'Samsaaram Aarogyathinu Haanikaram' is an interesting watch - Malayalam Movie Review

 'Samsaaram Aarogyathinu Haanikaram' - Malayalam Movie Review

Crew

 Directed by     Balaji Mohan
Produced by     S. Sashikanth
Varun Manian
Screenplay by     Balaji Mohan
Story by     Balaji Mohan
Starring     Dulquer Salman
Nazriya Nazim
Music by     Sean Roldan
Cinematography     Soundararajan
Editing by     Abhinav Sunder Nayak
Studio     Y NOT Studios
Radiance Media
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast

    Dulquer Salman as Arvind
    Nazriya Nazim as Anjana
    Madhoo as Sreedevi
    Maniyanpilla Raju as Prabhakaran Thanchappuzha
    Arjunan as Sathish
    John Vijay as Boomesh
    Ramesh Thilak as Ramesh
    Vinu Chakravarthy as Thambidurai
    Chemban Vinod
    Dinesh Nair

 'Thenmala' is a hill range village situated in Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. Aravind- a sales rep, who likes to talk a lot, Anjana- a Junior Doctor, who prefers silence, Nulear Star Bhoomesh, his fans who are gathered in the village showing support against the protest organized by Drinkers Association, Prabhakaran- Health Minister, Madhoo- Writer cum house wife & Anjana's step mom, Thambidurai- a rich landlord are the major characters in SAH. Each of them have different kinds, ways and reasons for talking, One day a new kind of disease called 'Dumb Flue' spreads through out the Village which prevents people from talking. What changes happens to these characters when everything gets settled forms the rest of the story.

The story may not be unique but the film do offer a good enough message. So special credits to Balaji Mohan for the daring attempt. Watched the film after reading many reviews about both SAH and Vaayai Moodi Pesavum, its Tamil version, which were extremely contrasting. So went to watch the film with a clean mind and was some what satisfied with the output. 

'Talking' can solve almost all problems, people sitting up with their egos bottled up and refusing to talk are the root cause for most issues is what the film is trying to tell us. The director uses candy floss romance, satire etc to deliver the message, which is where the film falters a bit. Sticking entirely to a satire format would have worked more I think. 

The film has a Tamil flavor too, too much detailing, hero with heart of Gold and delivering good old quotes and messages every now and then, separate comedy track etc could have been avoided. The news reading also gets irritating after a point, if it was meant to be funny , failed miserably. The ticker news too failed to raise laughs, apart from 1/2. 

Even though failed with Male lead, the way female lead character has been portrayed is pretty impressive. Kudos to Nazriya too. With out much dialogues, was able to draw out the character perfectly, esp Nazriya's intro scene and the scene after 'Talking' becomes prohibited. 

Its the 2nd half that people have harsh opinion about, where there are no conversation for major porion of the time. But I thought that too was beautifully handled. Reading all the reviews also kinda help me prepare for the 30-40 mins of 'no dialogues' and just actions [Subtitling could have helped those scenes I guess] 

Nazriya's initial conversation with Dulquer after this, Fans and Drunkard meeting [on 2 Occasions] etc were 2 of the noticeable scenes in that portion.

For Dulquer, it was a cake walk of a role. Nazriya for a change gets a completely contrasting character and she has done a great job, repeating her 'OSO' feat. Madhubala's much hyped comeback turned out to disappointing one and she was struggling with Malayalam too. Chemban Vinod rocked as the head of Drunkards while RJ Shaan disappointed in his big screen debut (?). Should have used somebody else for 'Satish's' role as like the character think he messed up. Maniyanpilla Raju, Vinu C etc were Okay.

Balaji Mohan did a great job of directing the movie, but his writing faltered.May be few lines got lost in translation too. There are many cliches which could have been avoided. Cinematography was good. Background score which was loud and at times disrupting dialogues in 1st half proved to be a blessing in 2nd half. BG had a great helping hand in making the 2nd half interesting (at least for me). Editing could have been better as the film lacks pace.

I liked the movie, reviews are out, so make up your own mind, but personally don't think it deserves the harsh criticism it has been receiving especially when the Tamil version have released with glowing reviews. It will be a nice watch if do like experiments.

Rating: 2.75/5

Verdict: Above Average

Salala Mobiles - Exclusive Malayalam Movie Review

  

Salala Mobiles - Exclusive Malayalam Movie Review

Crew

 Directed by     Sharath A. Haridaasan
Produced by     Anto Joseph

Banner Anto Joseph Film Company

 Written by     Sharath A. Haridaasan
Music by     Gopi Sunder
Cinematography     Satheesh M Kurup
Distributed by  Aan Mega Media  
Release dates   23 January 2014
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast

    Dulquer Salmaan as Afsal
    Nazriya Nazim as Shahana
    Santhanam as Alakarsami
    Jacob Gregory as Benoy
    Siddique
    Geetha
    Narayanankutty
    Janardanan
    Mamukkoya
    Jose
    Tini Tom
    Raveendran

Salala Mobiles tells the love story of Afsal & Sahaana coming from families who are at the extreme ends, economically. Afsal runs a mobile shop named 'Salala Mobiles' setup with the help of his uncle & Shahana visits the shop regularly to recharge her mobile. At the very first sight of Shahana, Afsal fell head over heels in Love . The story gets a small twist with the entry of Alakarsamy, a tech freak who develops a special kind of app which change the course of their lives.

Salala Mobiles is your usual rich girl poor boy Rom-Com + Family drama. But had it sticked to that genre the film would have atleast been passed as a breezy time pass entertainer. Instead the writer (who is also the director) added plots and sub plots which are not only confusing but irritating at many parts. Even though promoted as Rom-Com the film has very few of both, or at least the viewer feels that way thanks to the inconsistent writing and shoddy narration.

The first half is comparatively watchable, the second half completely goes down the barrel and the movie ends suddenly with an unconvincing climax.

Dulquer Salmaan was okay as Afsal but we have seen quite a few of similar roles from the actor and it is high time that he chose something different, these kind of roles have become sort of cake walk for him. Imagine the horror of heroine getting sidelined in a ROm-Com, thats the fate of Nazriya in Salala. Even in the few scenes got, she just had to look good. Being a Santhanam fan, really felt this houldn't have been his debut film/role in Mollywood, even though he was good. Gregory provided the comic relief, writer tried to cash in on the ABCD duo and it worked, one of the quite few reliefs the film offered. Rest of the 'too many' cast did what they just had to do, nothing significant.

Sharath's debut as a director could gave us only a half baked product, thanks to the script written by himself (His previous script was Jayaraj's 'Rain Rain Come Again', which ended up a disaster)

Except the title song other tracks didn't quite live upto the expectations, Gopi Sundar disappointed in that aspect but did okay job with background score. Cinematography was good, specially the songs. Editing was decent.

Salala Mobiles offers nothing much, except may be for the die hard fans. The combo of Dulquer-Nazriya will help the film to take a huge opening but after that matters looks tough for the film.

Rating: A very generous 2.5/5

Verdict: 'Average'

Last Word: This Number won't be reachable for long, so fans better rush to theaters before it goes out of coverage area.

Mega Multi Starrer Coming from 'Mollywood' helmed by Anjali Menon

Acclaimed Director/writer Anjali Menon's next could be the next big thing in Mollywood after 'T 20' due to its sheer star presence, and by that we just don't mean the actors. The untitled fun entertainer is all set to start rolling in the month of December

Banner - Anwar Rasheed Productions & Weekend Blockbusters

Writer / Director --> Anjali Menon

Producers - Anwar Rasheed & Sophia Paul

Cinematography - Samir Tahir

Music - Gopi Sundar

Cast --> Fahad Fazil, Nivin Pauly, Dulquer Salman, Nazriya Nazim, Nithiya Menon, Parvathy Menon & Isha Talwar.

Locations --> Ernakulam, Bangalore, Pondicherry, Chennai & Hyderabad

Distribution --> A & A [Anwar & Amal] Release via August Cinemas

Release Date -  May 2014