Salaam Kashmir - Malayalam Movie Review

Salaam Kashmir Malayalam movie review

Cast

 Directed by     Joshiy
Produced by     Mahaa Subair
Written by     Sethu
Music by     M. Jayachandran
Cinematography     Manoj Pillai
Editing by     Shyam Sasidharan
Studio     Varnachithra Big Screen
Distributed by     Varnachithra Release
Release dates   8 February 2014
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

 Cast

    Suresh Gopi As Tommy Eapen Devassy
    Jayaram As Sreekumar
    Mia George
    Krishna Kumar
    Lalu Alex
    Vijayaraghavan
    Ponnamma Babu
    Krishna Prabha
    Gayarthri

The movie has been in the cans for about an year. Delay in getting NOC from Indian Army, non availability of theaters, financial issues delayed the film. Finally after postponing the release at the very last moment the film has hit the screens.

Sreekumar is leading a happy life with his wife (played by Mia) and kids. While his wife goes out for work he takes care of 'home affairs'. To their peaceful, happy life enters Tommy Eapen Devassy  that jeopardize Sreekumar's simple life. Who is Tommy, what's Sreekumar's past, how their life gets changed forms the rest of the story.

 Salaam Kashmir is the 3rd time Director Joshiy has been attempting to tell a story with an Indian Defense force as backdrop (Nair Saab - Army, Sainyam - Air force). This time there is importance to family, comedy as well and did that work, sad to say it didn't.

The entire first half is dedicated Sreekumar & his family life, which is cliched to the core. Scenes reminding many Jayaram films of the past. Tried to add humor, sentiment, bit of mystery to appeal to a wide audience which actually falls flat. the second half, which deals with Sreekumar's mission in Kashmir, is actually better. But still it doesn't that level to cover up the unholy mess of a first half.

Performances by lead cast were okay, nothing exceptional.Writing was bad. There is belief that Joshiy can magic with even an average script, but sadly this is a below average script and there was nothing he could have done to lift it, just like Lokpal. Camera work was good especially in the Kashmisr portions. Music was below average and BG score was okay. Editor could have saved the audience by cutting of few scenes.

Salaam Kashmir is a mission gone wrong

Rating 2/5

Verdict: Disappointing

Last Word: Stay Away

Geethaanjali - Exclusive Malayalam Movie Review

 Geethaanjali - Exclusive Malayalam Movie Review

Directed by     Priyadarshan
Produced by     G. P. Vijayakumar
Screenplay by     Abhilash Nair
Dialogue: Dennis Joseph
Music by     Vidyasagar
Cinematography     S. Tirru
Editing by     T. S. Suresh
Studio     Seven Arts International
Distributed by     Seven Arts International
                                P J Entertainments (Europe)
Release date(s)  14 November 2013
Country     India

Language     Malayalam

Cast

    Mohanlal as Dr. Sunny Joseph
    Suresh Gopi as Nakulan (Cameo)
    Keerthy Suresh as Geetha & Anjali
    Nishan as Anoop
    Swapna Menon as Mary
    Nassar
    Siddique
    Madhu
    Innocent
    Harisree Ashokan
    Ganesh Kumar
  

'Geethaanjali' is the sort of sequel to All time Malayalam classic 'Manichitrathazhu', which is a huge baggage itself. Expecting anything remotely close especially with Priyadarshan at the helms of of affairs was out of the question. But still the trailer and video song were able to create some sort of hype before the release.

Story

'Geethanjali' deals with another interesting 'case' that Para-Psychologist Dr. Sunny Joseph gets to encounter in his career. On his friend Nakulan's request Sunny comes to Kerala to investigate about the paranormal activities taking place in an old mansion, once soon to be married Anjali & Anoop sets foot inside. 


Geethanjali is a nice watch for those who don't frequent Hollywood/Foreign horror films, for others this might be an under whelming outing. Its definitely one of the better horror 'attempts' from Mollywood
after a long time. 

First half was good where the story gets established. In the second half especially toward the end the writer looses complete control and felt like everything was rushed and didn't knew how to end properly. Innocent's role which was meant as a comic releif gets repeatative after a point. The basic idea of the film is inspired from a Thai film, which interestingly has been used in 2  Malayalam films in the past.

Mohanlal gets a extended cameo length role, but his 'Sunny' failed to create the charm which he had last time around. Keerthy has made a very good debut, her performance in the climax was very good. Rest of the cast did an okay job.

The main issue with the film is the half baked script. It's Priyadarshan's skill that made a decent entertaining movie out of it. His direction is good, he has tried every trick in the 'horror' book to make the film interesting, thrilling and scary (to an extent). Equally worth appreciating are Tirru's camera work and TS Suresh's editing which prevents the movie from going to a mess. Dialogues were just Okay, had a drama feel in few scenes. Music was disappointing considering the iconic songs

 'Manichitrathazhu' had, but Vidyasagar scored big time in Background score. also kudos to the art department who have done an excellent job



As a horror film it quite succeeds in scaring the audience - its thrilling and told in a convincing manner too.  If you avoid any sort of comparison with the iconic predecessor Geethaanjali can be a decent watch.

 Being the biggest/widest release ever for Malayalam film, it should at least recover investments, in the worst case scenario.

Rating: 2.75/5

Verdict: above Average

Final Word : Don't Go with huge expectations, avoid comparison  with MCT, you will enjoy this ride