Gangster - Malayalam Movie Review - Mammootty, Aashiq Abu, Nyla Usha

Gangster - Malayalam Movie Review - Mammootty, Aashiq Abu, Nyla Usha

Crew

 Directed by     Aashiq Abu
Produced by     OPM Dream Mill Cinemas
Written by     Ahmed Sidhique, Abhilash Kumar
Music by     Deepak Dev
Cinematography     Alby
Editing by     Saiju Sreedharan
Art Direction: Ajayan Chalissery 
Action Direction: Anbariv  
Choreography: Anb Ariv  
Costume Design: Sameera Saneesh
Distributed by     Aan Mega Media
Release dates     April 11, 2014
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast

    Mammootty as Akbar Ali 

    Nyla Usha as Sana Muhammed
    Sekhar Menon as Anto
    Aparna Gopinath as Lilly
    John Paul as Uncle Sam
    T. G. Ravi as Hajikka
    Kunchan as Mani Menon
    Hareesh Peradi as Michael
    Dileesh Pothan as Vidhura

 'Gangster' has been making news from the time the project was announced, way back in 2010. Due to date issues, script rewrites and many other reasons the film kept on getting postponed. Finally the film has hit the screens with the backing of one of the best pre release publicity campaign ever, with excellent buzz .

‘Gangster’ is a revenge action-drama set against the backdrop of Mangalore’s organized crime groups. Mangalapuram underworld is ruled by three factions, lead by Akbar Ali, Mani Menon and Uncle Sam. Everything was going peacefully till Anto, Uncle Sam's son enters the scene. Like all movie Gangsters, Akbar too has some principles, against  which Anto moves, which creates backlashes. The opposition becomes stronger and Akbar gets pushed to a corner. Will he rise against his enemies and gets his revenge?, forms the rest of the story.

Gangster is undoubtedly one of the stylized movies to come out of 'Mollywood'. But it doesn't matter if you are working with the world's best crew unless there is a proper script. Adding to the woes of 'ages old storyline' is lack of a proper script, hell the film doesn't even have proper dialogues. Sekhar, who plays the villain open his mouth (and irritates us ) more than Mammootty. There are no claps worthy moments in the films, except for die hard fans in which Mammuka appears in different stylish costumes and cooling glasses.

The films doesn't make any connect with the audience at any point of time. Even when Akbar is left to die., cos the characters have been poorely etched.The film is painfully slow, as if some art house director made a mass film, thanks to the plethora of slow motion (Somebody was saying 90 mins films stretched to 140min).Aashiq Abu might have obsessed with the looks that he forgot that there was no story to tell or engage viewers. Even 'Saga Alias Jacky' [another over hyped stylized gangster movie that failed to set Box Office on fire]  looks like a classic compared to this. If a class movie is what the makers intended to make, please watch Aaranya Kandam or Gangs of Wassyepur.

There are references to God Father, Sholay and even Breraking Bad.

Feels really sorry for Mammootty the actor. He is looking dashingly handsome, which we have seen many times in the recent past, but once again the script fails him. Compared to those, here he has nothing to do, rather than walking around changing costumes and accessories. Nyla & Aparna got nos scope to perform, but where looking their beautiful best. Sekhar I think over did the role, and fails to make any impact after the initial sequences. Rest of the cast were also just going with the motions

The animation portions in the beginning and during climax, (clearly inspired from QT's Kill Bill) was a brilliant Idea, rather than making the same old Kid, who do Mammukka's childhood in almost all his recent films, do those. The promotional material says 'Gangster Rises' and the film do resembles 'The Dark Knight Rises', even though it would be unfair to Nolan to compare both.

The Cinematography was Outstanding, one of the best that we have seen in Mollywood.Special credits should be be given to the stylists - be it the Makeup man, or the Costume designer, have done excellent job in making the film look slick and stylish. Aashiq Abu looked like had no control over proceeding and his graph is going down after a promising start to career. The sufi song was good, but the placement was wrong. BG score was okay. Script & Dialogues were BAD. Can't imagine this is what they come up with in 4 years and multiple rewrites.

So in all Gangster is an unholy mess of a movie that fails to even come anywhere in the vicinity of the hype that it created.

Verdict: Colossal Disappoinment

Rating: 1.75/5

Last Word: Stay Away !!!

Gangster - Kerala Release Paper aD with Theaters List - Mammootty, Aashiq Abu, Nyla Usha

Mammootty's Gangster makes a grand debut smashing records !!

The film which has been awaited by one and all is slowly getting unveiled, piece by piece, thanks to the master publicist, Director Aashiq Abu. In order to capitalize on the craze and expectations surrounding the movie, Aashiq took special care not to divulge anything till he wanted people to know it. Every detail associated with the movie was released as an event, with much fan fare. And it is working wonders, People are talking about it, its creating waves in social media, fans are excited about more than Mammootty's new theatrical release 'Praise The Lord'.

The film's Facebook page got 35,00o likes within 24 hours of the page going public, the most for a Malayalam movie page. The tally now stand at 61,054 likes [with 65,555 talking about this NOW].
The posters even though got mixed response where equally liked and shared by everyone, spreading it all over the cyber space, making even other language buffs take notice. Then the trailer was launched yesterday (20/03/2014) @ 7pm and within 24 hours it has crossed 2.2 lakh, smashing the previous record by a huge margin. 'One By Two' trailer which released last week got about 1.05 lakh views in 24 hours & the 10 sec Mr. Fraud teaser got 90,000 views in a day.

Now with the film making all kinds of noise before release, hope it can beat the record for the biggest opening by a Malayalam movie, set by Casanovva 2 years ago.

Gangster will hit the screens on April 12th as a big Vishu/Summer release.

Gangster - First Look Posters - Mammootty, Aashiq Abu, Nyla Usha

Gangster - First Look Posters - Mammootty, Aashiq Abu, Nyla Usha

Click On Images to View in Full Size

 

Punyalan Agarbathis - Movie Review

Crew

Directed by     Ranjith Sankar
Produced by     Jayasurya, Ranjith Sankar
Written by     Ranjith Sankar
Music by     Bijibal
Cinematography     Sujith Vasudev
Editing by     Lijo Paul
Studio     Dreams N Beyond
Distributed by     Central Pictures
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

 Cast

    Jayasurya as Joy Thakkolkaran
Nyla Usha as Anu
Aju Varghese as Greenu Sharma
Innocent as John Thakkolkaran
Rachana Narayanankutty as Advocate Sai
Sreejith Ravi as Abhayakumar
TG Ravi as Achuthan Master
Mala Aravindan as Ayyappan
Idavela Babu as KC Mathews
Vinod Kovoor as Pappan Kottapuram
Lishoy as Pauly

 

 'Punyalan Agarbathis' tells the story of an ambitious, wannabe Ambani of Thrissur, businessman. After trying out may ventures he finds his last resort in 'Punyalan Agarbathis', special kind of incense sticks made from elephant dung. The efforts to acquire the 'raw material' makes him ruffle feathers with few big-wigs which turns his life for ever. Will Joy succeed in the battle of & for his life, forms the rest of the story.

80s-90s are said to be the Golden period of Malayalam cinema which produced movies which common people could much identify with, dealing with issues faced by common man in his daily lives, like Mithunam, Varavelpu, Vellanakalude Naadu etc. 

Punyalan Agarbathis belongs to such series of movies. It tells the issues a common middle class man has to face to make his dream come true, without resorting to illegal paths. 

It also discuses how bureaucracy, politics etc which are meant for the benefit of people, in many cases end up being the road block, for petty reasons.

Story wise its simple, its the entertaining scrip that works big time for PA. The film is a total rocking entertainer, in the first half with plenty of humor. In the second half, especially towards the end, where the movie gets serious a tone & try to tell too many things, it dags a bit.

Jayasurya has given one of his best performance till date
 and got the 'Thrissur slang' to a 'T', a major highlight of the movie. Most of his one liners brought the house down. Another name worth mentioning is Sreejith Ravi who also got tremendous reaction from the crowd in his debut comic role. Rest of the cast did what was required of them, but wish Nyla had got a substantial role, after a superb debut in Kunjananthante Kada.

Have liked all his previous works, but Ranjith Shankar the writer has finally got the perfect blending of Commercial entertainer and social message drama in PA, which was lacking in his previous attempts preventing them from becoming HUGE box office successes. His direction was good too, presenting the cultural capital of Kerala as an important part of narration. Cinematography by Sujith Vasudev was good, presenting Thrissur in all its glory. Editing by Lijo Paul was efficient, may be a bit of trimming towards the end could have been nice. Music & BG by Bijibal were good too.

 Punyalan Agarbathis is a clean, perfect commercial treat for the entire section of audience - mass or class, family or youth - this season. A well made entertainer.

Rating 3.5/5

Verdict - Good

Last Word - Greene, veedu povoolanna tta thonae.......

Punyalan Agarbathis - Exclusive HD Posters Set