Manmadhudu

A masala love story with all the emotions you can think of.

Abhi (Nagarjuna) is a rich, good looking, suave bachelor running an Ad Agency. The only glitch is that he hates women. All the women at the agency are tired of his attitude. His uncle decides he has had enough and appoints Harika (Sonali Bendre) as Abhi’s assistant. There are hilarious altercations between the two. At one point she is about to resign when Abhi’s uncle tell her about his past.

Abhi was in love with Mahi (Anshu), niece of one of their managers. Thinking that the two families are worlds apart, he decides to get Mahi engaged to someone else. Abhi follows her and the two leave in Abhi’s car. The car meets with an accident and Abhi is unconscious for ten days. On waking up he, learns that Mahi has married someone else and h loses his trust in women.

Harika on learning Abhi’s past decides to stay and becomes his boss. The two of them fly to Paris for an assignment and come to like each other. But Harika tells him that she is already engaged. On their return Harika tries to express her love but Abhi is oblivious. Meanwhile Abhi learns that Mahi had actually died during the accident and to save him from trauma people lie to him.

Harika finally comes to give him her wedding card before leaving for her wedding. Abhi loves her but wants her to acknowledge first. From a station enroute to the venue Harika calls him and expresses her love. Follows a chase where Abhi uses all possible forms of transport to reach Harika leading to the climax of the film.

Nagarujuna and Sonali Bendre look good together but Anshu and Nagarjuna have even better chemistry. Hummable songs though the script could have been sharper.

A well balanced film, good timepass.

(Can Watch)

Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha (A midnight murder story)

Most of the movies I appreciate or the way I see them is with the premise that there is a core of the movie, then the backdrop and then the supporting characters that help take the movie forward. The supporting characters, backdrop might have their own story and significance, but the better movies do not make them larger than the core.

The movie Paleri Manikyam can be reviewed from many perspectives – politics and use of power in Kerala during fifties, atrocities of feudal lords and exploitation of poor, psychological analysis of what drives people towards certain actions etc.

I see the movie as a murder mystery against the backdrop of dictatorial feudal system and play of politics in the society. And as a murder mystery, it keeps you guessing till the end.


Haridas (Mammotty) is a private detective who is intrigued by two murders which were committed the night he was born at Paleri. The murderer was never convicted for the lack of evidence. Haridas wants to go back and unearth the truth and he is accompanied by crime analyst Sarayu in his quest. Almost fifty years after the murder, he travels back to Paleri to meet anyone still alive who can shed some light on the case.

Manikyam (Mythili), bride of a poor low caste Pokkan is brutally raped and murdered soon after her marriage. Pokkan’s mother Cheeru (Shwetha Menon) tries to cover it up as an epileptic attack but the police soon decides that it was a murder. The main suspect is the wealthy and powerful Murikkum Kunnathu Ahmed Haji (Mammootty) who is notorious for his affairs with beautiful village women. Infact Cheeru, Pokkan’s mother was also his mistress at some point in time. His two men are caught as accomplices but for lack of evidence are evicted by the court.


Since no one associated with the murder is alive today, Haridas tries to reconstruct the crime mainly by the versions of some village folks, like Barber Keshavan (Srinivasan) who was a communist party worker. It appears that at that time Haji was sheltered by the leaders of the party. Various reports and facts were buried and not brought to light. There was another murder at the same time which was never linked to Manikyam’s murder.

During the movie we also learn why Haridas has such unusual interest in the murder. The most interesting aspect of the movie is the narrative where Haridas narrates most of the events and moves along with the characters and which brings together the present and the past in a surreal way. Also notable is the way each character tells their version of the events such that you can almost feel getting closer to the truth but not quite there. Also with each character’s narrative you also get to see the various shades of their lives and the society they live in.

Haridas’ quest ends when he meets the eldest son of Haji, Khalid (Mammotty) during the climax.

The cinematography of the movie is pretty neat and Renjith has recreated the Kerala of yester years with brilliant finesse. The background score, not overwhelming gives a lot of character to the movie. The only place where the movie lacks is that there are a little too many characters and thus a lot of loose ends. For some of the characters there is no apparent reason for their actions. The movie could have definitely done with some editing to make the script a little crisper. Mammotty comes in three different roles but shines out as Haji.

Interesting, fast paced, quite gripping, well executed.

(Can Watch)

Devasuram

There is something very unique about the directors and script writers from Kerala. They have uniquely engaging style and a continuity in the movie they make\write.

Devasuram is one such film. Mangalassery Neelakantan (Mohanlal) is the son of a famous personality but does nothing except wasting away his father’s wealth. The only actual passion he has is for music and appreciates ad patronizes local artists.

He himself is a gifted musician but lacks the self discipline. He is also at loggerheads with another feudal family in the village and there are frequent fights between the two camps. Neela has a trusted advisor Warrier (Innocent) who takes care of his daily affairs.

The rival gang corners Warrier and beat him up one day. To retaliate Neela’s friends decide to hire a thug to rough up the rival leader but instead the thug ends up killing him. He then goes into hiding.

Meanwhile Appu master (Nedumudi Venu) is a drunkard with two daughters. He has sold all his land and has taken multiple loans for the dance education of his elder daughter Bhanumathi (Revathi) who is very gifted and is all set to go to Delhi to further her career as a dancer.

Neela restores an old concert hall near the temple and the villagers want to plan a grand opening. They decide to invite Bhanu to dance at the temple. When Neela’s men go to invite her, she rebukes them and sends them away for their rowdy behavior. Later Neela apologizes to Appu master and pays him the token amount to have Bhanu perform at the temple. At the last minute after the artists are ready Neel forces Bhanu to perform in front of him and his friends in his courtyard for insinuating them earlier. Bhanu though forced to dance is furious and vows never to dance again till Neela’s death. Warrier believes, she has cursed the family.

Shortly after that Neela’s life starts to disintegrate one thread at a time. The killer who had gone into hiding is caught and demands a huge sum to keep quiet. As a result Neela has to sell his ancestral land for peanuts to a buyer he had refused earlier.

Hard times also fall on Bhanu and her family as they have to give up their house to the debt collector. They start living at a relative’s house who misbehaves with Bhanu. Hearing their plight Neela sends Warrier to bring the family to live with them and Bhanu has to relent under pressure from her father. Meanwhile, Neela’s mother is not keeping well and stays with her brothers. When Neela goes to visit her he learns a terrible secret about his birth which completely shatters him. His mother dies soon after.

Neela decides to change for the better. Meanwhile Bhanu’s relative comes and offers them a place to stay. Soon after in a fight Shekharan from the rival family runs down Neela and he is paralyzed.

The rest of the movie is about how Bhanu supports him in this difficult time and how they rediscover each other.

No doubt the movie is engaging and fast paced and has the kind of attraction Godfather has. I still feel the characters needed to be etched out more. They don’t get to show individuality and seem to be always giving in to circumstances.

Mohanlal again delivers a superb performance. Revathi is not too impressive.

Fast paced, engaging.

(Can Watch)

Thirakkatha… (Screenplay)

Another one of those movies which rekindles my love for cinema. It’s actually my love for stories. Over time I have learnt to appreciate other aspects of a movie but quintessentially for me it is the script closely linked to performances.

Thirakkatha which literally means “screenplay” has an interesting script and an engaging narration. The movie follows a young director Akbar aka Akki (Prithviraj) who highly appreciated for his first movie is looking for a script. He finally decides to make a movie on the life of a celebrated actress of yester years, Malavika (Priyamani) who has completely disappeared from public life. What follows is essentially the journey of Akki discovering the life of Malavika for his script.


Malavika was at some point married to a now famous star Ajay Chandran (Anoop Menon) who was just a struggling actor back in the old days. In his quest Akki meets the son of an old friend of Malavika and Ajay, the late director Abby (Renjith). Abby’s son gives him the diary of his father and some letters in which he had chronicled the story of Malavika and Ajay.

From this point the narration moves from present to the past seamlessly as Akki reads through the diary.

Malavika and Ajay Chandran met at a time when she was a successful actress and he a struggling artist. They fall in love in spite of the opposition by Malavika’s truant mother and eventually get married for which Malavika had to leave her entire fortune. Ajay is struggling to revive his career after a series of flops when Abby decides to direct a film casting Malavika and Ajay as the lead pair. Just then Malavika realizes that she is pregnant but Ajay forces her to abort the child. Soon after that she has to undergo another operation for minor growth in ovaries. Her close friend later confesses that her fallopian tubes were cut during that operation and she will never get pregnant again. Distraught and feeling betrayed Malavika thinks that Ajay did this purposefully and leaves him. She falls on tough times and ends up doing cameo roles before completely disapeering.

As Akki is trying to put this story together, he gets a call telling him the whereabouts of Malavika who was untraceable till now. He rushes there and realizes that she is terminally ill with cancer and looks really frail and wasted. He and his friends take her with them to take care of her.

Towards the end her dying wish is to meet Ajay and Akki persuades him to come. When the two meet we learn the mystery and the secrecy behind their separation. Malavika asks Ajay to take her to Cloud’s End, a bungalow in the hills where they first met. Ajay agrees.


Beautifully written with excellent direction and editing. Priyamani has done wonders and her transition through various stages of Malavika’s life is very touching. Anoop Menon is just another prop and fails to make any impact. Prithviraj, though not outstanding has carried off the role of the young director well. Overall, Priyamani shines out.

Beautifully told story. It won the national film award for best feature film in Malyalam in 2008.

(Do Watch)

Nadodikattu… (Wandering Wind)

So the thing about movies in languages you don’t understand is that you either enjoy a brilliant storyline or superb performances or something that makes the movie worth watching in that language and not the one you actually can understand. So even if a movie might be entertaining, to a person who does not understand the language it will come across as very mediocre because it is like one of the million movies that one has already seen.



Nadodikattu is one such movie. Bringing Mohanlal and Sreenivasan pair to the screen, in their early days, the movie is no doubt a typical masala movie. It reminded me of the countless Manmohan Desai kind of films I have seen and enjoyed.

Ramdas aka Dasan (Mohanlal) and Vijayan (Sreenivasan) are two friends working in a company as peons and dreaming of steady government jobs. Dasan is slightly high and mighty on account of his being a B.Com. graduate while Vijayan has only done Pre degree. They eagerly wait for the new MD to join so that they can request him to give them appropriate jobs. By some quirk of fate instead they get thrown out of the office. Their landlord helps them get a loan from the bank to start selling cow’s milk and ends up selling them sub-standard cows so that they are unable to make ends meet. With loan sharks behind their backs they decide to bribe a boatman to take them to gulf. Instead the boatman tricks them and they end up in Chennai. On the beach a bunch of smuggles mistake them for smugglers and hand them a suitcase full of narcotics. Like any law abiding citizens they take it to the police and end up in police custody. What follows is cat and mouse chase where the don ends up thinking that Dasan and Vijayan are CID sleuths.

Meanwhile, in Chennai they take up a house for rent and their neighbor is Radha (Shobhana) and her mother. Dasan and Radha develop a special bond and Radha helps him start selling vegetables. A local politician tries to get them to vacate their houses so that he can build a hospital on that land. Dasan tries to stop him and his goon. Through all the confusion ultimately both the don and the politician want to kill Dasan and Vijayan. The final climax happens in an abandoned mill where the politician and the don are finally arrested by the police. Police, to award Dasan and Vijayan gives them jobs in the force. And all live happily ever after…

Like a said a typical eighties movie combining social problems (unemployment, crime and poverty) with right amount of lightheartedness, romance, fights and happy endings. You will appreciate the movie if you understand the local nuances.

For people who do not understand Malyalam,

(Can Skip)