Sapthamashree Thaskaraha - Movie Review - Prithviraj, Asif Ali, Reenu

 

Cast

    Prithviraj Sukumaran as Krishnanunni
    Reenu Mathews as Sarah
    Asif Ali as Shabab
    Sanusha as Annamma
    Neeraj Madhav as Narayankutty
    Nedumudi Venu as Nobilettan
    Chemban Vinod
    Flower Battsetseg
    Sudheer Karamana
    Salam Bukhari

 Directed by     Anil Radhakrishnan Menon
Produced by     Santosh Sivan, Shaji Nadesan, Prithviraj Sukumaran
Written by     Anil Radhakrishnan Menon
Music by     Rex Vijayan (songs), Sushin Shyam (BGM)
Cinematography     Jayesh Nair
Edited by     Manoj Kannoth
Production August Cinema
Distributed by     August Cinema
Release date(s)     September 6, 2014
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

 

Seven Jail inmates cum cell mates who begin as strangers develops a bonding between them as they knows about each others past. Among them Krishnanuni's & Nobilettan's story is the most tragic one and once they comes to kow that both have a common enemy,  the '7' decides to take revenge, once they all get out. How will they take their revenge, will they succeed, will the 'robber' in them take over the 'cause' etc gets explained in the remaining reels of Sapthamashree Thaskaraha (Seven Gentlemen Thieves)

SST is one of the best entertainers to come from Mollywood this year. The film is a whole some entertainer. There is plenty to laugh, clap, cheer and get thrilled. The first half of the movie, which deals with flash back stories of the '7' and the hatching of initial plan, is excellent. The 2nd half where the final plan comes into being and is executed is above average. The writer do resort to 'coincidences' and takes many 'cinematic liberties' in the 2nd half which can raise questions like But, why, who etc ... But still it has been made sure to not cross the limits our insult our common sense. The post climax even though was predictable was presented well.

 Even though Prithviraj is the face of the film he is just a part of the gang and if you count the screen time and impact on viewers can be called as doing extended cameo, same as the case with Asif Ali. Its Chemban Vinod who shines through out getting most of the claps, he was Howlarious, so was Neeraj Madhav with his cute innocent expressions. Sudheer Karamana was excellent as the 'Kili Poya' Goonda. Nedumudi Venu, Prithvi, Asif, Salaam, Reenu, Sanusha were good as well. Its rarely we see a movie where every single character impresses the viewers. Dir. (Amen) Lijo Jose Pellissery was the surprise package of SST. He was too good as the jovial Priest.

 Anil Radhakrishnan who won both the National & State awards for his debut movie, this time has taken the film a notch higher. His writing too, especially in the first half, is excellent. The dialogues were too good. The Thrissur flavor, which every body generally likes, is there in plenty. Music is good, Back ground score is excellent. Cinematography, editing were okay. 

SST is a film that can be watched by any one and everyone. It entertains sans any mass or masala, over the top action, loud crass humor, double meaning dialogues etc. This festive season, let these 7 thieves steal to bring you happiness and a nice time at the cinemas. 

Verdict: Watch It !!

Rating: 3.5/5

 

 

 

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

Rajadhi Raja - Movie Review - Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai

 Directed by     Ajai Vasudev
Produced by     M. K. Nasser, Stanly Silvester Consera
Written by     Udayakrishna, Siby K. Thomas
Music by     Karthik Raja, Berny-Ignatius
Gopi Sunder (Background score)
Cinematography     Shaji
Edited by     Mahesh Narayanan
Distributed by     Play House Release, PJ Entertainments (Europe), Nanma cinemas (Australia)
Release date(s)    September 5, 2014
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

 Cast

    Mammootty as Shekharan Kutty.
    Raai Laxmi as Radha.
    Joju George as Ayyappan.
    Siddique
    Mukesh Khanna
    Lena
    Taniya Stanley
    Nawab Shah
    Rahul Dev
    Unni Mukundan (Guest appearance)
    Shamna Kasim (Guest appearance)


 Shekharan Kutty is the manager at a Petrol pump, who also runs his own restaurant adjacent to it. He is living happily with his wife Radha and daughter. His peaceful life goes for a toes as few goons from the north enters the scene, who go after Shekharan and his family thinking he is not the simple guy who he portrays to be, instead the dreadful goon Raja from Mumbai.Who is Shekharan, who is Raja, what's their story, how all issues are settled forms the rest of the story.

The story is lifted from Rajnikanth's iconic 'Baasha' [The very same writers wrote 'Kochi rajavu' (2005) a rehash of Baasha again !!! ] but lacks the punch of the original. The film begins as a family film and shifts gears to action mode from interval block. The much talked about before release 'transformation' scene just fells flat ans instead of wolf whistles evokes yawn or (unintentional) laughter as Mammooty clearly looked uninterested in the proceedings. No matter how over the top or ridiculous the action scenes may be, the attitude of actor can make a difference, sadly here it isn't the case here. Mammootty not being a great 'mover' also had its -ve impact as he was just standing there swinging his arms and legs and the villains just comes rushing in and goes flying back.

The second half which begins with flash back sequences also fails to create the impact, Mammootty's weird Don getup also doesn't serve any good. From there own its just going with the proceedings for the audience till the end credits roll.

Ajay Vasudev shows promise as director, in the league of Vysakh. The movie has pace and there's not much of a lag or drag. The script is just rehash of rehashes and there's not even a moment of uniqueness or surprise element in it. It just evokes a sense of Dejavu and yawn. Cinematography was good, editing was efficient except mass scenes which were ruined by ages old flash cuts. Music was disappointing, a song including video lifted from 'Dookudu' and another one from a kids album. Action blocks lifted from Telugu movies like 'Brindavaanam' etc, scenes/story elements from 'Runway' 'Kanmadam' etc where also there. Action choreography was bad, should have kept the lead actor and gone with his image style and within his comfort zone. The dialogues were also ordinary as there is nothing worth mentioning.

Mammooty should stop doing such crap movies, if he looks this disinterested imagine how the viewers would be feeling. Joju impresses even though his role serves the same purpose Baburaj's role had in 'Kammath'. Rest of the cast just did what they had to, nothing worth mentioning.

In all Rajadhi Raja is not worth waiting time or money this festive season unless you are a die hard fan of Mammootty the star. To those who last week suddenly discovered some undead brain cells & 'logics' in their head, if those are still active please stay away from this film.

Verdict - Skip/Avoid