Sringaravelan - Review

Earlier here in my blog I had posted my expectations for this movie. As a fan of Dileep I was kind of expecting a clean entertaining as it claims to be. The movie has a huge star cast that includes the likes of Lal, Kalabhavan shajon, Nedumudi venu, Shammi thilakan, as co-stars.

Nothing much to say as Dileep once again fell into the trap of sibi Udayan's. The movie has virtually no storyline. The good thing is that they packaged it very well with some hilarious comedy scenes. Lal, Kalabhavan Shajon, baburaj all did their parts well as sidekicks to the hero. One can call this movie a laugh riot and as a time pass one. There is a  lot of situation comedy which works out pretty well that makes you ROFL.

Dileep plays the role of kannan who studied fashion designing and not interested in prolonging a career in that area. Instead, his interests were on how to become a billionaire without taking much effort. One day, he ended up in an old palace, send by his father. His life then takes a complete 'u' turn as he finds a girl of his dreams. He falls in love with that girl. [Vedika] But the problems arise when the heroine and her father were under the attack of some Mumbai connection. How he copes with those guys and convincing heroine's father for marriage forms the rest of the story.

One may ask what kind of a stupid storyline this is. But the movie is completely intended to entertain the audience. Uday-sibi-dileep has once again come up with the answer to that by delivering a clean festival entertainer. I've laughed hard in many of the scenes and the rest of the audience in the theatre. Some scenes were so hilarious that some people jumps up and down in their seats. The movie's main audience is family. I'm certain that they will enjoy the movie to the core. The response from youth is predictably bad. But who cares !!. 95% of them would have laughed so hard in the theatre and left with another mindset. With uday-sibi, the movie should be crap. Now, I'm not saying they should call the movie a perfect entertainer or anything.. But the movie is not a 1/5 or 0.5/5 type as some internet guys say. It is definitely much much better than that.

Saying all this, Uday-sibi are much more talented than making a movie like this. The plot is very much similar to their recent hits Mr marumakan, Mayamohini and karyasthan. They could have at least change the plot for this one. The heroine's father here can't speak either Hindi or English, which was bizarre. The character of ukkan tintu was hilarious. They recreated that character with with some really funny 1 liners. It was even hilarious than in the original film 'Neram'. Baburaj's intro greeted with claps but, fails to impress much. Lal was throughout hilarious in his role as 'Yesu'.


The songs were good , apart from the title track. There are some good melody tracks. Berny Ignatious did a good job indeed. BGM was Avg to good. Dileep was looking young and smart and delivers a solid performance. Heroine vedika also deserves some appreciation as she exceeds my expectations of her. Camera work by Shaji was crisp with some stylish shots. Editing was good. Direction was fast paced.

If you like to spend 2.45 hrs in this Onam season for some dumb fun, then sringaravelan is your unanimous choice. Serious movie lovers and so called BUJI'S please stay away.

Personally, am disappointed by the effort put by a great combo here. Only because they are capable of producing much more.!



5.5/10

Daivathinte Swantham Cleetus

First thing first. Not a big fan of Mammotty or any of the creators in this movie. Still went into the movie with little hope after reading some pretty good to average reviews in FB and in popular forum 'forumkeralam'. Also I may say that some stills in the climax exceeded my curiosity to watch the movie. And a big thanks to 'Jochayan' [Jomon] for arranging me the tickets.


I won't say that this is a big hyped movie or anything, but Mammotty's some different getups made the viewers interested, especially his fans. Mammotty is an actor who gave grand entries to some popular directors now. That includes the likes of Lal Jose, Anwar Rasheed, Aashiq Abu etc.. Here he gave another debutante a chance to rework the magic in box-office. G Marthandan, who assisted many profound directors and has an experience of long 17 years in the field of advertisement, has finally able to chance to direct a film. Another thing is that this movie is produced by a fan of Mammotty. Interestingly, this is the 2nd time in the open era that a fan has produced a movie, as the 1st one being 'Lokpal' which unfortunately bombed at the box-office. So not much confidence one can take from that huh ?!!  Anyway, the movie is written by once a big thing in the Malayalam cinema industry, Benny. p. nayarambalam. His ability to make comedies out of nothing once labeled him as one of the best script writers. But not anymore.! His last outing, Dileep's 'Sound Thoma' was an average fare partially only because of directors talent. [Vyshak]

Readers..., be careful while reading the below paragraph. There will be spoilers.!

The story revolves around a beautiful place in Kerala. [Thodupuzha] As the title shows, the movie has a bit of 'Godism'. Once there arises the need for a new actor in a troupe called 'Vadakkumthala theatre'. They are looking for a decent actor who can play the Jesus Christ. In search they found 'Cleetus' played by '(Mammotty)', who is actually a rowdy. The drama is directed by  Fr Sunny (Siddique).  Cleetus joins the group and the story revolved around him and the troupe for a while. Also the life of Jesus Christ influences the character in Cleetus. The film has some effort to invoke jokes throughout the first half. Only partially succeeded, it has to be said. Also the 1st is kind of a mix of Manoj k Jayan's 'Swarnakireedom & Mohanlal's 'Naran'. The second half focuses on heroes past and the way the drama ends forming the story. There is a small twist in between which can be easily predictable. The climax is a bit different from the cliches we have seen in so called entertainers. The director has to take some credit for that. But only for that part [lol] Although, the second kind of reminded me of Bharatan film 'Chamayam'.  One can say the film is a mixture of the above 3 films combined. Now there are some unwanted action-Mass scenes in between which was not at all called for this movie. This is by no way the entertainer like Chattambinadu or Pokkiri raja. I found those mass scenes a pathetic way to include mass elements.

Performance - Mammootty as cleetus & later Jesus Christ was appreciable. Very good as Christ , considering the actual age is almost double. Long hair getup is much more suitable to mammukka nowadays as it covers some age of his. Still pairing up with Honey rose made it stretch too far. Speaking of Honey Rose, the 'maybe called' heroine in the movie, delivers quite a good performance. She looked beautiful in some scenes. Suraj kind of looked like learning from his mistakes, thus not make audience irritated. Here, he invokes quite a number of laughs from the audience. Interestingly, Aju vargeese as sidekick of the hero was found quite irritating here. Lots of so called 'chalus' were actually from him. All others did their part very well. The actual surprise package was the performance of P. Balachandran. He was simply awesome throughout the movie with some great one liners.

The direction from debutant marthandan was a huge negative throughout the movie. Someone like a Vyshak could have made a huge difference to the actual feel of the movie. Although in patches it was good. Many scenes lacks punch. The climax portions could have been a memorable one if directed by an experithoma. But nowhere near perfect. There were some adult jokes in the movie which the audience clapped. Mammotty in one scene slapped tesni khan on her back which was greeted with heavy claps and laughter. Same adult meaning jokes were in Dileep's latest blockbuster Mayamohini and some of them were actually disgusted about those jokes. Many of them who called those jokes unbearable, well,.. some of those viewers found these as great jokes to laugh for. Is it the fanship that is causing this.. I don't know.


The script by benny was slightly better than of Sound thoma. Music was simply a waste of time. whovewer done the music for this one can actually be shameful about their work. BGM was at times loud and other times good. Climax BGM was good though.

On a whole, One can't call this as a crap movie or a below average one. If directed by a known director this could have been a thing. Especially those climax sequences. Some of the performances saved the movie a lot covering up the negatives. Also one can't call the movie as a comedy entertainer considering the climax, but you won't be disappointed watching it. Maybe not in theatre but on dvd's.  Its a watchable light hearted entertainer.


5.75/10

Kick-Ass 2

I've been a huge fan of Kick-Ass. I was literally waiting for the 2nd part to come out. Ordinary people dressing up to fight crime never felt so charming and funny. Same pattern follows in the 2nd part too. But with a bit more violence and More 'R' rated stuff. The film has more comedy than in the first part. And more entertaining. Although the important thing missing was the story. But I like the way it has been presented. With more dramatic scenes, bit more violence, more R rated jokes etc. The perfect sequel for a vigilante filled comic book film. But I must admit that I was walking into this film with less expectations after hearing the initial reviews. I wasn't expecting a perfect sequel by any stretch of the imagination. But after the first half hour I realized what's so wrong with this movie that people hated about !!? I just didn't realize half hour has passed away. It was such interesting. I even thought this might be better than 1st part in many aspects. Still I believe after watched the whole movie, Kick-Ass 2 has fare share of upper hand over its prequel in Comedy, Acting and Fight scenes.

The one thing that is so much improved than in the first part was the acting. I can't believe how much Aaron Taylor has improved. Mind you, he still can improve in many aspects. Like in the prequel, there is no stopping the Hit-Girl. The character got more developed, mixing up with high school stuff,friends etc. The main villain character was presented in an expectedly funny way. Red mist was the main central villain who tries to buy his way pass Kick-Ass.

Jeff Waldow wrote and directed the film. It was pretty awesome coming from a director who is not being part of the 1st one. He managed to create a whole new environment for the movie. I liked how Wadlow balanced the emotional/dark side of the story and the comedy of the story. He just made it more entertaining movie. The stunt scenes were as same as in the prequel with no extra addictions or anything.
Full marks to him.

Story, the only weak point in the otherwise entertaining movie. I think they could have developed the story a bit here and there, by adding some exciting turn of events. The climax was a sort of straight fight between good and bad guys which was easily predictable. Also it is a little shorter in duration than the 1st one, hey maybe there is no point stretching the movie with adding something unncecessay. And the biggest disappointment was the character given to Jim Carrey. They could have given his character some boost, but that was not the case here.

Performance wise, Chloë Grace Moretz scores big time as Hit-Girl. She was the show stealer again here. We get to know more about her life here. Her highschool surroundings, difficulties in adjusting to day to day life as not being a superhero. In stunt scenes, she was even more brilliant than in the prequel. Just awesome. They should seriously think of making a franchise for this character.
Christopher mint is another character got developed massively. We get to know him better as he tries to kill kick-ass in the form of money. Sometimes he was really good and at times overacts a bit. Still overall a solid performance indeed.

Overall, Kick-Ass can be termed as a perfect sequel and can be watched along with friends. It has everything I've wanted in a sequel. I highly suggest you see Kick-Ass 2, a brilliant, Action-packed and truly hilarious sequel that lives up to the first film. But one cannot let the kids-families watch this, because there is too much of violence in it. If you don't like the prequel don't waste your time watching this. Not your cup of tee.

And make sure you stay after the credits. There is a surprise waiting for you.


A near perfect sequel.


7.75/10

Sringara Velan - My Expectations

First of all , I'am a big fan of Dileep and his movies. His upcoming movie 'Sringara Velan' is another entertainment guaranteed movie. Scripted by the famous duo Udaykrishna - Sibi K Thomas , film assures some laughter. However , The thing that worries me a lot is that , their recent flicks cannot be categorized as quality entertainments. The movie quality has come down rapidly ever since 'twenty twenty'. If the posters and pictures are of any indication , the quality will be just as same as like's of Kammath & Kammath and Mr Marumakan. Which is sad by the way simply because the talent they have.

Hey the movie is not released yet. So lets not jump into any conclusions yet. The other interesting thing to look forward is the Dileep - Lal combination. Now we haven't seen them as a pair in a whole movie yet. So interested to see how that pans out. The music is done by Berny Ignatious after their work in Karyasthan. The music is scheduled to release on September 5th.

The heroine is 'Vedika'. She is unknown to Malayalee audience. The 30 year old actress has done many movies in Tamil and Telugu with some notable characters. I haven't seen any of her movies yet so this will be my first chance to see her on big screen. Curious to know the chemistry between her and Dileep.

Overall my expectations are pretty average for this movie. I simply would not expect any class work from this team. More than the movie , the music interests me more along with the heroine.
Best of luck to Team Sringara Velan......... Let it be a big hit. 

Memories

Going into the theatre, I was expecting a decent thriller like Mumbai police. Yes, My expectations were quite high after seeing reviews. Though not a fan of Prithviraj, I was quite excited to see him as another police officer on the big screen.

Memories.. As the title shows, the movie is full of flashbacks. Prithviraj played the central character, a drunk police officer who is haunted by tragedies happened to him in the past. This was incidentally Prithvi's drunken character after the much hyped but flopped movie 'thanthonni'. In which he over acts way too much. Infact i was expecting bit of a same here too but he was good as a drunkard. There were lots of parts in which it could have been over , but he handled it pretty well. Directed by Jeethu Joseph , already turning out to be a versatile director proved he is not a one dimensional thing. His last flick My Boss in which he entertained us immensely with comedies, in here he takes a complete 'U' turn. Some of the shots were something new and refreshing for Malayalam cinema. Promising talent indeed.

Coming to the movie , Prithviraj once an excellent police officer who lost his wife and child in a tragedy. He has lived under that past ever since and being often haunted by those memories. To recover from those memories, he chose to be a drunkard. He was living a lonely life until a strange but curious case brought him back to the duties. In which he was after a Serial killer. He started showing interest in the case and was after the culprit. Through some exciting turn of events he finally manages to solve the case with a well crafted climax. The suspense element were not as shocking as in Mumbai police but it was quite thrilling. The climax sequences were such, it invokes claps from the audience.

Now we have seen so many police investigation suspense thrillers in the past. In Malayalam we have the famous CBI series. This was one such experience but not as entertaining as them. But considering the fact that it is coming from a director who is virtually a newbie at thrillers , one have to give him credit for making an effort to make such a suspense thriller. Though not a fresh idea by any stretch of the imagination, scripting was, well almost flawless. The direction covers up the minor flaws in the script.

To round up, the movie is not a perfect thriller but was a crafted work from a dedicated director. Saying that, he could have tightened the script in the 1st half to make it less boring at times. The Mother-Son-Brother relationships shown in the film were quite convincing enough. Though it lacks an 'X' factor.

Technically the movie was good. Not exceptional but good. BGM was quite average and was too loud at times. Title cards were good with some pretty good effects. The only song in the movie were not so impressive and unwanted to say the least. It kills the mood. Though , the picturisation was good. Editing was sharp when needed with some graphics in between mixed well.


On a whole, Memories is a decent enough thriller , but not as good as Mumbai police. But unlike the Mumbai police this can be watched with family. The film lacks punch in the 1st half so prepare to be bored a little bit. But it evens up well in the 2nd half with an exciting climax and suspense.


Engaging but a slow thriller.



6.5/10