced as fund raiser for AMMA by Dileep and directed by Joshi.Mohanlal is Devaraja Pratapa Varma, a character he should by now play in his sleep after doing a slew of such roles in the nineties and noughties. Mammootty is the astute lawyer with a conscience and a sister, Bhavana. Siddique and Sai Kumar are their devious villian selves, again playable in their sleep. There is the usual coterie of comedy characters composing of Kalpana, Salim Kumar, Innocent etc.Suresh Gopi gets to do his cop act, peppered with his usual cache of English swear words. Dileep's natural comic sense is the only thing I could tolerate in the movie.Again, if the box office is any indication the average Malayali movie-goer is at the other end of the spectrum compared to me.

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Kerala Cafe

Kerala Cafe falls into the category of anthology films or portmanteau films - films consisting of multiple short films, often with a common theme or framing device.I think this is the first time directors in Malayalam cinema has teamed together for such a venture. I can think of an anthology film from recent past, Adoor's Nalu Pennungal, but all stories were directed by one director. Bollywood came out with a nice package of a portmanteau film a couple of years ago called Dus Kahaniyaan. Similar anthology films that I can remember are Anlat Istanbul, Paris, je t'aime, New York I love you, Toronto Stories etc.

The good thing about an anthology film is that there is something for every one, like a movie buffet of hors d'œuvres.The bad thing about this movie in general is that it has the Shelley syndrome, ie "Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts" , 9 out of 10 stories(or maybe 8) embrace the sure-fire recipe for success with Malayali audience aka the language of sorrow.

The first movie directed by M.Padmakumar is called Nostalgia has the familiar theme of Gulf Malayalees starring Dileep and Navya Nair, not much of a story, more like a condensed episode of one day in the life of a 'pravasi' Malayali which is better because there is no unnecessary fluff. 

Then comes Shankar Ramakrishnan's Island Express starring Prithviraj,Rehman and a host of others. It is good film, but gets a little too poetic with a hint of Malayali's inner budhijeevi surfacing at times. It is about one of the biggest train tragedies that happened in Kerala, the Perumon disaster.

Shaji Kailas directs Lalitham Hiranmayam, a tale of marital infidelity starring Jyothirmayi and Suresh Gopi. The film shows a different side of Shaji Kailas, sans the smart-talking English dialogs and the guns.

Uday Ananthan's Mrityunjayam is one of the entrancing ghost stories to come out of Malayalam in the recent past, I wish it was a full length movie, but then who knows, there might not be enough mystery and paranormal to last two long hours, part of the charm of it was its super short length like a thick strong brew. Thilakan and Reema Kallingal stars in Mrithyunjayam.

Next in line is Anjali Menon's Happy Journey, an incident during a bus journey starring Jagathy Sreekumar. An interesting piece. After that comes B.Unnikrishnan's Aviraamam, a contemporary story, good story and the choice of actors -Siddique and Shweta Menon makes it all the more watchable. Shyamaprasad disappoints with Off Season, I for one had high expectations of him.. It has good camera works, is set in a scenic locale - Kovalam, but that is all it has going for it. I have to give to it  that it is the only story which is not a sob story, other than Mrityunjayam(the ghost story.)  

Anwar Rashid's Bridge is one of the better movies in this set of 10. It takes place in Cochin, with Salim Kumar, Kalpana and Kozhikode Shanta Devi. Cinematography, story and the actors are above par and it really wrenches tears out of your eyes.

Revathy's Makal addresses a social issue of child trafficking, a woman oriented subjected as expected of the director. It stars a convincing Sona Nair, Sreenath and others along with a peacock feather - one would think Revathy as a director should be past filming cliches by now, maybe not?

Last, but not the least and probably the best is Lal Jose's Puram Kaazchakal starring Sreenivasan and Mammootty. Kudos to Lal Jose for selecting such a brilliant story, C.V.Sreeraman's story of the same name,  for a short film. With such a story, only precaution the director has to take is that he doesn't mess it up with the script or camera, Lal Jose does neither and what we have is winner.

In my opinion, PuramKazchakal is the best film of the whole bunch, closely followed by Mrityunjayam and Bridge. Island Express is like a poem in a short story anthology, a little mis-matched from the rest. All in all, Kerala Cafe is a commendable effort, a world away from the current masala Malayalam movies and shows that inherent problem of Malayalam cinema is with its viewers because directors if given half a chance can make good movies it is the audience who wouldn't let them.  

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Bhargavacharitham Moonam Khandam

It is not so often that you see Malayalam movies with plots lifted from Hollywood. One that comes to mind is Thoovalsparsham, but then even Hollywood borrowed it from the original French version called Three Men and a Cradle. This time it is the funny movie - Analyze This where the mafia don seeks psychiatric help for his shaky hands.

Mammootty plays Robert De Niro's mob boss character, while Billy Crystal's psychiatrist morphs into Sreenivasan in the Malayalam version. Story and screenplay is credited to Sreenivasan, but this is one of the few times that Sreenivasan has failed to impress me. There is occasional glimmers of brilliance in the script, but they are few and far-between. There is an over-powering element of artificiality in the entire movie, whether it be the pshychiatrist's dialogs or mafia don's costumes. Review:Bearable, barely.

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Ore Kadal

Despite Mammootty, Ore Kadal was a rare treat to watch. Based on Bengali author Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel Hirak Deepti, director Shyamaprasad tells a story of human relationships in a big city. Mammotty plays a middle-aged economist-author, Nathan who tries to stay clear of meaningful relationships which might burden him emotionally. Although it becomes the burden of the audience to watch him play a romantically involved role with heroine, Meera Jasmine who is younger than his real-life daughter.

Meera Jasmine,won State Award for Best Actress for her role as Deepti, a middle class house-wife trapped without any avenues for self-advancement in a faceless skyscraper. Narain plays her husband and Ramya Krishnan acts as Nathan's female confidante. Shyamaprasad's films has a mature and unique way of treating human interactions and relationships. His earlier films like Agnisakshi and Akale were testament to his creative abilities. Ore Kadal doesn't disappoint either.

The story of Ore Kadal is contemporary, self-centric where the focus moves away from people as pawns in a joint family (like in Agnisakshi) to the people themselves. Many of Deepti's actions reminds me of the role of an individual in a westernized society more than the one in the traditional Indian society that she resides in. The screenplay has been meaningfully translated into the context, no wonder when the director himself is the writer, the quality is reflected in the final product.

I hear that this movie barely ran for a week in cities like Thiruvananthapuram, supposedly this is an award film not fit for consumption by general public. I think more than anyone else it is the public who is responsible for abysmal fate of the current Malayalam movie industry.

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Palunku

Palunku means crystal in Malayalam, the movie is the third offering from Blessy one of the much touted directors of contemporary Malayalam cinema. The wiki link for Blessy I've posted above makes me want to bang my head against the wall and question the basic concept of wikipedia letting no-namers no-experts(like myself) update crucial information about people, places and history. The link equates Blessy's talents with Padmarajan and Bharathan - the maestros of Malayalam cinema which is like saying moon could take the place of the sun if only it rose during the day. Blasphemous!

Anyway moving on with the movie, the central character Monichan, a high-range farmer who migrates to the city with his family is played by Mammootty. The film starts off in serene village settings, where in spite of the burgeoning odds against survival in the form of un-payable loans, schools without teachers, the world is still fresh and innocent. That is one thing I've against Blessy's interpretation of stories - the absence of grays. The idyllic scenarios like the 'golden past' or the 'unspoilt village' is juxtaposed against the 'dreadful present or the 'sinful city.' One has all the good qualities and the other has all the bad qualities and the characters invariably have to fit in to either of these settings and are devoid of any shade of gray.

Monichan's family of wife and two kids are living in a blissfully tranquil high-range village with cows, tailor-birds and chickens when the children's school run out of teachers. This forces the family to shift their base to the city which is like the hot-bed of evil. But the Monichan parivar is unaware of it, they remain largely innocent and wide-eyed except for Monichan who takes to the city like a fish to water. From there on he takes the worst route possible to making a living in the city. The story despite its shortcoming becomes more interesting in the second half.

Mammootty is a good choice for the role, atleast he is 'acting his age.' Blessy introduces Kannada actress Lakshmi Sharma as Monichan's wife,she's good too, so are the two little girls who play the roles of their kids. Jagathy has a very interesting part. The story is tighter in the second half. There are no diversions from the main theme and it progresses fluidly on to the ending, which although I didn't see it coming, was not a total surprise either. It was like the movie had to impart this message of poetic (or is it Biblical) sense of justice or there had to be a 'moral to the story'. Afterall you spent two plus hours watching the film, did you get to take home a message? That is what the current Malayalam film makers are aspiring to achieve, which makes their stories predictable as fairytales or nightmares - whichever is the flavor of the moment.

After the much hyped Kazhcha which fell flat on my face and the award winning farce of Thanmatra, Palunku is infact a winner. It looks like Blessy is getting better as a director and a script-writer, although he has a long way to go before he can be anywhere near his mentor - Padmarajan.

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Aayirappara

Aayirappara literally translates to 1000 'para', where 'para' is a unit for measuring rice, one 'para' equals 7.5 kgs. In the movie it is a reference to the Aayirapara paadam(the field that yields a thousand paras or a field of bumper harvest.)

Directed by Venu Nagavalli, the film is set in the rice trough of Kerala - Kuttanad, incidentally it is also his native place(Ramankarry). The movie dabbles in history, it is a period piece, my guess is the story is from the early 1960s, around the time when the first Communist ministry came to power in Kerala.

Madhu and Narendra Prasad in Aayirappara

Aayirappara paadam is owned by the benevolent landowner, played by Narendra Prasad and his faithful servant, Pappi. - a role veteran actor Madhu carries of with ease. The central character in this movie is the colorful Shauri, Pappi's son, played by Mammootty in perhaps the only Venu Nagavalli(directed) movie where Nagavalli chose someone else other than Mohanlal to play the lead.

The film portrays the tumultuous period of economic and social change in Kerala, where the land and the earnings from the land started to be distributed more democratically, religious tolerance increased albeit as a result of numerous sacrifices from the people involved. Actress Urvashi has the female lead, as the daughter of the landlord. Music is composed by Raveendran and one of the songs 'Yathrayaayi' is quite a melodious number.

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The Truth

The Truth is one of the better films made by Shaji Kailas ,starring Mammootty as the police investigator from Delhi who takes over the murder case of the CM of Kerala. Shaji Kailas has directed all his films glorifying the lone fighter of a cop, I think it is time Kerala Police Dept. conferred an honorary IPS upon him. Whatever it be, had it not been his films the people of Kerala would be largely unaware of the dealings of their corrupt rulers and the names of the big players in the drama which goes by the name of Kerala politics.

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Kaazcha

Kaazcha is supposedly one of the best Malayalam films that has come out in recent past. If this is the best, I am saddened by the state of the Malayalam movie industry. Kaazcha is directed by the newcomer, Blessy, who had served as assistant director to prominent Malayalam directors.

Maybe I have seen too many foreign movies, that I have become extremely sensitive to what is called serious cinema. But I could not find anything remarkable about Kaazcha except for its story and Mammootty's acting which is free flowing as always. The script, in a sense has lended mediocrity to the story which had all the potentials of being converted in to a decent film. Malayalam movie makers still don't know how to mold good child actors, with their cliched notions and unnatural dubbing they spoil the naturality of their roles. The story is revolutionary in the sense that it focus on a current issue and its impact on a small family. A little boy who had escaped Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 somehow reaches Kerala as a beggar and is rescued by a film operator, played by Mammotty. I have heard that Blessy is going to remake this movie in Tamil and instead of the earthquake he's going to film the story of a boy who escapes the tsunami.

Nowadays whatever comes out in Malayalam is stereotypical - either it is a comedy where things get really messed up and resolve in to an all-is-well-that-ends-well end or a love story aping Bollywood, but falling woefully short or a social commentary like this one with noble intentions but a script to spoil the soup.

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