Molly Aunty Rocks

I had seen this movie some years ago, but for some reason never wrote the review. Probably one of those days of slumber and inanity in Mumbai.

Anyways, I vaguely remembered enjoying the movie and decided to see it again. Prithviraj after all does add to the temptation.

Molly Aunty rocks! As is evident from the name is the story of Molly Aunty played by Revathi. She lives with her husband and two daughters in US but for past two years is in Kerala, working in the bank. All indications show that she has some financial trouble and is trying to raise money by breaking her FDs and selling ancestral property. The feisty, fearless and witty character of Molly is what lends colour to this movie. From insisting on doing everything herself, bargaining even for the smallest things and doing what she wants, Revathi gives a very entertaining performance.

One fine day, Molly gets a notice from the IT department for tax dues worth 30K. When she goes to the IT department to clarify, a corrupt officer asks her for a “gift” of 15K to make the matter go away. She rebukes the officer and later files a police complaint against him.

Within a few days, to her surprise, Molly gets another IT notice this time with due amount almost 10 Lacs. Enraged, she goes to meet the assistant commissioner Pranav Roy (Prithviraj). He comes across as an egotistical, powerful, abrasive officer and completely justifies the tax amount.

Over the course of time, Pranav and Molly have several altercations, involving even family and church to mediate. Finally, Molly’s husband comes back from US and hires a lawyer.

Amidst all this, while Molly and her husband keep on insisting that they do not have any money. The lawyer sets about to find what happened to the money that Molly got from sale of ancestral land, FDs etc.

The matter is finally resolved between Molly and Pranav in a surprising revelation.

There are few actors in today’s generation as versatile as Prithviraj and he does full justice to the part of a young officer slightly heady with power.

The movie is feel good, entertaining and fast paced. Having said that, this is not something that will remain with you after you finish watching. 

Direction and editing are crisp with enough comic relief and no melodrama.

Can Watch.

Gramaphone

I recently saw this Malayalam movie starring Dileep, Meera Jasmine and Navya Nair. Sachi (Dileep) is the son of a great singer who is no more. Burdened by a legacy he never cared to inherit Sachi juggles between multiple jobs to make ends meet for his family. In addition he also takes care of his father’s friends who were a part of his orchestra. They are all friends with Jenny, a local Jew and one of the few families still living in Cochin. Jenny’s father wants her to marry a boy who will take all of them back to Israel. Jenny and Sachi like each other but are too stuck in their worlds to be able do something about it.

Pooja (Navya Nair) is the daughter of a singer whose importance in the movie I never really understood. Pooja becomes good friends with Jenny when she starts working at the same hotel Jenny works. Meanwhile there’s Jenny's Aunt Sarah (Revathy) who refuses to leave the room she has shut herself in. Though never explicitly mentioned we get to learn that Sarah was in love with Sachi’s father, the singer, but for her dad’s insistence on marrying a Jew, who could take them to Israel, could never get together with Sachi’s dad.

Another angle in the story is that though Sachi is a brilliant singer and musician, he refuses to acknowledge it because he believes that all musicians are corrupt and base.

So as you can already see there are too many angles in the movie. I don't quite understand the story that the director wants to tell. The thing in having too many characters is that you have to bring all of their stories, however unique or mundane, to a logical conclusion. And add to it they should all connect somehow. This is where the script writer and director fail miserably. The movie is all over the place.

I don’t think that whatever the actors did could have salvaged the movie.

(Can Skip)

Kerala Cafe

There are two parts to the story of Kerala Café. One the individual stories and secondly the thread or the background that ties the stories together so that in spite of being ten different stories they look like a montage.

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)

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)