Nammal Thammil

Amongst all these great movies I also managed to see Nammal Thammil, primarily for Prithviraj. But I must confess, after about fifteen minutes into the movie, I absolutely couldn't take it any more. Barely managed to watch the movie in fast forward.

For the basic plot, please visit -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nammal_Thammil

Rather, I will suggest don't bother. Much better stuff to do if you have time at hand, even doing nothing will be worth more.

As you can guess,

Do skip.

Antareen (The Confined)

Normally when I start writing a review, I already have an outline sketched out. I know how I will begin the sketch.

Unfortunately, today I have no idea.

Well then, let’s begin with the fact that Antareen is my first Mrinal Sen movie. I realized that it’s based on Manto’s short story. I thought I have read Manto quite extensively, but couldn’t for the life of me, recall this story. Trying to figure out the name of the story was quite a task.

It is “Badshahat Ka Khatma” by Manto.

The movie starts with “the writer” (Anjan Dutta) getting a letter from his friend Dilip, inviting him to stay at his once palatial haveli, now falling to ruins. The family is away and Dilip thinks the haveli will help inspire “the writer”. You will wonder, why I am not naming the writer. This is one of those movies where the viewer never gets to know the name of either of the protagonists.

The writer turns up at this almost dilapidated compound with most of the old building in disrepair. Searching for a muse, “the writer” wants to be left alone. Actually, we never really get to know, who he is and what he wants (except that he loves tea). There is in no elucidation of anything personal or professional about him – or what he writes or why is he searching for inspiration. He has just settled in when he receives an anonymous call by a woman – “the woman” (Dimple Kapadia). She strikes a conversation and very soon their conversation becomes a regular occurrence.

Through bits and pieces, we realize that “the woman” is a mistress of a wealthy man who now ignores her. She calls random numbers to talk to everyday, “the writer” being one of them. “The woman” lives alone with no company except for an old servant.

(I had written the above part a couple of days ago, when I saw the movie. For some reason, I just couldn’t figure out what to write after this. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to write about the movie. So, I figured I should read the story the movie is based on. Ordered the book on Amazon (turned out to be a blessing, it has quite a few Manto’s stories I haven’t read earlier), and here I am back to writing the review.)

After having read the book, I understood why I couldn’t go on with the review. For me the movie was, well, sort of meaningless.

If I have to talk about what got me interested in watching the movie was the summary - “A writer moves into the palatial house of a friend to find creative inspiration. A chance telephonic chat with a mysterious woman blossoms into love as he finally finds what he was looking for.” coupled with the name.

However, for the first part, it was never clear what is it that the writer is searching for.  And in the

end, it wasn’t clear if he found it or how he found it. The only thing that “the writer” did was read Tagore’s Khudito Pashan (The Hungry Stones).

In the actual story, the man is waiting for true love for his life to start. Until then he just exists. This gives the telephone calls some meaning.

In the movie, it’s just a woman flirting on the phone. I don’t really think Dimple Kapadia quite got the essence of the character. All she managed to sound was flirtatious rather than whimsical. Her portrayal of “the woman” was rather flat and one dimensional.

The only idea worth making a note of was perhaps how the two characters are confined in their spaces or circumstances. The other reference was the one to Khudito Pashan (The Hungry Stones) by Tagore. The minor reference was to the haveli where “the writer” lived as compared to the palace in the story. The main reference was the hint of comparison between the “the woman” and the Bedouin girl from the story.

Anjan Dutta also failed to bring forth the fervor which should have increased with every phone call.

I am not quite sure if the actors are to be blamed though. This looks like a directorial disaster where the director just couldn’t get it right. Mrinal Sen had two great stories from Manto and Tagore and the idea is inspired. Unfortunately, it is as if he picked the words but forgot the soul of the story, its essence.

Read the books, skip the movie.

Do skip. 

Ustad Hotel

I have ignored this blog for a long time. Reasons both actual and imaginary had me convinced I didn’t have enough time to do this. Well, what to say, I miss this and there’s always time J

After my long hiatus, the first movie I saw was something I had been waiting to see for quite a while – “Ustad Hotel” starring Thilakan, Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menen in the lead.

I haven’t really seen any other Indian movie about food, and I love all the English ones I have seen, from Chocolat to Chef, No reservations and even Woman on Top (with the long-lost Penelope Cruz). So naturally, I was quite excited to see Ustad Hotel. It’s a story of a young guy “Faizi” who wants to be a chef dishonouring his father’s long standing dream to see him do an MBA and run a five-star hotel in Dubai (Awww so many clichés in one sentence).

Born to Abdul Razzaq, who migrated to Dubai, leaving his pregnant wife with four daughters only to find out that the fifth child was a much-awaited boy (and they keep on coming, them clichés). The wife dies and the father brings the four girls to run his kitchen and to bring up the boy (aint that the only thing girls are born to do) to Dubai. Well the kid grows up and is only passionate about one thing in life “food”, so skilfully depicted in the film as he twirls the ladle, rolls the dough and flips some cutlets all while his loving sisters cut vegetables and give him soulful approving looks. And now, our hero has a choice of colleges and countries (UK or US) to choose for his MBA. Lo behold, he discovers a third country called Switzerland and dupes his father to go to a cookery school. Trust me, his father never saw the name of the school even while paying the college dues.

The prodigal son returns, to be informed that he is gonna get married off to finalize a business deal. Our naïve “swiss trained”, “job in London” chef goes on to meet the girl even while his firang girlfriend back in London is waiting to put a down payment on a London apartment. The girl (sensibly so) turns down the proposal on discovering, he is a chef or cook.

Father is mad, takes away his passport, uncle smuggles him back to India to his grandfather who owns the best Biryani restaurant aka hotel in Kozhikode. Grand pa wants to teach the kid humility or business or God knows what but makes him run around carrying rice sacks, cleaning tables, making deliveries etc. Finally, he gramps shows some pity and gets Faizi a job at the adjacent five-star hotel.

The story is now how he impresses the fusion food toting Paris chef, charms the staff at ustad hotel and rekindles the friendship with the same girl from Dubai his father wanted him to marry. It’s just gulf, we don’t need an explanation of how the girl turns up India and becomes a rock chic.

Anyways, Faizi turns around the hotel, saving it from the clutches of an evil banker and hotel tycoon.

And now, the final lesson awaits.

This swiss trained chef has learnt how to cook but now needs to learn why he cooks…dah. Gramps in a dramatic turn of events is in the hospital with a mild attack and sends Faizi to Madurai. There he meets up with another chef who was once with “Taj”. Now, he runs his own kitchen to feed the needy and the old. Just like that Faizi gets inspired and drops his plan for a job abroad, to manage and run the Ustad Hotel.

All's well that ends well.

I know, I know, I write reviews, not rant for the lack of any creativity is some movies I have seen recently.

But unfortunately for Ustad hotel, I saw it on the heels of Jolly LLB 2 (that’s a saga-esque rant for another day). For once, I was hoping Ustad Hotel will turn out to be a movie extolling the younger generation for believing their dreams and taking up their passions even those involving being a world class chef. But the scriptwriter, director, producer just couldn’t let that happen, could they?

There is a moral to be told. Some lesson to be learnt. Everything is not about money or being the best at what you do. Nah nah nah…unless you are saving the humanity, getting rid of hunger and (wait for it….) world peace….

Dulquer Salmaan, has no expression…movie begins and ends and I am not even sure I registered him. Had to google multiple times before figuring out who he is (and to my surprise he is in O Kadhal Kanmani). Nithya Mennon hardly had any screen time. Thilakan is the only one who did justice to his role. A man who has been there, done that and figured life. No wonder every time he looked soulful there was a trio of Sufi dancers in the background. Seriously, the director needs to know (Anwar Rasheed), the audience really doesn’t need to be spoon fed to that level. (This reminds me, I must write about La La Land)

So in short, movie begins with a promise, however clichéd, but fails miserable in the second half.

Don’t waste your time.

Do skip.

(On a separate note, if any Bollywood wallahs want to adapt this, with minor modifications, and a better cast, it can be an entertainer.)

4 The People

Well! let me first talk about the story before I write the actual review.

It is a story about four young college students who come together to start a revolution of sorts in the country. They start a website where people can post complaints about corrupt officials, crimes and other unlawful activities and these young men take action against them by cutting off the criminal’s hand.

So, of course the police and politicians are up in arms against them and a young officer is brought in to nab these guys. He after a lot of hits and misses finally manages to nab them.

Now there is a girlfriend of one of the guys, some vague story about their families which tries to explain their inspiration for this venture etc.

There are some movies where the plot has some potential, unfortunately there are way too many gaping holes in this movie. Story is shoddy, background score even worse. I did not like the music at all and it was out of place in the movie, but I understand it was a hit when the movie was released. There is no logic to the script and the script writer forgot that he needs to establish some strong characters before telling a powerful story. I don’t think this can even be called a story because it is way too disjointed.

The only decent job acting-wise was done by the Narain (as Rajan Mathew, IPS). Rest of the cast don’t deserve a mention.

I literally saw the movie in fast forward.

Don’t waste your time with this one.

The movie is available with subtitles with AP International and it was dubbed in Tamil and Telugu as well. 

Do skip.

Hallo

Hallo is to Mohanlal, what Dabangg2 is to Salman Khan…story that could have been…moments that could have been…bad music…wasted actors…relying solely on out of place antics of a star…

I do know Dabangg2 will break a lot of box office records this year and from what I understand Hallo did as well.

Anyways here goes…

Shivaraman (Mohanlal), a lawyer by profession is now an unabashed alcoholic blaming his parents and brother, a police officer for the untimely demise of his lover.

Parvathi (Parvathi Menon) is the daughter of an extremely wealthy Marwari. Her family members apparently are after her life and she is trying to escape their clutches. Unfortunately she is kidnapped, but somehow manages a phone call which connects her to Shivaraman. He figures out the hideout by recognizing the ‘bar’ sign Parvathi describes and rescues the damsel in distress. Rest of the movie is a tussle between Shivaraman and Parvathi’s family. I can now write about tons of loopholes in the plot and absolutely silly story…but I am not going to waste my time doing it.

Music is as bad as it can get. Direction and editing don’t deserve a mention. Mohanlal looks ridiculous doing those antics and Parvathi Menon looks like a bimbo and acts like one for good measure.

DVD is available with Moser Baer with subtitles - Hallo

Do Skip.

Nivedyam

The movie traces the life of Mohana Krishnan (Vinu Mohan), who inspite of being a high caste “Namboodiri”, does carpentry.  He is sent by a lyricist who was his deceased father’s (a famous literary) to learn music to Kovilakom. There Mohana starts working in the temple while learning music from Thampuram. All the girls who are studying there also like Mohan. There is an orphan Satyabhama (Bhama) who also learns music there and she also falls in love with Mohan.

After this it’s the regular filmi story – boy meets girl...they fall in love...girl is betrothed to the villain...boy fights villain...society opposes boy and girl...boy is forced to kill the villain...Boy is jailed...girl vows to wait for him forever.

The only saving grace of the movie is Bhama whoes innocence steals your heart. She plays the character of an effervescent village belle who smiles with mischief inspite of all her trubles with aplomb.

Vinu Mohan looks like a foolish tongue in cheek rebel without a cause. No one else even deserves a mention. Music is below average. The story is all over the place. Very frankly I couldn’t sit through the movie.


The movie is available with Moser baer with subtitles - Moserbaer - Nivedyam

Do skip.

Arabikatha

‘Cuba’ Mukundan (Sreenivasan) is a leading member of the communist party in a village in Kerala. His whole life revolves around the party so much so that he is not married. To me the movie was almost like a cheap imitation of a work of V.S. Naipaul. The writer has made a caricature out of the main character. Mukundan has learnt his communism from ‘Marx’s book with red cover’ and from his dad and some songs. He is a simpleton with no real understanding of the world. But he is an honest man; you don’t even for a minute doubt his intentions. He is opposing the pollution caused due to a factory whose owner is a rich industrialist from Dubai. One of the party leaders, Karunan try to make him compromise but to no result. In the end the leader along with the industrialist falsely implicate Mukundan’s father and blame him for stealing 20 Lacs from the bank in the name of party funds. Meanwhile Mukundan’s father passes away.

To clear his debt Mukundan decides to go to Dubai. At every instant he is cheated. Finally back at home his close friend realizes that Mukundan was implicated falsely and he travels o dubai to find him. But for two years no one has heard of Mukundan. Finally they are able o trace him and also catch the party leader who is now a minister taking bribe and record it on camera. Mukundan settles score and returns home to serve his party and his people.

The film has its moments where the director tries to bring in the irony. Sreenivasan is passable as a simpleton. Nedumudi Venu is wasted in the role of Mukundan’s father.  But the biggest flaw for me is that the movie was pointless.

Useless script, mediocre performances.

Do skip.

Lollipop

I had picked up this movie for the actors especially Prithviraj and Roma who had amazing chemistry Chocolate.

The movie begins with Panji (Jayasurya) telling his story to another man while waiting for the ferry. Panji was a small time pick pocket committing petty crimes. One day he tried to steal Franco’s (Prithviraj) bag and gets beaten by him. Unfortunately both of them are caught by the police and later released on the insistence of a local priest who is also Franco’s godfather. Panji follows the priest and Franco and is ultimately given work in Franco’s garage so that he can mend his ways. Franco lives with his sister Jenifer (Roma) who is a tomboy. Their parents are no more. He is over protective of his sister and picks up fights with anyone who upsets her. One such person is Rose (Bhavana) who studies with Jeni who for some reason hates Rose. Though at the face of it Franco scolds Rose for picking a fight with Jeni, actually they are in love. They cannot acknowledge their love openly as Franco and Jeni have a pact that each will marry the person of other’s choice so that they can always live peacefully under one roof.

Meanwhile Panji falls in love with Jeni who is oblivious to his affections. Jeni ends up meeting a doctor, Dr. Aby (Kunchacko Boban) and the two like each other instantly. When Franco sees Dr. Aby, he instantly rejects him for some reason. As a result Jeni also breaks her association with him. Dr. Aby and Rose are coincidentally neighbors who parents are constantly fighting with each other.

One day Franco ends up beating a SP who was rude to Jeni, unaware of his actual identity. Hearing this Rose comes to tell him of the consequences when Jeni sees them. Brother and sister are about to have an altercation when the SP comes and arrests them. The local priest again comes to their rescue. Jeni is extremely upset with Franco who realizes his mistake and breaks up Rose. A little later Jeni realizes her mistake and talks to Rose and tells her to call Franco. Meanwhile we see Franco at a mental hospital meeting his mother who is in a very bad shape. He meets Dr. Aby there and acknowledges that he was the one who told Jeni to break up with Aby. He admits that the lady is only Jeni’s mom and in reality Jeni is not related to Franco. Franco found her on the road one day when she was a child and took care of her like a sister as her mom was not in well. Jeni knows nothing about it and he thought if she got together with Aby she will learn the truth which might upset her. Aby acknowledges Franco and promises never to reveal the truth. Meanwhile Rose calls up Franco to tell him about Jeni’s acceptance of their relation. Thus Franco and Rose; and Jeni and Aby get together and their parents throw a big party on their engagement.

Meanwhile Panji is heartbroken and is determined to marry Jeni. He creates a misunderstanding between Franco, Jeni and Rose and Aby where Franco and Jeni suspect them of having an affair and break off the engagement. After a while Franco unaware of Panji’s true nature gets Jeni and Panji engaged. Police catches an associate of Panji who confesses to everything, just in time before the wedding. In a fight Panji is killed and everyone gets back together and lives happily ever after.

Movie starts on a comical note and seems to have potential. But after an hour of running time, gets absolutely entangled and looses the plot completely. I actually couldn’t sit through the movie and fast forwarded the songs and fight sequences.

Shafi is extremely disappointing and the movie is a complete waste of time. Prithviraj is disappointing, Roma is her usual bubbly self and the rest of the actors are wasted.

(Do skip)

Nadiya Kollapetta Rathre (The Night Nadiya Was Murdered)

Three crimes are committed at the same time on Souparnika Express running between Chennai and Mangalore. A girl Thulasi Mani (Suja Karthika), famous classical dancer has committed suicide, Shreya, a NDTV news reporter is killed\committed suicide by jumping from the train and Nadiya, a sharp shooter is murdered. The case is never solved and Nadiya (Kavya Madhavan) who is actually alive but comatose is vegetating in a hospital.

The case, after two years is handed over to Sharaufdeen Tharamasi (Suresh Gopi), IPS officer and encounter specialist of RACT (Railway Anti Corruption Task Force). He very soon establishes that all three girls were murdered. On investigating Sharaufdeen learns that everyone on the train was in some way or the other related to one of the three girls (That’s where I am reminded of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”, but alas the similarity ends there). Through the course of the investigation some highly influential people are suspected including some doctors, SP, prominent actress, a famous musician etc. The movie follows Sharaufdeen as he goes about solving the three crimes.

Interesting story and for each of the crimes the writer starts with a blank canvas and fills it with clues and missing links in a phase manner which sustains the viewer’s interest. Having said that, the movie suffers some serious lacunae. Firstly too much importance has been given to the characters who have actually got nothing to do with the movie (for e.g. SP Alexander (Subair) – I just did not understand why it was essential to waste screen time his animosity with other inspector). Secondly, there are just too many characters many of whom are not needed (the Tamil poet for one, Rajamma’s (Bindu Panikkar) and the actress for another). It actually creates unnecessary confusion and reduces the time onscreen which the director could have used to define and explain his main characters.

Thirdly the movie is actually three separate stories and the only common link is that the three murders happen at the same time on the same train and that the same officer is investigating them. To take the story from commonplace to phenomenal, there should have been some common link in the three murders. And finally the screenplay and dialogues are absolutely nonsensical at places.

Mediocre performances, bad screenplay and pathetic direction (what was with the obtuse angle during fight sequences).

(Do skip)

Bhramaram

The movie tells the story of a simple jeep driver Sivan Kutty (Mohanlal) who is convicted of killing a classmate in school. After his release 21 years later, he changes name and his family moves to a different village to settle. Rid of the past, he is happily married with a new identity and has a loving wife and daughter. The wife is blissfully unaware of the past. But the past catches up when she learns of the truth accidently. She leaves Sivan Kutty and goes to her parents place with their daughter. Distraught Sivan Kutty goes in search of his classmates who can prove that he is innocent and was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit.

In the city we see Sivan Kutty mysteriously appearing in the lives of Unni (Suresh Menon) and his wife and daughter. He tells his name is Jose and Unni is unable to place him in his class. Later on Unni realizes his true identity and feels threatened. This is actually the part of the film which is decently done where Unni feels terrorized by the presence of Sivan Kutty and tries to get rid of him. However Siva forces Unni to journey with him to tell his wife and daughter that it is not he who had committed the crime but Unni. From this point onwards the movie takes a turn for the worst and is irredeemable. The rest of the movie is Siva’s journey back to his hometown with Unni with a very predictable end.



I felt that the director was completely confused and could not decide what flavor to give to the movie. So while first half seems like an urban drama of a yuppy couple with a past, the second half seems a semi-horror film with a psychotic killer on loose. And if you have a star like Mohanlal in the movie you definitely have to throw in some absolutely uncalled for fighting sequences. The two halves actually seem like two different movies.

Mohanlal for his bit has acted well, but then that is accepted of a star of his caliber and then too this performance is nothing compared to his earlier movies. Rest of the actors are not even average and don’t even deserve a mention.

Overall the movie had a promising script and could have been a movie to be reckoned with but instead suffers with lack of coherence and dismal direction.

(Do Skip)