Villali Veeran - Movie Review - Dileep, Namitha

 Cast: 

Dileep - Siddarthan

Namitha Pramod - Narmada

Kalabhavan Shajon, Mythily, Nedumudi Venu, Siddique, K. B. Ganesh Kumar, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Lalu Alex, Geetha Vijayan, Valsala Menon, Neena Kurup, Saju Kodiyan, Suresh Krishna, Dharmajan Bolgatty, Dinesh Panicker, Vinaya Prasad

Director: Sudheesh Sankar

Producer: R.V. Chaudhary

Music: S.A. Rajkumar

Lyrics: Murukan Kattakkada, Rafeeq Ahmed

Cinematography: Anil Nair

Editing: Jayashankar

Art Direction: Sujith Raghav

Screenplay: Dinesh Pallath

Story/Writer: Dinesh Pallath


Siddarthan lends money, runs vegetable shop etc to feed not only his family but three other families too. He is ready to do anything to keep them happy. His path often cross with Narmada an ad film make, the conflicts which slowly gives rise to romance. There is a story to why Siddarthan's father is in jail and who are the 3 families he is looking after, all of which explained in the following reels.

The film begins as a typical Dileep entertainer, but then changes rack to emotional soap like drama (the debutant director has yielded Mega Serials in the past) to revenge drama and ends up an unsatisfying, boring 'Avial'. Even most of the jokes in the initial reels falls flat, except a few from Dharmajan and Dileep. The first half can be called watchable, but the later one just test the viewers patience. It lags and drags like hell.

 Dileep is totally out of form once again nafter Avatharam and the supporting cast except Dharmajan offers nothing much. Namitha and Mythili are there for namesake. The direction was average the script was bad. There is nothing much to tell and the dialogues are flat too. Cinematography was good, editing should have been crispier. The film at about 168 mins is too long. The music is average eventhough they have been choreographed and shot well. Action choreography was also good.

'Villali Veeran' is not your regular mindless Dileep comedy mass entertainer. It is long, slow, boring and most importantly sans any good humor (both in terms of quality and quantity)

Verdict - Below Average

Vedivazhipadu - Malayalam Movie Review - 'One of India's boldest film'

VEDIVAZHIPADU  - Malayalam Movie Review

Written & Directed by: Shambhu Purushothaman
Produced by: Arun Kumar Aravind
Banner: Karmayug Movies
Director of Photography: Shehnad Jalal
Editor: Prejish Prakash
Art: Subhash Karun
Music: John P. Varkey
Sound Design: Godly Timo
Associate Director: Nitin Michael
Make Up: Baiju Balaramapuram
Costumes: Shibu Parameshwar
Production Controller: Jith Pirappancode
Stills: Najeem M. Bawa
Designs: Thought Station

Distributor: Thameens Films

  Cast: Indrajith Sukumaran, Murali Gopy, Saiju Kurup, Srijith Ravi, Sunil Sugatha, Ashvin Mathew, Mythili, AnuSree, Anu Mol

The reunion of the successful team of 'Ee Adutha Kalathu' & 'Left Right Left' [Arun Kumar, Indrajith, Murali Gopy] gave the movie good hype since the day it was launched. The quirky title, posters and trailer added only to the publicity. But it got the maximum reach thanks to the CBFC who initially refused to clear the movie. Overcoming all hurdles the film has hit the screens and lets see how it is..

'Vedivazhipadu' deals with events happening to four couples on a single day, the day of 'Aatukal Pongala'. Bored with their routine lives the 'boys' decides to have some fun on the day on Pongala when their wives will be busy in temple with the festivities. Initial half sets up the characters and their 'master plan' and the later half unravels the plan, will everything work out as they 'planned' what happen to their lives etc.

The film is no means for 'Kids' and those who hate adult comedies, its an out an out film for 18+ audience. If you hated 'Trivandrum Lodge' please don't even bother going anywhere near to a theater playing VV, coz as my friend its the baap of TL and one of the boldest movie to be produces in India. There are no double meaning dialogues here, everything is direct, in your face, most of these happen in the 2nd half. Still can't beleive that Director, who is also the writer was expecting a U/A certificate for this.

Mixing such an adult story with 'Aatukal Pongala' and using the 'pongala commentry' in sequences in 2nd half could have forced the Censor Board to deny permission initially, can't really blame them for being paranoid after what all we saw in neighboring state recently.

With that being said, I like adult comedies and I liked VV too. It had plenty of laughs. It also questions sexual hypocracy, double standards, moral policing etc. Its a mirror placed against society, especially the Kerala one which is the most double standard, one according to many.

Saiju Kurupp & Anumol steals the  show in the acting department. Saiju got most of the claps and may be his best and toughest role so far. Kudos to  Anumol for doing such a role with elan, I cannot imagine any other heroine doing such a bold role, you have to watch it to understand how raw and real it is, Hats Off. Others have also did their part well. Srijith Ravi, Sunil Sugatha were impressive too. Rest of the cast also did decent job.

Director has made a confident debut, his writing was good too. Camera, Editing were efficient. BG was Okay. There are no songs in the movie.

So, in all, Vedivazhipadu is a bold watchable Adult entertainer

Rating 3/5

Good, Time Pass

Vedivazhipadu - Kerala Release Paper AD with theater list

 Vedivazhipadu - Kerala Release Paper AD with theater list

Nadodi Mannan (Malayalam) - Exclusive Movie Review

Nadodi Mannan - Malayalam Movie Exclusive Review

Crew

Directed by     Viji Thampi
Produced by     V.S Suresh, S. Madhan

Banner - Chithram film Company, Vendhar Movies
Written by     Krishna Poojappura
Music by     Vidyasagar
Cinematography     Sanjeev Sankar
Distributed by     Thameens
Release date(s)     October 18, 2013
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast

    Dileep as Padmanabhan
    Ananya as Meera
    Mythili as Rima
    Archana Kavi as Aathira
    Sayaji Shinde as Purushothaman
    Sreelatha Namboothiri

Story

'Nadodimannan' tells the story of how a nobody, one day becomes the mayor of capital city & the troubles he face, for doing good to the people.  

Padmanabhan, a village youth who earns his living by supplying 'people' to public meetings, mass gatherings etc.On one such occasion he gets stuck up in Trivandrum city and gets involved with the local king pin Purushothaman which changes his life for ever. In an unexpected series of events, he gets elected the Mayor of the city. The rest of the film deals with how Padmanabhan cleans up the city.

Meera is a bold girl coming from poor family backgrounds, who forms Padmanabhans moral support. Aathira is a doctor & the member of a royal family. Rima, a broadcast journalist & Bollywood actor Sayaji Shinde, who makes his Mollywood debut, as the villain who is at loggerheads with Padmanabhan.

The film was promoted as Dileep's mass-comedy entertainer kinda delivers its promise in the first half. But what could have been Dileep's next 'Runway' or 'Lion' turns out to be an average fare thanks to an average, long and boring 2nd half.

The film begins very well, especially with the introduction of hero's character with lots of humor through out the first half, thanks to Dileep & co. But in the 2nd, especially once Padamanabhan becomes Mayor I think the writer lost his steam and had n clue on how to move forward and wrap up things. Characters played by Suraj and co who plays Dileep's friends after a good beginning gets disappeared in the proceedings which also affects the film badly.

Dileep has done a good job, his character in the beginning showed promise which couldn't be kept in the later half. Siyaji Shinde has made a good Mollywood debut as villain, major thanks to the dubbing artist. Out of the female leads Ananya gets more scenes, in 99% of which she has to do the same thing - shout or doubt.

For a moment we got an impression that this could be the come back vehicle for Viji thampy, but bad writing in the 2nd half let him down. With many flash cuts and all, editing looked just average, also @ 160 mins the film is tad too long. Camerawork was Ok. Songs were not only bad, but proved to be speed breakers, Lyrics felt like that of Telugu dub films. Many scenes has been shot in front of green screen and the VFX in such scenes looked bad.

 The film has been in production for over 2 years, several production issues and miscellaneous reasons caused the film delay. The estimated final budget is about 8-9cr and with such an average script it looks will end up as a losing affair.

For a Dileep mass film to work it need to have plenty of humor [it doesn't matter if they are crass, crap or double meaning] with a majority share from the star himself, unfortunately this one doesn't have that. The  fate of  the film looks like a 'filler' before much hyped releases that comes in two weeks time.

Verdict: Average

Rating 2.5/5

Box Office: Flop

Last Word - watch the first half for Dileep and 2nd for  Sleep ;-)

Dileep's 'Nadodi Mannan' - Kerala Release Paper Ad's & Theater list

 

 Nadodi Mannan - Kerala Release Paper Ad's & Theater list

 Click Image to View in bigger size