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

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