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.

Nail polish

Normally,Courtroom drama follows a template of showing us an incident, followed by the hearings from both ends and the predictable final verdict. Viewer may take sides throughout the proceedings. Nail polish manage to break the template by convincing the viewer not to stand by sides.


Veer Singh is accused of rape and murder of 2 children. As this case is important for the local government, public prosecutor Amit kumar is appointed to lead the case and opposition party hires Sid Jaisingh to defend the accused. What happens when the case takes a strange and bizarre turn.
The film starts with a non linear narration of Few incidents. A couple of youngsters witness an incident which then leads to investigation. Then we see a hospitalized Veer and then the narration switches to the series of incidents leading to it.


Writer is intriguing enough to keep us engaged. Writing and execution never take stands and never allow us to support any side. Director adds authenticity to the twist by proper placement and the addition of backstory.


Manav kaul puts up a remarkable performance as Veer singh .The transformation of the character and the breakdown scene were fantastic to watch. Arjun rampal as the confident defense lawyer and Anand tiwari as public prosecutor gave notable contributions in the supporting roles.
Though the usage of background score was very limited, that doesn’t reduce the impact that the story creates. Song added during the love track was captured beautifully. Dialogues were spot on.


Nail polish has its flaws as well. Director spend too much time to show the families of the prosecutor and the judge. It was needless and contributed very little to the proceedings. More time could have been invested on the development of Love track to make it more authentic without giving the feeling of a hurried approach.
Nevertheless, Nailpolish can’t be confined to a specific genre. It has something to say and has the stuff to reward a watch .

Watch here: https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/nail-polish/0-0-251089

Throwback to the best of 2020 movies of my Watch-list

It isn’t a secret that 2020 was a disastrous year, especially for the entertainment industry. Cinema halls were shut since March. 2020 created a big crisis for the thousands of people working in the cultural industry.

We saw a hike in the direct OTT releases gaining viewership and praise, especially in Tamil and Hindi. OTT releases proved that viewers can enjoy the best quality content from the comfort of their homes without any restrictions. Mainstream directors teamed up and gave quality anthologies like Unpaused, Putham puthu kalai and Paava kadhaigal. Let’s rewind the best movies of the year in my watch-list.(All the movies deserve a watch. Movies aren’t sorted in ranking basis).

The list will contain 10 films, a special and a bonus recommendation. Out of the 10 films, I have already reviewed about 4 in detail. Those 4 are:

  1. CARGO (NETFLIX-HINDI)
  2. PAAVA KADHAIGAL (NETFLIX-HINDI)
  3. BAARAM (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO-TAMIL)

4. UMA MAHESHWARA UGRA ROOPASYA (NETFLIX-TELUGU)

5. RAM SINGH CHARLIE(SONY LIV- HINDI):It is an impactful drama of every artist finding it difficult to balance their life between dream and reality. Kumud mishra’s mesmerizing body language when he expresses as Charlie clearly depicts the conflict. Technical side was top notch. One of my favorites.

6. CHINTU KA BIRTHDAY (ZEE5- HINDI): Just Waw! Chintu ka Birthday is a story of a set of dark events occurring in the day of the birthday of Chintu. With just 80 minutes, Chintu ka birthday won’t bore you.It will make you think.Watch it on Zee5 for the simple story that expresses the harsh reality of an ordinary family. Background score and sound effects deliver the complexity of the problem, Chintu’s family is stuck within.

7. C U SOON( AMAZON PRIME VIDEO- MALAYALAM): it is an experimental thriller that truly need to be awarded a watch. Traversing through the chat of video applications and video calls, this movie narrates a gripping and relevant story. This movie received pan india acceptance and the team deserve it too.

8. SOORARAI POTRU (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO- TAMIL): Sudha kongara’s second directorial venture too earned great reviews from the viewers for the brilliant performances and the intensity of emotions, this film conveyed. Kayilae Aagasam is still one of my favorite songs released this year.

9. KAAMYAAB (NETFLIX-HINDI).It’s about an actor Sudheer (Sanjay mishra) trying to finish his 500th film after a long gap. Kaamyaab is an ode to the unknown actors who were restricted by the ‘heros’ in the industry and the audience who prioritize heros over the sidekick supporting actors. Though predictable at times, Watch it for Sanjay mishra’s authentic performance (2nd best to Kadvi hawa) and the mind blowing climax.

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10. AYYAPPANUM KOSHIYUM (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO- MALAYALAM)- Late Sachy’s film, with strongly written characters packs a 3 hour nearly long film with engaging mass dialogues, aptly supported by Sudeep Elamon’s frames beautifully capturing Attappadi and setting the platform for the rivalry. Songs with the folk touch also adds up to the positive.

SPECIAL RECOMMENDATION

AK VS AK (NETFLIX- HINDI): It’s an experimental take on meta-film aspects. A controversy occurs between Anurag kashyap and Anil kapoor on whether an actor or director is more important for the success of a film. Story takes a different route when Anurag kashyap reveals a key information. This film is a thrilling ride and twists towards the end will surprise the viewers. Kudos to director Vikramaditya Motwane and team.

BONUS RECOMMENDATION

ORU PAKKA KADHAI (ZEE5-TAMIL): Kalidas jayaram’s debut film as a protagonist works with the unique premise and the message it portrays. This film speaks about the virgin birth,’Child of god’ concept and how lives change with these beliefs. Except for the unwanted detailing given to few of the initial scenes, this film gets the heart at the right place with Govind vasantha’s background score suiting the emotional and satirical mode. Sub plots gel well enough with the main plot.

Well, that’s it. Let’s hope 2021 will gift us even more amazing movies. I hope the support given for my reviews will continue for the upcoming year as well.

Paava Kadhaigal

Paava kadhaigal is an anthology set around how society prioritize caste, religion and honor over Love .

First one directed by Sudha Kongara is the best of the lot for me. Saravanan (Santhnu) is in love with Suhra but his friend and Suhra’s brother Sathar ( Kalidas) does the intermediate to join them but he loves Saravanan as well. Sudha Kongara weaves a magic of intense emotions and makes the viewer feel for Sathar. Background score plays a key role in attaining it. Kalidas puts up an extraordinary performance in a challenging role.


The second one directed by Vignesh shivan is about twin sisters Aadhilekshmi and Jyoti lekshmi (Anjali). What will happen if their father comes to know that one of them is a lesbian. Vignesh shivan informs about his intention in the opening scene itself. He adds up dialogues to think about and adequate amount of emotions. Though songs were good enough, background score failed to rise up to the occasion. Narrative tone changes to black humour towards the end and that somewhere reduces the final impact of the short. Still, i found this one as a good short.

Third one directed by GVM is all about how a family reacts to an unfortunate incident to one of their daughters. Simran’s strong performance leads this short .Frames were so beautiful.( Hill top shots and Mirror shots).Dialogues hit the right note. Background score gives that tense feel needed for this short. Staging of a pivotal scene was a bit less convincing. In total,it is a hard hitting tale with a good message.
Vetrimaran’s shot narrates the story of reunion of a pregnant Sumathi (Sai pallavi) and her father (Prakash Raj) after she eloped with a lower cast guy and the family suffered a lot due to this.What happens when the family is getting ready for her baby shower ceremony? We got to see a beautiful chemistry between Prakash Raj and Sai pallavi in the beginning.Both the actors score towards the end though my pick of the duo is Sai pallavi who really conveys the pain of the character. Vetrimaran’s writing keeps the characters organic.


The biggest positive of this anthology is that no shorts were terrible or average. Each short bagged a story to say and it succeeded to do so.Few shorts had flaws here and there but keeps the viewer occupied and get carried away with it.


There is a reference to the plot of the final short in the beginning of the third short. As this is an OTT release, viewers can easily note this. So the order of the last 2 shorts could have swapped.

Watch link: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81341216

Darbaan

Inspired from a short story by Rabindranath Tagore, the latest Zee5 Hindi film Darbaan is about Raicharan who worked as master to a coal miner Naren Tripathi and his relationship with his master’s son Anukul and his son Sidhdhant.

Initially, the film starts with the intimation that Raicharan isn’t like the other servants. He used to think himself as Master and his master had trusted him a lot. But an incident changed things bigger.

This film is set around 1970s and spanning around 30 years from then. Special mention to the production design for making the period authentic. Songs were soothing (Rang de song is my pic of the songs). Background score enhanced the emotions of the scenes. Around just 85 minutes of running time, cuts were good enough to keep the audience flow with the story without much lag or unneccessary scenes. Dialogues were beautiful as well.

There won’t be a second opinion that the show stealer in performance here is Sharib Hashmi. He was brilliant as the caretaker filled with Love and Guilt. The scene where he confessed was so intense. Coming to other performers, Rasika Dugal was notable.

The execution of few emotional scenes could have much more intense. For instance, the scene when Anukul’s wife asks Raicharan about the key incident demanded more intensity so that the audience can connect more with the character’s feelings.

Darbaan is a short poignant emotional drama that can make you emotional by the time it ends.Try it for the story, lead performance and the music.

Watch link: https://www.zee5.com/movies/details/darbaan/0-0-273960

More stories of Rabindranath tagore available here: https://www.netflix.com/in/title/80102160?source=35&preventIntent=true

Middle class melodies

Feel-good genre is common in every industry. But Middle class melodies offers a charm and pleasant feel after watching and that’s what tempted me to write about it though the plot isn’t fresh.

We are introduced to the family of Raghav (Anand Devarakoda) running a hotel. Raghav aspires to own another hotel and makes his ‘Bombay chutney’ popular.Raghav loves Sandhya(Varsha bollama) In parallel, another subplot unfolds as Gopal,Raghav’s friend working in a phone service shop loves a girl Gautami working in another phone shop.How can Raghav succeed in his dream? Will these couples unite?Well, beyond the answer,What matters here is the journey to find out the answer.

As I said above,Writers know that they need to introduce a good enough conflict to make the proceedings engaging enough. Their plan to make this story beyond the perspective of the protagonist really helps in connecting the movie to the audience. For instance: even the character of an old man (screen space is minimal) trying hard to make money for his grand daughter’s education stay with the viewer. Writer’s addition of few social issues (Waste disposing) too create an impact.

Morover, the humour quotient in the narration removes the drawbacks in storyline.The portion where the subplots of 2 couples connect makes you laugh. Background score at times expresses the emotions of the characters well.Cuts were fine enough except for few unneccessary sequences. For instance: Scene of Gautami’s father quarreling with auto driver wasn’t required in that situation. That scene was bit overdone.

Anand devarakonda did a quality performance in his debut venture. Varsha bollama performs quite well in the flashback portion.Her standout scene according to me is the scene in recharging shop. Other actors too were notable.

Middle class melodies,with a good mix of fun,food and romance offers a bunch of beautiful and pleasant moments to carry after the end.

Watch link: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0S3S07WYX1BR310HP13BY0D7LP

Mookuthi Amman

After going through the trailer and the 2 sneakpeak videos, It isn’t difficult to find out what this film is trying to say to its core.But Mookuthi amman delivers more by throwing few questions and answering them.

Mookuthi amman starts with a few humour scenes of Urvashi.The family’s effort to go to Tirupathi had various moments to laugh. After 30 minutes of beggining, we got to witness the mass entry of Amman. From there, this is a ride without any dull moments and full credits should be given to RJ Balaji and his team

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First highlight of this movie is the dialogues. RJ balaji puts the statement about making a temple popular and the impact of fake godmen. RJ balaji follows his style of adding spoof of real incidents similar to his previous written outing LKG.

Engles Ramaswamy (RJ Balaji) is a local channel reporter.We see him having a problem to get a good partner and talk about a land accessed by Bhagavati baba for ‘Panchavanam’ project. What can Mookuthi amman, a deity do to solve the both.Find out by watching the movie.

The surprise package here is the performance of RJ balaji. The scene where he pleads to the god to find solution for his problems shows his caliber as an actor. Urvashi’s emotional scenes were really touching especially the scene where her conversation scene with Amman and the climax scene.Nayanthara as usual brings her role to perfection.

Songs were good enough and the song when the family sets out to renovate Amman temple was so beautiful. Cuts were fine enough as the flow wasn’t losing seriously.

Heading to the drawback list, spoof side wasn’t getting perfect making wise. Script could have been more focus to pastors as well.Antagonist’s character could have developed better as per the initial buildup.

Mookuthi Amman is a quality Deepavali cracker for sure.Enjoy this fun entertainer.

Where to watch: Hotstar

376 D

Towards the end of Court room drama 376 D ,Judge narrates a story following the verdict of a case with minimal evidences to ensure the culprit. That story somewhat summarises the intent of this movie. 376 D is brilliant (though not perfect) and relevant to the core.
376 D opens with an abduction scene. A group of men kidnap 2 women and they are raped and thrown out of the car when police saw them.But are they women? No, they aren’t. What follows is the investigation and case verdict.
We have heard various incidents of Women Gang rape. But how will police respond to a gang rape if the victim is a man ?Is there any law to conserve justice for them? 376 D talks about this issue.


Director duo succeed in portraying the impact of this incident on the brothers Sanju and Devi in the beginning.Sanju says that this is the world of deafs.
When the setup shifts to courtroom drama, duo made sure that proceeding is engaging enough and devoid of unwanted twists and turns.
Writers pick out the loophole in the defense lawyer side and the other side.Their execution made sure that not much questions remain in viewers.


The only drawback was that few scenes lacked the intensity in execution.For instance, scene where Sanju finds his brother unconscious could have been shot with much more intensity so that the audience can feel for the characters.
Performances were strong enough from all actors. The actor who portrayed as Sanju should be the top of the list. His initial scenes were so heart wrenching.
Special mention for the dialogues mentioning the importance of good mental health.
376 D is relevant, by the subject.It’s much more than its one liner theme and throws you few questions.

Watch link : https://www.shemaroome.com/movies/376-d