Malayali – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: So, we have the third movie this time.

Vampire Bat: Well, there was always going to be a third.

Vampire Owl: But the situation seems to be entirely different in this case.

Vampire Bat: Well, there was the talk about the grandeur being a lot more.

Vampire Owl: The connections which seem to be made here feels rather strange when together.

Vampire Bat: That is quite natural as the genre itself seems to have changed by a mile.

Vampire Owl: I do not know if Uncle Dracula would like this change.

Vampire Bat: There is no need for you to show this to him, or your friend Mr. Frankenstein.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein is now beyond all entertainment.

Vampire Bat: Mr. Frank is beyond everything sensible.

[Gets a taco and three cups of Strawberry milk tea].

What is the movie about? :: It is the year 2370, and Earth is ruled by a ruthless dictatorship known as The Organization which has managed to quash every attempt at rebellion. They are an all-powerful entity which was never really challenged, considering its power and ability to stop all riots even before they begin. The dictatorship would not stay away from unleashing violence if it is threatened, making the ruling group an entity which one would need to fear beyond everything else. According to the resistance leader Baba (Indrans), the Organization has achieved this status through a celestial object called the Star Dust, which allows time travel, and in the process, rewrites timelines according to their will. Baba assures the other resistance fighters that time is not linear as past, present and future coexist simultaneously, and actions in one timeline would change the other. Baba understands that preventing the Organization from acquiring the Star Dust is the only way to stop them from achieving total dominance through time travel. For the same, he feels that there can be some unexpected heroes in different timelines who can help them and make sure that the balance is maintained and the inter-timeline evil can be stopped.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: In 2025, Shaji (Jayasurya) and his gang had received three million US dollars after the events involving the fight with Chekuthan Lazar (Hariprashanth M G), Anali Sabu (Anson Paul). They make the plans to travel to the United States of America to convert the cash from dollars to rupees, but Cleetus (Dharmajan Bolgatty) misses out as he has no proof, neither an SSLC Certificate, driving license nor an aadhar card to prove his identity, missing out on passport as well as that possible visa to the United States. As Cleetus gets depressed about missing out on the opportunity, takes a funny dialogue by Shaji’s niece Rachael (Athira Patel) related to seeing the American President when he comes to Coimbatore and exchange the dollars for rupees by just talking to him. As the date of Donald Trump visit arrives, and Tamil Nadu Police with the Central Forces have come up with a strong security, and Cleetus gets in there and shouts terrorist instead of tourist as he gets arrested. The currency is discovered to be fake, with Benjamin Franklin wearing glasses for the first time in a note, and now the team has to save Cleetus.

And what more is to happen here as another timeline calls for more? :: In 1790, Maharaja Padmanabhan Thampuran (Jayasurya) is ruling his small kingdom which seems to be weakening day by day, as his influence keeps going down even in his own circle. He is helping Vareed Mappila (Vijay Babu), to build a bridge which would change the fate of his kingdom – Vareed is an architect who had earned his degree from abroad in a reputed university, but is struggling, and is strongly supported by Kunjukunju (Noby Marcose) and Palazhi (Nirmal Palazhi) who provide local support even though adding a little bit of silliness to the situation. The whole thing has Lord Walter Joseph (Sunny Wayne) as the overseer, but this British lieutenant is called more as “water” due to him being drunk for most of the time. He always has Soman (Sudhi Koppa) and Sundar (Bijukuttan) to aid him, as they struggle to finish the bridge in time. As the king has problems with his spine, he sends his driver Koran (Aju Varghese) to find a doctor, but the bigger problem arrives in the form of the ruthless Azam Khan (Vinayakan), a commander under Tipu Sultan who wishes to destroy everything. How will all of these incidents in different timelines come together now?

The defence of Aadu 3 :: Jayasurya as Shaji Paappan holds the most value once again, and we see him leading the way to glory here too, as this character gets another twist for him with one more to play around here. Among the characters, those played by Saiju Kurup, Vinayakan, Sunny Wayne, Dharmajan Bolgatty, Vijay Babu and Indrans score the highest, while the support only seems to get only stronger. The bigger than usual attempt makes it possible to have a post-apocalyptic dystopian connection out of nowhere make it one of the best attempts to go big with some risks taken. We could have never had our own post-apocalyptic world with a past without this, as even though I have written a novel in such a world, such world-building feels outside the limits of Malayalam movie-makers. Then they create those new generation alcoholic high grossers without content, but I shall watch none of them. But here, some fine production values and background score along with that humour which comes out of nowhere and takes it out of nowhere makes an impression. The feeling of nostalgia will still continue with this world and its characters with that cult following.

The claws of flaw :: The movie’s deviation from the original ideas might hurt its purpose and the loss of two of its best characters played by Sandra Thomas and Chemban Vinod Jose had already hurt the second movie and it misses out more on humour every time. There are also too many worlds and happenings around here, and this non-linear narrative does not always seem like managed in the same manner. The time spent at establishing different worlds seem to have affected the humour’s balance at times. The franchise has always been something belonging to silly humour like Kunjiramayanam and Maranamass which never really hard a smart character; yet we remember that Adi Kapyare Koottamani could add some seriousness to the same. In comparison, in this movie which tries so much, despite trying very hard, the overcrowded feeling seems more like a setting for the next movie rather than keeping this one going forward. This might be same reason why we do feel that the movie is not reaching anywhere as the timelines go through middle part. We often keep looking forward to having better connection and a smarter arrangement of things, and it is something elder audience would feel more.

How it finishes :: We are no longer watching that usual fun-filled silly entertainer, but something more, as we see different timelines coming together to face a problem of timelines – from a light-hearted situation to universe-threatening darkness that spreads, we feel that change is too much real and with high ambitions. Now, the next movie is sure to be something grand, and we will see such spectacles in Malayalam cinema that we might not have imagined before. It is a commendable job to transform a cult comedy franchise into a huge-scale fantasy adventure having time travel, reincarnations, future post-apocalyptic world and dystopia, with the same characters living through different timelines – still, the movie maintains the quality, and we can only appreciate the same. Midhun Manuel Thomas taking the decision not to repeat the same formula and instead choosing the unexplored territory has kept this franchise alive, as it was already losing a lot of steam with Aadu 2. He has indeed tried to make this work with all his heart, and this is the kind of grand experimentation that Malayalam cinema needed, and it should keep pursuing the same while leaving that new generation nonsense behind.

Release date: 19 March 2026
Running time: 170 minutes
Directed by: Midhun Manuel Thomas
Starring: Jayasurya, Saiju Kurup, Vinayakan, Sunny Wayne, Dharmajan Bolgatty, Vijay Babu, Bhagath Manuel, Harikrishnan, Renji Panicker, Indrans, Bijukuttan, Sudhi Koppa, Alleya Bourne, Krishna Jeev

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: Jaya Sashidharan (Parvathy), a Keralite based in the city of Mumbai, spends her time alone, both at home and at office, as she has only a few friends, and has been a widow for about ten years. After so many years of lone life, and not listening to anyone who tells her to marry or get a boyfriend, she finally decides to have a look at an online dating website at the age of thirty five. After being bombarded by so many ridiculous comments by so many men, she finally comes across Yogi (Irrfan Khan) who is interested in poetry and has his own special style, making his case very different from the rest. She is careful about him and understands that both of them are different from each other in so many ways, but decides to go with him to meet three of his ex-girlfriends so that he could understand more about him as a person.

And what is to follow in this particular adventure? :: As part of this long adventure, the two has to travel through Haridwar, Bikaner and Gangtok. But there is one particular fact about Yogi, and it is that he is a carefree person who takes no responsibility on his shoulders – he doesn’t work even after passing engineering, but has written poetry in his mother tongue, and also speaks not much of English. This leads to him missing his flight and getting on the wrong train, and creating a few other situations. Meanwhile, Jaya who has identified herself as Jayashree TK, is fluent in English, and needs everything to go as planned. At their first location itself, they do become good friends, but going past that might be a little difficult, but who knows where some paths can lead? Well, strange things do happen, especially in love and war!

The defence of Qarib Qarib Singlle :: You will find the changes in this movie as a lot refreshing, and a fine thing which is away from the usual Bollywood model. The movie feels real with its incidents and emotions, and never really jumps into that fountain of melodrama which has kept the industry buried alive in a coffin from which there was never supposed to a chance of return, and it is a situation that could be termed as a sadistic thing of terrible beauty if we take a look at things as an outsider. Yes, the fans have always enjoyed the same, as it is what they have always been trying to do, but when we are outside that thought process of becoming addicted to a celebrity who has enough strength to become a parasite on the common man, throwing nonsense and grabbing money, we want the change. Qarib Qarib Singlle is surely that divergence from the regular path, and has fun moments in its realistic world having people who come up with no wonders in love, and are good at heart, not in their muscles, clothes or freaky singing and dancing in a party or pub.

The claws of flaw :: Some people can consider Qarib Qarib Singlle to be a little slow for their liking, but thanks to the smaller length, things get better. People who want less simplicity, and go for that colourful jump mode new generation romance in a pub calling for party, can also skip this one, as the movie calls more for the combined audience of family and youth. You can actually agree to the fact that there could be more comic sequences in this flick, and the journeys to different places could have also been more beautiful with the local scenery captured further along with what all are already there. All those characters other than the two protagonists never really get to do much here, and there is no development of the background as one would expect to be there. The reason for the movie’s journey would also seem a little strange for many. More could have been thus developed with the setting itself too.

Performers of the soul :: There is no stopping Irrfan Khan, and it is a proven fact. It was a few months back that I had come across Hindi Medium, and realized that how much this man had elevated it above the Malayalam version with the same theme, Salt Mango Tree. There is something that he brings on the big screen every time, and we cannot keep ourselves away from it. While Bollywood has been bringing nonsense in the name of keeping the audience entertained with masala, he was there with movies like The Lunchbox, Talvaar and Madaari. Here, he delivers two sides of a character with ease, as the funny side as well as another side with a certain depth in his ideology, arrives safely here. With no fake image of a hero being built, he becomes the everyman character, speaking a little too much, and doing a little more than a usual person, but doing all of them with such perfection which you will find difficult to find with any superstar who depends on his or her fans to sing blind praise.

Further performers of the soul :: While Irrfan Khan’s character maintains a certain amount of mystery as we come across him only after Parvathy’s character decides to go on to meet him, the latter gets a clear personality to work with, right from the beginning. She has worked with it with such skill that one can easily understand that she is one step ahead of almost everyone with that “superstar” title on head, which all try to hold on to. Still, the question remains if Bollywood is worthy enough or at least ready to have a heroine like her, who won’t jump into that masala stuff which provides a heroine with so less to work with that she is reduced to an eye candy. Into a world which is full of “actors or actresses who are related to someone in the industry”, she thrives with her performance rather than anything else, as she did this year with the amazing upgrade to Airlift, known as Take Off, and earlier with Charlie and Ennu Ninte Moideen. Here is one Bollywood debut of quality.

How it finishes :: A long way ahead of the usual romantic flick that Bollywood has been providing us, and also racing ahead of many overrated dumb romance from many languages which got only some ridiculous party songs, pub dance and meaningless infatuation for the audience, Qarib Qarib Singlle makes a point. It shows exactly how a fine romantic feel-good movie can be made, without those unnecessary elements appreciated by a certain group of half-witted audience who should be held responsible for Bollywood having so many low quality hundred crore movies with content not worthy of even being made a short-film – such cases are better suited only for an alien world which has no scope for brain development. If you prefer movies with aversion for clothes being at the same high level as the disinclination for making something sensible, do not bother, and go back to your usual world and continue watching what you call “cool”. Sometimes, the audience becomes the villain to an industry.

Release date: 11th November 2017
Running time: 125 minutes
Directed by: Tanuja Chandra
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Parvathy, Bajrangbali Singh, Anud Singh Dhaka, Neha Dhupia, Brijendra Kala, Luke Kenny, Siddharth Menon, Pushtii Shakti, Isha Sharvani