Twenty:20

Firstly I must say it's a feat in itself to pull off a movie with the stellar star cast as that of this movie. Mammootty, Mohanlal, Dileep, Suresh Gopi and all others. The director and the producer have truly done a remarkable job in getting all these people together.

Now about the movie, which is a murder mystery of sorts, has enough twists and turns to keep you riveted. Arun, grandson of a famous retired judge is Implicated in murder of a student. Ramesh (Mammootty) is a famous advocate who comes to the rescue. Arun is declared innocent and released. But soon Arun is murdered and police arrests Devan (Mohanlal) for the murder. His mother and sister request Ramesh to take the case, pleading innocence.

Ramesh believes Devan to be innocent and agrees. Devan is released. But soon Ramesh realizes that something is amiss and starts investigating. Thus unravels a complicated story of revenge, deciet and murder.

While performances, given the star cast, are stellar, it is the story which lacks crispness. The initial builtup of the judge Vishwanathan is quite useless, similarly the revenge motive of the SP (Suresh Gopi) stressed at various points in the movie does not play any part in the plot.

Another weakness is the timing of the twists. Unlike an Agatha Christie novel, where the plot changes just when you guess the murderer, here the twists come a second too soon or too late taking the edge out of the story. Also the movie could have done with massive editing.

Overall an interesting plot and good performances.

Can watch.

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)

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)

Manichitrathazhu (The Ornate Lock)

A poignant story of how our mind can trick us into believing anything and how our lives our shaped by the baggage of the past we carry. Dealt with subtlety, carefully etched out characters and realistic humor make the movie a must see.

For me this movie is one of the finest examples of what cinema is all about – engrossing two hours of complete entertainment.

A young couple (Suresh Gopi and Shobhana) move into their ancestral home and are plagued by small inexplicable accidents. Not attributing it to blind superstition and suspecting potential mental illness of one of his cousins (Vinaya Prrasad), Nakulan (Suresh Gopi) calls on his friend (Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph)who is a famous psychiatrist in America currently travelling in India. Mohanlal makes his appearance close to the interval and from then on movie takes the form of this thrilling psychodrama with brilliant twist in the tale.

The plot revolves around Dr. Sunny uncovering the source of the strange happenings at the mansion and helping the protagonist recover from her affliction. Mohanlal plays the character of slightly eccentric shrink with ridiculous histrionics which leaves you in splits. Though central to the movie the character is subdued and nowhere overshadows the movie.


This movie definitely belongs to Shobhana who plays the protagonist, for the portrayal of innocent, loving and simple Ganga and the fierce, passionate and revengeful Nagavalli. There is actually a scene in which she transforms from one character to another in front of Dr. Sunny which leaves you completely spellbound. Beautiful haunting music which will echo in your ears much after you are done watching the movie.

Fazil must be applauded on his superb direction, though there are one or two scenes which are on the verge of melodrama.

The success of the movie led it to be remade in almost all major the “woods” of Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and finally Hindi. The DVD is available with subtitles at the leading stores.

(Must Watch)