problems – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: Are they looking for the best time for Mollywood?

Vampire Bat: I do not think that it works like that.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein did not feel so either.

Vampire Bat: It does not matter what Mr. Frankenstein thinks about.

Vampire Owl: Frankenstein is the leader scientist whom we have always wanted.

Vampire Bat: That would be Uncle Dracula and not a fake scientist.

Vampire Owl: You do not believe that dead bodies can be animated through science?

Vampire Bat: Were you ever animated through science? I just came back from the dead.

Vampire Owl: Every creature does not come back from the dead just like that.

Vampire Bat: I think you are referring about dumb humans acting like zombies.

[Gets a poori masala and three cups of black tea].

What is the movie about? :: Vineeth Madhavan (Naslen) is a young man from Kuttikkanam area, who has developed a dream of becoming the greatest horror-movie director in the Malayalam cinema industry after reading the horror novels of Vaikom David (Jagadish). David, the best-known novelist of that time who has been writing novels, had scared even the most hard-hearted people. He carried this desire to become a director from the fifth standard to the eleventh standard when he succeeds with a short-film with the help of Sujithraj V (Roshan Shanavas) and the man in the local CD shop known only by the name of Sunilettan (Althaf Salim). His father K Madhavan (Prasanth Alexander), mother Sujatha Parameshwaran (Meera Nair) and grandfather who is known only as Appooppan (Balachandran Chullikkad) to everyone in the area do not consider him to be good for anything as he only somehow manages to pass all his examinations. But when he manages to come up with a movie, sends his atheist grandfather who does not believe in the supernatural right into coma with his ghost in the darkness, his father decides to send him to study cinema.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: Despite warnings from the people around him about the harsh realities of the cinema world which take him to chaos and oblivion, Vineeth remains determined to come up with something above the usual, and transform something bigger. But as another film-maker named Arjun Haridas (Sangeeth Prathap) gets the first prize for the short-film competition which had Vineeth’s movie more appreciated by critics and audience, he gets angry and frustrated like never before. Then he is approached by Sachin Vaikom David (Sharafudheen), the son of the reputed author of his favourite horror works. He tells him the harsh truth that Arjun has managed to win the grand prize which would give him a shot at being the director of a grand movie through influence and connections which Vineeth never had in a life spent with movies and not people. Hana Shahjahan (Gopika Ramesh) who had a crush on Vineeth had also become a superstar and leading actor with bigger roots in Tamil and also in Telugu – but she also becomes the new girlfriend of Haridas.

And what more is to follow as there is something to be gained and a lot more to be lost :: Vineeth is not bothered about Hana being with Haridas as cinema has always been his only true love, but this combination seems to hurt him as with the leading actress’ stardom, it was always going to be a superhit, and with Arjun having stolen content from him, it was always going to hurt him the most, as his next movie would become irrelevant. His attempt to work with Sachin also gets messed up as the producers backout due to the script being too reworked by Vineeth, even leaving out the main heroine in the process while changing the whole setting, which were already decided. Vineeth decides to wait for his first film and work on Sachin’s film, which takes some time to release due to the lack of funds, and by that time, Haridas’ superhit had brought his movie out which became a blockbuster. Sachin’s movie also flops despite a grand script being associated with it, and this separates him and Vineeth seemingly forever. This forces Vineeth to try for something even more different, but it is to be seen how it is going to work out, with people including Haridas, Arjun and Hana not being fond of him.

The defence of Mollywood Times :: The movie is surely the best of Naslen so far, and it is a fine deviation from the kind of roles he was doing since Thannermathan Dinangal came into the picture and became instant success. He plays a protagonist different from Vineeth Sreenivasan of that previous movie of a dark world, as this one is determined to go on his way rather than that one with a better probability of success, and yet this one is no righteous man either. While he manages to stay at the core, Sangeeth Prathap provides some fine support. Sharafudheen also has a character that we will remember more than the rest while Roshan Shanavas and Althaf Salim gets some fine moments. Gopika Ramesh plays the only female character of relevance, which is done remarkably well. The movie’s best advantage is that it never romanticizes the movie industry, and shows the struggles and the attempt of the influential people to get rid of true talents for nepo kids or those who are related to them. The negative impact of corporates, script theft, nepotism, huge egos and fake smiles are all shown here – these are not the elements which would surprise us that much, but are indeed shown in an effective manner.

Positives and negatives :: The movie does not hesitate to speak the harsh truth that the successful people are there more because of influence or luck rather than anything else as there are so many more tales of failure than success even with the most talented people. As shown by Mukundan Unni in that classic movie, good people rarely become successful, and the very few stories from motivational speakers that we listen to rarely make even 0.1% of a world. Mukundan Unni Associates actually did it better and showed how evil humans really are, and this one never comes close. The movie also seems to have that feeling of a nearly full male movie with the female characters coming in lesser numbers never really used to that advantage. As the style of Mukundan Unni Associates is repeated here, we feel that quality in divergence here too. The use of internal monologue also works in the movie’s favour. Yet, it takes a little too much time during its run, and some of the moments seem stretched and repeated, never trying to improve from the previous work. Then the working humour keeps raising the level, and the dark humour adds further.

How it finishes :: The fact that we are reminded about people becoming successful mostly because of luck, influence or cheating just feels too real, as we see who become success stories and who do not, right around us. When we look deeper, there might be no success without evil behind it. The reminder that there is no success in this world for good people, and that it is reserved for those who use their inherent evil for twisted path is the biggest horror in the world, but it is also the greatest truth that nobody will ever completely agree with. This also serves as the hate letter to cinema as was said some of the posters. The realization that if we desire something, the universe conspires to keep you away from it, is really a revelation that should not be left behind. This unyielding, cynical tone that treats another field as a corporate, ego-driven battlefield, we remember that no profession is safe from the same. When we hear about people becoming successful due to hard work, we will think again before taking that unnecessary life which ruin over life while trying to be someone else. It is strange that even nepo kids of different movie industries talk about their struggles, but as long as there are blind fans, they will also be around giving such fake interviews. Let us note none of them, and try not too chase too difficult dreams as more people have been unsuccessful in the same than one can ever think.

Release date: 5th June 2026
Running time: 167 minutes
Directed by: Abhinav Sunder Nayak
Starring: Naslen K Gafoor, Sangeeth Prathap, Sharafudheen, Roshan Shanavas, Althaf Salim, Gopika Ramesh, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Basil Joseph

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

<<< Click here to go to the biggest movie of last year.

<<< Click here to go to the most awaited sequel of the year.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is the movie about? :: Ashik (Asif Ali) is the popular stage performer in a village on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border who comes to Cochin hoping to work in a movie, after the villagers collect money from their own people to make sure that he gets a chance. Siddharth (Unni Mukundan) is an engineering graduate who is spending his time doing nothing other than to stay at home up-to that extent that his father has to throw him out of the house. Vijay (Vinay Forrt) is an angry young man who was suspended for getting into a fight with another employee in the same company he was working for. Scobo Johnson (Nedumudi Venu) is an old man who is staying alone, and looking for company. Bored and with no plans for future, he comes up with an advertisement calling for bachelors to stay at his place, free of cost – it gets to the three young men who are ready to come right away.

So, what happens next? :: Ashik finds Cochin and the movie world a lot different than what he had thought, and finds problems in even doing the simplest works. He goes to various auditions, but none of them work – he does find a new friend though, in the form of Vinod (Aju Varghese) who is also looking forward to acting in movies, one way or the other. They decide to attend the acting workshop held by Manoj Kuruvila (Mukesh), who is a famous movie director. But even that doesn’t seem to help the two who are more clueless than anything else. Siddharth who does nothing other than staring at girls, even consults Doctor Jayamurugan (Kochu Preman), but his life goes on in the same way until his brother recommends him for a job under Shivani (Honey Rose), which he gets despite performing terribly during the interview. What follows is a terrible mess at the office.

And what follows the events? :: Ashik and Siddharth are not just the ones reaching a higher level of their problems, as Vijay has a bigger issue at hand. His anger issue is more or less the result of something which happened in the past, and his girlfriend Meghna (Milana Pournami) tries to get him out of the same, but with no positive result. Scobo Johnson is the silent witness to all these, and tells them that there are two ways out of it, one the difficult path, and the other, the shortcut. Are the three good enough to get out of the mess that they are in, or is at least Johnson skilled enough to take them through their journeys? Can things finally take a positive twist of events in their lives which haven’t really had much to talk about otherwise? Will their upcoming experiences leave them as better people than who they already are? Only time will tell.

The defence of Avarude Raavukal :: Vinay Forrt successfully leads the group of young men here towards their objectives, as motivation runs right through this one with inspirational dialogues, and featuring the rise of unexpected tales of success; emotional side is strong here. The movie asks its viewers to keep trying, as the fish does; it provides this message without missing its plot, and the direction that it shows is the right one for the new generation. The presence of movies like Mili, Aby, My God and Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam has proved the same, but Avarude Raavukal is more the common person’s story than the rest. There is also the presence of some nice humour in between. There is also some beautiful music in this flick, beginning from “Ethetho Swapnamo” and through “Vaadaathe Veezhathe”, both bringing different but nice feeling. The feel-good effect stays, and despite the certain delay in the movie’s arrival and the morning shows canceled, we are glad to have this movie working and going well enough to provide enough motivation.

The claws of flaw :: The movie doesn’t go that close to perfection as the director’s earlier combined venture, Philips and the Monkey Pen, and what we expected was surely more. There are certain ups and downs in between for sure, even as everything seems to have kept at a certain level as much as possible. There are some occasions when we wonder if these things, which do look more and more possible, can ever be solved by the protagonists. The inspirational story is also not something new, and the old man is also a rather strange character, whose twist in the end is even stranger; this one could have just gone simpler and close to life towards the end. Even in the beginning, the movie had taken some time to get going. The cameo roles in the end by Shine Tom Chacko, Sunny Wayne and Sanju Sivram were rather unnecessary too, and the same can be said about a cricket match when it could have been just the engineering classes. You will find the weird and missing sides of the plot, but you can avoid them as they are not that significant.

Performers of the soul :: Asif Ali who is coming out of the late, but sure success of Adventures of Omanakkuttan has done a fine job with a character which had quite something to perform out there. Unni Mukundan comes out of the dismal movie which was Achayans, and makes good use of what was a rather easy job for him. Vinay Forrt had a little less to work with in Georgettan’s Pooram brings the best of them all – his story remains the most interesting one in the whole movie, and he is the backbone of the flick. Aju Varghese should be powered by the grand success of Godha, and does a pretty good job when he is there. Honey Rose who was last seen in My God which was an under-appreciated movie, makes a comeback after two years – not much to do, but good to see her back. Milana works through limited expressions in this one. Nedumudi Venu has some nice dialogues which prove inspirational, and forms the pillars of the movie’s progress.

How it finishes :: It has been a long time since a Malayalam movie with an interesting and long list of star cast released, and being the first movie to release for the Eid holidays, Avarude Raavukal surely has an early advantage among the others which are to follow. Shanil Mohammed, who had earlier directed Philips and the Monkey Pen with Rojin Thomas has his first solo outing here. The flick had won Kerala State Film Award for Best Children’s Movie and Kerala State Film Award for Best Child Artist for Sanoop Santhosh. This one might not create that much of an impact, and has a lot of heavyweights to follow. Getting itself to the list of feel-good movies with messages, Avarude Raavukal will leave with a positive effect more than anything else. There are not many other things that we need for this special season.

Release date: 23rd June 2017
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Shanil Muhammed
Starring: Asif Ali, Unni Mukundan, Honey Rose, Vinay Forrt, Aju Varghese, Mukesh, Milana Pournami, Nedumudi Venu, Sudhi Koppa, Lena, Ambika Mohan, Kiran Aravindakshan, Nisha Sarangh, Aishwarya chandran, Kochu Preman, Shine Tom Chacko (cameo), Sunny Wayne (cameo), Sanju Sivram (cameo)