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Kanakam Kaamini Kalaham

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What is the movie about? :: A former television actress Haripriya (Grace Antony) feels that she is stuck in an unromantic marriage with Pavithran (Nivin Pauly), who is has been a junior artist and acting coach for a long time, without any success. Their marriage was fixed by a mutual acquaintance, Sivakumar (Sudheesh) who works in the cinema field, as both had some film ambitions which didn’t materialize as they had wished for. Pavithran took loan against Haripriya’s grandmother’s golden earrings for helping his friend, and it had become another reason for their marriage landing in trouble, along with his usual unsuccessful pursuits in the film industry, along with that acting coaching going nowhere. The two are now on the verge of their separation, and as his acting coaching classes are also held in the corner of Haripriya’s father’s restaurant, Pavithran gets some gold coated earrings to replace Haripriya’s golden earrings for the time being, and both are finally together, with an added plan to go on a romantic trip.

So, what happens next in this tale? :: As Haripriya’s brother ask for the earrings to be used for loan for her family’s expenses, Pavithran decides to speed up the romantic trip and steal the earrings. They get room at an expensive hotel, thanks to Sivakumar’s contacts in the film field. There, they meet Jobby (Vinay Forrt), the manager, and Shalini (Vincy Aloshious), the receptionist. One of the room boys, Manaf (Rajesh Madhavan) seems to develop a special liking for Haripriya’s earrings. A mostly successful writer, Balachandran (Joy Mathew) is also there, along with a drunkard, Surendran (Jaffar Idukki) whom almost everyone detests. Pavithran successfully steals the earrings, and hides them. But soon, he realizes that it has been stolen from that location, as he cannot find it either. Haripriya will not stop until she makes sure that each and every person in the hotel is innocent. Jobby who has to go and meet his lover’s parents are also stuck there, and Shalini who is forced to work late without salary is more than just angry about the situation. Can anyone find a solution here?

The defence of Kanakam Kaamini Kalaham :: The movie is fun enough, and mostly mindless fun, when we look at it. The whole thing depends on the messed up lives of everyone who is seen on the screen – none of them seems to be happy, and they are all facing troubles due to one thing or the other. It is a true reflection of our world, in which there is no real happiness, and a certain search for the same leads us nowhere. We see that there is nothing that goes right in this particular hotel, which holds a mirror to a Corona virus affected, climate change affected world of chaos. Everyone has their different problems, and each one of them is shown coming together towards this one particular incident. The set design is really good, and it could even suit a horror movie, as there are reminders of The Shining and its sequel, Doctor Sleep. The setting serves the purpose more than any other thing in the film. Some of the humour is quick to rise, and there are the jokes which do no feel that dumb as some others are. There is some satire that works in the background too.

The claws of flaw :: Kanakam Kaamini Kalaham doesn’t have that much of an effectiveness with its jokes as we would expect in the beginning. In the later stages, it only becomes more and more repetitive in nature. The calls for the manager as well as one drunkard who remains irritating for most of the time doesn’t score that much as expected in the later stages of the film. There is a little bit too much of stretching of the whole thing. The same thing goes on moving forward, and the idea to bring a message in here is lost. It is more or less an opportunity lost in that case. Often it goes down to the level of the kind of movies which we have detested for the buffoonery that gets repeated – such films are not there now, but we do remember such a past. Kanakam Kaamini Kalaham did have some good hype related to the cast, and the trailer despite not giving out a clear idea, did make us feel that there is something special in store, but that much is not there to be taken.

Performers of the soul :: Nivin Pauly leads the movie well as expected. This is similar to what he had done with Love Action Drama, another comedy film which could only partially work with its humour. But for someone who has done many movies with some effective light humour, this won’t be a step forward. The one whom we remember for Thattathin Marayathu and Om Shanti Oshaana‘s light comedy was quite a different star, and that was the one whom we continued to prefer. It seems that the same has been lost up to an extent. Grace Antony had her best movie in the form of Kumbalangi Nights, and this one has her as the sole lead. She has provided an entertaining performance here too. Vincy Aloshious plays the other female character of importance, and we would be remembering that one well enough too. She should be considered as the pick of that Naayika Naayikan show on Mazhavil Manorama along with Meenakshi, especially with the way they do comedy.

Further performers of the soul :: Sudheesh has another role which runs through the movie with focus on the beginning and end, and it is good to see him in such roles, like the one we saw in Theevandi. He has been the one actor who has been there from our childhood itself. Vinay Forrt can be considered as playing the funniest character around, and we also feel for the character trying so hard. He and his mobile phone do become interesting from the beginning itself. Joy Mathew plays a role suiting him well. Jaffar Idukki plays a drunkard who is often too irritating, but most of the time, he manages the same in an okay manner. Rajesh Madhavan as Manaf comes up with a notable performance here, and he is the one character who scores when least expected. Sudheer Paravoor as Vijesh Nair is another employee character that we will be noting. There are a few other interesting characters, and they all blend into the hotel atmosphere really well.

How it finishes :: Life has been very serious in the last few months as far as OTT films are concerned. Well, we know what has been happening everywhere, and there is no confusion about the films being serious with a world of chaos all around. Starting from Drishyam 2, we have had a series of serious films, like Kaanekkaane, Sunny, Malik, Kuruthi and others, which have held on to the serious characters really well. The number of comedy movies has been comparatively less, as we look at them. So, this one serves something light-hearted in between, even though it is certainly not that effective. As the theatres have opened now, the movie needed to be of better quality to keep the audience in the OTT platform. Now, with the theatres having opened, people will be moving there unless there is enough power in the OTT to keep them online. The challenge of Kurup is there to stay for long, as it seems. Well, we know that more is to come soon.

Release date: 12th November 2021 (Disney Hotstar)
Running time: 169 minutes
Directed by: Ratheesh Balakrishnan Poduval
Starring: Nivin Pauly, Grace Antony, Vinay Forrt, Vincy Aloshious, Joy Mathew, Jaffar Idukki, Sudheesh, Rajesh Madhavan, Sudheer Paravoor, Sivadas Kannur, Neeraja Rajendran, Ratheesh Balakrishna Poduval

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

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Malik

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What is the movie about? :: Sulaiman Malik (Fahadh Faasil) is a leader of a coastal community consisting mostly of fishermen. He is taking a break from the usual activities, and is going for Hajj, when he is arrested by the police. In his coastal village of Ramadappilly, people begin an agitation. A strike is organized to demand his release, and a curfew is imposed on the area. Soon, there are riots in the streets, and the local people take on the police. It seems that there is a political game going on in the background, with corporates having a say in the same, as PA Aboobacker (Dileesh Pothan), the minister from the area also pretends that he knows nothing, and doesn’t support the request to provide some extra security to him in prison. At the same time, there are plans being made to finish Saulaiman in the prison itself, as the police hopes that this would end their troubles, and can finally bring peace to the seaside community.

So, what happens with the events here? :: Sulaiman has had a troublesome past, as he often got into trouble in school itself, and soon lands in the juvenile home, a place where he would have to go again. After dropping out from school with his best friend David Christudas (Vinay Forrt) and Peter Esthappan (Dinesh Prabhakar) he gets into smuggling with Aboobacker and Chandran (Nisthar Sait), who controls most of the happenings in the coast. But there is a rift between the groups, and they split. Sulaiman and David lead the young group which makes inroads into the business, and makes great profit at the expense of Chandran. Sulaiman falls in love with Roselin (Nimisha Sajayan), David’s sister who is the only one from the area who has studied in a college, but not many people know about this interest. At the same time, the new collector, Anwar Ali (Joju George) provides them help to start a new school. But all of a sudden, things take another twist, and Sulaiman develops into another kind of a leader, and it would change the whole equation, leading to the present events.

The defence of Malik :: Malik maintains a certain strength throughout its run, and even with its seemingly lighter moments, the same is maintained. The film goes through the strong message of political games running wild in the background, as everything seems to be planned by people in control, the government and the corporates which use religion for their own purposes, and it is more about the religious identity rather than God as long as it stays with them – of course, this is about the corporates who pay the politicians, especially those who are rather too rich. WH Auden had said about the same in his poem, Refugee Blues, on the plight of humans in comparison to animals and birds due to politicians. There are many threads of revenge and hatred which runs right through here, and some of them also takes some fine, memorable twists. The connections made here are also nice. Here, it has the struggles of the characters, and questions about who is right and who is wrong. It also takes on what happens in between everything, as something more than what meets the eye. The visuals are also really good here, as there are some fine shots of the sea and the surroundings.

Positives and negatives :: There is something that Malik seems to miss in between, some periods of time which could have been better shown here. The ending could have also been better, as the movie finishes without leaving the mark which was set earlier. In the end, there is the understanding that there is no hope, and this is where the movie seems to try and bring the beginning of a repetition. For a film which had this much of a grandeur in store, this kind of a finish doesn’t serve enough of the purpose. Maybe, the lack of triumph on the side of the common man is more or less a reflection of what actually happens in this world where the powerful will continue to reign, and it doesn’t matter who is at the helm. It does show how terrifying it will continue to be, as long as religion is in the hands of politicians, who are more of atheists rather than believers, from the way they use religion for their own advantages. Malik can surely use a more positive sequel too, even if far from reality.

Performers of the soul :: Fahadh Faasil has another film added to the long list of films that have made an impact. He was last seen on OTT, then too on Amazon Prime, with a wonderful performance in Joji, and this one also follows the same suite, but in a different way, as the characters go divergent in both cases. Here, he plays another strong character, and it has been one which the audience has been waiting for, since months ago – the movie has been getting delayed all the time for releasing in the theatres, and it has come to OTT, which is a perfect move, for Fahadh has his admirers everywhere. This performance from him will be listed among the big ones too. He has moments in different points of the main characters’ life, and all these time periods have something special from his side, for the audience to remember. Nimisha Sajayan who was last seen in Nayattu, also has a fine job to do here, which she manages to do without any struggle. She also has a strong role here, and the support that she provides is of high quality.

Further performers of the soul :: The next person who has our attention is Vinay Forrt, who gets into this role with ease. He adds a natural performance to the whole thing. Dileesh Pothan comes in, and plays a typical politician with his own sinister motives, and it is done naturally too. Indrans’ role of the police officer also becomes very much notable. Joju George also has some nice contribution to provide here, and he is supposed to be doing a role which was initially meant for Biju Menon. Dinesh Prabhakar is also here, adding to the totality. Appani Sarath and Sudhi Koppa have some contributions to provide here, and they do it well, only to have only a short stay there, when we were expecting something grand to be there. Salim Kumar also has a comparatively smaller role to do around here. There is the lesser known among the cast who have also done some nice job around here, and it includes Sanal Aman who played the character of Freddy, Parvathy Krishna who played the doctor, along with some police officers and people of the village.

How it finishes :: Malik was supposed to be one grand film to be released in theatre with all the grandeur that it deserved, and even its OTT release, the film maintains some of it. The wait has been worth it, when we look at the movie as a whole. The question would be still be about if it could have been more, as the expectations were that high, and there is the certainty of deviations from what was actually expected after watching the trailer. But the film is indeed strong, and with Fahadh Faasil and Nimisha Sajayan in the lead, you would expect that. Well, it is nice to see that it has finally released, because the same wouldn’t have happened in the theatres soon enough, and releasing something like Marakkar on the big screen will be a big risk even in the month of August, as we see where the COVID-19 numbers are going – it is certainly much above what was expected, and we don’t really see things getting safer with another possible wave on the way. Until then, we can also watch Cold Case, Mohan Kumar Fans, Kho Kho, Aarkkariyam etc among others on Prime again!

Release date: 15th July 2021 (Amazon Prime)
Running time: 160 minutes
Directed by: Mahesh Narayanan
Starring: Fahadh Faasil, Nimisha Sajayan, Joju George, Vinay Forrt, Dileesh Pothan, Anjusha CA, Divya Prabha, Amal Rajdev, Indrans, Jalaja, Salim Kumar, Appani Sarath, Sudhi Koppa, Devan, Dinesh Prabhakar, Rajesh Babu, Meenakshi Raveendran, Rajesh Sharma, Irshad, Abhijith Krishna, Nisthar Sait, Dev Mohan, Sanal Aman, Parvathy Krishna, Devaki Rajendran, Asif Yogi

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

<— Click here to go to the previous Amazon Prime Video review.

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

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Mohan Kumar Fans

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What is the movie about? :: Mohan Kumar (Siddique) used to be a huge superstar until he lost the race to the younger stars. He does believe that it was the result of black magic done by his rival actors. After a long gap, he does get a role to play in a critically acclaimed movie, for which everyone feels that he will get an award. His daughter Sreeranjini Mohankumar (Anarkali Nazar), is an interior designer who wishes to be a singer, for which she tries her luck in different reality shows. Krishnan Unni (Kunchacko Boban), is a youngster who is also trying to make it big as a playback singer. They meet at a reality show, and he is also sent to work for Mohan Kumar as the driver by Prakash (Mukesh), his old friend and a struggling producer who is trying to make a film with Kripesh aka Aghosh Menon (Vinay Forrt), a young superstar who is extremely arrogant, and thinks that he is above everyone. Krishnan Unni and Sreeranjini start competing in the reality show, mostly as a team, and Mohan Kumar also becomes fond of the young man who is there to help him.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: Kripesh continues to try to make a name in the industry, as his fame rises, and tells everyone that his living together partner Brighty Menon (Deepa Thomas) is a sisterly figure, and fakes different events in which he is shown as a man with love and respect, raising his popularity even higher with PR work. When Arun Rajeev (Adil Ibrahim) and Prakash approaches him with a new film script, his demands only get higher. Meanwhile it is just another downwards journey for the former star, as the critical acclaimed film is taken out of the theatres much to the dismay of Mohan Kumar, who felt that he was going back to that stardom with all the appreciation he received, even more than Kripesh who was originally supposed to be the hero, but was sidelined in front of his fantastic performance. After a fight with Hamsa Randathani (Nisthar Sait), his name is nicely taken out of the Kerala state awards final list, but there is still hope for National Awards – yet, it is to be seen if they can find a way to take it to Delhi with time running out, and a lot more to be done.

The defence of Mohan Kumar Fans :: The movie’s messages are strong, for it is against the vanity and arrogance which has been going on in the film industry. The lack of quality in the visual media is also shown, and it also displays YouTube, Instagram and other social media as what it is, showing how celebrities use fake videos or good for nothing videos just to gain popularity, while skilled performers and quality actors don’t get the recognition they need. Well, if one actress stand outside her home and take a video, it gains so many viewers and appreciation, and it more or less shows the same. Well, you know that literacy means the ability to read and write, and with so many videos being preferred over written content, one has to wonder if it is because of the lack of literacy among people. Our YouTube-Instagram loving celebrities in the film might be suffering from that illiteracy too. It is shown with very nicely prepared humour with fine satire, and the feel-good factor is also high around here. The songs are just okay, and it is not short of some touching moments.

The claws of flaw :: As this movie makes fun of a certain group of people and says the truth about them, such people won’t like it – especially the blind superstar fans, creators of nonsense in YouTube and Instagram as well as those so called celebrities who try to become popular by fake means. For others, they will surely like the film, but they won’t be able to dismiss the fact that this should have had more depth with its content. Mohan Kumar Fans is that kind of a film which could have taken each of its strong elements into another level, but it is certainly not able to do that because it has chosen to travel through a safe path – the feel-good side can always get you over the line, but if you stick on to that, and play safe, it is like aiming for run-a-ball in an IPL match when there is good chance for stroke-play. Maybe, they did so because there was not much of a competition in the theatres with less number of big Malayalam films being released and less number of people watching in the theatres – but that would just be an excuse if we think so.

The performers of the soul :: This one comes after the director’s films which have maintained the feel-good factor at some point, starting with Bicycle Thieves, my least favourite film in a long time, the definite improvement in Sunday Holiday, the bigger improvement in Vijay Superum Pournamiyum and now this film, which also has Asif Ali in a cameo, making all these films Asif starrers. Well, you know that who else was there in all these movies, and it is Siddique, with his biggest role in this movie, as he is the real protagonist here, with everything centered around him, and all things being about him only. It ultimately becomes all about the positive message that is spread through his life, and in that, this movie races ahead of all among the director Jis Joy’s movies, except Vijay Superum Pournamiyum, which was much more ahead in the race. Siddique, the veteran actor, nicely stays at the core of the film, and manages everything in his usual style. If this much was done in a feel-good film, you can guess how much more could have been done if this was a serious tragedy.

Further performers of the soul :: Kunchacko Boban outside the thriller mode of Nizhal and Nayattu, does have his moments, as he is indeed the hero here, trying to keep the main character happy and ready to take the risks just for the sake of the man. Anarkali Nazar is a lovely addition here, as we see her for the first time, and despite the introduction not being that great, we see that the emotions work really well for her. Among the rest, it is Vinay Forrt who stays with us the most, with one of the best satires on the superstars who can’t really act, but tries to get mileage through videos posted in YouTube, Instagram or any social media. As video medium attracts the illiterate and those who find it difficult to read English, these celebrities get more attention that they need, and being as fake as the character he displays here, their first option will always be YouTube to fake their life in front of the blind fans, who will share the same in social media, displaying their foolishness as much as they can. After Saroj Kumar, his Aagosh Menon strikes gold with the satire.

How it finishes :: Mohan Kumar Fans does take an approach which the movies like Driving Licence didn’t have the courage to take. Instead of taking the side of the common man, it had stood with the superstar and his fans. This movie is courageous in that case, taking the side of the common people, and it focuses on the gracious actor instead of the dumb superstar, the dumbness of the latter nicely shown throughout the film, and it also shows everything fake that has been running through YouTube. We keep seeing those celebrities doing YouTube videos, and we know that they are all fake, but there will always be those people who watch such nonsense posted by such people who are only looking for fame. Well, if a celebrity post any nonsense on YouTube, everyone wants to watch that, and if something sensible is posted on YouTube by the common man, you know how it is left unnoticed – it is such an age, when quality is not rewarded, a common problem with the visual media in comparison to the written one. This is the same reason why people who are looking for easy paths to success without hard work won’t like this flick. For others, this works in varying levels of interest, mostly on the higher levels.

Release date: 19th March 2021 (Theatre), 21st May 2021 (Amazon Prime)
Running time: 124 minutes
Directed by: Jis Joy
Starring: Kunchacko Boban, Anarkali Nazar, Siddique, Mukesh, Sreenivasan, Saiju Kurup, Vinay Forrt, Ramesh Pisharody, TG Ravi, Alencier Ley Lopez, Major Ravi, Joy Mathew, Krishna Shankar, Adil Ibrahim, Sudheer Karamana, KPAC Lalitha, Deepa Thomas, Srikant Murali, Anjali Nair, Prasanth Alexander, Sreelakshmi, Sethu Lakshmi, Nisthar Sait

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

<— Click here to go to the previous Amazon Prime film review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Unda

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What is the movie about? :: A team of police officers from Kerala travels to certain Maoist affected area in Chhattisgarh for election duty. Mathews Anthony (Ranjith) leads the team through the journey in the train, and right through the village area. But accommodation is not provided for all of them at the same place, and they are separated into different teams. The team is lead by Manikandan CP (Mammootty) gets to stay in a polling booth which is isolated and situated near the forest which is known to be infested by Maoists. Leading the support is Jojo Samson (Shine Tom Chacko) who is angry about his wife sending him a divorce petition which he is not ready to sign. Among the other police men are Varghese Kuruvila (Jacob Gregory), Aji Peter (Rony David) and Gireesh TP (Arjun Ashokan) among others. Aji and Gireesh are not in good terms with each other either. The other members of the team also have their own differences.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: The location has an ITBP commando Kapil Dev (Bhagwan Tiwary), and nothing else for their support. The arms and ammunition that they have with them might not be enough either, as the ITBP Commander Dakota Akanito (Chien Ho Liao) advices them to ask for something more from Kerala, as there are land mines everywhere, and Maoists attacks keep happening during random intervals at random places. But it seems that help from Kerala might not be coming anytime soon, and the ITBP wouldn’t helping those police men whom they called for support. So, as Maoists threaten to attack, the team is on their own, with their own little personal problems also coming into the scene. Now, the question remains if they can survive these days till the end of election, as the landlords and their goons will also have a say in this. I will be up to Manikandan to lead the way, but he is not the kind of person who is into violence.

The defence of Unda :: There is certain beauty and quality in how the police men are portrayed here, and even the leader is not shown as someone who could know most of the things and go on beating up people. Each member of the team is different, and we see how people from different parts of Kerala have to face the strange and hostile environment for the first time – we witness how they have to adapt and survive, but there is something from home that continues to go strong in them. The setting is used nicely to create the impact, and we feel that we are traveling through the same place with the same team. We want these people to survive like never before, and we hold them close. There are thrilling moments, and we also have a certain dose of humour, which is also something of interest. The final scene of action is highly entertaining, with action, thrills and humour added, all at the right quantity.

Positives and negatives :: The story-line might seem to be not much, as there is just the tale of a few police men facing the Maoists in the middle of nowhere. But it is more than that when we look close, and we see what the subaltern has to face; the poor, the low caste, the scheduled tribes, all of them – the word “poor” defines them well enough, as it is common to all of such deprived men and women. They are surrounded by all kinds of people, hunted, and maybe killed, only to find the blame still with them, even after death – the perpetual blame is the weight that they have to carry to the grave and beyond. We see a certain moral crisis, and there is always the question about where the newly landless people can go. The movie provides no answers, and finds no solution to the problems that the world face, but we know that we will need them – they are not to come from the movie, but from a real world beyond all limits of fiction.

The performers of the soul :: As expected, and with top quality and realistic performance, Mammootty leads from the front. He has had some characters which would beat up everyone and throw them all around, in the last few years, with the recently released Madhura Raja and the earlier movie Masterpiece which came across the biggest of such a problems. This movie goes the exact opposite way, and it is beautiful in doing the same – the way in which Mammootty plays this role will have us wishing for the character to have the final victory, and the same we wish without hope. In those other movies, things were direct, but in this case, it is beautifully complicated, and we love to watch him here. Right from the introduction of his character, we know that things are going to be different this time, and Mammootty thrives on this divergence which keeps us close to the common man’s police officer, someone who is not going to kick or punch people into the sky to make Superman proud.

Further performers of the soul :: Shine Tom Chacko has had a good run during the recent days, and the roles which he played has been very much memorable. This one is no exception, and the last moments have the whole of our attention. At the same tim, , Arjun Ashokan and Rony David also catches our attention, and so do almost everyone in the small police team in the voting booth. We do get only a few moments from Dileesh Pothan and Kalabhavan Shajohn as well as a little more from Ranjith as far as these names are concerned. Actors like Omkar Das Manikpuri and Bhagwan Tiwari comes up with some emotional side to remember too. Easwari Rao who plays Mammootty’s wife in a cameo-like performance is the only female character with a name, and the only one that we can remember. The cameo from Vinay Forrt and Asif Ali were rather unnecessary, and just the news of missing bullets could have been enough.

How it finishes :: With the name of the movie being Unda, there has been many speculations, but it is indeed about the bullets – it is certain that the name has left some people away from the movie, as this is a film which deserved a better opening. But the bookings are picking up now, as the opinions have all been positive. There will be higher booking in the coming days, and the movie is surely here to stay, as this is a flick which is to be taken seriously. Lets hope that the movies that deal with similar topics remain close to reality like this one, and don’t go on to finish off the laws of gravity by sending villains flying in the air. Unda nicely manages to bring everything together, and use its elements to gain advantage. The result is that there is the thrilling ride with humour and messages stored in there. This is the kind of movie that serves better, and does the same faithfully unlike those mindless mass entertainers which serve as darkness to the senses. Well, it has been a fine year in the first half itself with movies like Kumbalangi Nights, Virus and Uyare rising very high.

Release date: 14th June 2019
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Khalid Rahman
Starring: Mammootty, Shine Tom Chacko, Jacob Gregory, Ranjith, Arjun Ashokan, Bhagwan Tiwari, Dileesh Pothan, Omkar Das Manikpuri, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Chien Ho Liao, Easwari Rao, Sudhi Koppa, Rony David, Lukman, Abhiram Poduval, Noushad Bombay, Asif Ali (cameo), Vinay Forrt (cameo)

<— Click here to go to a previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Clint

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What is the movie about? :: Edmund Thomas Clint (Master Alok) is the only son of MT Joseph (Unni Mukundan) and Chinnamma Joseph (Rima Kallingal), and was named after the famous Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood, as his parents were his fan at that time. While his mother remained a housewife, his father has been working as an upper division clerk with the government. He loved colours so much that he started painting at a very small age. His work impressed his parents as well as people around, but their decision to accept the boy’s decision to not attend school anymore was considered, and often declared as radical and foolish by so many of his well-wishers. He has been known to be a curious boy who wished to travel and see things, reflecting them on his canvas, and when he couldn’t, he used the descriptions by the people around him and the books given by his father to come up with an idea of how things could really be, as he combined them with his creativity and sharp intellect.

So, what happens with the events to follow in this biopic? :: It is one of Joseph’s friends Mohanan (Vinay Forrt) who appreciates his work the most, among those outside his family. It is when he is getting more and more attention, and even while getting selected to participate in a number of competitions, that tragedy strikes. His doctor and nephrologist Joseph Abraham (Joy Mathew) lets his parents know the terrible thing, that his kidneys are failing, and there might not be many days left before him – they can only try, according to him. Shattered by this news, Clint’s parents’ life won’t be the same again. But they try their best to keep their child happy during his last days. But fate always wins, and there is no chance to stop him – but can they delay the inevitable as much as they can, and bring some hope? There is the certainty of more being painted by the boy, even when being so close to death.

The defence of Clint :: Showing the life of a child prodigy who is known to have drawn over twenty five thousand paintings during his short life of a little less than seven years, here is a certain amount of inspiration in store with this movie, and we get close to life of the little genius on the big screen. Telling the tale of a naturally skilled person, this one nicely explores how he had been doing what was best at. There are some nice visuals and a few memorable moments to go with the same. The setting is very good, and helps to make the movie better. Even though the child is at the centre, there are some familiar names who get to show their skills in the movie too. The best thing about this movie is that it hasn’t complicated things that much when it could have done the same, and it never does concentrate that much on the disease when the usual tendency to do the same. Without that, the movie provides us a pretty good journey through the life of the famous child prodigy.

The claws of flaw :: There is the movie going so close to melodrama, and some moments just seem to be added to bring the cliche stuff in a predictable manner rather than anything else. We also find some dialogues rather too much for the child, and the sequence involving Salim Kumar is rather strange instead of being funny – it is the worst point of this flick. It even has a barber who looks on like a butcher. The movie also drags in between, which is rather strange, because they could have kept things going just with the paintings, and children playing; also those dialogues between father and son, which could have been the highlights of this movie, goes rather restricted, despite the promise shown in the beginning. There seems to be limitations around here, with the story and its moments, for there was scope to bring in more and more, which could have made this movie a big, colourful thing just like the real child in his real life is known to be. There was the need for quality.

Performers of the soul :: It is never that easy to get a biopic related to the life of one special child with amazing skills at a very young age. It was essential to find the right cast, and Master Alok, despite providing us with a few doubts in the beginning, does a fine reflection of the character he plays here. The existential questions do provide him the chance to take it further, as life after death, one’s existence as stars after that, and many other come to him. He has his best moments after getting the disease though, and goes throughout without struggling at any point. Baby Akshara is good support to him, even though some dialogues given to her just go strange, as with Alok on a few occasions, but latter has better control. Children and their world, if given more life with the colours on the canvas reflected into them, would have provided these two something further cute to work with though.

Further performers of the soul :: It is only after the movie gets to come up with a talk with the real life parents of Clint that we get into the movie. After we get in there, it is Unni Mukundan and Rima Kallingal, especially the latter, who gets to work through the pillars of this movie, and hold it together for its protagonist to manage. Both of them provide us with what seems to be an honest attempt at making this work, and their presence makes some of those problems in this movie to be forgotten. They are really good right from the beginning, and they excel at the emotional sequences. There is not that much revealed about their characters, but the two rightly portray what is needed here. The next big role here goes to Vinay Forrt, who is not far behind in his portrayal of the friend and well-wisher. Renji Panicker comes in and contributes in a good, smaller role, but Joy Mathew is indeed the next noticeable one, as he does his doctor act with no problems.

How it finishes :: One can be sure that this is a good attempt at making a biopic on the life of our own child prodigy. But there will still be doubts if this couldn’t be any better. With four movies being there in the theatres from last ten days, including Thrissivaperoor Kliptham, Varnyathil Aashanka, Sarvopari Palakkaran and Chunkzz, along with the leftover movies Basheerinte Premalekhanam, Sunday Holiday, Kadam Katha and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum, Clint is going to have a tough time in the less number of theatres it is being screened. With some more, attention, this movie could have competed well, and even won against most of these titles – there can be more from the life of a child prodigy who has gone on to become someone whom we all know. As of now, as this movie stands, it becomes also our opportunity to check this movie, and feel the strength of the life of a little master of colours – it is where this movie has our attention, making an attempt not to be forgotten. I watched this one because I wanted to know, and I wished to see everything alive – don’t you too, for such a skilled child?

Release date: 11th August 2017
Running time: 138 minutes
Directed by: Harikumar
Starring: Unni Mukundan, Rima Kallingal, Master Alok, Vinay Forrt, Joy Mathew, Renji Panicker, Baby Akshara, Salim Kumar, KPAC Lalitha

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kadam Katha

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What is the movie about? :: Giri (Vinay Forrt) is running a textile shop in the city of Cochin without making much of a profit – he has lots of loans to repay, and even his last business venture was a failure, and has been making his life more and more difficult. The worst thing is that he had left a good job to begin a business, a decision which he keeps regretting. With no salary to pay his employees, and not enough cash to take more stock, he decides to close it down. But that was not to solve the problem, as everyone would end up believing that now he has absolutely no way to pay anyone anything. His wife Chandini (Srinda Ashab) is staying at her home, and he is staying in a small house for rent, and he is unable to pay the houseowner too. With the loan shark Sreekanth (Saiju Kurup) after him, he decides to attend an inspirational course which promises to change lives and make it a lot better.

So, what happens next? :: Cleetus (Joju George) is a mechanic who runs a car repair shop with two workers Josemon (Sinoj Varghese) and Thampi (Manikandan Pattambi), the three being more of a family than just friends working together. Cleetus also has to pay back his loans, as his repair shop keeps running into loss; the property is also going to be sold by its owner, ending the rent agreement. Therefore, he also goes to an inspirational course, and after the programme, they meet at a local beer and wine parlour. They become friends, and after Giri is thrown out of his house for not paying rent, Cleetus lets him stay with the three at the repair shop. Meanwhile, Cleetus meets a man named Sreekumar (Renji Panicker), whom he saves after being caught in a car accident. This new friend is among the richest men in the city, who has just returned from the Middle East. Sreekumar decides to give Cleetus an offer that he can’t refuse, and Giri also becomes part of it.

And, what is to follow next in this tale? :: Sreekumar who understands the two men’s need for money, promises them wealth beyond their imagination, and they will just have to do one job, and it is concerning his only daughter who is studying for MBBS as a reputed institution. This girl, Jeena (Veena Nandakumar) is in love with Maneesh (Roshan Mathew), a popular radio jockey at one of those prominent radio stations in the city of Cochin. It is with their relationship that he is most concerned about. Jeena has clearly told him that she is ready to marry nobody else, and they keep wandering all around the city together despite him warning her not to do so. Even Giri and Cleetus keeps seeing the two, or at least Maneesh at times in the city – it is as if they are everywhere and everyone knows about that relationship. Sreekumar is fed up with the same, and asks them to do just one thing. What is that? Can the two do the job?

The defence of Kadam Katha :: With some funny moments here and there, and having a good cast, Kadam Katha manages to go on and on with its two hours and a few seconds on run-time. The movie also depends on simple moments and simple people, and the complication only comes with a new generation and more money as the flick suggests. The message is still about retaining one’s goodness, as long as there has been something at some point – no matter what happens, always get to the bottom of things to know the ultimate truth. The visuals are good without doubt, even though not that much of the city’s beauty is not there on the big screen. The humour is present here and there, but we miss it at a lot of occasions when things seem to drag. Kadam Katha surely has the material inside it, and when we look there, we end up seeing more with a bigger potential – the lesser crowd at the theatre was a sign of movies not meeting up to the standard these days, and movie stars only making reasons the wrong way.

The claws of flaw :: Kadam Katha, for some reason, refuses to use most of its humour, and never extends its funny side to make it memorable. The theme has also been repeated for quite some time, and we keep seeing people who need to do something which their lives, and also those who are in need of money. The movie also doesn’t make best use of the talent, and the big list of characters to whom we are introduced. The songs are just not that interesting – they seem to drag the whole thing rather than do anything else. One has to wonder what has been happening with the Malayalam movie industry for some time, for there has been so many movies, but not many which have left the mark. With so many movies including Oru Cinemakkaran, Role Models, Avarude Raavukal, Sunday Holiday and others note able to go more than just above average, one can see the lack of trying the big variety except for a few like Tiyaan and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum.

Performers of the soul :: With Action Hero Biju being his most recognized role among the masses, Joju George remains one actor who never really disappoints us, and it is reflected here too. It is him who makes us feel like the hero in this one. Seen last in Role Models, Oru Cinemakkaran and Godha, Renji Panicker remains the one who keeps us interested, and he does his work in the usual style. Vinay Forrt whose last movies were Role Models, Avarude Raavukal and Georgettan’s Pooram, gets back to doing a fine job here. There is something about his performance every time. Veena Nandakumar who is known for the short-film Moonnamathe Vazhi makes her big screen debut in this one – it is a short movie that provides a beautiful feeling, and you need to watch it if you haven’t yet. She has less to do in this one, and is good with the romantic side; more to be tested in her next works. Malayalam movie industry keeps getting more and more heroines, I guess.

More and the bottomline :: Roshan Mathew is credited in Adi Kapyare Kootamani and was also there in Puthiya Niyamam, but it is with his role in Aanandam which made him a favourite and a popular actor – his next flick Viswasapoorvam Mansoor‘s short stay at the theatres didn’t help, but he has made a strong come back in this one – he plays the new generation lover character with ease. Hareesh Perumanna is wasted in his small role here though, and this might be one rare instance that his character doesn’t bring the laughter. Sinoj Varghese – Manikandan duo is the one that bring some of the fun instead. Srinda Ashab is another one who gets not much to do in this movie except for making phone calls – there is not even a big flashback to support her cause. Kadam Katha is certainly a story which could have done more, with better situations, comedy, and lasting romance as well as emotional side; but this one touches only a few and plays on the safe side. This one is worth the watch, but won’t bring anything huge.

Release date: 28th July 2017
Running time: 121 minutes
Directed by: Senthil Rajan
Starring: Roshan Mathew, Joju George, Vinay Forrt, Veena Nandakumar, Renji Panicker, Sinoj Varghese, Srinda Ashab, Manikandan Pattambi, Hareesh Perumanna, Alexander Prashanth

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Role Models

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What is the movie about? :: Gautham Shekhar (Fahadh Faasil) is a man who is always concentrating on his work, and is so busy earning money, that the only person whom he regularly speaks to, is the mobile’s assistant app. He wakes up early in the morning and goes through everything according to the schedule. The boss of his company (Dileesh Pothan) is always calling him names in front of his colleagues despite his hardwork, and he lives his life according to calculations, drinking the maximum amount of water and even making sure that he goes to the urinal frequently according to plan. He has no friends and no love, and he is always busy, and when he is not busy, he is just asleep at night. If he ever gets any time to do anything, he dedicates those moments for studying too, and he has special interest in studies regarding astronomy. He has declared himself cent percent against having fun because it is of absolutely no use.

So, what happens next? :: His father and college professor Shekharan (Renji Panicker) is too worried about the same, and therefore contacts his son’s former best friends from college, Rexy Joseph (Sharafudheen) and Jyothish Narayanan (Vinayakan) whom he had himself evicted from the institution to make sure that Gautham wouldn’t be friends with the boys whom he found worthless and making nuisance. The two old friends are not that fond of their former enemy calling them, but decides to have the free alcohol and chooses to help their old friend with whom they had their best moments in life. They are joined by the third person, Shoubahn Khader (Vinay Forrt) who was the fourth member of their gang which used to be called Role Models during their time at the college. The group, along with the mischief making girl Christy (Srinda Ashab) used to create head ache for everyone in the college especially Gautam’s parents who taught there.

And what is to follow with the adventure? :: The three old friends are shocked to see the attitude of their former best friend towards life, as he had changed so much. He seemed to be exactly the opposite of all that he used to be. They try many things to get him back to be the happy and loving person that he used to be, including alcohol, friendship, and even misunderstanding Christy as his lost love from college. But then, they come to know that the real love of Gautham was Shreya Menon (Namitha Pramod), a girl who was more of an all-rounder, present everywhere, but stayed away from becoming a big name. Their search for her lands them in Goa, where she is a changed person. She is happy to see her old friends, but how will they make sure that Gautham can win his love back? Is there any chance for them to have their old friend back in the way that he used to be?

The defence of Role Models :: There are some nice jokes with which the movie begins – it has that kind of a cast with great comic timing, which improves the level, and keep striving for something better in that department. We have them coming quick and steady in the first half, and the trio handling the same never backs down from doing it. “Thechille Penne” song is nice, but you do feel that should have had more relevance in the movie. The movie also has some messages, even though we are not clear which of them needs to get our attention the most. We would figure out that it is more about parenting than any other. It is good to focus on the significance of parents supporting the children in studying what they really want to – almost every time, the father is the culprit, and due to this attitude of the parents and relatives, the youth are transformed into creatures that should just study for scoring high marks, get a good job with big salary and get married to someone rich and of high family value. Well, the movie does end on a good note despite the confusion. A cameo also arrives in the end nicely, but one has to wonder if it was there because there was no other idea available.

The claws of flaw :: Never does Role Models tries to overcome the limitations which it had put on itself, with not thinking much about the story and how it is told with the entertaining elements. The movie just goes on as if it is walking through sleep, as some characters and some incidents are there just for the sake of being there. Fahad’s action scenes were rather useless, and bringing that certain disorder and making it chaos was certainly a real bad idea. If the same was necessary for the makers to do, they could have at least made things more interesting, and presented in a smart manner. The audience often wonders where the movie is actually heading with so many things added as if they are taken from different movies. You feel that with Fahadh Faasil playing a character reminding you of the same in North 24 Kaatham will make things that good, but this one which has its own confusion running through, never becomes something close to that awesome flick which was critically acclaimed. A divergent movie is fair when it uses the divergence to the best effect, the movie makers should have remembered that.

Performers of the soul :: Once again, Fahadh Faasil makes this seem so easy, as he does his character’s both stages with such an ease that we wonder how he is there to make things better for even the least interesting movie. Keeping on rising with Maheshinte Prathikaaram and Take Off, this one will not be another big movie, but his performance is as usual, to be noted; signs were there in that song which became instantly popular. Sharafudheen-Vinayakan-Vinay Forrt combo is also nothing short of a nice call for laughter, and we have them executing the same really well. The friends just makes things so much better. It is also good to see Namitha Pramod back after Adi Kapyare Kootamani and Amar Akbar Anthony – she gets two times of the character’s life here. Srinda has an interesting and funny role too, after Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol and Adventures of Omanakuttan this year. Meanwhile, Renji Panicker is left with not much interesting to do and Suraj is rather wasted in this role.

How it finishes :: It is surprising how close to each other are the three Malayalam movie releases for the Eid holidays, starting from Avarude Raavukal, going through Oru Cinemakkaran and now standing at Role Models. All three of them released on consecutive dates, and are in quality, quite close to each other. They do provide a mixture of genres, and has the comic side as the one fueling everything right from the beginning, and there are twists in store in each of them. Is it a co-incidence that we have all these movies so similar to each other, and those watching it can only give them ratings so close to each other? Well, when Godha, Adventures of Omanakuttan and Achayans had released, all three of them were so different from each other, and we couldn’t consider them to be on the same level. Well, we have regular entertainment in store here for the festival season as Role Models becomes the third movie to release on the third day.

Release date: 25th June 2017
Running time: 131 minutes
Directed by: Rafi
Starring: Fahadh Faasil, Namitha Pramod, Vinayakan, Srinda Ashab, Sharafudheen, Rohini, Seetha, Vinay Forrt, Renji Panicker, Suraj Venjarammood, Aswathi Menon, Dileesh Pothan, Siddique, Bibin George, Harisree Ashokan (cameo)

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Avarude Raavukal

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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)

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Georgettan’s Pooram

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Vampire Owl: Why is it that all these people have characters that have something or the other to highlight as a title?

Vampire Bat: You mean, like that first Malayalam movie to release this year – Jomonte Suvisheshangal.

Vampire Owl: And surely Jacobinte Swargarajyam.

Vampire Bat: Along with Darwinte Parinamam.

Vampire Owl: As well as Maheshinte Prathikaram.

Vampire Bat: This is the fifth with this kind of a title, there is no real difference in possessiveness.

Vampire Owl: I think that these people, George, Jomon, Darwin, Jacob and Mahesh are related.

Vampire Bat: There is a great chance that Jacob and Jomon are – they even tell the same story, you know.

Vampire Owl: Maybe they are from different generations, and it is just history repeating itself in a distant family.

Vampire Bat: Georgettan’s Pooram might be more distant with the use of slang in it, though.

[Gets the tickets with some caramel popcorn and vegetable puffs].

What is the movie about? :: A team of four mischievous boys have grown up to be George Vadakkan (Dileep), and his best friends who are known only by their nicknames, Vava (Vinay Forrt), Pallan (Sharfudheen) and Chullan (Thiru Actlab). Living in and around the city of Trichur, the four friends spend most of their time doing nothing, having drinks or simply sleeping, in Mathai Parambu, a piece of land donated to the public by a former Kabbadi player who was part of great achievements from the Indian Kabbadi team – they also have for company and old kabbadi player, Joseph (T.G. Ravi). But George’s father, the parish priest of the local church of the Mar Thoma denomination, Mathew Vadakkan (Renji Panicker), wishes for something or anything better for his son – nobody believes in the same though, even his own friends and relatives.

So, what happens next? :: As the four goes through the path which leads nowhere, George comes across Merlin (Rajisha Vijayan) during a funeral, and immediately falls in love with her. Even though she tells him that he wishes to become a nun and despite the fact that she belongs to another denomination, he shamelessly decides to run after her for love. Without having to do anything else in life, such things have been very easy for him. There is also the entry of Peter Mathai (Chemban Vinod Jose), who claims to be the son of E.V. Mathai and claims the ownership of Mathai Parambu. He seems to be determined to take control of land by one way or the other. But the team of four are not willing to give up their place, and in an effort to save their land as well as to make Merlin fall in love with George, they go on doing some strange things, none of which works well enough.

What follows these events? :: The team of four are clueless as usual, as they are used to do nothing good, and seems to come up with nothing constructive. Even their inspiration, Joseph dies by falling from the top of a tower there. One day, Peter seems to be ready to give up the claim to the land, but for the same, George and his friends will have to play kabbadi, and also start winning. The people of the locality also backs them in this to keep the land in the hands of the public. But is it possible for them to win against top level players with some quick training? How far can the public support and prayers boost them? Is Peter really the son of E.V. Mathai, and does he mean what he says? Can George manage to win the love of Merlin and the appreciation of his parents and siblings? Not really the easier things to do for George, but he decides not to give up.

The defence of Georgettan’s Pooram :: Despite not using the state award winning actress, the star of Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, Rajisha Vijayan to her best of potential, the movie does manage to use Dileep well enough – we get to be confident that he will be back for more with another light-hearted movie, not just producing one like he did for Kattappanayile Rithwick Roshan. Vinay Forrt and Sharafudheen also remains interesting, and there is entertainment guaranteed from their side. The level of comedy is fluctuating throughout the movie, but there are some nice ones in this flick. The second half has things getting rather intense, and the plot gets an upgrade there. Chemban Vinod Jose once again impresses the audience with the way that he carries on as the man with a mission, and he remains our hope for future in a lot of different kinds of roles. Renji Panicker continues what he has been doing the best, as the father figure, and this time at more than one level.

The claws of flaw :: The movie is just too long, and it could have easily been made shorter without some bad jokes in the first half and those slow motion sequences of heroism in the second – Karinkunnam 6s had managed to bring volleyball to the centre of everything and managed to be an interesting flick; but this one gets kabbadi too late in the second half only, and things get serious slowly only. Sudheer Karamana gets to play kabbadi here as he had done for volleyball in last year’s Manju Warrier starrer. A certain amount of absence in logic is also there, and the movie also gets confused in working with the Christian denominations. If the priest shown as protagonist’s father is actually a priest of Mar Thoma denomination, as a protestant church, the church building or the house wouldn’t be having saints or statues of anyone. If the person was intended to be a Catholic priest, he wouldn’t have been married – it is a strange world right there. One also wonders why the protagonist has to go after the girl shamelessly after she says no – shouldn’t the “no” always mean a “no”? And still he is a hero?

How it finishes :: Georgettan’s Pooram could have done a lot better not only with its comedy, but also with its sporting side. But as it is now, it is surely a watchable flick, and the best entertainer with Dileep as the main character after Two Countries which had him at what he has been doing the best. The protagonist shouldn’t have turned a super kabbadi player all of a sudden though, battling against the big players. Maybe some restraint could have been brought with the heroism. Maybe, a better flow could have been maintained. But for some time-pass, nobody can deny that this movie has something here and there for most of the people. Surely bigger in fun compared to Dileep’s recent movies, and surely better than any movie in that long list of continuous movies from Kammath and Kammath to Ivan Maryadaraman, Georgettan’s Pooram can ask for some of your time as long as you enough to spare!

Release date: 1st April 2017
Running time: 155 minutes
Directed by: K. Biju
Starring: Dileep, Rajisha Vijayan, Chemban Vinod Jose, Vinay Forrt, Sharafudheen, Thiru Actlab, Renji Panicker, T. G. Ravi, Sudheer Karamana, Kalaranjini, Assim Jamal, Jayaraj Warrier, Sunil Sukhada, Sathi Premji, Kulappulli Leela

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kammattipaadam

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Vampire Owl :: Did you hear that the kids at Kammattipaadam can stop not just the buses, but also the trains?

Vampire Bat :: Yes, I have heard about it. The same is a dialogue spoken by Dulquer Salmaan.

Vampire Owl :: We should hire a few of them then. Our zombie minions don’t even stop the tricycles.

Vampire Bat :: It is certainly not the reason for us to watch this movie.

Vampire Owl :: There is one reason for us not watching this movie. It is that the director’s first movie Annayum Rasoolum had me sleeping for so long.

Vampire Bat :: I remember having many cups of tea in between, and when I returned to the theatre, nothing had happened.

Vampire Owl :: But the zombie minions had liked it; it is as slow as them, and so it is the one movie which they could finally watch.

Vampire Bat :: I did like Njan Steve Lopez better. It was the story of common man, closer to life than ever.

Vampire Owl :: And this is the movie the best appreciated by critics and the audience.

Vampire Bat :: Lets go for it then.

[Gets three cups of tea with tapioca chips].

What is the movie about? :: Krishnan (Dulquer Salmaan), who works as part of a security agency in Mumbai, receives a call from Ganga (Vinayakan) who was his childhood friend and partner in crime. Even though the old friend doesn’t say anything clearly, Krishnan understands that Ganga needs his help because someone is after his blood, and it is only a matter of time until he has to see the corpse of his friend. Krishnan decides that despite the problems that they had in between, he needs to help the one true friend that he had, and travels to Cochin to find Ganga. But things have changed since he was last there in the city, and it is no more that developing town, but a thriving city which is having metro rail under development, and building that go straight up.

So how did it reach here? :: The flashback is long and told in parts while Krishnan goes on with his search for Ganga in a city which has become more than he had imagined it long ago. The memories has Krishnan and Ganga as best friends during childhood. As Ganga is a lower caste boy, Krishnan’s parents are against this friendship which also leads to them being involved in illegal activities during early youth. As Ganga’s elder brother Balan (Manikandan R Achari) is a well known thug and earns money by making and smuggling spirit, they have their own trainer in deeds of crime. They are all working for Surendran a.k.a. Ashaan (Anil Nedumangad). It is with the return of Krishnan from prison, after serving the sentence for the attempted murder of a policeman, that things get tougher.

Where are things heading for? :: Krishnan is in love with Anitha (Shaun Romy), Ganga’s relative whom Ganga himself wishes to marry. This creates certain tension, which gets worse with the death of Balan a few months after his marriage with Rosamma (Amalda Liz). Johnny (Shine Tom Chacko) is also their rival in the illegal activies, and fire keeps burning in them as he is suspect of murdering Balan. During these many years at the city of Cochin because it became what is seen now, there are many stories that go forgotten, and Krishnan looks forward to finding some of them which happened during these days of his absence. He managed to relocate to Mumbai to get away from all his troubles while Ganga had married Anitha. He will find some uncomfortable truths in between, and some news which will give him relief, but the question remains if he can find his best friend Ganga alive in between all this chaos?

The defence of Kammattipaadam :: The best strength of this movie are its characters that stay with us for a long time. It is also not a movie of one person, but of many, as the screen space is nicely shared between the main characters. We have Dulquer Salmaan who come up with a wonderful performance as the protagonist rising from the terrible movie which was Kali while Vinayakan and Manikandan R Achari steals the show with their brilliant work. Shine Tom Chacko comes up with one of his best performances, and Shaun Romy is very good in her role of lesser significance, and same is the case of Amalda Liz – the cast is all perfectly done. The visuals are also very nice, and you will love the way things are presented, as the common man and the subaltern struggle in this battle against a rising higher class that uses these people to their advantage, as it is the story everywhere.

Claws of flaw :: The movie’s disadvantage is its length, which goes as much as very close to three hours. There remains very less people who have the patience to watch a three hour long movie these days. Yes, it does move slowly towards its destination. The ‘A’ certificate is another thing, and it is disappointing because this one doesn’t deserve the same in its current status after the cuts – one would misinterpret the same, but Kammattipaadam is rather clean in that matter. This one also won’t appeal for everyone, and it also could have done without making its story-teller a hero in the end – if he also had met the end or felt more of the terrible situation which he had a part in creating, things would have finished perfectly, but it is not the case.

How it finishes :: This flick happens to be another one which tells the stories of the subaltern, who are there under a thriving city. The special case of this movie though, is that it remains realistic right from the beginning to the end. It reflects on the life that is difficult and right in between a world full of thorns. It is the same reason why the movie is so touching – the movie tells the tale of a struggle that the subaltern had to suffer; it is a story that the common man can relate with. It is due to corporate, the rich and the influential that the common man suffers, and it is them with the politicians that misguides the poor – Kammattipaadam is a tale that comes up with the same story, but in a realistic way, and here we understands that it is the same story everywhere, and there is no escape from the sad brutality of it. This movie makes sure that we know the truth. Unlike some other movies of these times, Kammattipaadam is not here to pretend or to hide, for it unleashes reality.

Release date: 20th May 2016
Running time: 177 minutes
Directed by: Rajeev Ravi
Starring: Dulquer Salmaan, Vinayakan, Manikandan R Achari, Vinay Forrt, Shine Tom Chacko, Anil Nedumangad, Amalda Liz, Shaun Romy, P. Balachandran, Suraj Venjarammood, Alencier Ley Lopez, Anjali Aneesh, Muthumani, Sreekanth Chandran, Shane Nigam, Ganapathy, Soubin Shahir

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kismath

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What is the movie about? :: The movie tells the love story of Irfan (Shane Nigam) and Anita (Shruthy Menon) in the coastal town of Ponnani, in the district of Malappuram. Irfan is a twenty three year old Muslim boy from a rich and influential family that has big businesses running in the town, and he doesn’t have a full-time job after dropping out of engineering course; neither does he tries to get one. Anita is a twenty eight year old scheduled caste Hindu girl who is financially not sound, and is a research scholar at the nearby college. They meet after Irfan’s modified motor-bike hits Anita’s mother who was crossing the road. He gets her to the hospital and takes care of her until her relatives arrive. Anita and the other relatives are hostile to her in the beginning, but she understands that there is no mistake on his part. Irfan continues to visit them until her mother discharged from the hospital.

Where are things heading for? :: They see each other on more occasions later, and he also helps her with the project which is related to the mosques of the town. As they realize that love has blossomed and it won’t be supported by anybody in their respective families due to the difference in religions, social status and the negative age difference, they decide to go to the police station for protection. But what they don’t realize is that the police is an integral part of the society, and it doesn’t exist separate from the people of the town which includes their own families. Sub Inspector Ajay C Menon (Vinay Forrt) is not the kind of person who likes to move that much away from the society that he lives in; he refuses to be divergent – he doesn’t approve of this relationship for the same reason. The same is the case of ASI Nair (Sunil Sukhada), as they call for their relatives to arrive at the police station. Now, what happens next means trouble for the young couple.

The defence of Kismath :: The two big movies with similar theme of forbidden love, Thattathin Marayathu and Ennu Ninte Moideen were taken over by the commercial side, and the next talked about flick with inter-caste love story, Annayum Rasoolum was just hours of drag that made us hate the protagonists – it was only when the heroine died in the end that we were relieved, but then too, things were of not much of a purpose. But Kismath has this in control, with fine visuals and depicting usual incidents in a realistic way – there is also a realistic ending. As it is well-executed, we feel the emotional depth, and the two protagonists go straight into our hearts. This one has a five plus years older heroine, and so things were going to be more difficult, as we can see in the proceedings of this movie. We not only get into the lives of the protagonists, but also into the lives of the people of the particular town.

Claws of flaw :: Even though not as slow as the slowest movie in this century’s Malayalam movie list called Annayum Rasoolum, this one is also somewhat slow, which will make it difficult for a good number of entertainment loving fans to stay with this one. There are also the two protagonists who have no job of their own, trying to oppose the families to which they are attached, which was sure to have terrible consequences – a case of bad thinking from their part. It is also strange that even if this movie says that it depicts the life of real life people who faced a situation like this, there is no mention of what happened to them in the end – we never knew such a situation from the news, and so we do wonder how things went with them after watching this movie. The songs are also not that interesting, and a little more of the town outside the police station would have brought more for this movie. There was more scope for this love story, as you will realize when watching it.

Performers of the soul :: Shruthy Menon has the biggest role of her career, and she does her job really well – there is just a controlled performance here, which she does without the emotional overdose which the movies like these tend to have. Shane Nigam, son of Abi, whom we know from earlier movies and has been a popular mimicry artist, is also in control here in his first lead role in a movie – it is interesting to note that he made his acting debut as a grown-up in Annayum Rasoolum which has a similar theme to deal with. The director, Shanavas K Bavakkutty who is also a debutante, has made this one work smoothly, throughout its run. Alencier Ley Lopez continues his form, while Vinay Forrt has the most noticable role, and he does that with ease becoming the Sub Inspector character. Sunil Sukhada is the next one we notice at the police station.

Soul exploration :: This movie is different, that is for sure. It is not an entertainer like the other two movies with similar settings, Thattathin Marayathu and Ennu Ninte Moideen which presented the Hindu-Muslim love stories, and neither is this one like Annayum Rasoolum which was so boring and slow that one would have wanted to jump of a cliff instead of watching that one for three hours – yes, the lesser run-time comes as a boon for this movie, and as it never tries to be funny or stylish, we are without those terrible marketing strategies. What we have here is surely closer to the lives of the common people. We are also able to connect to the protagonists better, and feeling their pain is easier because they are just common people who are confused about what to do when both their families don’t agree to their marriage. So, they go for the option that seems to be safe for them, even though they are not that much informed about how things would go from there.

How it finishes :: Kismath has tried and has become the movie that Annayum Rasoolum should have been. It is solid in what it does, and even when not that fast, manages to be not dragging like Annayum Rasoolum had been. What works for Kismath differently is that it is less of the romantic tale, and it is more of the consequences of love, for what comes after the love story is the trouble, and what they suffer. It is fate or rather the destiny that has awaited the lovers for a long time – it is more of going towards that uncertainty with certainty. This is the kind of movie that you need to watch if you like to go through a simple, yet emotional experience without the melodrama and unnecessary commercial aspects – this is love without those colours, and this the “kismath” that could await more than one person if done without thinking about society, as people will be like that only – there is no change coming.

Release date: 29th July 2016
Running time: 103 minutes
Directed by: Shanavas K Bavakkutty
Starring: Shane Nigam, Shruthy Menon, Vinay Forrt, Alencier Ley Lopez, Sajitha Madathil, Surabhi Lakshmi, P. Balachandran, Sunil Sukhada, Anil Nedumangad, Vijayan Karanthoor, Jayaprakash Kuloor, Binoy Nambala

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kohinoor

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What is it about? :: The story is set in the late 1980s, as Louis (Asif Ali) is a small-time thief who is looking forward to making it big. With the support of his best friend, Aandikkunju (Aju Varghese), he is hoping to make one huge heist which will mean that he won’t have to be a thief any more. Meanwhile, Haider has arrived in the town from Mumbai and is looking to commit a big robbery, and for the same, he seeks the help of two other thieves Nicholas (Chemban Vinod Jose) and Freddy (Vinay Forrt). As they hope to find a master thief who can pick almost any lock, Aandikkunju comes into the picture, and Louis comes up with a plan to create a twist and big gain for the two best friends. At the same time, Louis falls in love with Daisy (Aparna Vinod) who works at the place where they are to commit the heist. But Haider has more just a heist in his mind.

The defence of Kohinoor :: In an attempt to make an interesting heist movie which never bores, Kohinoor remains a success. There are enough funny moments and good songs to keep things moving forward well. The movie as a whole is a mixture, with comedy always being there and as a heist movie, there are enough twists and turns around. The final moments actually has the best of them, and the best thing about this movie is that it finishes off really well, and manages the entertainment well throughout its run. “Hemanthamen” is the pick of the songs. The use of nostalgia from the early age also works very nicely, with the looks of the times re-created and having references to the hit crime thrillers of the time, Irupatham Noottandu and Athirathram. The movie also nicely maintains a light-hearted feeling throughout it, and nostalgia works very well in favour of this. This is also a big improvement from the director after Kili Poyi.

Claws of flaw :: There has been certain love for thieves with Sapthamashree Thaskaraha releasing last year and the recently released Urumbukal Urangarilla – the audience might think that there is a little too much of the same, but Kohinoor is surely ahead of the recent flicks with the same theme. The movie could have also done without a few scenes which are meant for the masses, because this could have remained simple fun with just realistic twists. The romantic angle doesn’t really work either, as it only seems to stretch the movie and gives the opportunity for the hero to have a heroine, along with one extra song. One can also think that this could have gone full comedy, and also that there could have been more twisted heists added. Yes, there was even more scope. Some actors who were there only for a short time could have stayed there for a longer period of time.

Performers of the soul :: I would consider this as the best performance of Asif Ali in a movie having him as the leading actor. Some people will praise Nirnaayakam, but it was just a movie which had no direction, and that had affected Asif in return. But Kohinoor knows what it is and towards which direction it is moving, and it is its strength and also of the actors associated with the movie. Being self-aware is one the things that can make a movie better and its actors do better, and this movie clearly has that awareness. Asif is in full control, and Aju Varghese makes sure that the movie is a lot of fun with new looks and his impeccable comic timing. Chemban Vinod Jose and Vinay Forrt joins in taking the fun get to the next level. These three actors have been the difference makers for quite some time, and they have done the same here too.

Further Performers of the soul :: While Asif Ali has made this work in his own style beginning from that nice entry, Indrajith Sukumaran brings a top level performance. He has some very nice dialogues in the movie, and the way in which he handles things during trouble at the heist scene is the pick here. There will be moments to remember from him, that is for sure. There is rarely a movie in which Indrajith doesn’t bring the big impact, and we all know that. Aparna Vinod has just so less to do with the smiles, looking cute and remaining so till the end – instead the one who makes the impact is one of the twist-bringers, the lady who brings more to the heist out of nowhere; the name of the actress is not mentioned anywhere, but she is the beauty who manages to do a very nice job in this movie. If you find the name, let me know so that I can add her to the cast.

Soul exploration :: Most of the characters in this movie remains on the grey side, with only the shades of light and dark grey being available. Unlike Sapthamashree Thaskaraha which has more of the thieves made by situations, this one has people skilled in the profession in one way or the other. But almost all of them are still likable, no matter which side they are on. The world in this movie has a certain shortage of people on the good side, but there are still some nice moments of goodness in this movie. If there is a mixed genre called feel-good comedy heist, this one can fit right in there. When everything comes together, things only get better, in more than one way. Just as the name of the movie, there is something “Kohinoor”istic in this movie, majestic and like the mountain of light, and it is something which is rare if we consider only those heist movies.

How it finishes :: Kohinoor goes battling against Life of Josutty and Ennu Ninte Moideen this weekend which is a tough job, even though it has more creativity and smartness behind it compared to these two movies. It replaces Urumbukal Urangarilla, and has enough in it for a long run. The best thing about this movie is that it is not overrated like Ennu Ninte Moideen; I watched the Kohinoor with less expectations and ended up with a certain happy feeling. This is one advantage of not overrating movies and not putting stuff about the movie everywhere on Facebook while copying from others. There is a certain nice feeling when someone reads different opinions from different people about a particular movie and come up with an opinion by oneself – it is how things are to be done, and not by keeping on telling others about one movie and forcing others to watch it.

Release date: 24th September 2015
Running time: 143 minutes
Directed by: Vinay Govind
Starring: Asif Ali, Indrajith Sukumaran, Aju Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Aparna Vinod, Vinay Forrt, Pradeep Kottayam, Sudheer Karamana, Riza Bava, Mamukkoya, Saiju Kurup, Kundara Johny, Bijukuttan, Bhavana (cameo), Harikrishnan (cameo)

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Urumbukal Urangarilla

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Vampire Owl :: I see the title about ants not sleeping. I have to say that just like them, neither do we sleep at night.

Vampire Bat :: But I do sleep most of the night.

Vampire Owl :: What? Why do you sleep that much? We, vampires are not supposed to sleep that much at night.

Vampire Bat :: You should actually think about it. Lady Death and her evil twin sister have stopped walking around at night after someone said that it is against our great tradition. After we made a pact with them related to the blood and souls of the dead people, it is useless for us to walk around at night because anything we do could be a violation of that agreement.

Vampire Owl :: Oh! That is very sad. I don’t really read newspapers and listen to news because they are so depressing. I was hoping to go on a blood dinner with Lady Death some time.

Vampire Bat :: You can go for a dinner with her in the morning. Choose to follow the time zone of some other country which has night at that time, and call it a dinner.

Vampire Owl :: This is so complicated! I hope that there are exemptions at the graveyards!

Vampire Bat :: Zombies there got no brains. We should contact a yakshi so that more information can be obtained.

Vampire Owl :: But what bothers me a lot is if the ants really sleep?

Vampire Bat :: We shall send a message to their world to confirm.

[Gets the tickets for the movie].

What is it about? :: A man called Manoj (Vinay Forrt) meets a retired thief and master of the art, Kelu (Sudheer Karamana) who decides to help him in becoming the awesome thief that he could be. As Kelu has retired from the profession, he asks his former disciple and another experienced player in the field, Benny (Chemban Vinod Jose) to guide the new thief on his way to becoming the pride among the thieves. Benny is a man who keeps certain principles related to stealing. On his way to finding the new tricks, Manoj will know more than what he needs to, but it will prove necessary, as there more than one thing to accomplish for him. They will meet other thieves like Rajappan (Sreejith Ravi) specializing in robberies during the rainy season and Karlose (Kalabhavan Shajon) who will do anything for the riches. Sheela (Ananya) will also have an interesting role to play in these situations.

The defence of Urumbukal Urangarilla :: The interest of the audience in this movie should begin with the name of this movie itself, and there is a certain skill in how ants are made related to the main protagonists; I can’t dare to say that the process is complete, but there is a good finish to the “ant world” in the end. The story nicely begins and ends with most of the things that come in between justified. The climax sequence is the strongest point of the movie, and the flick also successfully leaves the audience with some interesting messages about being good as well as how evil gets punished in the end; the cast nicely supports the same with their dialogues. There are moments which give the audience more hope, for sure. The thrills, even though not there through most of its run-time, makes a fine return by the end.

Claws of flaw :: With such a talented cast around, one has to surprised that a lot of comic moments and opportunities to create such situations go missing. The movie is also too long and comes up with many uninteresting sequences which can’t be enjoyed by people who regularly watches movies. There are so many half-baked moments in this movie, which makes it struggle, and even drag. This movie which lasts just a little less than two hours and twenty minutes should have been limited to about one and half hours after removing some of the unnecessary sequences. The songs are not at all interesting, and just elongates this movie further. It is certain that this movie wanted to be Sapthamashree Thaskaraha, but couldn’t be there because of the clueless feeling here and there. The situations to create fun just disappear too quickly!

Performers of the soul :: Even with not that many opportunities to make the audience laugh as in Sapthamashree Thaskaraha, Chemban Vinod Jose manages to do so all by himself; he makes the wonderful thief yet again – still one ends up wishing that the character was used a lot better to evoke laughter as the chance was there. Vinay Forrt comes up in a different role here, and manages things with ease. Aju Varghese has a smaller role even though bigger than what he had in Jamna Pyari, and he does that well. Ananya remains strong even though her presence is limited to the beginning and the end. Innocent has a smaller presence and so does Sreejith Ravi. Kalabhavan Shajon makes a late entry into the movie, but leaves a very nice mark. Sudheer Karamana’s character evokes mixed response. Janaki Krishnan has a small role which she manages with a certain amount of inherent cuteness.

Soul exploration :: Even though the revenge factor does have the biggest role to play in the end, what comes here as the message is that poetic justice will be served in the end. There has to be honour in whatever we do, even if it is not the most appreciated job. The crimes of war seems to say the same thing. The truth is that some people who do lesser jobs and earning less usually has more honour than the rest; at least they are not slaves to the vanity which comes with money and fame. We all listen to those vain men and women as well as their parents who provide us classes on how good they are and how pathetic we are. They should also suffer for their sins, may be a little more because they are surely worse than the people who do something wrong because there is no other choice. We hear about corruption in crores, and the question this movie asks is about who the real thieves are.

How it finishes :: Those who steal our lives are the worst criminals, aren’t they? Those who don’t allow us to do anything with our lives and lock us in a cage of meaninglessness – they are a lot like those involved in corruptions; it is just that they corrupt our lives instead. So, it is not really hard to love the characters in this movie. They required a little more polishing and won’t be like those in Sapthamashree Thaskaraha or Meesa Madhavan, but they can have some appreciation for trying things differently. One thing I am very happy about is that this doesn’t go the way of the Malayalam movie of 2013, called Bicycle Thieves. It was one of the most terrible movies as almost all of my friends have confirmed, and Urumbukal Urangarilla rises to the occasion as it decides to win with the climax and make up for its other troubles. There is Kunjiramayanam still running in full power and the new release Ennu Ninte Moideen to bring the tough competition.

Release date: 19th September 2015
Running time: 139 minutes
Directed by: Jiju Asokan
Starring: Chemban Vinod Jose, Kalabhavan Shajon, Vinay Forrt, Aju Varghese, Innocent, Janaki Krishnan, Ananya, Sudheer Karamana, Sreejith Ravi, Vettukili Prakash, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Vanitha Krishnachandran, Thesni Khan

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Premam

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Vampire Bat: My dear vampire brethren, and the zombies who have decided to joined us by free-will. We have fought many battles together. We have fought side by side in the War of the Four Nations, the Tactical Warfare against the Werewolf Intrusion, the Conquest of the New Vampire World, The Battles against the never-ending Zombie Hordes and even the Magical Attacks of the Dark Elves. Zombies, please erase the zombie horde part from your memories instead of beginning to get offended, and do not return to your graves. But this is nothing like that. This will be the biggest battle that we have ever faced, and a task which is near impossible. It is called getting a ticket for the movie Premam.

Vampire Hamster: This is actually very scary. I need to go home and recharge my courage. I have heard that humans provide courage recharge centres at some religious places. Is it true? We could have also reserved the tickets, right? The ticket reservation is quite common these days.

Vampire Alligator: Can you just shut up and listen to the full speech? This is not even being recorded and you might not score well for the vampire apprentice exams if you miss parts of this which can come as annotation.

Vampire Owl: We don’t do reservations because we won’t support them – don’t you know that vampires are against all kinds of reservations? We are suffering because of this thing which gives nothing for the General Category to which the vampires belong. And you will be banned if you speak between grand, emotional speeches. The Vampire Crow and the Vampire Raven were banned once. Just listen to the speech.

Vampire Bat: We face the monsters here, and they are not like the ones we have faced before. We face the legendary warriors of the other world with human masks. We face those furious humans standing in queue for the movie Premam. We might not make it out of this queue in one piece, but lets fight for our righteous chance to watch this movie. We demand the rights to be equal and watch this movie which almost everybody except us has watched. Yes, even Werewolf Anger has watched it – can you believe that? The Lich Queen has watched it twice. It is the right to the movie ticket that we demand here, and it is clearly written in the vampire constitution, Article 007. Without watching this, we can’t even look at the face of Uncle Dracula, as you know what he is going to ask us when we return to the castle. The Vampire Penguin and the Vampire Panda have tried for this alone and failed, but we will win as this time we attack together after issuing the fake notice that we are not going to attack.

Vampire Panda: This is going to be awesome because I know part-time Kung-fu. You should all watch me and learn.

Vampire Penguin: I told you all that he is Kung-fu Panda in disguise.

Vampire Owl: Most probably, we won’t get tickets this time too, but in the name of Uncle Dracula and all the vampire elders, charge!

Vampire Crocodile: On this day, the night will be day and the day will be night. Attack!

Vampire Bat: What? No! I am the only one authorized to say that! So attack!!!

[Runs to the long queue and stands at the back end in silence].

What is it about? :: George David (Nivin Pauly) who lives in the town of Aluva and studies for pre-degree has completely fallen in love with Mary George (Anupama Parameshwaran) whom he usually sees on the way. She is the local beauty whom a lot of people are after. He has no interest in studies as he moves towards a possible failure in the course, and his only aim seems to be this girl’s love. Helped by his best friends Koya (Krishna Shankar) and Shambu (Shabareesh Varma), he attempts to make her fall in love with her, but that doesn’t go as planned. The movie also tells the story of his two other love interests, a Tamil girl called Malar (Sai Pallavi) with whom he falls in love at the first sight itself, and a girl named Celine (Madonna Sebastian) whom he meets much later as time moves forward through his love stories. His life related to these three ladies and his feelings towards them are depicted in the movie.

The defence of Premam :: By claiming to be the second film in the history of world cinema with nothing new in it, the movie seems to make a psychological move, but the truth is that the move is new if we look at how it is presented on the screen. I would give full credits to Alphonse Puthren for this one. He surely knows what the youth wants, and how to make the best use of Aluva as an Aluvaite. It is is his magic that Premam is such a delight on the big screen. I traveled to Aluva to watch this, and it was clear that there was no Aluvaite left without love and appreciation for this movie. Its nostalgia is powerful, and the central theme of love connects the three paramount pages of the protagonist’s tome of life – only three pages which connects directly to the title of the movie is taken and the word itself is used to make the much needed connection, and it is done in a beautiful way. There is infatuation, but there is no lust, and it is a sure positive thing. The second love story is a forbidden one, and clearly wrong for the standards of our civilized society, and we see poetic justice being served there as it ends in a much deserved tragedy – love fails there for the right reasons only. The comedy is working for most of the run.

The claws of flaw :: Yes, there is nothing new in the story – the liberty which was taken before the release of this movie arrives to make the impact here, and also reminds us that this is what they were talking about. There are some sequences which were aviodable, including the problems between the groups of friends at college and the missing dancer. The first of the three parts also has some exaggeration. The movie could have been shorter too – it would have surely helped the theatres to add another show in the morning to control the big crowd, and the very slight drag could have disappeared too. There is a little too much of drinking and smoking too, but I guess that they have only given the new generation’s normal audience what they wanted – crowd should get what the desired, for the good of the industry. The writings on the screen could have also been avoided, and it should have been left to the audience to come up with such ideas.

Performers of the soul :: Alphonse Puthren, with his brilliance, has given us some memorable characters along with those incidents, and he has also chosen the perfect cast as it seems from the look of it. When we look the performers here, this is “the Nivin Pauly movie” from the beginning to the end, and the way in which he goes through the three stages of his life is simply amazing. Here is another Aluvaite giving us the performance that we will always remember, and his transformations through the movie becomes the big boost. Among the heroines, I would choose Madonna Sebastian as the one making the best impact, with what seems to be her inherent cuteness and the way of dialogue delivery, and above all, as being the “right lady”, she steals the final moments. Sai Pallavi has what might be the best moment though, with the dance steps – she surely has an amazing screen presence. Anupama Parameshwaran is the charming simple beauty who disappears too early. Do look out for Vinay Forrt’s best comic moments too. All young actors deserve some applause here! Also look out for two awesome cameos from Renji Panikker and Jude Anthany Joseph.

How it finishes :: I would consider this movie as the journey of a man from love powered by infatuation to love strengthened by admiration, and then to the love based on commitment here, with those three heroines. Premam is undoubtedly the result of the hardwork of Alphonse Puthren who also comes in a role which he manages very well. All credits to him more making such a simple thing work so well. It is already taking the theatres by storm, and I had to go to the theatre and come back only to try again – these repeated for so many times to watch this movie. I was impressed even when this was not my genre at all, and I can guess how much effect this is having on the normal people. For those who are around Cochin, I would suggest watching this at Aluva and having a walk on the sides of the river and on the aqueduct which are shown in the movie. This movie also has another big personal effect on me – and it is to see the Union Christian College Aluva, on the big screen; I miss the place, and the most shown location in this movie, the college canteen 😀

Release date: 29th May 2015
Running time: 164 minutes
Directed by: Alphonse Puthren
Starring: Nivin Pauly, Madonna Sebastian, Sai Pallavi, Anupama Parameshwaran, Shabareesh Varma, Krishna Shankar, Vinay Forrt, Eva Prakash, Alphonse Puthren, Maniyanpilla Raju, Soubin Shahir, Wilson Joseph, Renji Paniker, Justin John, Hormis Paulachan, Althaf Salim, Anju Kurian, Jude Anthany Joseph, Sharafudeen, Maju Mathew, Rinsa Jacob, Vivek Vinod, Mahadev Ramakrishnan, Faisal, Manek Jose, Sandeep Varma, Viswajith Odukkathil, Vimal Pillai, Aishwarya R. Nair, Zuhair Sait, Deepak Nathan (I have put the whole list from wherever I could dig the names out, because they have all contributed so well)

premam

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

7th Day

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The 7th Day significance :: A name which signifies a special day and the tagline which supports the same “The seventh day on which God rested after creating the world in six days”, this was always going to be a different experience. God didn’t need to rest, but he rested on the seventh day which became the Shabbat of Jews, and it is up-to this movie’s release to see how all that would relate to a thriller movie such as this (but it turns out that I thought too much about it). Prithviraj Sukumaran himself says that there has not been any other movie which he has been involved this much, and that only reason that there is no trailer for this movie (there is only the teaser) is because he doesn’t want anyone to have a prior idea or design about this movie which is going to be innovative in many ways. Read more about the same from his official page on Facebook. For anyone who have watched and liked either Mumbai Police or Memories starring the same actor, this was going to be a must watch, and that includes me who considers the latter to be the better movie and among the best of the year. These two movie publicize this movie more than any page or advertisement that can be created – why need anything more?

What is it about? :: David Abraham I.P.S. (Prithviraj Sukumaran) accidently meets Shaan (Vinay Forrt) and Vinu (Anu Mohan) as his jeep hits their motorbike. As he comes across Shaan again and the news spread that Vinu has committed suicide, David feels that there was something strange about the whole thing, and it was evident from their talks and action last night. He goes to meet Shaan who tells him that they have been in trouble for a very long time, and were hunted by the henchmen of a strange and mostly unknown enemy known to many as Christopher Moriarty. They have been trying to run and hide from them in vain, and he was actually separated from his friends before the accident happened. His other friends, Jessy (Janani Iyer), Aby (Tovino Thomas) and Cyril (Praveen Prem) are nowhere to be found and he suspects that they are in deep trouble or possibly dead. David decides to help him and goes out on an investigation by himself, only to uncover strange truths about them, and come to the realization that Shaan might be the only one among the gang who is telling the actual truth. But David is not ready to lose this battle and certainly not the war. His icons are people from the history who lost, but he always plays to win; he doesn’t mind if he tries and losses.

The defence of 7th Day :: The centre of all defence of this movie stands Prithviraj Sukumaran, more powerful than ever. He has the screen presence which makes most of the other things in the movie not that significant. Whenever he is there, everything is under control, as he remains the captain throughout the journey of this ship. Other than that, movie has a nice suspense maintained throughout, and is not without thrills. There is a lot of mystery feeling that the environment of the movie gives. The feeling goes on throughout the movie, especially when our protagonist is on the investigation. The style and lighting in the movie is special, and the darkness that runs throughout the movie helps its mood a lot. There is always something about the inception and development of a dark world in a thriller movie, and this is no exception. We are given the feeling that there is always more than what meets the eye for each character, and even David Abraham himself is no exception, as we see how he changes and reacts according to the situations. There are some stylish dialogues too, some of them which can stay on our minds for at least some time.

The claws of flaw :: 7th Day is a lot like Memories and Mumbai Police, the two other police stories featuring Prithviraj. But the problem is when this one doesn’t give its protagonist to be more of a vulnerable man like in those two, and from the latter, it inherits not just the dark shades, but also the drag which turns out to be rather unfortunate. This also has an investigation going like Memories, but comes nowhere close to that movie in the script or the climax. The occasional drag is a let down, and there are times when the movie becomes less of an investigative thriller and more of a crime drama – something to be expected when the whole thing is related to policeman on suspension and a group of youngsters on the run from a web of crime lead by a ruthless guy whose last name comes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest known creation, as Professor Moriarty gives it to this one, Christopher Moriarty – I would like to think not much about it, and imagine not about them being related. The chain of events begin on Christmas, so may be they chose to have Christopher as the first name. That should have been avoided, and just another usual name could have done; for villains are not known for their names, but for their actions. Any more talk about that name shall shatter the suspense, and lets not venture more into the same.

Performers of the Soul :: Prithviraj’s real beginning with a police role picks up with Vargam, and that spark returned with Mumbai Police, which was incredibly powered with Memories – the two investigative thrillers of last year which had him in stunning performances, the second being something which was to be appreciated by everyone. He slowly moved away from that kind of police role which Suresh Gopi used to do and gain success, and he himself did with not that much appreciation. Instead, he has come up with so much variety in the same, accepted roles in which he could prove his wonderful acting skills again and again. 7th Day is no exception. From Solomon Joseph to Anthony Moses, and Sam Alex to David Abraham, the fourth memorable police role comes to light here, even as you can surely ask the question if he will come last among the four. Well, Prithviraj steals the show, and this movie is so much about his character – the best thing about the movie. The youngsters are okay with their performances, but as expected, Vinay Forrt stands out as the best of them all, followed by Tovino Thomas. Janani Iyer has the least to do among them, and Joy Mathew has a small, but good role.

Soul exploration :: Welcome to the world of another dark investigative thriller. Unlike Memories, this one leaves much less for the soul. Somehow, I was able to guess the villain as well as the main culprit in the movie, and there were two, and I guessed them both correct – that should have just an incident by accident, and you should give it a try guessing. I was also able to bring up the final twist correctly, something which was rather impossible with Memories and slightly possible with Mumbai Police. The first half’s inherent slowness might have been the main thing which hurt its possibilities of being special, and the second half never really manages to make things faster. The flashback scenes were to be without Prithviraj and they also hurt the soul. It need a lot more of life, something which Mumbai Police partially provided with the negative traits of the character and Memories with the powerful presence of a psycho killer and the memories of the protagonist himself. This one doesn’t have such a boost. We expect much more, but we do not get it. But we are indeed satisfied by what we get, and coming from a debutant director, this is very good.

How it finishes :: This is a week of too many movies – the Vishu holiday which gets extended due to Dr. Amedkar Jayanthi and Sunday with just a day separating them from the Maundy Thursday. With the rush of the summer vacations from school kids and college students, there might not be any movie which can’t be a hit unless it does something really stupid. Gangster‘s inability to impress any kind of audience except for the fans and other concerned groups who say it is good for the obvious reasons, will surely help the other movies which release on the very next day a lot – 7th Day, Ring Master and Polytechnic. Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier gets an extended long run, and with Divergent and Rio 2 ready, and as some other movies refuse to go way including lesser Bollywood releases, this will be a nice weekend for the three Malayalam movies which released today. The families with kids might be looking forward to Bhoothnath Returns too. The Easter week is also coming up, and with 2 States and Transcendence waiting to pounce, it is the best to make most money this week, and with some good opinions, an extended run is a certainty. Now this one has less shows, but that is expected to increase in the upcoming days. 7th Day has the upper-hand as far the opinions are concerned.

Release date: 12th April 2014
Running time: 134 minutes
Directed by: Syam Dhar
Starring: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Janani Iyer, Vinay Forrt, Anu Mohan, Tovino Thomas, Praveen Prem, Joy Mathew, T. G. Ravi, Yog Japee

7thday copy

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.