Movie: Kerala Cafe
Language: Malayalam
Theatre: Savitha
Date: Oct 30, 2009. 9:30 pm

Review
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As a different occasion demands a different look, the most different Malayalam Cinema of recent times also demands a different format for review.Stories have always enthralled us, be it the bed time stories from childhood, to books , novels and cinema. Director, Producer Ranjith's new movie 'Keala Cafe', is an analogy of 10 Short stories.

The 10 stories have been rated below purely on the basis of how much the reviewer has liked each.

The Best Ones
1. ‘Bridge’ by Anwar Rasheed - The most heart warming of all the stories is 'Bridge', the journey of discovering company at the point of being abandoned. It’s not because its unpredictable but because of its sheer presentation that this story wins hands down. With awesome camera and performances (Shantadevi, Salimkumar,Kalpana to the little boy) 'Bridge' reigns down in your hearts as the first rain after the summer.

2. ‘Island Express’ by Shankar Ramakrishnan - Personally, I liked the way this story unfurled. There is this tinge of surprise element and as the missing pieces
fall in place, the journey of common suffering after a disaster is a touching tale. Prithviraj's voice is apt during the scenes and Jayasurya's modulation notable.
Raju, Sukumari, Rehman throw in passing but competent glimpses.

The Good Ones
The first 3 in this lot were too close to call, but here it goes...
3. ‘Nostalgia’ by Padmakumar - The most sarcastic of all the stories, 'Nostalgia' is about all the Malayalees who live in nostalgia when they are abroad but shun the same when they reach their motherland. Brilliantly cheesy and sarcastic, 'Nostalgia' throws our falsifications out in the open. Dileep puts is a good one.

4. ‘Puram Kazhchakal’ by Lal Jose - Simple, unassuming yet with a chilling climax is Lal Jose's contribution, about the passengers in a journey who never know what the other is going through. Srinivasan is competent and Mammotty fits the role to perfection. The closing shot is one of the best story climaxes you will see in the movie. Lal Jose is moneys worth, most of the time.

5. ‘Happy Journey’ by Anjali Menon - Journey that takes twists to unchartered territories; 'Happy Journey' is a wonderful take on a short trip. Nithya Menon shines as the star of the show. Jagathy is classic as usual. Anjali Menon sure knows what she is doing with this two way conversational trip.

6. ‘Makal’ by Revathy – ‘Makal’ is nothing surprising but has a well known social message portrayed in a convincing manner. The actress playing the mother excels in her performance and her desperation and helplessness moves you. ‘Makal’ is for social enlightening.

The Ones That Went Sore
7. ‘Aviramam’ by B.Unni - A normal story of a struggling man in the midst of a financial crisis, 'Aviramam' is pretty much ordinary stuff apart from the warmth between the leading characters. An expected effort by the director.
8. ‘Season’ by Shyamaprasad - A story that tries to be hep, funny, humanitarian but reaches no where and ends up as passing fare. Shyamaprasad fails to leave an impact in the minds of the audience.
9. ‘Lalitham Hiranmayam’ by Shaji Kailas - The bizarre close up shots and the incessant rains proclaim the arrival of Shaji Kailas with a story which has unconvincing sequences and dialogues. Nothing better was expected from this anyways.
10. ‘Mrityunjayam’ by Uday - The story which disappoints as a horror, mythical tale looks like one out for the 'Darna Mana Hai' lot. With CBI and investigators thrown in, it’s easy to be shunned away.

Directors
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Of the directors, the most impressive are Anwar Rasheed, Anjali Menon, Padmakumar and Lal Jose. Most of the cast has put in superb glimpes of their talent. Camera in some stories like ‘Bridge’ and ‘Puram Kazhchakal’ is superb. Renjith needs kudos for bringing this together.

The Link. Does it work?
-------------------------------

The main challenge of any analogy of short stories on screen is whether the link between them works. Here the link is the cafe which they take their breaks during the journeys.The 'Cafe' element seems forced in most of the stories as they progress but as the climax unfurls, it has been more or less convincingly depicted. This should impress the link well in the minds of the audience.

Verdict - 3.5/5 as a Rating
'Good Experiment for a Different Movie' as an Opinion.

Kerala Cafe - Bold and Beautiful

Movie: Pazhassi Raja
Language: Malayalam
Date: Oct 20, 2009

Review
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At the end of a film, when the lights come on and the curtains fall, what ultimately matters is how much the movie has affected you at heart. Especially, if the movie is a piece of history, then the characters live in your memories decades later (The same director's OVVG is a perfect example), if the movie manages to pull your heart strings. Hariharan's latest epic 'Pazhassiraja' is grand piece of history, but how much the movie manages to affect you at heart is the most vital question, as the end credits roll. The Grandeur, effort and the intention is unquestionably there but what is questionable is the soul.

Grand Piece of History
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The movie is a depiction of history in the era of 1790s and undoubtedly the portrayal is grand and on a massive scale. Hundreds of cast in the battle scenes, pieces of tribal villages’ recreated, full strength English Army, guerilla kind of warfare in the forest, 'Pazhassiraja' leaves no stone unturned in setting the backdrop for the epic piece to unfurl. Though the publicized budget seems completely imaginary, still this would go down as one of the costliest productions ever made in this Industry.

Technical Wizardry
--------------------------

‘Pazhassiraja’ is also a landmark in terms of the techniques used in Malayalam films. The cinematography enhances many a scenes. The radiant forests when Kerala Varma's stallion takes a dip in the stream, looks a beautiful shot. Battle scenes, fort sequences all have been shot well. Another huge positive is the color tone chosen. It becomes every evident in the outdoor scene. The Color tone gives the historic feel to the movie.

The lighting is perfect in many scenes especially one of the starting scenes when English Army invades Kerala Varma's palace. ‘Pazhassiraja’ is also enhanced with use of sound. Academy award Winner Resul Pookkotty shows how sound effects can raise a movie to a better level. Such use of sound in Malayalam is a unique first.

Hariharan as a director gets many things right but that’s about just it. Even though the movie is 3 hours and 20 minutes, it never gets hopelessly boring which should definitely be given as a credit to the director. His vision is strong and the execution succeeds to a point, in terms of scale. Where Hariharan falters is to build characters and to put heart and soul in to them. Script by the legendary MT Vasudevan Nair holds on, but not anywhere close to his previous master pieces.

Ensemble Cast
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‘PazhassiRaja’ has a competent performance by an ensemble cast. Sarath Kumar impresses most just because his is the only character which has been developed with proper character traits. A loyal friend, a faithful lieutenant, a fearsome fighter, a noble heart, ‘Edachena Kunkan’ is a treat to watch on screen. When he bravely ends his life rather than being hanged, your heart goes out to his loyalty.
Padmapriya as ‘Neeli’ is somewhat equally impressive as the ferocious fighter tribal lady. She is completely upright and lives the part to good extent. Manoj K jayan as the ‘Thalakkal Chandu’ acts out one of the most moving scenes in the movie when he is hanged to death.
Mammotty as ‘Keralavarma Pazhassi’ is a walk in the park of the legendary actor. He seems completely laid back and taking it easy until the last one hour. He comes in to his own in the climax. In the last one hour he raises his performance a few notches to add fire to the character. If ‘Pazassiraja’ as a character will be remembered a few years down the line, it would only be because this legendary actor.

Negatives
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Firstly, the movie and its characters do not pull at your heart strings, for most part of it. The moment which the movie really touches you for the first time, arrives well over 2 hours in to the movie when ‘Thalakkal Chandu’ is publicly hanged in the rain. From there on the movie takes a different graph, emotionally speaking. Till then it’s all business as usual. Characters are never built properly. The only ones that touch you somewhat are ‘Edachena Kunkan’ and ‘Kerala Varma’. Character traits are never exposed or it seems no one has time for it though that excuse seems lame as the movie is 3 hrs 20 mins long. OVVG had 3 beautifully developed characters in Chandu, Archa and Aromal.

Secondly, lots of things seems forced upon during the movie. The treaty is signed and then broken without properly establishing events which led to the same. Kanika is shown undergoing a traumatic tragedy and minutes later she is all happy and in romantic scenes with the hero. 'KeralaVarma' abruptly decides that its been long since he has had a duel and does a casual duel with 'Edachena Kunkan'. Plastic. The English lady, ‘Dora’ meets ‘Keralavarma’ in the forest and she is so impressed (aka Lagaan) that she keeps fighting for him with her husband. It’s so plastic and unreal. A hanging scene is created for her to enter in a Pallakku wail and then leave. And when she leaves to England the last word she screams out is to give regards to the King. Completely forced upon and unreal. Even the length of 3 hours and 20 minutes seems forced upon. The interval sequence arrives out of no where.

Thirdly, important characters just disappear. Thilakan who is shown fighting with ‘Keralavarma’ for the throne, is presented as a major challenger to him. But after 2 scenes, he just completely disappears from the picture. Neeli who is the single most impressive female character in the whole movie, is shown putting up a brave fight against the English Army as the King escapes. After that what happens to her is never shown. Probably it needs to be assumed that she went down fighting with the army.

Fourthly, there is some terrible English cast chosen in the movie. Most of them act terribly or over act. The character ‘Dora’ and her husband (who plays the collector) are ultimate symbols of the casting goof ups done in terms of the English actors. They never much evoke any hatred. All they evoke is sympathy for poor acting.

Music is nothing impressive. Kanika is completely wasted in a souless role. The wired jump sequences look unreal and tacky which is a downer.

In conclusion, 'Pazhassiraja' is a piece of history presented on a grand scale and just that. The characters never become heart warming because they are left under developed. What is shown is their bravery and virility only. In terms of being heartless the movie has a striking resemblance to Aamir Khan's 'Mangal Pandey' but is definitely notches above that.
It’s a sure one time watch for the scale, grandeur, sound and techniques used in presenting it.

Verdict - 3.25/ 5 as a Rating.
'Fine One Time Watch' as an opinion.

‘Pazhassi Raja’ - Its Grand but how we wish it had more heart and soul in it.

Movie: Wake Up Sid
Language: Hindi
Date: 07-Oct-2009


Review
During an actor’s life span some times he/she may come across roles which really do not require much imagination in terms of acting skills. These roles would require them to behave or react as what they are, both in terms of their real personality and physique. Ayan Mukerji’s directorial debut ‘Wake Up Sid’ sees B-Town’s newest star prodigee Ranbir Kapoor in one such role as the lazy kid-man ‘Siddharth’ aka Sid.

2 actors who live their roles
One of the wholesome positives of ‘Wake Up Sid’ is that its 2 lead actors suit their roles to the T, so much so that they seem like living it and not really acting.
Ranbir Kapoor is so much at élan and natural as the rich, careless, aimless, ambitionless youth, who feels it as a natural thing to say that what he wants to do in future, is to keep spending his father’s wealth.3 films old Ranbir, delivers his best performance to date in the movie. Ranbir as ‘Sid’ is young, charming and has wonderful screen presence. Ranbir doesn’t have to put much imagination in to the acting, which is evident from the last scene where he is sitting at the window and it starts raining. For the first time in the movie, he falters to bring in the right emotions when some imagination is called for. It almost shows that he was living through the rest of the entire movie.

Konkana as ‘Ayisha’, the ambitious yet cautious, uncompromising ‘new girl in the city’ of Mumbai, seems like a perfect cast. She is the mature calming presence who loves freedom and independence. Its through her eyes that Sid tries to at least get the first glimpse of what independence means and how it needs to be valued. Konkana may not have the spunk which other B-Town leading ladies have, but she delivers a fairly strong performance. On the flip side, ‘Wake Up Sid’ comes soon after ‘Luck By Chance’.The roles and the ambience are pretty similar which may be a spoiler for the fortunate few who have seen previous performance.


Music that Wakes You Up
Shanker-Ehsan and Loy have delivered at least 3 good tracks in this movie. The cool and soothing ‘IkTara’, the full of life ‘Life is Crazy’ and the title track ‘Wake Up Sid’. The music lifts the movie at some parts for sure.

Negatives
‘Wake Up Sid’ is slow by any standards. Its 2 hours and 15 minutes in length but feels like a full 3 hour movie. Ayan spends a lot of time building moments and the twists in the story fail to create impact, as the whole narration is in a breezy manner. This could easily have been a 1 hour 30 minutes movie.
And then, the script is weak. There are some sparkling moments thrown here and there but surely the script needs more mettle to hold viewer interest.
Director is so much involved with the breezy pace of the movie that viewers would soon loose interest. The only thing that would keep you hooked are Ranbir and Konkana as Sid and ‘Ayisha’.

Unlike as ‘Geet’ and ‘Aditya’ who traveled across the terrific landscape of the script of ‘Jab We Met’ and hence created a movie that was a treat to watch, ‘Sid’ and ‘Ayisha’ remain good performances alone, because the script that tells their story is not rich enough and the pace is slackening.

In short, ‘Wake Up Sid’ is a harmless one time watch for a little patient ones.


Verdict2.75 /5 as a Rating
Just Above Average
as an Opinion

‘Sid just about manages to Wake Up’ – Thanks to Ranbir!

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About Me

The Rainmaker is intended as a blog for casual writing and bring about small little changes wherever possible.Initally, it would have movie reviews watched at the cinemas. For starters, movie reviews that I have written over over the past 2 years for Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil movies have been included here. ----------------------------- Next Likely Reviews - Ividam Swargamanu