Neru

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Tennyson

What is the movie about? :: CI Paul Varghese (K B Ganesh Kumar) finds himself with a case with which clues are almost impossible to get, as a blind girl is assaulted in her home. The victim, Sara (Anaswara Rajan) who is blind sculptor is surprisingly able to create the image of the assaulter with her skills as a sculptor as she felt his face with her hands. As her mother had left her home to live with someone non-Muslim, they were left to live their lives by themselves on their own by the extended families, and her father had died some time ago. She was living with their stepfather Mohammed (Jagadish), who had also left his own family behind to live with this new one. This leads to his former family and his sons trying to take revenge on him, making use of this situation. CI Paul Varghese manages to find the person whose face was created by Sara, and manages to catch him. The person is identified by Sara using her hands in an identification parade as a young man named Mikhael (Sankar Induchoodan), son of a famous business magnate based out of Mumbai, with the power to buy most of the things placed in front of him.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Mikhael’s mother is adamant that he should save their son from trouble one more time, even though his father feels that he is done with the son who has created nothing more than continuous troubles for him. The highly distinguished lawyer, Advocate Rajashekhar (Siddique) takes over the case, and his daughter Poornima (Priyamani) would assist him, coming right out of their busy schedule in Supreme Court. The Public Prosecutor appointed in favour of Sara fails in bringing strength to their case, and the bail application of Mikhael is accepted due to absence of any real proof. The remaining proofs also go missing as Baby Varghese is removed from the case, and other police officers in charge of the case supports the other side. Baby is desperate to bring justice to Sara and he searches for any other lawyer who can make the difference. But Rajasekhar makes sure that no experienced lawyer agrees to take up Sara’s case, as one after the other, everyone keeps away from going against the biggest name among lawyers.

And what more would follow here in the journey towards serving justice? :: It is then that Baby Varghese finds Ahaana (Santhi Mayadevi), an old friend and lawyer who found herself on the wrong side against Rajasekhar and Poornima some years ago. They decide that the only who might be able to go against Rajasekhar would be Vijayamohan (Mohanlal) who was forced to leave his profession by Rajasekhar. Vjayamohan feels that he would be no match for someone like Rajasekhar and Poornima is someone with whom he was in love with. Seeing the plight of Sara, he finally decides to take up the case, but not without his doubts about a possible win. Yet, Sara is confident about him, and so are her parents. But Rajasekhar is someone who knows the weaknesses of Vijayamohan, and he is that kind of a lawyer who does not wish to lose any legal battle, and will go to any extend to make about a triumph. Even the daughter of Director General of Police in the state Niharika Jayachandran (Aditi Ravi) is ready to testify for the accused. Can Vijayamohan, Baby Varghese and Ahaan go against all odds and make sure that justice is served for Sara even though the chances are so low? How far would they have to go to reach a level from where victory can be ascertained?

The defence of Neru :: One can feel that the movie is dauntless at times, and clarity is a quality that it seems to rely on. The cast seems to have been perfectly chosen, without any space left for questions. The writing by Santhi Mayadevi and Jeethu Joseph got the nice flow reminding one of Drishyam, and the latter once again has the director’s chair safely put down there. The emotional side remains strong, and Anaswara Rajan’s performance plays a major role in getting the required strength on that side. The relevant issues about the bourgeoisie control over the system is talked about, even though the movie has conveniently left behind the most common influences from outside, the political saga of changing the course of an investigation – in between all of these, the film chooses to be safe in that case. But the feeling about the extra-rich remains the same. The way in which the movie decides not to overdo anything with the heroism is to be appreciated. The realistic side never makes way for the special and the strange to glorify the heroes here. The flaws and weaknesses of humans do find a place here as the movie progresses towards the end.

The claws of flaw :: It is not a case of surprise that Neru is not without its inherent weaknesses. Sometimes, one feels that the movie shows the need to thrive on its weaknesses to get the support of the masses. The final moments of asking people to remember clothing just because they remember the cars and dates is pretty dumb, as I do not even know what people whom I meet have been remembering; clothing might have been of concern of certain groups of people – if courts would work based on such memories, we are surely in trouble. The final moments are also over-dramatized, just like how Jana Gana Mana tried to make a mess out of any realistic element which was left in the movie. In that case, Vaashi felt more real in a court and Melvilasom was the best. The predictability factor is also too much, and final moments are too predictable, as the film chooses the safe path yet again with ease. Despite having this much of quality ideas to go through, the movie still makes us feel a certain amount of stretching in between. The film should have also focused more on the investigation and the actions of the police officer in charge dealing with it. Having a discredited lawyer instead of the discredited police officer in Memories has lesser effect in comparison.

The performers of the soul :: Mohanlal, with his screen presence runs effectively throughout this movie, as there is another strong performance from him, even though this will not stand the test of time if placed against Stephen Nedumpilly or Georgekutty of Lucifer and Drishyam. The wreath for performances would be shared among the cast, out of which, almost everyone seems to stand apart. Anaswara Rajan comes up with her greatest performance ever, and that drives the tale from underneath. Siddique is very much menacing as the lawyer who goes to any extent to win, much unlike the lawyer he played in Garudan, where he feels that he could also make mistakes – the two types of roles have been eternally safe with the veteran. Jagadish plays one more emotional role with effectiveness. It is good to see Priyamani back here, and she remains power-packed as the lawyer. K B Ganesh Kumar plays the righteous police man here, and he plays the man who makes all the difference by bringing the turning point – it is his character that really sets things going forward. Santhi Mayadevi, Sreedhanya, Haritha G Nair and Sankar Induchoodan provides some good support.

How it finishes :: Neru could have been something bigger, but on many occasions, it takes the safe route and the usually travelled path despite taking a fine diversion in the beginning itself. The movie has no shortage of thrilling moments in the court, but it does not use much of the twists which were there to be taken. The entertainment is always there, but predictability is also there to mark the safe zone. The emotional side remains strong, and we go through the journey with similar feelings as displayed in the movie. The lack of stunts and the absence of too much heroism makes sure that this one has an advantage for those who do not go for the usual mindless films. This makes another movie of poetic justice as evil goes on gaining victories through its path, but as it reached the end, there will only be the triumph for goodness. The message goes well for Christmas this year, as there is only this film in Malayalam to go for full triumph. I take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year.

Release date: 21st December 2023
Running time: 152 minutes
Directed by: Jeethu Joseph
Starring: Mohanlal, Priyamani, Siddique, Anaswara Rajan, K B Ganesh Kumar, Jagadish, Santhi Mayadevi, Sreedhanya, Haritha G Nair, Sankar Induchoodan, Harikrishnan, Aditi Ravi, Nandhu, Mathew Varghese, Dinesh Prabhakar, Krishna Prabha, Kalesh Ramanand, Poojappura Radhakrishnan, Prashant Nair, Ramadevi, Resmi Anil, Antony Perumbavoor, Kalabhavan Jinto, Chef Pillai

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Up and Down

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Tennyson

We all get stuck in the lift. Those who haven’t are the ones who are waiting to get stuck there. Two years after the release of his Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty, this director has returned with what is listed as a psychological thriller – Up & Down: Mukalil Oralundu, which deals with the same issue. But I would not say that it is psychological, as it is more of a murder investigation; a suspense thriller of the recent Mumbai Police model, but the style resembles Banking Hours 10 to 4. But this surely has a good advantage over that; the advantage of the powerful base plot which forms the undercurrents. But the question would be about how it surfaces and faces those ships and boats, the critics and the common man who watches them after watching Neram, English and Mumbai Police in the other theatres. The more famous movie review sites doesn’t seem to have taken this one well, but as long as I am concerned, this is surely above average, and this successfully entertains more than any other Malayalam movie after the age of Amen. Even with its flaws, and the times when sharks become little crocodiles, this wide sea of thrills manages to make an impact on the viewers.

The whole thing happens in the tallest building in the city, a flat where a major event is taking place at the top, that is the twenty fourth floor. There is a lot of preparation going on, and there are many important guests arriving on the day. But it is not in a room, in a hall or at the premises of the flat that the story takes place, as the film is a story of eight people and a kid who gets stuck in the lift on a day when there is a major program there. The trapped people include the lift operator of the flat (Indrajith), the city police commissioner (Ganesh Kumar), the flat’s builder and a major businessman (Baiju), his wife who is a dancer and is dressed for an item in the program (Remya Nambeesan), an alcoholic writer and a stoic personality with a “Carpe diem” attitude to life (Prathap Pothen), an IT professional who plays the role of Godse in a drama for the program and also the secretary of the residents association of the apartment (Rejith Menon), his girl friend and the one in charge of the program (Sruti Menon), a former NRI from the United States who play the role of Mahatma Gandhi for the program’s drama item (Nandhu) and a little kid (Master Devaraman).

The writer keeps telling everyone that he reached there early morning; the kid keeps enquiring about his mother (Meghana Raj) and the lift operator himself tells the police commissioner about his doubts on the missing person. They are on their way to the top of the flat for the program when the lift gets stuck. The man who comes to repair the lift is an alcoholic (Koch Preman) and this delays the process further. The lift has a lot of problems, and this time, it causes bigger trouble as the function has to begin, and soon the writer has chest pain. They also find that there is a dead body on the top of the lift, and the police commisioner guesses that one of the people in the lift is responsible for the murder. He pledges to find the real victim before the lift is opened. But the question remains if it is possible in such a small space with so many people being related to the murdered person in one way or the other. The talks and actions of the people in the lift keeps on raising more and more suspicions. Even the investigator and the most respected people in the lift doesn’t seem to the kind of righteous people who can’t commit a brutal murder. Slowly, a good number of secrets are revealed, which would change their lives once they get out of the trapped area.

This one is more of Meghana Raj’s movie than anybody else. She is present in most of the flashbacks where the core of the movie is revealed. It might also be Ganesh Kumar’s best police role ever. Indrajith has very little to do as the serious lift operator who never has a moment of happiness in life. Prathap Pothen has the most interesting role in the movie, as an alcoholic who enjoys his life without worrying about the past, present or future. He provides the best comic relief with Nandhu. In many ways, this might be one of the most interesting intellectual alcoholics, a reminder of the wise fools of William Shakespeare (that was a little far-fetched) who provides those funny lines as well as the words of wisdom. It is the strangeness of his character that works the best in a situation of being trapped in such an environment. His character is most well-drawn, and the rest are just a little less developed. Some of them really don’t have any interesting character traits at all. The presence of flat characters subtract some points from the situation, and the scenes outside the lift losses in comparison to what happens inside the lift.

So where does the 2010 American supernatural thriller film come into the picture? No, The Night Chronicles: Devil doesn’t really come into the scene here. It had the supernatural within modern city life while this one has the usual crime within the modern urban life. There is no people getting killed one at a time, and there is surely no devil. The only common thing is the lift and the only similar event is the people getting trapped in the lift. So there is no place for Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan or whoever he is. But in a world where the humans can do his job better than him, who needs that personality from the depths of the pain’s own abyss called inferno? There are satan’s little helpers who are both intellectually and spiritually better people of evil than the prince of darkness and eternal pain. Well, this one is successful in building that tension which remains there for most of the time. It is close to being brain dead in the end due to its attempt to come up with something strange and the requirement of another twist, but still, considering the fact that we have seen much worse Malayalam movies, and the greatest disasters of the Malayalam movie industry, this is not at all a bad thing in its glory.

The movie would have been better if the creators had simply forgotten about everything outside the lift and there were more incidents inside rather than the outside. That would have been more of the psychological piece as expected. May be the makers thought that the common movie watcher of this world who hasn’t watched movies like Buried might not stand a chance if they had to face with a monotonous environment such as a plain lift. The need for some colourful factors always comes to the scene when entertaining crowd-puller movies are considered. The movie’s subtitle “Mukalil Oralundu” would signify God, but there is no such direct involvement. The operation of the lift can be related to that divinity, but it is not something that can be directly connected. If the title means the dead body on the top, that would make more sense, but that would turn the usage into a rather funny thing. The more interesting thing might be about considering the lift as a character, which works as it wants itself to. Such a thing can’t be avoided even if that factor is also not explored. The supernatural clearly takes the backseat when the not-so-natural human beings takes control and leads the way.

To be frank, I have been waiting for this one for quite a long time, as the release date was changed from 17th May to 24th May; something unusual for me to long for a movie which had no special cast or nothing to boast about – I was impressed by the trailer and this being a thriller added to the longing. But the movie doesn’t seem to give what the trailer conveys to the viewer. The mystery should have been a little more bifurcating for my mind if it was so. But here, the mystery is straight, but still strange. This suspense works very powerfully throughout the first half and the movie soars high despite of some small troubles, and goes through with half of the second half without too much trouble, but it is the end that fails to justify the means. It was as if everything was made just to make the end happen, or the finish was just made for the movie to end. It is somewhat uninspiring, but everything else throughout the movie is worth all the attention. It might not be what one expect after watching the best of the world, but with the limited resources, it has been turned into something which can be watched for the fun and thrills, especially that first half which keeps one guessing about what happens next, or what can’t happen next.

Release date: 24th May 2013
Running time: 115 minutes (estimate)
Directed by: T. K. Rajeev Kumar
Starring: Indrajith Sukumaran, Meghana Raj, Prathap Pothen, Remya Nambeesan, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, Baiju, Nandhu, Sruti Menon, Rejith Menon, Master Devaraman, Kochu Preman, Vijayakumar