Lubber Pandhu

Gethu, a renowned batter in a village gets involved in an ego clash with Anbu, guest player from one of his opposition team. What happens when the clash breaks the boundaries of the field?

Initially, director Tamilarasan narrates individual stories of both the key characters. We get to see Gethu smashing bowlers across tournaments with ease and swag. In parallel, we get to see hype build around protagonist Anbu as well. Tamilarasan makes sure that the hype around the contest really pays off in the match portions.

Initially, the romantic portions in structurally follows the template of some romantic dramas where hero gets a buildup, heroine loves him without wasting much time and the core conflict is that hero and Heroine’s father won’t be in good terms. Writer smartly infuses cricket to inflame the conflict. For instance: banter between the team supporters , usage of Mankading rule and the reaction of Gethu. Execution of the key revelation is so subtly done, thanks to the measured reactions of both the characters.

Though I never expected the plot point like the one of ‘Blue Star’ movie, those portions were handled really well .The most satisfying portion in the movie was the climax. It was a wise decision to remove the usual hero winning over the opponent climax like we have seen in multiple sports dramas. It is all about the hero making sure that no one else should suffer like him. Writer made sure that other teammates do get their relevance in the match portions. For instance: Kaali Venkat’s daughter character and a character named modern Malinga. They scores really well when relevant. Writer made sure to highlight his politics in certain scenes. Final match was so gripping even if we have an idea regarding the result. Special mention to the hilarious commentary punchlines.

Background score helped the narration to handle the energy ups and downs during match and initially created the ambience giving an intimation that there is something gonna happen between the 2 key characters. Sound of the ball striking was captured superbly. Cuts could have been better, especially with the romantic subplot. Usage of retro songs were apt too.

Though Attakathi Dinesh had to become that rough and tough Gethu, I really loved the emotional side of his character. For instance: Conversation scenes with his daughter and the scene where he smells the food prepared by his wife. Swasika shines in few mass scenes and little moments with her family members. Bala saravanan scored well with banter and comic one liners .Harish Kalyan added authenticity to the transformation of Anbu who slowly tries to shed up his ego and accepts his mistake.

Lubber Pandhu shows how cricket makes different people root for a common cause and forget the world around them. Recommended for the unusual climax and cricketing moments.

Watch link: https://www.hotstar.com/in/movies/lubber-pandhu/1271335839?utm_source=gwa

HADINELENTU/ SEVENTEENERS

This movie is based on an intimate video of 2 classmates Deepa and Hari gets leaked out of nowhere and created a huge issue among the students and authorities. But things go out of their control after a point.

There are few other movies depicting issues regarding teenagers (Including OMG2) , what stands out for this movie is the way incidents unfold and the subtlety of court room scenes. Writer Prithvi Konanur shows the core incident from different point of view without villainzing the key characters. Be it the conversation between Deepa and Hari on how the video got leaked, discussion about their future, difference in their financial status or the stress of the college principal. Lack of over-aggressive parents is a good change.

Though viewers don’t get to see the actual video (There is a specific reason for it), Pritvi Konanur succeeded in highlighting the impact of that video on the lives of both the protagonists. He aptly add contributions from different characters to the development of the case and thus maintains the tension regarding the verdict of the case. Cuts were pretty sharp enough to prioritize different conversations and subplots related to the incident. Match cut towards the end was notable. I saw a ‘Part 1’ in the title when I searched about this movie. Movie ends up in note where court hearing begins. Surely waiting to know how the case progresses if they are going ahead for part 2.

In the list of performers, first name to mention for me is Rekha Kudligi as the college principal Seetha. The way she took up the responsibility and handled the situations was commendable.Sherlyn Bhosale’s intense performance added authenticity to the fight and helplessness of Deepa. Neeraj Mathew was fine as the regretting Hari, who mostly maintains his support for Deepa.

If you are still looking for drawbacks, I couldn’t find a major one. This movie is a must watch underrated teen drama with compelling storytelling and mature handling of the subject. It’s disappointing that no OTT platforms picked this movie. I really want to know if the OTT platforms consider credible names or the movie quality as the criteria for these kind of small movies. Hope the politics in the movie reaches to a wider audience.

Watch movie: https://youtu.be/TCcTQmFnlc4?si=UFkCTvUefpzMjHuP

Nunakkuzhi

Nunakuzhi explores how Eby, a company MD gets linked to a chain of incidents leading to chaos. Did he manages to escape from it?. Enjoy this fun ride movie to unveil the surprise

The most important factor in a multi linked story is the way individual stories shape up and gets connected to each other. That’s where the first credit goes to writer Krishnakumar. There is MD Vava alias Eby where the linking begins. Also, there is Grace Antony’s character who gets unintentionally involved in another incident. The way Krishnakumar connects subplots and creates chaos is just hilarious. Some initial scenes gave ‘Vaalvi’ kind of vibe. Though it gets predictable at times, Jeethu Joseph makes sure that the chaos never gets to a tiring or irritating mode. Special mention to the dialogues. For instance in a scene, Siddique’s character replies to Eby like ‘Police kar idichal nee ithinekkal vrithikku karayum’. The situation where the comic one-liners were delivered makes it easy to work out.

Cuts were nice enough to maintain the flow of the pivotal incidents and conversations. Background score carries the energy of the total movie and maintains the curiosity factor of where is this leading to. Title song was placed aptly but the other song wasn’t that needed for the movie.

Though Basil scores well with his unique mannerisms and comic timing, best performer in the cast list should be Baiju Santhosh. The way he reacts to stories in hospital conversation portions is just superb.(‘Kolamass’ as per one of his dialogue). Siddiqui too shines with his dialogue delivery and quick reactions. Manoj K jayan and Binu Pappu were notable too. Grace was convincing in conveying the conflict of her character. The way she narrates incidents during investigation scenes added laugher at needed portions. Nikhila Vimal and Swasika had nothing much to do in the movie.

Though at very minimal instances, humor at times felt bit forced. For instance: minor conversation scene about calorie comparison, getting exaggerated. I felt like bridge conversation portions were stretched bit too much. I think the way Jeethu portrayed alchohol drinking in this movie could have been better. These aren’t at all reasons to stay away from the movie.
Just go to the big screen and watch this Paisa vasool slapstick crime comedy entertainer. It will make you stay away from your sorrows for a couple of hours and offers few laugh-out-loud moments. Towards the end, Jeethu gives an indication of a sequel, which is much like a ritual in today’s movies. Surely waiting for that, if it happens.

Ullozhukku

Anju and Leelamma, two women living under the same roof share a few secrets between them. What happens when secrets get revealed?
Writer Christo Tomy takes the viewers to Anju’s life. She shares a happy relationship with Rajeev, whose job isn’t sufficient to lead their family life. Christo gives an outline of the life of Leelamma in a scene where she talks about her past. Slowly, Christo reveals the grey shade of a few characters in the second half.

Character writing is a major factor in slow burning melodramas and that’s where this movie succeeds in connecting with the audience. There was ample scope for Leelamma to overreact when she got to know the truth. Christo gives the character the required maturity to understand the dilemma of Anju. In a conversation scene, Christo provides a glimpse of Leelamma’s past. Subtlety was evident in the key revelation portions as well.

Sushin’s background score was pivotal in conveying the tension in the conflicts of Anju and fluctuating emotions of Leelamma. Special mention to the production team for the gradual portrayal of the intensity of flood, especially the increase in water level. Though the first half was a bit slow, the second half made it up, thanks to the decent cuts. Kudos to the sound design team for their authentic work to create the sound of the steady rain.

Urvashi puts up a masterclass of performance as Leelamma. Leelamma’s unconditional love towards her son & Anju, her immediate response after phone call and her conversations with Anju after secret reveal are more than enough to show her prowess. Special mention for the scene where she talks with Anju without looking at her face. Parvathy gives another remarkable performance as Anju. The way she tries to convince others about her satisfaction and makes bold decisions was superb. Alencier was another notable performer as Anju’s father.

Key drawback is that slowness in the 1st half may not be comfortable for a section of viewers. I expected better writing for the main two male characters too.

Ullozhuku is a raw and immersive emotional drama that narrates the tale of two women getting trapped around similar situations, but took different turns.

Verdict: Worth big screen watch

Blink

Synopsis: Apoorva, working as a back drama artist and part-time editor encounters a kind of hallucination where an old man approaches him to inform a truth regarding his path. Who is the old man and why is he following Apoorva?

I honestly don’t know where to start from, mainly because too much happened during the course of this 146 min Sci-fi thriller. Apoorva is shown initially as someone trying to get his life settled. He tried to attend a few interviews for editor but had to reject because of pay scale issues. Soon, the twists start to unravel and genre shifts to time-travel cum time-loop thriller and writer cum director Srinidhi Bangalore managed to succeed in maintaining the curiosity of the viewers regarding how the world of Apoorva and Arivu converge. Usage of the character of Apoorva’s girlfriend Swapna is worth mentioning.

Cuts were nice overall. Editor tried his best to reduce the complexity of the story. J-cuts of Apoorva’s phone conversion with his mother were notable. Background score mainly did the job of maintaining the tension in portions where Arivu appears. Special mention for the usage of specific colours (Especially Red). One of the melody songs was nice to hear.

Key performance to mention is Dheekshit shetty . He did a superb job in his efforts to unveil mystery and conveyed the frustration of Apoorva. Chaithra Achar was impressive though her character had limited scope.

A section of viewers may find it difficult to sit through this movie mainly because of the plot complexity. Narration could have been made more simplistic to minimize the doubts in the viewer’s mind.

As I have only watched Churuli and Indru netru nalai dealing with similar subjects, this movie was a crazy never-seen-before kind of ride , finishing with few unanswered questions.

Verdict: Worth watching on OTT so that viewers can rewind if and when needed. Try to watch it without losing continuity. Also, hoping for more quality Kannada movies to release via OTT, which can attract wider range of audience.

Watch movie

Laapataa Ladies

Deepak, a newly married guy gets into a trouble when he took off from train by grabbing the hand of another woman with viels, by mistake. Can he reach to his wife?

This story is set around early 2000s when usage of mobile phone isn’t common.Kiran rao starts this movie with a train journey where the incident leading to chaos happens.Kiran gives a clear picture of Deepak’s family, where wife never calls the name of the husband. A character mentions like “when man has a decent name, why call him a ji or o ji”. She also mentions to depend on science and not on faith. On the other hand, we get to see the changed life of Deepak’s wife Phool. She started to enjoy the success of hard-earned money. Though it takes bit of cinematic liberty, police investigation narration in parallel too helps the viewers to stay engaged. Kiran smartly used humour sporadically in the movie. (Political leader speech scene was an unexpected one).

Background score gave an important contribution in maintaining the mood of the movie. Cuts were pretty fine as there weren’t much unnecessarily added sequences while shifting the narration across the pivotal character.
The key 2 names to mention in the list of performances should be the actresses who played roles of Phool and Pushpa. Nitanshi had the naivety of Phool and the way she reacted in the initial portions showed her maturity as an actress. Pratibha was convincing as educated and confident woman with a clear vision. Special mention to the actor who played role of cop. Sparsh srivatsav conveyed the guilt of his character, along with the frustration of people judging his ability because of a mistake.

Laapataa Ladies is a delightful social drama that discusses a thoughtworthy subject with the apt placement of light humour and a strong backdrop. A good example on how to make women centric stories without bashing men. Surely deserved to reach more big screens.

Watch link: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81760391?preventIntent=true

Aadujeevitham

Najeeb and his friend reached Saudi, in search of a job only to get stranded in the middle of a desert. How the gulf life changed his life?. Experience the movie to know it panned out.

I’m not the best person to compare Novel with the movie. In the cinematic point of view, Benyamin and Blessy did a great job in portraying Najeeb’s love towards his wife and his efforts to get out of the jail. To and fro narration of Najeeb’s misery and his past helped the viewers to root with Najeeb. Blessy succeeded in portraying the life around Najeeb. Language becomes a huge barrier for him.The only companion Najeeb gets is a Hindi speaking character who even forgot his name and time. Soon, Blessy takes us through the efforts of the characters to find a drop of water and then get to a vehicle. There are moments where Najeeb shows affection towards the animals such that he becomes hesitant to leave the desert.

First name to mention in the entire team is Pritviraj. This movie deserve watch for his performance. Special mention for the way his speaking style and gestures change. His groans will surely hurt you. Another standout moment is the way he thanked the Arabi who saved him. Gokul as Hakkim was fine too, except for few overdramatic expressions. Credits to the actor who did role of cruel Arab.

Makeup team had done a fabulous job overall. It’s hard to recognize Pritvi after a point of time. Sound department and cinematographer made the hurdles in this movie look authentic. For instance: Sand dust, Vulture attacking portions. Though background score was bit loud in the beginning, ARR elevates pivotal scenes post interval. Periyone is the pick of the songs.

Coming to the shortcomings, Benyamin invested more than required time to portray the characters’ desperation for water. Melodrama in certain scenes could have been avoided. We never get to see Najib’s family trying to contact him. Also, some of the Arabic dialogues never had subtitles.

Aadujeevitham may be a missed opportunity to create an absolute masterclass tale of the struggles of multiple lives. Still, it’s a captivating survival drama with standout lead performance and the team’s genuine efforts to make this movie a reality. If possible, catch it from the big screen.

Anveshipin Kandethum

Anveshipin kandethum is a whodunit police procedural thriller set around events in 80s and investigation in 90s. Can our rookie protagonist Anand narayanan solve the cases with limited support from senior officials and villagers?

Darwin Kuraikose gets into crime incident without much intro. There is no scene to show the smartness of the protagonist. Audience get to see his prowess and determination throughout the investigation. Just like some of the whodunit thrillers, writer puts forward few suspects in front of the audience and keeps the viewer guessing till the final twist got revealed. It’s the gripping narration of Darwin Kuraikose that helps the tightly written screenplay to help viewers to keep engaged, despite few hiccups. Placing incident around 80s eliminates the possibility of CCTV and over-reliance on digital evidences.

Production design team deserve credit for recreating the time period (Mainly Bus, police jeep, houses). Though bit loud initially, Santhosh Narayanan’s score added the required tension for the narration (Especially Bamboo beats). Cuts ensured the adequate pace for the movie and mostly importantly remove unnecessary violence, usually seen in such movies.

Tovino was cool as the cool-headed rookie cop. Sadiq is another notable performer in the ensemble cast. Though others including Kottayam Nazeer, Madhupal and Shammi thilakan did well, there was hardly much screen space for them.

Still I won’t call this movie as must big screen watch because of few reasons. Convenient writing is evident in few scenes (Especially regarding the convict of 1st case). Also, It felt like some of the characters (Mainly Azeez nedumangad and Indrans) were speaking printed language. Baburaj’s character transforming to comic character (Similar to his various other comic characters) after all the build up, felt like misfire.
Verdict: Worth a watch mainly because of realistic and solid narration.

Malaikottai Valiban

Malaikottai Valiban, an orphan wrestler succeeds in every battle he gets involved in. But, he gets into a bigger conflict where either he or the opponent will survive after the battle. Watch the movie to know more about the journey of Valiban.

This movie takes us to an unknown place where Valiban arrives to begin battle with the best wrestler known in that village. Valiban’s brother and master gives more than enough buildup for the character. PS Rafique adds different stories to the core plot, narrated via different characters and he weaves them to the life of Valiban. When Valiban finishes his mission, audience may feel that’s the end. But the conflict around Valiban’s brother and twist take this movie to the next level. LJP uses slo-mo shots and few mass elements to give unique watch experience. Special mention to the sound department and the usage of red and yellow colors often in this movie. Prasanth Pillai’s foot taping worthy score (Especially flute and drums portions) is undoubtedly the second hero in this movie and that itself deserve a big screen watch. Rak Rak song was just there to increase length. Other songs suited the situation better. Some of the dialogues were notable (For instance: Valiban tells as voiceover like ‘Balam Kond mathram nedan kazhiyatha chilath und’).

Mohanlal was effortless as Valiban with unbelievable physique. In a scene where a bed-ridden man narrates his past, emotion in Valiban’s eyes was enough to portray the trauma of that character. Though his broken Malayalam was terrible in the context, Danish Sait was believable as the venomous Chamathakan. Hareesh peradi’s Ayannar is yet another memorable character that gains a different dimension towards the end. Hope second part (If it happens) explores more of the character. Other characters don’t have that much scope to perform.

Amidst the merits, few drawbacks stop this movie from reaching the usual LJP standard. Initially, PS Rafique directly gets into the battle without giving proper explanation regarding the context (Especially for the Portuguese war). That minimizes the emotional connect overall.

Malaikottai Valiban may not be the best or worst LJP creation or a torture as many viewers try to degrade. It is a commendable attempt in creating a different style of action cum fantasy desi-hero fairy tale, which is very uncommon at least in Malayalam movies. This movie is worth a watch on big screen for LJP fans. Others may feel like it’s not their cup of tea.

Rewind 2023: The most underrated movies of 2023

It’s that time of the year to rewind and look back at some of the movies from various languages that got very little attention than they actually deserved. I couldn’t include certain movies that aren’t available on any OTT platforms till the end of the year. (For instance: Joram, O. Baby, 19.20.21, Baakki vannavar, Goldfish etc.. ). Note that the list contains movies that I haven’t discussed in detail in previous posts. From my previous posts, Viduthalai part 1, 1001 nunakal, Burqa, Daredevil Musthafa and Kida will surely find their names in the list. So, let’s get started with the list:

NB: Expand the movie title to read more

Haami 2 (Bengali – SonyLiv)

Haami 2 is a breezy light hearted drama that talks about parenting and asks the relevant question: Is there any need to project children as prodigy to earn money and thus push them to big stage pressure so early?. This movie conveys the message through the conflicts of other characters including protagonist Siddharth’s brother character and his fellow competitor in reality show.

Toby (Kannada -SonyLiv)

Character development is the most important part in a character driven drama and that’s where this movie sets up the standard. This movie explores many challenges that Toby faces, right from his childhood. Raj B Shetty’s menacing and career best show uplifts this revenge saga to next level. (Unfortunately, searching for a perfect time window to watch his different avatar in Swathi Mutthina Male Haniye, after its Prime video release).

Shiv Shastri Balboa (Hindi- Prime Video)

This feel-good slice of life drama works well mainly because of way, the 2 pivotal characters were shaped: Shiv sasthri, an ardent fan of Rocky Balboa movie and Elsa, a housekeeper who joins Shiv sasthri in a journey. Placement of few humour scenes and punch dialogues add to the merit of the movie.

Farhana (Tamil-SonyLiv)

Farhana traverses through the financial crisis of an orthodox Muslim family and how a call center job changes the life of the protagonist. Gradual narrative tone shift from emotional drama to a cat-and-mouse thriller and Aishwarya Rajesh’s anchoring performance makes this movie a compelling watch.

Kousalya Supraja Rama (Kannada -Prime video)

Many movies have explored the hardships of mother, especially in handling household activities. But this movie focuses more on the unconditional care of protagonist Ram’s mother even when she gets very minimal support in return and made the audience understand her character through others’ pov. Team deserve credit for delivering relevant emotional movie without entering melodrama phase.

Special mention

Koozhangal (Tamil- SonyLiv)

The only reason to keep Koozhangal in the special mention list is because its festival premiere started around 2 years ago. Otherwise, PS Vinoth Raj’s style of slowly and subtly building conflict around the Father and son is nothing short of a stellar master class.

800 (Tamil -JioCinema/Prime Video)

800 is a sincere attempt in showing different phases of the rough sea kind of the life of the SriLankan legend Muthiah Muralidharan. Right blend of Sinhalese-Tamil politics, rivalry and controversies around him makes this movie a genuine biopic.

Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway(Hindi- Netflix)

This movie is rooted on the struggle and lone fight for justice of a common woman against a system. Rani Mukherjee’s intense performance and some of the important dialogues in courtroom scenes are the major factors that helped viewers to connect with the protagonist and understand her conflict.