Maalgudi Days

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What is the movie about? :: A little girl, Athena Adarsh (Baby Janaki) is going through a state of depression after losing her father to the sea right in front of her eyes. As she spends her time at home staring at the possessions of her father and not talking to anyone, her mother Swathy Adarsh (Priyanka Nair) decides to send her away from home to keep the kid away from the memories. For the same reason, she gets admission for Athena in Maalgudi Residential School which is located in the highlands. But Athena doesn’t make many good friends until she comes up against Milan Joseph (Master Vishal) who is the mischief maker without friends, having a history of being brought up by a single parent and being quite unpopular. They form a gang of two, separate from the other kids around.

So, where and how does the twist of events occur? :: One day, while playing on the ground, the ball goes outside the school limits, and the kids come across an injured man called Zephan (Anoop Menon) who is wanted by the police. He has a mysterious past, and there is not much known about him except that he is an artist. The kids help him with water and food and develops a bond with him, as he leaves for another place, which is according to him towards his own child. The twist of fate happens when the kids gets caught in a situation from which there seems to be no escape. With nobody around to help them, how will they get back to their parents? Does anybody including their teachers actually even know that they are in such a situation?

The defence of Maalgudi Days :: One thing that you should have felt right from the trailer is that there is a certain amount of visual beauty to the locations, and if used well, can create a nice experience for the eyes – it happens right here. The surroundings used here happens to be perfect setting for the movie. Then there is the realistic ending to the movie, using the emotions to the right quantity rather than bringing what would go on to become melodrama. This is also a movie that touches the emotions at the base level, not within that elite level of romance to which reality is never that close. If you wish to support only superstar romance, go for it, but I would rather incline myself towards the sad realities and little goodness in life rather than the exaggerated infatuation. The goodness in this movie touches you on one side, and from the other side, the sad realities of life come in. It is from this ability to touch one’s emotion that this movie can be a favourite for the audience.

Claws of flaw :: Well, a near flawless movie was never expected in this case. The movie was never heavily promoted and never did it generate any hype. It just had an interesting song playing on television and came right into the theatres. It is nowhere close to being among the big movies with its content either, and that problem is solved by creating a fog of innocence which works. But the blind fans will neglect the same, because they can only get emotional when their superstar falls in love and losses his romance – the story of struggles of people never appeal to them. This bloody exaggerated romance seen in movies have made people feel only when the hero and heroine separate, and it will be a flaw, not with the movie, but with the brainwashed audience who are blind to the truth. This movie does have its own struggles in the middle, and a lot of scenes do seem half-baked. The material is not that well connected in between, and not made to appeal to people throughout its run. The first song with graphics was a terrible idea too.

Performers of the soul :: As you might have already noticed, Anoop Menon and Bhama forms the star power of this movie, and are the main actor and actress. Bhama does a fine job, but is present only in a few flashback sequences. Anoop Menon has his moments, and the best of them are in the second half. I am sure that a lot of blind fans would have appreciated their favourite actor in this role, and might spend most of their time praising this movie, if that particular person was acting in this, no matter how bad the performance was. But do not underestimate Anoop Menon who has done a commendable job, and at least once in a blue-moon, try to watch and appreciate movies without partiality. I had to add this to the review because of the conversation which I heard from some of the youngsters sitting behind me. Kids in trouble is a joke to some people, but their favourite hero getting beaten up or losing his romantic interesting is so sad – simply pathetic attitude.

Further performers of the soul :: Why don’t you people take some time to appreciate Anoop Menon choosing to act in this movie of debutantes, and coming up with a touching performance? Is it only with those overrated movies that your loyalty lie? Coming back to the movie, the child actors have done some very nice job here; there is a lot of skill in that age group, as the Malayalam movies which have given significant role of children in the last two or three years have revealed to us. This movie provides enough opportunities to the two child actors, and never hesitates to let them free. They have more to perform here than in a regular movie about children, and they come up strong. Priyanka Nair has a good role here; she was among my favourite actresses before she took that break. Saiju Kurup handles an important role, while Noby manages the lighter moments which are rather less and has least significance in this emotional flick.

How it finishes :: The situation looks rather bleak for the movie considering the number of viewers, but as there have been positive opinions, the number of people for the show will be more in the next few days. But the promotions have been rather less related to this one, and if you have noticed, this one is not present at Wikipedia, making this one more of a movie which is not out of the shadows yet. With the challenge posed by Charlie, Adi Kapyare Kootamani and Two Countries still there and with another possible challenge from the Bollywood movie Wazir, one has to be doubtful about how well it will do in the end, but coming from three debutante directors, this surely needs some attention considering how sincerely the attempt has been made. It surely has that single act of kindness which is supposed to shape the mindset of future generations, that too with one great self-sacrifice – are you ready for it?

Release date: 8th January 2016
Running time: 124 minutes
Directed by: Visakh, Vivek, Vinod
Starring: Anoop Menon, Bhama, Priyanka Nair, Noby Markose, Saiju Kurup, T.P. Madhavan, Irshad, Sathyadev, Abhi Madhav, Anand, Binoy, Janaki, Vishal, Alji Francis

maalgudidays

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25 thoughts on “Maalgudi Days”

      • I haven’t watched Mud, so can’t say more; but this is more of a children’s movie with a message.
        I don’t find something like Cocktail and Anwar which came up with perfect copies having changes for our needs.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Havent watched Cocktail. Eventhough Anwar wouldve looked perfect copy (I havent watched the English Original) it still had SONGS, SENTIMENTS, PUNCH DIALOGUES et al added after it became a movie.
        The plot is always inspired by the original, I mean the crux of the plot.
        Four brothers became Big B and many other movies but songs, sentiments, dialogues, dances, values etc are added in every film. No movie or rarely some movies stay close to the original English one.

        Im relieved to say that Memories is OFFICIALLY being remade in Tamil and the teaser is out! Relieved to see ARULNITHI playing the lead becasue he has been steadily making his presence felt…. Not here to compare him with Prithviraj but relieved to say that this movie is in safe hands. the plot wont be diluted adding unwanted heroism and dialogues and all..
        Hope it comes out well/

        Liked by 1 person

      • I was surprised to see the same dialogue in Traitor translated into Malayalam for Anwar. I thought they would at least work on the dialogues. Yes, changes will be there on the whole as you said; the big change was the realistic shooting in Traitor becoming the slow-motion action sequences and heroism in Anwar. With Cocktail, it was more of a positive ending with the hero and heroine uniting; if I remember it correctly, they don’t in the English original. These two movies were regularly shown in Star Movies, which is why the copying surprised me even more.
        So, Four Brothers is better than Big B? The fans are like Big B is some great movie better than Hollywood flicks; I don’t see much in Big B at all!
        Memories is having a remake? I will find and watch the teaser then 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Ha Ha Ha…… Yeah Sometimes they copy dialogues too…. In the movie SYE they shamelessly copy ALPACINOs dialogue.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7tzEabQtnM

        ARULNITHI is the only reason to watch Memories. And they acknowledged that its an official remake. While I am praising him no ends..something else is brewing on the other end of the spectrum……………………………………..

        I just watched BANGALORE DAYS getting raped on screen by BANGALORE NATKAL…….

        Ente Shivaneeeeee
        Ivanmaarkku vere oru paniyum ille?
        Cast is awful….
        Everything looks plastic…
        Nothing on earth can beat the original by the lady Anjali menon…No one can beat the orginal cousins……..
        Bobby Simha is a great actor but not for this movie…..he cant replace nivin pauly….
        Sahikkam…….allathey???

        Liked by 1 person

      • They wouldn’t care, right? Especially when the movies become big hits 🙂
        I have limited knowledge about Tamil movies and the cast, but I still have so much doubts about this remake – I haven’t ever seen that girl playing Nazriya’s role too, wondering who she is :O

        Liked by 1 person

      • When Rajamouli made that movie SYE, youtube was not even born…lol….haha… When youtube arrived it exposed many such copycats…There was a backlash in soccial media about the same. But it has exposed many…. Our own chirikuttan is out of business now lol !!
        This tamil remake might become a hit but I will never digest the fact that it is a badly made movie !!

        Liked by 1 person

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  6. Teny I am disappointed with your reveiw… now there is mistakes in the first para…mistake 1… possessions of her father…mistake 2…Athena doesn’t make many good friends until he comes up against Milan Joseph (Master Vishal) …
    but its not because of these mistakes I don’t like your reveiw… you take about innocense, childhood… does Malgudi days not stuck a chord on you… RK Lakshman who we lost last year or his brother RK Narayanan… well somebody’s creation that most Indians loved in their childhood… the Malgudi days serial that used to come and the music still echoes in my ears now as I write comment… I think you should have mentioned and alluded to that… without that the whole review has very less charm because I came here as do others thinking of the Malgudi days serial… Ok … as for the movie it seems pleasant one to watch and the love stuff I guess removes a bit of its innocent charm… do you know Boo Radley from ‘killing a mock bird, there is some resemblem to that where the kids befriend that charactor from jail… I guess not some promotion so movie won’t make it big…and somewhere that connects to you as talented things don’t get the recognision they deserve but I think that will be another charm about the movie… I am scripting stories myself… will try to keep romance element realistic… that will be hard but interesting but people like you and even me will criticize exagerrated romance… I think its ok though… that’s why I watch very less popular movies and go in for real quality movies… I can’t watch movies that have stupid story line unless they are entertaining… not draggy etc… if people like Salman khan are loved because of movies I rather not watch movies…ofcourse only Amir Khan movies or Irfhan Khan, Khangana movies are safe to watch… goodday… sorry for saying not very good reveiw):

    Liked by 1 person

    • I am glad you found the missing “s” and I have changed it, but the first one is exactly what I intended.
      I haven’t watched that series, and I am sure that a lot of people of my age here haven’t either. If you expect me to have memories about something which aired in 1986, that shall require a time machine or injecting that to the memories directly.
      I don’t remember much from To Kill a Mockingbird; it has been a long time.
      And yes, always go for realistic along with keeping it engaging! 🙂

      Like

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