Eshal - Not an untold story, perhaps beautifully framed

It's quite conventional that mainstream cinema had discussed films based on teenage love stories wrapped with religious sentiments. The recent spout of handful short films in malalayam however portrayed love stories with different versions, but a love story encased with melodramatic orthodox religious view is rare in this species. Eshal stand unique from the breed of short films by attempting a serious social subject.

Thirty minute short movie opened with a starkly illustrated past in 1980's turning out to be a relevant topic even after 20 years of incident. Further story happening in backdrops of kerala small town where Sudhi, a middle class Hindu guy falls in love with Eshal, a beautiful young Muslim girl. Though the plot did not discuss much about any possible attempt from Sudhi to grab Eshal's attention, surprisingly she reciprocates the feeling for him pretty easily. Soon the movie progressed with main plot approaching the climax which could have been fair more better executed.

As emotionally and religiously charged as the film's story is, the script has been well written by Unee Udayakumar who simultaneously put effort behind music, lyrics & vocals. Being significantly a sturdy subject, dialogues were shaped firmly and well balanced. 'En Kanavil' song which is already accepted by wide audience has been beautifully shot in this movie, an add-on to overall charm. Great work by Sarin and Minu duo after 'Cappuccino'.  Eshal's eloquent eyes delineated through the veil has been one of the pivotal factors of movie's success. Finally craftsmanship of Nithin Nandakumar who is also behind the camera, has shown an excellent outcome inviting the viewers to watch perhaps not an untold story but a beautiful, elegant yet socio-relevant theme. Moreover, the effort and hardships put by not so experienced, passionate IT professionals definitely  need a happy applause.

Ugly – Dark & Disturbing

It's deep dark, cruel and disturbing when it comes watching ugly. That's the whole plot the film is about. Fame and money, when it crosses the boundary it turns out to be nasty and evil.

Paanch is a cult film that disturbs us with the extend of depravity and crime somebody makes for greediness, lust, betrayal and materialistic fame. After 10 years of Paanch, ugly is the version upgrade of paanch which portrays how these villainous factors affect criminal investigation. Brilliant script embedded with immaculate performances by handful actors molded well by Anurag kashyap's film making style makes Ugly one of the best films for me in 2014. Notorious combination of humorous dialogues and thrilling scenes (Girsih Kulkarni) made this film exceptionally unique in bollywood arena.

If you loved watching Black Friday & Paanch, Ugly is something you should never miss out !

P.K - Bollywood Christmas Gift !

How would you see this world from an outsider's perspective? Same like us when we were born, with a naked body and bare mind. The world taught us how to live, people around us showed what's good and bad, we evolved as human beings, sometimes behaved as animals, believed in others belief. PK is a movie for me which I reminisced these little things. It's a funny thought process which worked behind the script, but challenging and reflective to present circumstances we are going through.

P.K – It's all about storytelling perfection of Rajkumar Hirani. Hirani and co-writer Abhijat Joshi crafted the script cleverly, enriched with modern thoughts and with religious emotional dimensions. Inspiring fresh feel charismatic first half followed by sophisticated post intermission however weakened a bit with over dramatic yet justifiable climax. Amir is not a surprising factor in this movie, as you get more than what you expect from him always. I reckon the wide eyed, intelligent and modern thought process behind the script and flawless making along with Mr Perfectionist have made PK one of the best movies in recent times.

Costume designer was missing for Sushanth Sing Rajput, poor fellow was seen with solo fashion avtar except climax

Left Right Left - Bold, Class, Mesmerising !

Right from its release, this movie has been in top list with its all over wide spread reviews. Hence, my expectation was high. Needless to say, I was lucky enough to experience that challenging goons bump ! It's always a ball game for you when you watch high rated movies after long days of its release. You would have already carried away by huge expectations from movie lovers, friends, social networking comments and genuine reviews. To meet that expectation, a movie has to take challenging stand, and Left Right Left becomes a perfect example for this.

As I mentioned, boldness to portray political canvas of Kerala is the courage taken by Murali Gopy and Arun Kumar Aravind. Fire cracking script with absolute resemblance of real life characters especially if you are dealing something sensational. Murali Gopy has taken his talent to another level. Malayalam movie era is witnessing classy writers and line up is still moving better with people like him. Pretty obvious that he would have done intense research behind the script, else it could not have been better like this. As an actor, there is not doubt about his ancestral talent. Arun Kumar Aranvind proved he is the leader of this art form. Alike his mentor, he has created his space with meaningful and sensible movies. Right from cocktail, EAK till LFL expectations from him is extending. Entire movie was very well crafted without any glimpse of baseless scenes. Indrajith, another brilliant performance from this talented actor. He has chosen his ways to lead. He will soon reach in list of talented actors across our country. Credit list goes on with Hareesh Peradi, Lena, Vijayaraghavan, Sreejith Ravi etc .. Music, Camera, BG, Editing – No ways to prove any single element was missing from this movie.

Absolute example of bold and classy movie !

Mumbai Police - A Big Salute to Crew

Conventional thriller with an unusual climax is all about Mumbai Police. This film was in hot plate well before its release due to the writer-director combo in Malayalam film industry along with Prithiviraj’s stardom being a bonus platter.

After a ruinous flop Casanova, Roshan Andrew was expected to make an upswing with his convincing craftsmanship which did not mislaid on his next attempt.  The script demanded less pace, mild tone yet, nail biting moments.  Indeed, it was a challenge for him especially the talent needs to be proven on crisis which was finally turned out to be a successful triumph. Nevertheless, there were few Casanova shades of uncanny scenes where the ACP chased the burglar in a bicycle which could have been avoided.  This can be considered as a trifling hangover from his previous venture.  Bobby-Sanjay duo is still enduring their success journey with this film even after ten years of their debutant script. This was one of their brilliant scripts completely written keeping an eye on viewer’s judgement in a suspense thriller. The expected loop holes were completely bolted with nifty screenplay and they chose the courage to discuss a debatable, relevant & prominent subject as one of the climax ingredients. Both Roshan Andrews & Bobby-Sanjay duo have put themselves into a big trouble hyping the expectations of their next project to be a better one that this.

Acting domain of the movie was completely ruled by Prithviraj with his dashing yet, hard hash appearance. The body language of forbidding police officer was well suited for him, if not him, nobody else from Malayalam industry now. He was very careful for not having any shades from his previous flick ‘Police’ even though both the characters falls under same outlook. He again proved his talent is way above all imprudent criticisms. There were lots of noises made for his bold attempt in accepting this character, but someone should think the other way around too. He is a brilliant, intelligent actor who always seeks variation in types of roles he is doing and ACP Antony Moses was a perfect option for him to showcase his brilliance in accepting the ranges thereby self-stamping him as one of the finest actors in India, very especially he is now with his Bollywood journey. Rahaman, Jayasurya & others have delivered as expected as they should be.

Score for background score was cent percent for Gopi sundar for blending the western-classy notes for investigation suspense thriller.  Same for Mahesh Narayan for his cut works particularly in the chase sequence.

Further analysis can certainly be spoiler alerts & that itself is the challenge taken by entire crew, not to leave any hints till the surprise at climax.

Hotel California - A vacation Fun Halt

This hotel serves variety dishes blended with comedy, drama, action & bit of suspense.

The movie in one word to me is an ultimate sarcasm for each & every impulsive life we see around us. It's completely free of all prejudices & mocks everything equally. Be it in our politics, society, religion, irrational human minds & even terrorism, all have been treated equally well with hilarious black comedy .

Penned by Anoop Menon after Trivandrum Lodge is one of the biggest assets which kept the momentum going from the very first opening scene till the end titles. Writer plots something for the first time to even mock himself which was applauded highly for the way he had taken criticisms in a good spirit for his earlier flick Trivandrun Lodge. Script, treatment & BG stands first class for it's complete drive throughout the movie.

It has got a very big surprise package of Joju George as Commissioner & Shankar as Aby Mathew.

Aji John, Anoop Menon, Jayasurya & the entire crew... Three Cheers !!

‘Beautiful’ … Life, Love, Betrayal?

‘Beautiful’ … Life, Love, Betrayal?

After my long wait, today I watched much awaited movie ‘Beautiful’.

Simply brilliant and appealing!

VKP makes beautiful an elegant piece of art with excellent frames and sophisticated shots.

Penned by Anoop Menon , proved to be as one of the most intellect and talented writers of Malayalam cinema. It’s a real world story telling treatment. You never feel the pressure of watching a screen feed for 2 hours. He baggies it by his excellent script written in classy and refined way of natural idiom. His thoughts are meant to ‘Think’. Moreover, they were honest, transparent and realistic when it comes to loyalty and faithfulness in relationships. Theme, Mood, Audience, Characters and Climax were well defined and brilliantly carried out though entire movie.

You can never leave this film without its sensitive and graceful music. Rakesh Vega has brought the real ‘Malayalam Melody’ in this movie which stands as one of the most cheerful factors for making this movie a classic cult. And here you go Jayasurya with three cheers for his commendable and admirable performance as Stephen Louis.