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
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‘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.
Verdict – 2.75 /5 as a Rating
Just Above Average as an Opinion
‘Sid just about manages to Wake Up’ – Thanks to Ranbir!
Movie : Robinnhood
Language : Malayalam
Theater : Padma
Date : 24th Sep, 2009 - Thursday
Review
Youthful energy has always been captivating and energizing and when it happens in Malluwood, where it has been always lacking in the recent years, it can be refreshing as well.
Joshiy's new movie 'Robinnhood' (thats how it spells in the title) tries to ride the wave of youth on the back of an interesting ATM Robbery scam. 'Robinnhood' tries to be what you call in quintessential terms a 'youthful time pass flick' and mix high tech robbery to it. The percentage to which the movie has succeeded, lies in the territory of being debatable.
Youth Trio Gone Sour
During the first 15-20 minutes of 'Robinnhood', you feel that its almost like the 3 pronged clash that you famously loved in Joshiy's last 20-20. And it makes you feel happy because Joshiy is quite good at that and these youthful stars were missing anyways from the previous version. But sadly it doesn't last for long. Jayasurya is sidelined in a role which is a police officer who comes and goes once in a while. Its not a worthwhile role for him. The movie is a two way story between Prithviraj and Naren for most parts. We can safely say that 'Jayasurya is wasted' in this role.
The movie cannot boast of one decisive superlative lead actor performance. Prithviraj is good and has amazing screen presence. He is the hero of the movie but he doesn't run away with it as in 'Puthiya Mugham'.Naren is having almost an equal footing as Prithviraj puts in a unexpectedly competent performance but he neither is the clincher performance as well. They both relish amidst each other and as longs as they are chasing each other, the movie interests you.
A Good First Half
'Robinnhood' promises a lot in the first half. Its a logically well explained ATM Robbery story with technology part of it shown beautifully. Joshiy needs pat on the back for the depiction of the technical robbery. Until the interval, Prithviraj and Naren are hunting for each other and the movie keeps you glued to your seats. The interval point though not a high point is also fine.
Average Second Half
As the movie unfurls after the interval, things start to go downhill. The script takes the predictable route to justify the robbery done by the protagonist, with a much clichéd 'PAST' episode. And soon, twists become predictable. Movie completely moves in to its lowest points when Naren no longer hunts Prithviraj but starts saving him for the 'friendship'. So, it turns in to the usual one villain bashing end but the climax episode is cleverly planned and shown on screen, to say the least.
The Saviour
There is only one Saviour for 'Robinnhood' and thats undoubtedly Joshiy. He keeps you hooked for at least 70% of the movie and needs applause for the same. The way he has portrayed the technical portions of the robbery needs praise. The two character play and behind the back hunt between Prithviraj and Naren also needs applause. To be a veteran and yet to be up to date with a techno savvy movie, deserves kudos.
Music - The Downer
But how you would wish that Joshiy had some better music sense. From the moment you see 'M.Jayachandran' for the music credits in the opening, you smell foul. In such a hep youthful theme that is the last thing you would want to do. And that is what exactly happens. None of the 3 tracks are even average. The Caribbean Salsa party song (Sa Mosa) is the worst you would have heard of that kind.
Deepak Dev showed you how good music can lift an average movie with 'Puthiya Mugham'. Watch 'Robinnhood' to understand the reverse. There is not even a decent signature tune for the 'Prince of Thieves'. Youthful hep techno movie with no good music, now thats what you call a 'downer'!
Of the rest of the cast, Bhavana is for eye candy. Samvratha does the second heroine as usual. Biju Menon is his usual self. Jayasurya would have been fine not doing this one.
To Sum it all up, 'Robinnhood' has an impressive first half and an average second half. As long as the hunt lasts, its interesting but soon the 'justification from the past' arrives in the most clichéd set up.Climax is well arranged.
Verdict - 3.25 / 5 as a RATING
'ABOVE AVERAGE ENTERTAINER' as an opinion
Robinnhood - 'The Prince of Thieves who couldn't steal the hearts'.