Passenger – Feel the freshness

PASSENGER

Passenger is a movie that must be watched for the freshness and for the message it gives. This movie is special because it has nothing out of ordinary. The scenes are all what you see in your day to day life. But such things appear rarely in our movies. It’s that what makes the movie very special. This political thriller has a story that can happen anyday.

The movie is just 2 hours and it is also very simple. One advantage the director has enjoyed is that the characters are already well developed because they are one of those whom we see around us each day. Each scene is very natural and blends well with the whole movie.

The positives in the movie are many. A good script and impressive direction, excellent performance by the cast, pleasing visuals and good camera works and to top it all humour where ever necessary. Among the cast, Sreenivasan, Dileep, Mamta, Manikuttan and Nedumudi Venu does descent jobs. But the star performer is Jagathy, who delivers a brilliant performance acting as a shrewd politician. The camera has been handled well. Almost half of the story takes place in the train. Those scenes deserves special mention.

Ranjith Sankar, is a debutant director, and has proved his ability. He will certainly be one among the best directors in near future. There are some negatives for the movie too. The movie, though as a whole is brilliant, lacks lustre in many scenes. There were some over-dramatised scenes too. Coming from a debutant, these can be ignored.

The director is also an IT professional. But he managed to make some mistakes technically. The laptop which Mamta used at first was Compaq, but it changed to Fujitsu (I think) in between the chase. THE REST POINTS MAY REVEAL THE STORY. Mamta is shown to use internet while in a taxi and at that time, nothing has been connected to the USB. And the video is shown to be uploaded and sent via email in no time at all. She wants to publish the video as soon as possible and she can’t find anyway to do that. If she HAD such fast internet connection, why didn’t she upload it to youtube. 😉 (If there are any mistakes in these observations, please comment. These are what I felt in the first watch. Maybe some of these can be explained or more can be added.)

These mistakes are only told, just for the sake of it. As far as the movie is considered, these mistakes don’t affect it.

Overall, it’s a different movie and must be watched by all those who love realistic movies. Malayalam movie industry has been going through a very dark period. These kind of movie can help to rise from the slumber. Hope it becomes a huge hit.

I would rate 7/10.

Bhoomi Malayalam

Bhoomi

Malayalam

Samvritha in Bhoomi Malayalam

Bhoomi Malayalam – The latest work of T.V. Chandran!! For all those who have seen any of his previous movies, this introduction would be enough to carry you to the theater.

And he won’t disappoint you too much this time, but from now on, you will reconsider going to a movie just because it’s directed by T.V. Chandran. Bhoomi Malayalam is a kind of documentary on the situation of women in the present society. You see 7 women and the problems they face. It’s not exaggerated stories, it’s just a collection of various news you read daily in the newspapers. And that’s one factor which works against the movie too. There is nothing in the movie that you don’t know, that you can’t guess or that you don’t expect. Everything is predictable to the core.

One thing that captures our attention is the narration. The stories of these 7 women are mostly separate with nothing in common with most of them. But the director has found interesting methods to connect each scenes. That’s one thing which is bound to keep you hooked to the movie. There are three of four of such methods which are really striking and innovative.

The casting was not quite good. Suresh Gopi, though does double role, only one of those role has atleast a little to do. Samvritha Sunil who has gets the lions share of the screen was good, though she over acted at some scenes. I was very disappointed by most of the remaining cast. There was too much overacting and scenes were made very dramatic. There was a girl who acted as an athlete. To me, she was the most disappointing of all casts. Her long jump looked quite funny. The pre-independence part had better performace by the cast compared to the rest of the movie.

Overall this movie reminds you about the “fear” that still exists in women. It doesn’t shout at you or gives you a message. It just shows you what’s happening.

Verdict 6/10. Go for it when you are free.

(P.S. I got reminded of Adoor’s Naalu Pennungal when I saw this movie. It’s a collection of the stories of 4 women in different sections of the society. )

(P.P.S All those who complained about Slumdog Millionaire “degrading India” can see the movie and tell the same things again. But the fact remains that those things do happen here.)

(P.P.P.S. I saw the movie at Kairali Theater, Thrissur on the day of Pakal Pooram. There were quite a few people in the theater. I guess most of them came to the theater seeing Suresh Gopi in the posters and were expecting some kidillan dialogues from him. But they were terribly disappointed. 🙂 )

Orkkuka Vallapozhum – Not Perfect but certainly worth a watch!

ORKKUKA

VALLAPOZHUM

Director: Sohanlal

Cast: Thilakan,Shilpabala ,Jagadeesh, Rejith Menon, Krishnachandran, Meera Vasudev, Baby Malavika, Master Dhananjay, Chali Pala
Producer: Vinu Y.S
Lyrics: P. Bhaskaran, Gireesh Puthencherry
Cinematography: M.J. Radhakrishnan

Thilakan in Orkkuka Vallapozhum

I went to see the first malayalam movie of 2009 “Orkuka Vellapozhum” last Thursday in Sree Theater, Thrissur.

It’s a movie worth a watch. A one liner of the movie will be “ An old man, going back to the place where he lived during his childhood in search of his lost love”. The narration method the director adopted is impressive. Script, done by the director himself, has got a good mix of present and the past blending well. From British rule to Indian Independence, from love to lust, childhood to adolescent to old age, student life to retired life, spring to winter, this movie has a lot of elements. There are three parts in this story. One is when the hero and heroine were children and friends. The next is during their adolescent when they fall in love and are separated. And then there is the present when Thilakan is old and is searching for is old love.

There are many positive elements in this movie. The casts are good. Thilakan has done a great job. The child artists who acted in the flashback have done what they were asked to do, look pretty and sweet. The heroine of the movie had two roles to present, one of Thilakan’s lover in his adolesense and also as her grand daughter. She too have done a pretty descent jobs. She is too good at certain scenes and not so good at others. But come from an amateur the mistakes can be forgiven.

There is also a lot of good work from behind the camera. Camera works were brilliant. The locations used to shoot the movie is also great. Each scene of the movie comes in a picturesque locations. The songs are different and they suit the movie. There are a lot of hummable tunes in the movie. Another beautiful aspect of the movie is that it’s well paced and also a comparitively small movie, less than 2 hours.

This movie is not perfect. The movie got a dull colour, which lessens the impact the beautiful location could have made. At times, you feel the movie deviated to unwanted terrains, especially during the after interval scenes. There is a long flashback where the story moves very little. A lot of importance was given to the romantic scenes which didn’t create so much of an effort. The cast except Thilakan and Jagatheesh struggled a bit, especially with their dialogues.

Coming from a debutant director, these mistakes can be forgotten and the positives should be glorified. So another director joins the growing list of new director’s from whom great movies can be expected in the future.

I would rate it 7/10.

Pakal Nakshathrangal – Lacks Beauty

PAKAL

NAKSHATHRANGAL

Mohanlal in Pakal Nakshathram

I saw the movie Pakal Nakshathrangal on 4^th December, 2008 in Sree theater thrissur. Though the theater is a small one, it was not even half full, which shows the lack of interest in common public towards non-masala movies.

As a movie, Pakal Nakshathram lacks beauty. The one line and theme of the movie is fantastic, the philosophies terrific, yet the movie lacks beauty and totally misses out grace. Anoop Menon has done justice to the script and dialogues. The director has failed to make some mark in the movie. And from a director behind many award winning movies, this is not what I expected.

The main fault in the dept of direction was in the narration. There were better ways to approach the story. I would say the script was wasted by the director.

Mohanlal has failed to deliver this time round. Especially in many scenes as a spirit, his actions and body langauge resembles some art forms (Kathakali), and test the temper of the audience. He also has some sensual scenes which surprisingly wasn’t that good. His looks in the movie was well suited for his role as a director. But looks could only help him that much. Either Mohanlal was that bad or director failed miserably to utilize him.

Anoop Menon has done a fair job. There was no high expectation from him and he exceeded expectations. Suresh Gopi was another failure. He too couldn’t yield any magical performance. The heroines have got very little things to do to be noticed.

A part of the movie I liked very much was a philosphy, “If we consider from the beginning of human life, the number of people alive now are very less when compared to those who have died. So if the dead and live assembles, the alive shall be outnumbered by the dead. So whose world is this? Is it that of the dead or of us alive? What is death? Is there a new life after death? So is death a new birth?” The movie revolves around this.

The reason for the name of the movie is also well justified. It is said in the movie that the dead can be seen, heard and felt if we wan’t to. They coexist with us in this world. So they are like stars in the day. They exist but can’t be usually seen. They are “Pakal Nakshathrangal”.

The movie resembles the movie Thirakatha many a time, which is another factor which plays against it. The editing work is one of worst in recent malayalam movies. In a song I felt it would have been better had it been left unedited. There is a good suspense for the movie. The irregularity is another factor which affected the movie. At times its fast paced and promises to be an investigative entertainer and other parts it is too slow to make an effect.

Besides all these, the movie is watchable, but it’s just watchable. The movie keeps on shouting at it’s crew “You could have made me better”. I would give 6/10. Watch it because there is good intensions behind it.

DANNY – A MASTERPIECE

DANNY

A classic movie is made by the craft of the director, strength of the script, a fresh narration and to top it all by great performance by the cast. T.V. Chandran has given to the Malayalam movie a classic, one which can be shown off proudly to the world.

T V Chandran has made superb movie throughout his careers. It looks like Mammootty got an excellent chemistry with the director. Their first movie Ponthanmada gave Mammootty a national award. The only actor who has acted more in this director’s movie is Nedumudi Venu.

The movie Danny is an off-beat movie, an award movie, as per the present terminology. The story progresses as a narration by a third-person. There is freshness in the narration and that is because there is humour underlying the movie.. The humour is not the kind which makes us laugh till we break our ribs, but one which creates a smile in us always. The kind which makes us smile whenever we think about it.

The next point is the brilliant performance by Mammootty. Mammootty in the beginning introduces him as Mammootty itself. His slang was amazing throughout. The dialogue presentation is an ability which Mammootty monopolizes in Malayalam movie industry. There is nobody to compete against him. His body language in this movie was also very impressive, especially as an old man.

A negative point in the movie is the rest of the cast. Most of them were quite failures. But the director could cover their failures by his brilliance. But Siddique who acted as Danny’s friend Freddy has done a good job.

I am not going into detail about the story because it’s a must be watched movie and all should please try to see it as soon as possible. There are some movies which creates tears in your eyes. But this one creates smiles in your mind but at the same time creates an ache in your heart. Danny will haunt you forever.