Mimi

I saw many reviews referring that Mimi is disappointing, rarely feels believable, wastes the talent of actors and many more. But, after watching Mimi, I would disagree with this degrading kind of reviews. Same happened to a Tamil webseries ‘November Story’ as well. Both aren’t flawless but not worthless. While November story is a slow burning crime thriller, Mimi is a predictable emotional drama.

Mimi revolves around the titular character Mimi who aspires to become an actress. Her life changes upside down when she takes an important decision for it. Film narrates about the consequences of the decision.

Though Mimi is remake, it never gives the feel of watching a remake.In the opening scene ,we are introduced to an American couple John and Summer, who are searching for healthy girl for surrogacy. Execution focuses more on humourous side and gives a light-hearted feel to the scenes. Scene where Mimi reveals an important decision to her parents is a great example of blending humour to a serious situation.

Writer and director Laxman Uthrekar succeeded to explore the possibilities of humour in the situation, create an emotional connect with the key characters and convey the intended message. Though Mimi is the central character, director considers to portay the perspective of Summer.

Kriti sanon managed to add authenticity to the struggle of Mimi. Look out for her performance in scenes with the American couple. Bhanu is just a cakewalk for Pankaj tripathi for the caliber that he possesses. The ease in his performance is a key reason that many humour scenes worked.

Dialogues too were notable. For instance: Bhanu says in a situation,”I’m driver. Whatever problem I faced, it’s my responsibility to drop my passengers to their destination”. It conveys the mindset of the character. Background score adapted aptly to the mood swings of the movie. Songs were placed well enough as suitable to the situation.

Mimi isn’t without drawbacks. The particular statement she says regarding aborting the child is contrary to that in Sara’s movie. Writer could have added a better justification for that.

Mimi is an engaging sentimental drama that portrayed the emotional conflicts of the main characters without being too verbal or melodrama.

Verdict: Worth a watch

Netflix watch link: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81267360?preventIntent=true

Vaazhl

Vaazl begins with a guy stuck in a situation and screaming ‘Yatra’. Who is he, how he got into trouble and who is Yatra? Vaazl traverses through the solution of all these questions
Prakash, our protagonist is an IT professional guy.He is fed up with his job pressure and he just needed a change from it .He accidentally met his cousin relative Yatramma and her son Yatra. It led him to few unexpected incidents.

The main positive aspect is the few well-written characters that led director Arun Prabhu purushothaman to successfully convey his message to the viewers. A guy who lives routine life, a veteran who only wishes to see his grandson, a woman who sees herself in a difficult situation and a foreign lady who views life from a different perspective.

Though Arun packs a box of short stories and unreveals it one by one , he keeps the focus on to Prakash and keeps other stories aside. Arun keeps the satirical mode in the initial part of the narration (Scene where Prakash meets Yathra was so funny). Also,Subplot involving pigeon story was so intended narrated.

Dialogues were really memorable and apt to convey the mindset of the characters. (For instance: Dialogue ‘Tomorrow’s problems are of tomorrow’ told by foriegn lady).Special mention to the mesmerizing cinematography that holds the film together. After watching the beauty of nature and tribal life in Papua new Guinea, viewer will probably wish to visit the place. Song ‘Va vazhava’ was enjoyable.

There are few hiccups in this movie for sure. Initially, the scenes narrating the character of Yathramma’s husband wasn’t believable enough for me.Towards the end, execution of few scenes felt over-the-top.

Aahrav was superb as the naughty boy ‘Yathra’.Pradeep Antony as Prakash was fine. Others were notable though not extraordinary.

Arun’s second directorial travel movie asks the viewer to explore life beyond what we know. Watch it for the message and the visuals.

Verdict: Worth a shot

Sara’s

“It’s better not to be parent than a bad parent”. Siddique in a scene during counselling reads his own quote. That quite tells us what the film intents to say.

In the opening scene, we see Sara with his boyfriend. After hearing her boyfriend saying about having kids, she walks away. After years ,Sara became an aspiring filmmaker and works as assistant in films. Jude shifts the narration to meta-film problems portrayed in the scenes including Siju Wilson and Balaji.

In parallel, we see Jeevan, a guy having problems with having kids, similar to Sara. Jude keeps his focus on to the questions of the society regarding parenting. Jude aptly maintains the balance between humour and emotions. For instance: the scene where Sara calls her father and Vincent asks is he asleep?. The scene where Sara meets the actress is the perfect example of the subtlety of Jude’s treatment.

Character development plays a pivotal element in making the situations relatable.Be Sara, stuck between developing her career and convincing her problems to others, Jeevan who changes his mind after job promotion or actress who gave up her career for family but never expressed it to others. All pivotal characters are well written and do communicate really well with the viewers.

Sara is different from the other characters of Anna Ben and she pulls it off with elegant ease. Sunny Wayne is a great choice made for Jeevan and he made his character feel authentic. Mallika sukumaran gets the role of Sara’s mother in law. Her performance in emotional scene was memorable.

Background score helped viewer to connect with the emotions of the character. Songs were soothing to hear. Special mention to the preduction design for the beautiful set up of the house.

Coming to the drawbacks, pace was uneven. It feel a bit slow at times .Srinda’s character could have avoided. Few may find the predictability as an issue. Sidhique’s scene could have been executed less verbally.

Drawbacks apart, Sara’s is a simple light hearted take on the exploration of the decision regarding parenthood and questions related to it. Worth a watch for the message and the performances.

Sherni

Sherni follows a village where people are getting killed by tiger roaming around when they set out to the jungle.What happens when Vidya Vincent, a new DFO joins the department and proceed with the investigation.

The film shows different shades of characters. Villagers raise their voice when they were denied entry to the jungle as it is needed for their livelihood. Vidya tells the villagers that it is important that animals and humans need to co-exist. But soon, we see the political interferences. From the contractor getting introduced as the brother-in-law of a politician GK and GK telling the public that this is their land in accordance to the upcoming election.

.
The most important positive is that Director Amit never chose the path of thriller though being more of a cat and mouse game between the tigress and the forest department team. It add authenticity to the narration.
Dialogues were spot on and serves the purpose of conveying the importance of animal conservation.
‘If the tiger exists ,so does the jungle. If the jungle exists, so does the rain.If it rains, there’s water. If there’s water, there’s human’s life.’
Another dialog ‘If you go into the jungle 100 times ,you might see the tiger once.But the tiger has seen you 99 times ‘.

Similar to his previous film Newton, Amit has succeeded in adding satire to the narrative. For instance:Portrayal of hunter character.
Vidya is a character with a balanced emotion and Vidya balan as usual comes with a measured performance. Though the character isn’t challenging to his caliber, Neeraj kabi made the transformation of his character believable.
Cuts could have been sharp as few scenes felt stretched a bit.
Sherni tells the story of an officer trying her way best to serve justice for the villagers and the tigress in a flawed system. Do watch it for the message it conveys.

Watch link: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Sherni/0S81WK2J8PA2G2F7JTBSVW3V6G

Ahaan

Ahaan starts by showing the habits of titular character Ahaan having down syndrome and Ozy (having OCD) both living in the same flat.
Ahaan is having active nature. He is happy go person. He interacts well with everyone. Ozy is just opposite. He is introvert. Cleanliness comes first to him. That character makes his wife restless. Ahaan is all about the changes that occur to both characters when they come to know each other.

Writer clearly shows the contrast of the 2 characters in a similar situation. For instance: When both meet in a roadside child, ozy hesitates to confront him. Moreover ,he applies sanitizer to his hand .On the other hand, Ahaan just buys flowers from the child as he understands that the child need money.

Director succeeds in portraying the transformation happening in both characters. Ahaan’s transformation to the strong desire to be independent and Ozy’s change to a simple uncomplicated person felt so organic. Ozy’s transformation had a lot of enjoyable humor added to it.

Crisp cuts ensured that even reactions from the characters convey the situation better than dialogues. Background score was minimal and soothing enough to keep the audience along with the journey of the characters. Frames were beautiful enough to capture the emotions of the characters.

Few scenes reminded me of recent Neestream original ‘Thirike’.

Arif Zakaria’s performance is a key reason due to which humour scenes with the consulting doctor worked out well. Abuli mamaji portrayed the innocence of titular character with delight.
Ahaan is an endearing and charming feel-good drama that will retain your smile after watching.

Verdict: Underrated drama

Where to watch: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81438083?preventIntent=true

Kavalthurai ungal nanban

Looking at the title, If you are expecting an ‘Action hero biju’ kind of a film, you are wrong. What will happen if Prabhu , a young food delivery step into police Station for justice but his words are misinterpreted?. He will have to pay the price for it. How extreme it will be ? Watch the movie and find it out.

Director RGM sets the plot, introduces us to a couple. We see Prabhu struggling to get going in life with his food delivery job. He aspires to go abroad for better job opportunities. But an incident ruin his life altogether. He gets involved in a conversation with a cop. Conversation gets worse and he gets trapped into trouble.

The biggest positive of this film is that it never tries to change or hide the truth. Special mention to the dialogues that strike the right chord. Initially, Prabhu asks head constable “Don’t police have conscience?”. For that, he replies, “There are few who have conscience”. Towards the end, the head constable says to Prabhu’s wife, “Police are public servants but they treat public like Servants”.RGM shows the harsh truth without any commercial compromise.

Suresh really put up a strong performance in bringing the helplessness and protest of Prabhu. Mime gopi uses his experience really well to portray the sharp villainous cop Kannabiran. Other too were notable enough.

Background score elevated the tense moments. Frames were good enough to intensify the hardships of the Prabhu. The main negative I felt was the unnecessary inclusion of songs.
Kavalthurai ungal nanban is a dark crime drama that makes us to think about the torture, a common man faces due to the ill-treatment of cops.

Verdict: Lite version of Vetrimaran’s ‘Visaranai’.

Where to watch?: https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/kavalthurai-ungal-nanban/0-0-402510

Mandela

How far can a group or party try to convince a voter to vote for their candidate? Mandela travels through the life of a Barber (Yogi babu) who turns from Zero to hero in few days but gets trapped in a confused situation.
People call him different names. Discrimination based on caste and his job is evident in initial scenes. Initially,writer Madonne Ashwin invests time in establishing the character.

His ‘open’ saloon, the tools that he uses and the place where he sleeps sums up his position in the society. Ashwin throws a rare trouble to the north and south groups in the village. Ashwin succeeded in creating ample satire moments to make audience laugh and think. Without going to mock everything in politics, Ashwin opt to find humour in the desperation of the 2 groups to ensure their vote.

Yogi babu really steals the show as the protagonist. From the suppressed to the bold voter, he makes the transition believable and brings out his career-best performance. Sheela gets a well written character. Her performance in the scenes where she disagree with Mandela in few occasions felt very authentic.

Companion boy’s performance was also fine.After ‘Oru kidayin karunai mannu’, George maryan gives a memorable performance especially in the auction scenes.

The only drawback I felt was that the practical possibility of key incidents is very less.But that never affected my watch experience.

Debutant Madonne Ashwin deserve praise for highlighting the importance of voting without pages of preachy dialogues.Just go for it without a second thought.
Verdict: Must watch

Where to watch: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81272107?trkid=13747225&s=a&t=twt&preventIntent=true

Bombay rose

A hindu girl falling love with a Muslim. The one liner of Bombay rose isn’t something unique. But the way of presentation of the story and the back stories given to the supporting characters make this one an engaging watch .

This animation movie with painted characters starts with the story of Kamala, a Flower seller. We get to know that she had a tough past and she tries to make ends meet for her sister’s education .
Gitanjali rao gives us a clear sketch of her characters. Kamala’s grandfather who can repair anything, D’Souza who teaches English to Kamala’s younger sister Tara.

‘D’Souza hate Thankyous and goodbyes’. This dialogue sums up the character. She lives with the memories of her husband and tries to support Kamala and her sister.
Scenes showing the bonding of Tara and a boy she befriends, were cherishing to watch.

The major positive of Bombay rose is the lively feel it gives. It’s not easy to bring authenticity in scenes in an animation movie. But Gitanjali succeeded in it, especially emotional and fight scenes.
Effects were good enough, especially the one when bird gets converted to man . Portions where Kamala dream as princess were notable.

Background score suits the mood and popular Bollywood songs added also sets up the tone. Repeated usage of a single track was also nice. Cuts could have been better. The main problem I felt was the slow pace in the narration. Few may feel that the story was not moving much.
To sum it up, Bombay rose is a decent engaging romantic drama filled with a box of moments along with Kamala- Salim love.

Netflix watch link: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81270289

Thirike

Thirike is all about brotherhood, a relation that distance cannot break. It starts with the story of Sebastian (Gopi krishnan), the elder brother and Thomas (George Kora), the younger brother.

Director George Kora shows us the affection of Thomas towards his elder brother in the opening scene itself. Soon, we are introduced to their house with a song and as the song ends, narration shifts to the present. A Muslim couple adopts the elder brother and Sebastian is now Ismail. He suffers from Down syndrome and studies in a special school. What happens when he goes missing?

George develops the protagonist as a cunning and not so likeable guy. With the initial humour scenes, he never tried to justify the character. George takes us to a heart warming ride along with his ‘achachan’ and leaves a smile throughout the film. Film never reaches to the melodramatic stage and that’s where George succeds.

George carries his character Thomas with ease to perfection. Though his he lacked conviction in the emotional scenes initially, he elevated the scenes with his humour touch and succeded in portraying the loneliness of Thomas.( Scene where he asks his brother to pack the bag and leave the place).Gopi krishnan equally does his part well as the calm Sebu alias Ismail who cares little about his problems. Their screen chemistry is just delightful to watch.Shanti Krishna’s as the possessive mother was also nice. It felt like few small characters finding it difficult to emote but it was a negligible fault. Watch out for the performance of Sarasa balusery as their grandmother, especially in her initial scene and in the scene where they both set out to visit their uncle.

Background score provided the charming ambiance for a feel good drama. Songs equally conveyed the feel of the characters. Cuts were fine enough for 105 minutes, especially while shifting the narration after the missing incident.

Thirike is a simple endearing drama that focusses more on the loneliness that Thomas faces without his brother. Though the climax was predictable, narration was intense enough.

Where to Watch: Neestream

Love

A puzzle built with hallucinations and few incidents. That’s how love can be summarized easily.
Love begins with a scene where Rajisha’s character coming to know that she is pregnant. Then we witness a fight between the characters of Rajisha and Shine .We feel like have seen such situations in many films earlier. Few characters enter and gives the story a strange U Turn.

The biggest positive is the writing of the characters. Before introducing the central characters, Khalid Rehman gets into the pivotal incident and builds the tension in the viewer. Then Gokulan’s character walks in (well-written one). The character is thinking about suicide due to family problems. Soon, Sudhi Koppa’s character enters. Through both these characters, we could get an idea about Shine’s character. Scene with Johny Antony talks about patriarchy hidden in the mind of Shine’s character.
But the final twist may keep questions unanswered for few. Rehman could have kept scenes clarifying the twist.

My pick of the performances is obviously Gokulan as he has got a meaty character. Second best will be Shine as he portrays the conflicts of the flawed ‘Anoop’. Rajisha did her part well in total but scores nicely towards the end when she gets more screen space.
Background score keeps building the tension in scenes throughout. Few shots were top class. Cuts were fine though few scenes may feel stretched.
Love transports us to that flat and gives a thrilling experience, added with a pinch of humour. Love isn’t a movie to throw out when you come out of the cinema hall. It need a complete retrospection or decoding after watching for better understanding.