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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.

Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal - Malayalam Movie Review

 Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal - Malayalam Movie Review

 Directed by     Lal Jose
Produced by     Rathish Ambat, Prakash Varma, Jerry John Kallatt
Written by     James Albert
Starring     Dileep, Rima Kallingal, Murali Gopy, Parvathy Nambiar
Music by     Prashant Pillai
Editing by     Ranjan Abraham
Studio     Small Town Cinema, LJ Films
Release dates December 20, 2013
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

 Cast

    Dileep as Aby Mathew
    Rima Kallingal as Sini Alex
    Murali Gopy as Tyson Alex
    Parvathy Nambiar as Ann
    Tini Tom
    Harishree Ashokan
    Suraj Venjaramoodu
    Sekhar Menon
    Arun
    Ramu
    Praveena
    Suja Menon
    Ambika Mohan
    Surabhi
    Anil Rajgopal as Baijuraj

A superb title, that too in 'Malayalam' (a rare now a days in Mollywood), Lal Jose - Dileep combo, James Albert's script, Star cast involving Rima, Murali, good trailer and promo song etc created enough hype around 'Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal (7SR).

Aby Mathew, an ad film maker, finally decides to get married after averting the topic for years due to a failed romance. 7 days before the wedding Abie decides to give his Ex-Lover Sini, now a house wife, a visit. The film deals the with the consequences that the visit casts on the lives of these two and people surrounding them and their efforts to make everything right, with just 7 beautiful (bachelor) days to go, before Aby's marriage.

7SR begins as a romantic comedy, turns into suspense-drama mode and finally ends up a mahed potato, to many things tried out and failed to get most of them right, Too many cooks spoiled the brath. Its fairly entertaining in the first half with the right dose of suspense and drama but loses control in the later half when everything gets revealed, which are predictable by the way. It also feels extended/dragged towards climax. Point to blame, the half baked script. Had James focused on single thing it would have endd up a much good film.

The biggest plus of the film is Lal Jose's direction. Once again he took an average script to a watchable level via his craftmanship. The film also shows the new gen making style of Lal with a bollywood rom-com feel in many scenes. The dreaming sequences were a riot, especialy Murali doing 'Vachikkava'

Dileep has done a convincing job as Aby, but those who go to see his TM laughs and gags will be slightly disappointed. Rima & new comer Parvathi has done their part well. Murali Gopy looked like was trying hard to look the tough, rough, partyfreak, angry boxer. Rest of the cast were okay.

James Albert has given a half baked script, but definitely better than his last few attempts IMO.But his dialogues were good, as always. Camera work was nice, except few weird micro close up shots. BG score was okay. The Promo song and Koodeyirikkam songs were good, rest only helped the movie to lag its pace. Editing was good.

With almost all revenue recvered before release, thanks mainly to the exhauberent satellite right, and in brand placement the producers might be sitting comfirtably. But hates when the 'business motive' stands projected above the movie, eventhough it is a business after all.

7SR is a one time watchable movie, its not bad, but its nowheren near where it should have been

Rating: 2.75/5

Verdict: Above Averge