Peruchazhi - Malayalam Movie Review - Mohanlal show all the way !!!

Cast

Mohanlal as Jagannathan

Mukesh as Francis Kunjappan

Ragini Nandwani as Jessy

Vijay Babu

Baburaj as Pottakkuzhy Jabbar

Aju Varghese as Vayalar Varkey

Sean James Sutton as John Kory

Sandra Thomas

Poonam Bajwa

Shankar Ramakrishnan

Delhi Ganesh

Ramesh Pisharody

Aneesh Menon

Ashvin Mathew

John Wusah as Dup Lee

CAST

Directed by Arun Vaidyanathan

Produced by Vijay Babu, Sandra Thomas

Written by Arun Vaidyanathan,, Ajayan Venugopalan (dialogues)

Music by Arrora

Cinematography Arvind Krishna

Edited by Vivek Harshan

Production      Friday Film House

Distributed by Fox Star Studios (ROI), Friday Tickets (Kerala), Singapore Coliseum (Singapore), PJ Entertainments (Europe), Achu Achu's Creations (Australia)

Release date    August 29, 2014

Running time 154 minutes

Country India

Language Malayalam

Unable to  stand the ever growing popularity of Jaganathan & considering him to be a threat to his 'seat' Minister Francis Kunjappan when got a chance tricks and send him to the United States of America to help 'Sunny' his relative who is he campaign manager of John Kory, standing for contesting election for the Governor's post in the state of California. What happens as Jagan and his close aides Jabbar & Varkkey reaches USA forms the rest of the story. 

"Please switch off your mobile phones & logic" is the message that welcomes you into the movie, being of spoof & satire genre there can't be a better hint for things to come (Also warning note for the so called intellectuals ;-) ). ["Alcohol consumption is injurious to health, wealth etc etc... is another funny note that could be spotted in the fast moving titles].  

The titles are shown with some of the iconic dialogues of Mohanlal, which was a interesting thought. The 1st one hour of the movie went in rocket speed, with tons of laughter, Mohanlal playing it to the gallery, very well supported by Baburaj & co. Towards interval the pace slows down and the 'very long' 1st half ends on a good note. Eventhough the second half is comparatively shorter in length (felt so !) it couldn't match upto the initial one as the fun factor reduced and too many sub plots and silly twists took the fun away from the movie. But still the one man entertainment troupe fondly called 'Lalettan' binds everything together. Climax was okay, especially if you remember the 'warning note' shown first.

Peruchazhi takes a dig at the Indian Political system and our Politicians. Its a spoof / imaginary story on what happens if cultural exchange happens in the field of politics between the World's 2 biggest democracies. There is no point on applying logic in such movies, take Hollywood for eg, or even 'Tamil Padam' for that matter. Such movies are just made for fun, but where Peruchazhi suffers is that its too long, by atleast 20 mins and the fun part is missing greatly in the 2nd half. The romantic thread was completely unnecessary and weird. The item number could have been cut short and the action block in the 2nd half was not upto the mark.

Mohanlal is once again seen in all his elements, everything a fan expect from him has been cleverly incorporated which he beautifully delivered. Apart from few scenes he was looking good and energetic too. Baburaj after a small gap is back to his 'comic ways' and his combo with Lal brought the entire house down on multiple occasions. Aju had nothing much to do & Ragini event though looked gorgeous got a completely unnecessary character. Mukesh was good, but his role was limited and the much cherished, loved Lal-Mukesh magic wasn't there. Vijay Babu was very good and Ramesh Pisharody scored in what ever (limited) scenes he got. Among the foreign actors Sutton and Johnn Wusah was impressive.

Direction was average and the script wrote by Director himself lot the steam mid way. Its the actors along with Ajayan Venugopalan (Akkara Kazchakal fame)'s dialogues that made the film entertaining. Camera was good, captured USA in its glory & Editing was efficient. Music was good (but Lyrics wasn't) and the Background score simply rocked. Special kudos to Blaaze. 

In all 'Peruchazhi' is a typical LALtainer, even though it falls short of the humongous expectations the makers created pre-release. 

Must Watch for all Mohanlal fans and one time watch for others (Except those pseudo-intellectuals :p) 

Peruchazhi Kerala & Rest of India Paper ADs and Theaters list

Peruchazhi gets the widest release ever release for a Malayalam film outside Kerala. The film in addition to the paper ads posted here is releasing 30-40 more screens in Rest Of India, in total about 130 screens. All India screen count is 260+ as Multiplexes are increasing shows and playing in additional screens due to huge demand for tickets. Film is also releasing in many international markets for sure. Peruchazhi is sure to set the biggest opener record tomorrow, If not All Kerala, for sure All India & Worldwide

Munnariyippu - Movie Review

Directed by Venu

Produced by Renjith for Gold Coin Motion Picture Company

Screenplay by Unni R

Story by Venu

Music by Bijibal

Cinematography Venu

Edited by Beena Paul

Cast

Mammootty as C.K. Raghavan

Aparna Gopinath as Anjali Arakkal

Joy Mathew as Chandraji

Nedumudi Venu

Prathap Pothan

Renji Panicker

Joshy Mathew

Sreeraman

Sudheesh

Saiju Kurup

Went to watch the movie after hearing lots of positive reviews, and (only) because of that I felt slightly disappointed once the movie ended. 'Munnariyippu', ('Warning', even though the tag line reads 'The Deadline') is the story of CK Raghavan a convict who has been in prison for the past 20 years, spenting more time than what he was sentenced for. Anjali who enters the scene to ghost write the Jail Superintend, instead becomes more interested in CK's case, cause as he always says she too believes that he is innocent.
CK finallyy gets released and Anjali take him under her his protection, only to get the materials she need to pen a book on him, for which she had signed a contract with a huge publishing company. CK's inability to write brings trouble for Anjali as pressures for all quarters begin to crumble her. Will CK help Anjali finish the book, will we get to know the 'truth' etc forms the rest of the story.

The film begins interestingly and manages to grab our attention from the word go. The build up to the story is very good and by interval time the story is setup nicely. In the second half the writing looses its grip as it keeps on beating around the bush. Even with 115min run time it drags considerably in the 2nd half. adding to the woe was the completely unnecessary cameo by Prithviraj. The film do end with a shocking climax, but felt asif they just wanted to fill the screen time with random scenes till it reach a decent run time before shocking the audience with the climax, even though it got opposite reaction from the crowd.

The film is meant for serious movie goers who like to think deep into movies. The might be able to find the 'reasons' for things depicted in the movie which sadly goes unexplained in the film. 'Munnariyippu' may not be a majority's cup of tea but surely I will recommend this if u want to try something new, than the run of the mill stuff generally offered. The critics have unanimously given +ve reviews, but going by the audience response looks like the people are on the opposite corner this time.

Aparna is the character that drives the movie forward and gets more screen time. She excelled as Anjali , hope gets much better roles in the future to 'perform'. Mammootty had to underplay his actions and emotions to portray CK which he as always did beautifully. This is indeed one of the best outing of him in recent times, making the film a must watch for the fans of the legend's 'acting'. Rest of the cast also did good job. Evven though Unni's script had flaws the dialogues were very good. Venu directed the film very well too, kudos for not resorting to art house movie type narration. The BG score is a huge turn off. Gives a feel that we are watch an art movie event though the narration is much faster.

Rating 2.75/5

Recommending for serious movie lovers, thinkers and fans of Mammootty's acting !!

Happy New Year - New Character Posters - Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone

Peruchazhi - Collection of Rocking Posters !!

The set contains official as well as fan made (Unofficial) posters, credits to all the designers !!!

Anjaan - Kerala/Malayalam posters - Suriya, Samantha