Watched Salt and Pepper yesterday after being tempted by the yummy mouth watering title song and finding that the movie was avaialble online. It was an enjoyable movie, a story of two lonely souls who find cameraderie in an unlikely phone call ordering a dosa. Lal and Swetha seem perfectly cast for the title roles and the total absence of super stars makes this movie what it is ... a slice out of the life of some ordinary souls. The script is beautiful. Though I heard a lot about Asif Ali's portrayal, for me , it was the lead pair that made the movie. Maithili was the weak link and her acting left a lot to be desired. All in all , a beatiful meal in itself .
Showing posts with label Movies Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movies Reviews. Show all posts
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
3 Kings-If you have nothing better to do
Happened to watch the movie 3Kings some days back and for want of any other interesting topic, decided to write about it.3 Kings is meant to be a comedy movie which I'm sure had the least portion of its budget towards having a story and a script. The maximum intelligence level expected of any viewer is the ability to understand the jokes from children's books like balarama. The plot and the jokes reminded me of the picture stories that I enjoyed in balarama when I was a kid (Jambanum Thumbanam, Thala maratte, Mayavi ) etc . The cast is the saving grace of the movie with all the lead actors especially Indrajith, Jayasurya and Asokan excelling in comedy and making us feel that many a time the dialogues were on the spot and not from script.
Samvrutha is excellent as a dumb damsel , while Ann Augustine is the only one not able to look and act dumb.It is worth a one time watch if you have nothing better to do and like to read balarama.Thursday, June 16, 2011
ഉറുമിയും മാണിക്യകല്ലും
Happened to see two Prithviraj movies -the much hyped urumi by santhosh sivan and also manikyakkallu which has prithvi in a soft role -without action and muscles as a simple school teacher. Let me take them one by one.
Urumi on one hand has the trademark cinematography by Santhosh Sivan which makes watching the lush green shores of kerala in the 16th or 17th century candy for anyone's eyes.The movies traces the course of a young man(Prithviraj) sworn to avenge the death of his father by the hands of none other than Vasco Da Gama . But For some reason, the film fails to touch a chord with your heart.The movie looks good , the performers are all awesome, but there is a certain kind of soul missing in the script that prevents the movie from being what it was aimed to be-an Epic. Prithviraj has done an excellent job and is well supported by Prabhu Deva, Nithya Menon and Genelia, though apart from Prithviraj and Prabhudeva, the rest of them look and act odd in their present day counter part roles.The attemps to draw a present day parallel fails miserably and the movie should have stuck to its original 17th century track.
Best Part :Santosh Sivan's cinematography , Nithya Menon, Prithviraj's drop dead looks.The other suppprting actors from Jagathy to the singers at the king's palace have done justice to their roles.Notably I liked the actor who played the role of the king .
Good Part : Prithvi and Prabhudeva have a good cameraderie and have done well in their roles. Genelia in Action scenes.
OK Part : Script , which is good in parts , but meanders off without knowing if it should take itself seriously or not.
Worst Part :Vidyabalan and Tabu,Costumes(nobody can be tricked into believing that these were authentic kerala costumes)
Urumi is an enterainer with eye catching visuals, amazing songs, attractive people- eye candy and just like some of the jokes that the lead duo crack on screen, it is not a film to be taken seriously.
Manikyakkallu on the other hand takes itself too seriously, were it a little less idealistic , a little less preachy and did not try to praise its hero every other minute of the second half, it would have been a pleasure to watch. The movie takes after many of the movies in the same genre about a teacher coming to uplift a downtrodden school and has little new to offer and evokes a sense of nostalgia of good old malayalam movies , but does not reach anywhere near them.
Best Part : I liked all the kids acting as students-(They were so natural) & Samvrutha and the location.
Good Part : All the supporting cast like Nedumudi and KPSC and Jagathy sleep walking through the roles they have played a billion times invoking nostalgia of old movies.
OK Part : Prithviraj-He looks good , I liked his non action hero look and style but needs to improve while talking long monlogues.
Worst Part : Script getting kathi like when Prithvi asking kids to read MK Gandhi and stuff. And the unrealistic ending. ( would have been good if it was just a 100% pass and A1 for 1 or 2(A1 for everyone was just unbelievable) and the editing. The movie is a good 20 mins extra long.
It was a movie that could have been better made with a tinge of freshness , but alas , that was not meant to be. It is the same old wine in a slightly newer bottle
Urumi on one hand has the trademark cinematography by Santhosh Sivan which makes watching the lush green shores of kerala in the 16th or 17th century candy for anyone's eyes.The movies traces the course of a young man(Prithviraj) sworn to avenge the death of his father by the hands of none other than Vasco Da Gama . But For some reason, the film fails to touch a chord with your heart.The movie looks good , the performers are all awesome, but there is a certain kind of soul missing in the script that prevents the movie from being what it was aimed to be-an Epic. Prithviraj has done an excellent job and is well supported by Prabhu Deva, Nithya Menon and Genelia, though apart from Prithviraj and Prabhudeva, the rest of them look and act odd in their present day counter part roles.The attemps to draw a present day parallel fails miserably and the movie should have stuck to its original 17th century track.
Best Part :Santosh Sivan's cinematography , Nithya Menon, Prithviraj's drop dead looks.The other suppprting actors from Jagathy to the singers at the king's palace have done justice to their roles.Notably I liked the actor who played the role of the king .
Good Part : Prithvi and Prabhudeva have a good cameraderie and have done well in their roles. Genelia in Action scenes.
OK Part : Script , which is good in parts , but meanders off without knowing if it should take itself seriously or not.
Worst Part :Vidyabalan and Tabu,Costumes(nobody can be tricked into believing that these were authentic kerala costumes)
Urumi is an enterainer with eye catching visuals, amazing songs, attractive people- eye candy and just like some of the jokes that the lead duo crack on screen, it is not a film to be taken seriously.
Manikyakkallu on the other hand takes itself too seriously, were it a little less idealistic , a little less preachy and did not try to praise its hero every other minute of the second half, it would have been a pleasure to watch. The movie takes after many of the movies in the same genre about a teacher coming to uplift a downtrodden school and has little new to offer and evokes a sense of nostalgia of good old malayalam movies , but does not reach anywhere near them.
Best Part : I liked all the kids acting as students-(They were so natural) & Samvrutha and the location.
Good Part : All the supporting cast like Nedumudi and KPSC and Jagathy sleep walking through the roles they have played a billion times invoking nostalgia of old movies.
OK Part : Prithviraj-He looks good , I liked his non action hero look and style but needs to improve while talking long monlogues.
Worst Part : Script getting kathi like when Prithvi asking kids to read MK Gandhi and stuff. And the unrealistic ending. ( would have been good if it was just a 100% pass and A1 for 1 or 2(A1 for everyone was just unbelievable) and the editing. The movie is a good 20 mins extra long.
It was a movie that could have been better made with a tinge of freshness , but alas , that was not meant to be. It is the same old wine in a slightly newer bottle
Monday, February 28, 2011
Pranchiyettan and the Saint
Finally , finally, one of the most well received malayalam movies of the last year became available online and we didn't think twice before watching it on TV. I for one , had been eagerly awaiting the release of this movie on the internet because the story is based in my home "Thrissur" and all the characters were said to be speaking in typical Thrissur slang. The movie did not dissappoint. It showed yet again , that Mammootty is becoming a master of situational comedy.(From Trivandrum slang in Rajamanikyam to Thrissur slang in this movie).
The movie has Mammooty playing "Cherammal Francis" an uneducated , but rich businessman in Thrissur , who is trying different ways to change his image and name from that of "Ari pranji" to something more respectable.He is very often bested by his childhood nemesis (Siddique as Dr Jose) who incidentally also stole his childhood sweetheart Omana(Khusboo) through nefarious schemes as well. Many hilarious situations that ensue in the process.
He shown trying to contest for "Regency Club" president elections ,organize a welcome for an oscar winner(an obvious take on Resul Pookutty) and even get a padmashree award.Innocent , tinyTom, Jayaraj warrier, the new face as Eyappan the cook and TG Ravi give ample support to his schemes. It is right after the failure of the last scheme (the one to get padmashree) that a lady with the very same name comes into his life.Priyamani as the smart modern girl changes not only the colours of his house , but the colours of his heart as well, as he falls in love with her,only to hear that she has already had enough of relationships and men from her experience with a failed marriage.Pranji is too busy to be dwelling on his heart break for long and takes it as another one of his failures. He now conentrates his attention on getting a weak student(Master Ganapaty as Pauli) in his friend Anthony mash's school to pass the SSLC exam,but fails at that too inspite of finding out that the boy was brilliant.But he finds out that Pauli is dealing with unimaginably huge personal problems and decide to adopt him as his son.
It is at this juncture that he goes to his church to have a talk with the Saint Francis of Assisi.
The whole movie is shown as a series of conversations between Pranji and the Saint , and hence the title.The movie is simple to the core and the uncomplicated narration style make it a pleasant watch.
Pranji thinks as every one does that his problems are huge and that he is always losing , when in the end , the saint shows him that life is not as we think and that he infact has everything that he needs.
A very endearing movie and one that evoked a lot of nostalgia of my favourite place "Thrissur" and its people.
The movie has Mammooty playing "Cherammal Francis" an uneducated , but rich businessman in Thrissur , who is trying different ways to change his image and name from that of "Ari pranji" to something more respectable.He is very often bested by his childhood nemesis (Siddique as Dr Jose) who incidentally also stole his childhood sweetheart Omana(Khusboo) through nefarious schemes as well. Many hilarious situations that ensue in the process.
He shown trying to contest for "Regency Club" president elections ,organize a welcome for an oscar winner(an obvious take on Resul Pookutty) and even get a padmashree award.Innocent , tinyTom, Jayaraj warrier, the new face as Eyappan the cook and TG Ravi give ample support to his schemes. It is right after the failure of the last scheme (the one to get padmashree) that a lady with the very same name comes into his life.Priyamani as the smart modern girl changes not only the colours of his house , but the colours of his heart as well, as he falls in love with her,only to hear that she has already had enough of relationships and men from her experience with a failed marriage.Pranji is too busy to be dwelling on his heart break for long and takes it as another one of his failures. He now conentrates his attention on getting a weak student(Master Ganapaty as Pauli) in his friend Anthony mash's school to pass the SSLC exam,but fails at that too inspite of finding out that the boy was brilliant.But he finds out that Pauli is dealing with unimaginably huge personal problems and decide to adopt him as his son.
It is at this juncture that he goes to his church to have a talk with the Saint Francis of Assisi.
The whole movie is shown as a series of conversations between Pranji and the Saint , and hence the title.The movie is simple to the core and the uncomplicated narration style make it a pleasant watch.
Pranji thinks as every one does that his problems are huge and that he is always losing , when in the end , the saint shows him that life is not as we think and that he infact has everything that he needs.
A very endearing movie and one that evoked a lot of nostalgia of my favourite place "Thrissur" and its people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)