Let me first talk about the stories individually. (To give a perspective on stories relative to each other, I have tried scoring them on a scale of 5)
First story “Nostalgia” starring Dileep. The concept reminded me of a book “Ignorance” by Milan Kundera where he explores the whole idea of nostalgia. He says – “The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return…nostalgia seems something like the pain of ignorance, of not knowing.” The problem is that when you return to a place after a long time your memories no longer match. It’s just your attempt to recapture your experience of the past. The movie tried to explore the same concept through a Keralite living in Dubai. While in Dubai he fondly remembers his village, the cool breeze and the green fields and sings the songs he heard as a child. But when he returns the same things irritate him and he misses his structured and comfortable life in Dubai. Interesting rendition with excellent acting by Dileep. I only wish the director had only explored this feeling and not confused it with the usual story of a petty rich guy exploiting a poor friend. (4/5)
The second story starring Prithviraj is called “Island Express” and is in itself a montage on lives of people who died in a train accident. From narration and story perspective I found it very weak. The director tried exploring too many facets in a very limited time frame and thus was not able to do any justice to any of it. The story follows a writer (Prithviraj) who survived the train wreck as a boy and goes on to write a book about the survivors and those who died. The interesting bit was how the driver who survived, lived on with his guilt and acceptance. (2/5)
“Lalitham Hiranmayam” stars Suresh Gopi has a conventional story but what makes it interesting is the ending. A man can’t decide between mistress and wife, loves both and wants to do justice to both. (Why I scoff at the story is a different discussion all together). Well directed. (3/5)
Next is the story of a haunted house “Mrityunjayam”. There is no reason why this story should have been included. A team of reporters who investigate the paranormal want to spend a night in the haunted house in a small village. One of them stays there and what happens to him is the story. Bad acting, bad direction and very uninteresting story. Horror is yet to come of age in India. (0/5)
“Happy Journey” directed by Anjali Menon is one of the jewels in the collection. A middle aged man sits next to a young girl in a bus. He tries to strike conversation and gets uncomfortably close to the girl. Initially the girl is very cornered and seems helpless. But at one point the conversation takes a turn and the girl confesses that she has kept bomb in the bus and can activate it with the press of a key on her cell phone. The rest of the journey the man experiences abject fear. The story has both serious and humorous undertones. The performances by both the girl and the man are excellent. An ideal short film with an interesting story with a twist and crisp direction. Reminds me of Roald Dahl’s short stories. (5/5)
“Aviraman” starring Shwetha Menon and Siddique is the story of an IT entrepreneur who is seeing some bad times during the recession. A subject which will resonate with a lot of people these days. This short film is warm and the subject has been treated very well without melodrama. Simple story but makes for a wonderful watch due to wonderful chemistry between the couple and thought out direction. (3/5)
Next story is a very humorous take on recession and the global nature of recession at that. Suraj does odd jobs at beaches of Goa and acts as guide for tourists. Due to off season there are not many travelers. By sheer luck he ends up meeting a Portuguese couple. Hoping to make some money from them, he takes them to a lodge for stay where the story takes a brilliant twist. It actually had me in splits. (4/5)
"Bridge" is easily the best story of the series. T. R. Unni (writer) has managed to stitch two separate lives in a wonderful mosaic so that you can’t take your eyes of it. The story follows two separate lives, one of a cat adopted by a little boy and later thrown out by his father and that of an old woman who has become a burden on her family. Anwar Rasheed has done full justice to the concept through his superb direction. Nice background score, this one had me riveted. (5/5)
Revathy directs “Makal”, a typical story of exploitation of mine workers where the parents give up a girl for adoption but she ends up in prostitution. You just expect the ending from the first scene. The children are endearing though. Stale is the word that describes the movie. (1/5)
“Puramkazchakal” is directed by Lal Jose and stars Mammotty. The story narrated by Sreenivasan is of a man who gets into a state bus and is constantly asking the driver to hurry constantly annoying the passengers on board. All of them curse and abuse him till he finally gets down at his stop. The ending tears your heart and will bring tears to your eyes. The movie makes you realize that you can never know the reasons behind a person’s actions. No matter what you guess, it’s not enough. A beautiful story, well directed with brilliant performance by Mammotty. (5/5)
Now coming to the direction of Renjith of “Kerala Café”, which he explains in a prologue to the movie. I can understand Renjith wanting to make sure that people sit through the movie and understand the motivation, but seriously it was a wee bit annoying. Also I think it is Renjith who fails in this movie. The individual stories had a lot of potential but they needed to be painted together on a canvas. The concept of a café is good where all these people spend some part of their lives but it’s not enough. It needed a little more depth and interaction. He just scrapes though it. (2/5)
Overall a movie worth watching with some brilliant moments.
(Do watch)
No comments:
Post a Comment