Bangalore Days - All India Theaters List

Peruchazhi - First Look Teaser Trailer - Mohanlal

Mr.Fraud takes Thunderous opening - Exclusive Box Office Report

Mohanlal's latest release Mr. Fraud took a thunderous opening all across Kerala. Being the next release after Drishyam and making lot os news in the past weeks the film released to awesome response from movie goers, last Saturday. The Day 1 gross was about 1.35 crores with distributors share of about 65 lakhs (approx). Eventhough the film got mixed response from general public the fans have been extremely happy with the way Mohanlal has been portrayed, especially in the first half. So the second day the business zoomed to 1.42 crores gross, with a distributors share of 1bout 68 lakhs(approx).

The 2 days total from Kerala Box Office is 2.77 crores with distributors share of 1.33 crore (approx). The film had a regular drop today, being Monday. But main centers are still super strong, Multiplexes which began on a slow note also showed improvement towards matinee and night shows. The film also took great opening Rest of India too. The film got the biggest release outside Kerala, releasing in same amount of screens as in Kerala. Addition of subtitles helped many non-Malayalees thronging theaters to watch the film, thanks to Drishyam.

As per early estimates the gross should be around 70-80 lakhs today taking the total to 3.5 crores and by tomorrow it looks like will cross the life time gross of Gangster. With music, video rights being sold for record breaking figures and satellite rights close to 6crores and the film yet to release in overseas markets, it looks like producers will be laughing all the way to the banks...


Kerala gross in 2 days 2.77 crores
Kerala Distributors share in 2 days 1.33 crores
All India Gross in 2 days: - About 3.5 - 4 crores (Yet to confirm)


* Update - 3rd Day All Kerala Gross 80 lakhs
 All Kerala Gross in 3 days  3.57 crores
 All Kerala Distributors share in 3 days 1.71 cr  (approx)

How Old Are You - Malayalam Movie Review - Manju Warrier, Kunchako Boban

How Old Are You - Malayalam Movie Review

Crew

Directed by     Rosshan Andrrews
Produced by     Listin Stephen
Written by     Bobby Sanjay
Starring     Manju Warrier
Kunchako Boban
Music by     Gopi Sunder
Editing by     Mahesh Narayanan
Studio     Magic Frames
Distributed by     Central Pictures
Release dates   17 May 2014 (Kerala)
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast

Manju Warrier as Nirupama Rajeev
Kunchako Boban as Rajeev
Kaniha
Siddhartha Basu
Lalu Alex
Vanitha Krishnachandran
Vinay Forrt
Sreerag Nambiar
Jayaraj Warrier
Muthumani
Sethulakshmi
Amritha Anil as Lekshmi Rajeev

The return of Malayalees favorite heroine of perhaps all time has been in the news since months. Finally the film has hit the screens over coming 'various' odds. Did it satisfy the hype or did PR team over did their job, lets see.

Nirupama Rajeev is a Govt. employee, a loving wife and a caring mother. She is the representative of millions of Indian house wives/working mothers who have kept their ambitions and dreams locked up for their family or their husbands. Thanks to her Male Chauvinistic husband and an 'incident' that happens in her life Nirupama is forced to take some stern decisions which turns her life around. Was its for good or bad - the remaining reels tells us.

The trailer and basic story line gives an impression that the movie is inspired from 'English Vinglish' with a hint of 'Ethir Neechal'. Yes, in a broad sense it can be called. But How Old Are You has multiple layers that makes it a stand out film at the same time stand along with the recent women oriented, much celebrated, films like English Vinglish & Queen. Its difficult for majority of women folks in our country to break the barriers they themselves or the society builds around them post marriage (even though the situation is slowly changing). The films remembers them to break the shackles, chase the dreams, after all Age is just a number.

The 1st half movies largely at leisurely pace with some nice humor (some crass too) thrown in the mix. It was breezy and entertaining. The 2nd half takes some what a serious tone and pace drops a bit. It do goes to preachy/philosophical mode at times. But as a whole the film is inspirational, emotional and entertaining.

HOAY is the perfect come back vehicle for Manju Warrier. She arrests our attention and owns the screen like she used to do in her prime. The gap of 14 years wasn't felt much apart from couple of scenes. The film truly rides on her. Kudos to Kunchako Boban for doing the role of an MCP where the female character has more screen time and opportunities to score. Sethulakshmiamma (who did the role of Indran's father in 'LRL') was excellent. Rest of the cast were okay. Kaniha and the kid who played the daughter were miscasts.

Roshan Andrrews after an average outing is back to his full form in 'HOAY'. He handles the theme neatly and naratesa good family entertainer to the viewers. Bobby-Sanjay's scripting was as always good (the only time the duo mis fired was in 'Casanovva') and their dialogues were impressive. Cinematography was good, Editing could have been better. There's one song during the movie which was good, while the BG score was tad average.

In all its a film every family should watch, every Women must watch.

Rating: 3.5/5

Verdict: Very Good

Last Word: SHE IS BACK !!!!

PS: If the 'Master of Ring' had some questions for you take back some polite answers from the 'Queen' :wink:

Mr. Fraud - Malayalam Movie Review - Mohanlal, Unnikrishnan B

 Mr. Fraud Malayalam Movie Review

Crew

Director: B.Unnikrishnaan
    Producer: A.V Anoop
    Executive Producer: B.Unnikrishnan

Banner : AVA Productions
    Script: B.Unnikrishnan
    Cinematographer: Satheesh Kurup
    Makeup: Pradeep Rangan, Liju Kumar S
    Music: Gopi Sundar
    Playback Singers: Shankar Mahadevan, Shakthisree Gopalan, Sithara & Gopi Sundar
    Editor: Manoj
    Lyrics: Hari Narayanan, Chittoor Gopi & Santhosh Varma
    Costume: S.B Satheesh, Murali
    Art Director: Joseph Nellikal
    Stills: Sinat Savier
    Production Controller: Aroma Mohan

Cast

      Mohanlal as 'Fraud'
    Dev Gill
    Pallavi Purohit
    Mia George as Saraswathi
    Manjari Phadnis
    Vijay Babu
    Vijayakumar
    Siddique
    Sai Kumar
    Suresh Krishna
    Rahul Madhav
    Ashvin Matthew
    Rajeev Parameshwar
    Arjun Nandhakumar
    Balaji
    Sathaar
    Devan
    Gopi Sundar (cameo appearance)
    Amritha Anilkumar

Mohanlal plays a 'Fraud' who has many names and many faces, a non sympathetic cunning hi-tech robber. He gets offered a job with enough money that he can very much retire after this. But its not easy as it seems and is 'one of the most difficult mission' he has come across as the character says. The treasure belongs to an Old Kovilakam and they are going to open the chest for the first time in 41 years with all the relatives, police and top level private security team guarding it. So will he able to do it forms the rest of the story.

Mr Fraud is a heist movie presented in a mass masala packaging, so there's no logic in asking for a unique or different storyline as all of them have universally one theme. The first half is racy and entertaining largely thanks to Mohanlal who was simply free flowing and outstanding making even minutest expressions and simple dialogues clap worthy. The Director being a Lal fan has added elements to please the fans. The packaging and the way everything is setup in the first half is really good. Its in the second half the movie suffers a bit. Totally its an above average 2nd half with an average, rushed up climax. The first half makes us prepared for a better 2nd half which the film couldn't provide, also the unnecessary sentimence ruins the pace. It would have been great if the film had a climax like 'Mankatha' or 'Don' (SRK's).

With the limited budget Malayalam can afford Director was able to show the heist scenes convincingly. May not be a patch on Hollywood counter parts, but still they serve the purpose. Unnikrishnan B is definitely improving every time as a director, and this one is his best Directorial outing. Even though his scripting faltered here and there in the 2nd half, for most of the run time it was engaging. The dialogues as always were good, made look even better by Mohanlal.

It can be called a one man show by Mohanlal, after a long time Malayalees gets to see his Mass entertainer side which he did with elan. He carries the movie in his entire 'slanting' shoulder. Siddique, Mia George, Sai Kumar, Ashwin were good. Vijay & Manjari was okay. rest of the cast did their role. Dev Gill's villain character was a disappointment, as it was an underwritten role, the film could have had a better villain character.

Gopi Sunder is back in full form after a long back as both his songs and BG are very good. Back Ground score infact is a great plus for the movie. Cinematography was good, editing was sharp. VFX team have done a great job. Art work was superb. Action choreography was average.

Over all Mr Fraud is a Mass-Heist movie - must watch for fans, one time watch for others

After 150 days of delivering 'Class' to the world, its time to give some MASS with Class, good old Lalettan way, which no one can replicate

Rating 3/5

Verdict: Good

.

Mohanlal's Mr. Fraud Kerala Paper ADs & All India Theaters List

Godzilla 2014 - Exclusive Movie Review - Monster of a Movie

Crew

 Directed by     Gareth Edwards
Produced by   Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent, Brian Rogers
Screenplay by     Max Borenstein
Story by     David Callaham
Based on     Godzilla by Toho
Music by     Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography     Seamus McGarvey
Editing by     Bob Ducsay
Studio     Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures
Distributed by    Warner Bros. Pictures (International), Toho (Japan)
Release dates   May 16, 2014 

Running time     123 minutes

Country     United States
Language     English
Budget     $160 million

Cast

Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lieutenant Ford Brody
Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody
Juliette Binoche as Sandra "Sandy" Brody
Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham
David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz
   

 Godzilla is a pop cultural icon in Japanese and the worldwide audience got a glimpse of it in the infamous Roland Emmerich's 1998 version. Even though I liked it, the film is universally hated for just being a Jurassic Park, making the iconic Monster an iguana faced evil villain who gets killed in the end. So hopes were high on this project to get a 'Godzilla' flick set in the modern world, more grounded to the CGI reality of current movies and one that doesn't treat the 'Icon' as just another monster. The posters the teasing trailers have done their trick and this is undoubtedly one of the most awaited movie this season.

Joe  and his wife has been working in a Japanese nuclear plant till one day a seismic activity leaves him alone in the world with his child. Studying the unusual readings of the day Ford came to conclusions, that it wasn't an earth quake or at least ain't normal one, which were ignored by everyone. Cut to 15 years later, his son has grown up but Ford is still living on the memories of that day, wanting to find the reason his Wife died. slowly starts believing in his father's conspiracy theories. As they go to the site of the plant to recover any possible evidence they come to know about secret scientific studies and the classified Government facility where they have kept an unidentified organism locked up for research. The beast  escapes captivity and wrecks havoc in the city and that's when our Hero/Villain makes his entry. What happens next in the war of the villains? who ever wins we loose......

Godzilla is a kind of Kaiju (collective names for such monsters) and Last year's 'Pacific Rim' also dealt with 'Kaiju's', and both film have similar story lines, but the way the movies have presented they look diametrically opposite. While PR was more a color ful, swash buckling mass masala kind of a monster movie Godzilla is rooted more to reality, emotions and keeping in check with the original mythology. The movie has a call against the harms humans do to Mother Nature, as each and every exploitation will have an impact and in the war with the Nature humans can't win they only can adapt to whats left. 'Godzilla' being a heroic villain represents the force of Mother Nature, the term 'God' is not just for the sake of it as the myth treats it that way (The very reason why 'God' was dropped from the Iguana shaped creature featured in 98 movie).
There is also adaptation from Hindu mythology, according to which when all hell breaks loose (Kalyug) Lord Vishnu takes his 10th Avatar, Kalki which fights the evil, restores the earth and a new cycle of life begins after wards. 'Godzilla' is the Hollywood representation of 'Kalki', that's the myth the film creates. Apart from a blockbuster graphics heavy Hollywood movie it is tied up to reality, mythology at very deep routed levels which is what makes the film stand out.

The film is slow to take off as it takes its own time to level all cards on the playing field before a final extravaganza. Breaking Bad fame Bryan Cranston as always is Outstanding. Ken Watanabe also did a great job. Rest of the cast doesn't get much scope even though there are names like Aron Taylor, Olesen etc. The cinematography is excellent. The CGI work is super cool. 3D effects are there, but nothing much to speak about. Background score is awesome. Godzilla the creature and its sound definitely deserves a special mention, for coming up with a gigantic, realistic, monsterestic, more closer to the classic 'Godzilla' and giving it an Iconic 'Roar' - KUDOS !!. Editing could have been better as it drags slightly in between.

In all Godzilla is a must watch movie for the fans of 'Godzilla', monster movies, disaster movies, huge Graphics spectacles and almost everyone who doesn't demand great acting, dialogues and strong story lines. Being a fan boy the film satisfied all my expectations and the final battle sequence were jaw droppingly awesome and scream/clap/whistle worthy....

Godzilla is a Mind blowing, epic, gargantuan, out of the world, blockbuster, Monster movie

Rating: 3.75/5

Verdict: BLOCKBUSTER !!!!

Last Word: What the Hellll..... still reading...go grab your tickets !!!


PS: Please try to watch the film in Imax and Dolby Atmos - Would blow you mind, Guarantee - [if both available in same screen - AWESOME, you are one lucky guy !!]