MOST UNDERRATED FILMS TO WATCH THESE LOCKDOWN DAYS

As OTT platforms are one of the most dependable way to watch cinemas today, Take a look at the most underrated films to watch to stay engaged. The list include 4 Malayalam films, 4 Tamil films and 2 other language films that I believe deserve much better number of audience.

MANJADIKKURU: Anjali Menon’s debut film is a beautifully woven nostalgic drama that deals with the tale of a family gathering for a funeral.Manjadikkuru is as soothing as its background score and innocent as the cousins. I don’t know where it is available. Just try to get it from somewhere and watch.
TD DASAN STD 6B (MANORAMAMAX):Mohan Raghavan’s debut film really changed my perspective towards cinema.TD Dasan had a lot of heart in it and it made me think to watch cinemas out of Commercial template. Dasan is the tale of Father-Son exchanged through letters and that too from Dasan to a stranger. Here too the portrayals of the innocence of the central characters give a heart-warming feel.
KAIYOPPU(HOTSTAR):Ranjith’s best till date movie Kaiyoppu is a hard-hitting portrayal of how the unnatural demise of a writer Balachandran affects the lives of his friend Padma, a book publisher and a father waiting for money for her daughter’s operation .Kaiyoppu highlights the loss of lives In Bomb blast and its consequences through the characters.
MELVILASAM (SUNNXT/YOUTUBE):Madhav Ramdas’ debut movie Melvilasam is much more than a Court room drama. Soorya Krishnamoorthy’s drama turned movie talks about Racism and Patriarchy. The way Ramdas unveil the clean image of a Character (Krishnakumar’s amazing performance as Captain BD Kapoor) is just awesome.
VISARANAI (NETFLIX/YOUTUBE):Vetrimaaran’s best till date clearly shows how Tamil immigrant workers are treated by Hyderabad police. Visaranai isn’t an easy watch as the scenes involving Policemen attacking the central characters are brutal and the uncompromising climax shows that what they will get in the end will be injustice.
TO LET (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO): To let narrates the story of a couple in search of a rental House- House wife stuck between humiliation of house owner and finding a dream home, An aspirant writer dreaming of his 1st film venture and their child, a nice painter who asks his father “TV nammodath, vehicle nammodath, veedu mattum en nammodath illai?”.To let becomes a relatable and deeply moving experience with subtle visual storytelling.
SILA SAMAYANGALIL (NETFLIX): Sila samayangalil underlines the fact that the difference between a real news and fake news can be the difference between life and death. Priyadarshan slowly establishes the characters from different backdrops reaching a clinic to receive their HIV test results. They slowly start to share their life stories in their waiting time. Sila samayangalil and Kanchivaram really shows the masterclass of Priyadarshan.
OTHTHA SERUPPU SIZE 7(NETFLIX): Parthipan’s 1 man-army’s guts to script, produce and direct a single on-screen actor (that too himself) movie solely can be said as the reason to watch this movie. Masilamani, a man with lot of scar opens his mind in front of a bunch of police officers and a psychologist. How he finds bail for the murders he did sums up the story. Parthipan’s mesmerizing performance maintains the intensity of the scenes where he explains certain incidents and Special mention to the brilliant sound design that the viewer can picturise the events without being visual.

NEWTON (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO): Newton is basically a social satire drama that narrates the story of Newton Kumar, a government employee sent to politically sensitive area for Election Duty. He understands that most people don’t know much about the election and their votes are going to be misused. The best part of this film lies in the way He educates the public about the importance of Election and brings them to vote.
VILLAGE ROCKSTARS (NETFLIX): Village Rockstars follows a girl Dhunu form a music band with her boyfriends and her efforts to collect money to buy a Guitar .Rima das’ beautiful and grounded narration of simple incidents in a village with minimal dialogues make it sweet and special.

Baaram

When Covid-19 creates havoc all around the world, we all are stuck at home and searching for ways to kill time.How about a movie, beyond time pass? Watch National Award winning movie Baaram on ‘Simply South’.

Baaram tells the Story of a watchman Karuppusamy who meets with an accident and becomes bed-ridden. Baaram discusses the scope of Thalaikoothal, a ritual followed in certain villages in Tamil Nadu.

Writer Priya Krishnasamy clearly sets the platform by introducing her characters: Karuppasamy’s nephew Veera (whom Karuppusamy loves the most and who initiates protest for his death), Senthil and his wife.Director Priya executes mercy killing kind of scenes in raw and gritty manner,that too without using bgm(I think that’s the reason this film is rated A). Priya draws our attention to the issue and make us ask ‘how can this be treated commonly’.Priya aptly handles vital scenes without slipping into a documentary feel (For instance the scene where Villagers explain the ways of killing and commits that I too had done it) and ends the movie aptly.( without giving an unreal positive end).

Bgm though initially felt similar to soap-opera template made a convincing mark in the 2nd half.Except a few untrained ones,Actors did their job nicely( Pick out names are Sugumar shanmugham as Veera and Su Pa Muthukumar as cruel son Senthil).With 91 minutes, Cuts were fine.The film maintains a slow pace and it may not be acceptable for a certain type of audience( who doesn’t like art-house films).

Baaram is a bold and an important film that not only addresses Thalaikkuthal, but also says how the society reacts to the traditional practice. A must watch for the theme and the way, it is narrated.

Parasite

Parasite looks at the totally different lives of kim and Park families and incidents that change their lives totally.
Kim lives with his family with limited facilities where they search for wifi all around the house in opening scene.Park family lives a luxurious life with high paid workers all around them for everything.
The best thing is how the director potrays the class division and the relation between families of different extend.
Starting as a usual story of struggling family, Parasite navigates through relatable dark humour and ends in emotional note.Conversations between the park couple too show their attitude towards the kim family.
Director uses rain to show the difference in situations between the families.Rain is shown as beautiful view of nature in Park’s house (nice frames too in park family scenes) and as destructive devil in Kim’s house.
Director aptly uses objects to connect the story.For instance, After an incident, young kim throws a rock that his friend gifts to bring prosperity to the family.That scene shows the kind of superstitious beliefs still existing within us.Look out for the final Kim father-son conversation scene.
Technically,background score enhances the dark satire aspect and conveys the emotion towards the end.Cuts made sure that viewer isn’t detached from the progression of the movie at any point once the plot gets interesting.
All just performed excellently except Mrs.Park.Her emotions were a bit over-done .But that isn’t a big deal.
I can’t justify the final twist where Mr.Kim kills Mr.Park without clear justification and that is the only major drawback after watching the movie.
Parasite sums up to be the resultant of the script duo’s work in the thin plot and some smart execution that makes sure that viewer won’t get the feel that the plot is thin.

Anjaam pathira

In the opening scene,we are introduced to Ripper Ravi narrating the mindset of a serial it’s not the story of Ripper Ravi,but the story of a killer who follow similar type of an ideology.
One line plot is nothing different from psychological murder mystery.Police men are killed in similar pattern.Neither the place nor the killed police men have any thing common.How could a criminologist Anwar and special Investigation team solve the puzzle.
Midhun Manuel makes ample use of almost all characters introduced.(from Chackochan’s Anwar to Nikhila vimal’s cameo appearance,every characters have their intentions).
1st half moves fast and builds the tension . Once the way of killing gets revealed, the thrill is on.Though the practical possibility of CCTV footage tampering and all is an issue, addressing concepts like da Vinci code is fresh to an industry like Malayalam.
Chackochan is the captain of the ship and his performance truely drives the story forward.Look out for his encounter with the villain towards the climax (not a usually seen one).
Other performers include unnimaya prasad, Jaffer Idukki, Matthew Thomas etc.. Special mention to Jaffer Idukki for the portrayal of a painful father.Sreenath bhasi offer slight bit of laughter (especially his intro scene) to the otherwise tense film.
Shyju Khalid’s frames evoke tension especially in night scenes.Special mention to sound design and background score(credits for not being too loud and using silence also).Saiju sreedharan’s edit make sure that the smooth flow is maintained and viewer isn’t getting diverted.
Besides logical hiccups or ‘how on earth can it occur’ type of moments at times, Anjaam pathira is something we haven’t seen before much and that’s why this should be watched.

Sillu karuppatti

Halitha shameem tries to reveal love blossoming in Children in her first story Pink bag.The love is mostly silent and boy shyly hides when Mithi(Sara Arjun) tries to find him.A pink bag connects both of them:one from a slum and one from a wealthy family (I personally don’t agree with the ways director use to highlight that Mithi is rich especially English dialogues).

In 2nd story ,Halitha chooses an interesting plot .Mukil, a meme creator faces a critical issue(Let the issue be hidden).He meet a fashion designer Madhu on his ola journey and that journey changes his attitude towards life.
Halitha makes up her statement towards the issue related to the problem, our central character faces.Its nice that director blend characters from the previous story.(Though it’s a single scene). Director succeed in conveying unconditional love, love beyond humans and within a man and woman from unexpected Manikandan scores better than Nivedha as the struggling Mukil.The only thing odd in the script is that Mukil and Madhu joins an ola ride regularly and with the same driver.(once or twice makes sense,but more than twice could be out of logic). But the ride is light hearted and fills you will positivity.
Third story Turtle (title is justified well) follows Navaneethan and Yashoda(Leela Samson) . They both meet following a hospital test in a turtle collection scene (dialogues introducting both characters were so exciting). Dialogues after a. Certain incident felt a bit dramatic.Leela Samson’s performance wasn’t that exciting initially,but as the character history is revealed,the performance carried that emotions well.Bgm maintained the stability of emotions sell enough throughout the story.Halitha convincingly delivers this ‘sweet ‘ love story in the bag too.
What could be ‘Alexa’ to a husband with OCD who cares least about his wife and a wife who complains him about the same and quarrels with him(dialogs in quarreling scene felt a bit unnatural).Halitha traverses through the daily life of a couple and rediscover love between the couple.Halitha shows ‘fabricated’ love in tiktok as well.Samudrikani and sunaina share a good chemistry and performances.bgm felt a bit similar to Western style at times.
Silly karupatti is a precious gem of anthology romantic film with 4 different stories related to love and after watching t what left will be a charming feel than complaints.

Best Malayalam movies 2019

It’s almost the end of 2019 and time to take a look at the top quality films released this year.

2019 has been an exquisite year for Malayalam cinema where a bunch of new comer directors made their mark through their subtle and realistic film making.

Here is the list.

Kumbalangi Nights: With Syam pushkaran’s interesting characters (Saji,Bobby,Shammi ) and simple narration, Kumbalangi nights deserve to be in the list of poignant family drama.

Unda: Unda is nothing short of a realistic ode to the restless service of cops. Barring the mass fight, the black humour in unda will tell you more about Bastar and the officers in Bastar in charge of election duty.

Thamasha: A remake of Ondu motteya kathe makes you question body shaming comedy and comments in social media. The Cool and composed Chinnu makes you think,”ente thadiyil enikkilatha vishamam ningalkenthina” and asks you not to judge any one by their appearance.

Virus: After watching Virus, you wouldn’t have any actor to pick out, but a collective effort to win over Nipah virus and that’s the real success of Virus. A well-researched script, a touching narration (without making it a documentary) and team work in performance really worked in favour of this film.

Finals: Sports drama usually shows the growth of a character after facing hurdles and negativity from the society. But finals give more importance to the problems faced by the players and the illegal activities of sports authority, Starting as Alice’s (Rajisha) growth as cyclist, Finals ends up as the re-invention of Varghese mash (Suraj Venjaramoodu),

Vikruthi: underlines the importance of right way of using social media platforms. It’s Suraj venjaramoodu who surprises with pitch-perfect performance. Hats off to writer Ajesh for showing Sameer’s(Soubin) regret (without just criticizing him)and giving justification to climax.

Android Kunjappan Version 5.25: A Stubborn Bhaskara poduval’s lonely life and the incidents after the so called Kunjappan join him sums up Android kunjappan. Ratheesh balakrishnan effectively transforms a fresh idea to a feel-good sci-fi drama and uses kunjappan to convey a relevant message without being preachy.

Uyare: Manu ashokan converts Pallavi ravindran, an acid-attack survivor’s fight for justice to a fabulous inspirational drama by establishing characters around her and slowly showing her transformation after the incidents.

Ishq: deals with moral policing and toxic masculinity.Anuraj manohar boldly make his statement with the much talked climax.

Jallikattu: How can one expect a tried and tested formula from Lijo jose pelisery.LJP proves why he is currently the most innovative director. Jallikattu tells you that difference between Beast and humans is negligible and the experience for me stands just next to Ee ma yau.

Helen: produced by Vineeth srinivasan is another gem of an intense survival thriller directed by Mathukutty Xavier and neatly performed by Anna ben,Lal and Aju vargheese.Helen convincingly shows the way Helen gets trapped, her efforts to overcome and the ways Police, her boy friend and her father collectively finds her.

Moothon: shows you a newNivin pauly and Roshan Mathew and narrates a story in dark shores of Lakshadeep.Directed by Geethu Mohandas,moothon engages with good enough technical crew and performances.

Thanneer mathan dinangal: Showing school life has now become cliché. But, Gireesh AD removes unwanted commercial appealing scenes and shows simple comedy scenes and nostalgic school life with realistic characters and situations. Vineeth srinivasan plays a different character from his goodness filled character.

Ambili :Ambili is about Ambili’s love towards Teena and Bobby. Though the character Ambili’s mannerism resemble Dileep’s Chakkaramuthu and the plot moves along a predictable path , an endearing Soubin, Vishnu’s touching bgm and Sharan’s frames elevate Ambili to the next level.

Prathi poovankozhi: may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Prathi poovan kozhi rises above the level of a message-driven emotional drama and makes a statement about the theme.

Prathi Poovankozhi

Right from Poster to the colour grading in certain scenes,there is red that denotes the fierce and rage of Madhuri towards people like Antappan(as She says Antappan um Sathish okke onnanu).Prathi poovankozhi is more about breaking woman’s silence towards the patriarchal society.

Madhuri(Manju) lives with her mother and works in a textile shop. She tries to clear debts and waits for an alliance.Once she faces harsh experience from Antappan(Rosshan andrews), a renowned gunda in Kottayam.She decides to hit him, but this went wrong. Did she succeed in it? Watch the movie to know.

After knowing the plot,I thought how this thin plot could be converted to a full length movie. Surprisingly,Unni R’s script adds satire and a subplot to make proceedings smooth(though subplot isn’t that necessary, it wasn’t tiring too). Dialogues were spot on with nice Kottayam slang . Madhuri says,”If he dies ,how can i hit him “and it is enough to describe the vengeance of Madhuri. I really loved the way Rosshan placed the interval block and the scene where Madhuri meets Antappan towards the climax.

Scenes including Rose(Anusree) and Suraj pops(Kumbalangi fame) provided good humour to make narration live enough. Manju puts up a fabulous show as the bold Madhuri. My surprise is Rosshan as menacing Antappan. I think the Actor in Rosshan overshadowed the director.Grace Antony’s character could have been developed.Saiju kurup and Alencier performed optimally to their characters.

First song was enjoyable.I though it wasn’t necessary to give loud bgm as buildup whenever Antappan appears on screen. Sreekar prasad’s cuts were good enough (100 minutes) whenever mood of the scene shifts. I thought climax was little bit over board and could have been cut short.

Though minor flaws exist, Prathi poovankozhi is much more than a gripping cat and mouse revenge drama .

Rating:3.5/5

Chichchore

‘The most important thing in life is life itself’ .This is our hero’s advice to his son and the message that the overall film conveys. Director Nitesh tiwary succeeds in conveying it without being a preachy lecture.
Chichchore is about Raghav’s attempt to clear JEE exam and how an incident reveals his rank holder father’s loser story.

Chichchore’s biggest success is that it can be related to us in 1 or the other way.Starting from Raghav to the friends gang in H4 ,we have seen them or we are of course one of them.
Nitesh’s narrative pattern is mostly combining present and past incidents and dialogues in non-linear pattern and it too works aptly though felt deliberately at times.Few shots reminded me of Classmates movie.
Nitesh too handles emotional scenes nicely especially in a scene where our hero says to his lover why he isn’t interested in hostel change.
Script gifts humour in a delicate manner ( I felt 1 or 2 instances were not believable enough) and Director too takes cinematic liberty at times.
It’s good not to have a villain here. Every character reacts from their own space.
Starting from Sushant,all performed with elegance and ease.Editor is the next hero as there wasn’t much lag throughout.
Songs were good enough and bgm just up to the mark.
I felt odd that there isn’t any scenes inside class room or positive reference about professors.
To sum it up, Chichchore is a nostalgic enjoyable ride to Hostel days.I felt i missed enjoying Chichchore in big screen after watching.

Rating:3.5/5

Magamuni

Script in a movie where hero does double role will be dealing with confusion factor.Twins with heavy enmity fight against each other and finally become friends and face the common enemies. Films like Annan thampi,Mersal ,Thadam follows this same pattern and that’s where Santhakumar’s Magamuni differs.

Magamuni is basically,a character study of Magadevan,more a right hand of a political leader than a taxi driver and Muniraj , a naive ‘Vadiyar’ who teaches students and unexpectedly jumps into dilemma.

Director establishes the grey shaded Magadevan first.He tells why Maga opts for such a job and why some people are behind him.Director visually conveys the time period in which the story occurs and conveys the political rivalry issue without being preachy at any point. On the other hand,Muniraj is much established in the 2nd half.Director conveys his views about god and the caste system in the society.Director suitably uses charm bgm and naturally beautiful visuals to convey the goodness in Muniraj.Even songs involving Muniraj are beautifully captured.

In a hospital scene,Rohini’s character conveys an emotionally touching fact and director conveys the emotion aptly through the reactions of Arya’s Muniraj.

Arya puts up his career-best performance as 2 totally different characters .He gives a unique touch to both them in terms of dialect and appearance. Induja as Maga’s loud and eccentric wife and Mahima nambiar as journalism student fits their roles.

I though that a few scenes in the 1st half could have been avoided enough to keep the audience completely invested in the story.

In total, Magamuni ends up as a satisfactory watch with Santhakumar’s craft and an unexpected climax.

Rating:3.5/5

Finals

Finals narrate the story of cyclist Alice(Rajisha) and her father Vargheese (Suraj).Alice sets her goal to win Olympic medal in 2020 Olympics and starts her practice day and night.But fate and sports authority changed everything.

Finals begins with title card paying tribute to Olympic medal winners and starts similar to the story of rise of a cyclist from a village in Kattapana to Olympic medal.But Director Arun wants to convey more than and he succeeds in it too.

First half establishes the issues of Vargheese Maash and the relation of Alice with his childhood friend Manuel. Script gives equal priority to the politics inside Sports department ,difficulties that the players face and the dreams of Alice and Vargheese. Barring few flaws in execution initially,The best part is that Director Arun is not trying to be loud and explain every aspect. Let the visuals speak for themselves.(That’s good).It’s also good that Director handles emotional scenes (especially climax) subtly. Rajisha performs quite well as a professional Cyclist and apts her body language too. Suraaj puts up a magnificent show(probably the best in the list) as a doting father and helpless coach.Other notable perfromers are Niranj,Maniyan Pilla Raju,Nisthar Sait ,Sona Nair and TiniTom.

Pradeep Elamon elevates the beauty of the movie with his landscape and aerial shots of Vagamon and Kattappana.(Cycling championship scenes) .Songs suits the mood and so does the background score. Finals stand apart from the Star-budded festival season potboiler entertainers .It is disheartening to say that i watched this film in a theatre with almost 80 % of the seats empty.

Give a chance to Finals.It won’t disappoint .

Rating:3.5/5