Most underrated movies of 2021

As it’s wrap up for 2021, we have seen more in the year. In correspondence with OTT growth due to the global pandemic, OTT platforms concentrated more on regional language content, more specifically south indian content (Addition of SonyLiv to the competition of better quality South Indian content).

Let’s look back to the most underrated and less discussed 5 movies of 2021. Do note that I haven’t included the popular and most discussed movies like Karnan, Jai Bhim, Joji, Drishyam 2, Maanadu, Home, Nayattu etc…

5. Nail polish (Hindi- Zee5):- Nail polish never follows a template or take sides throughout the court proceedings. With Manav Kaul’s unbelievable performance and intriguing non-linear narration, this one deserves to be in my underrated top 5.

4. Aarkariyam (Malayalam- Amazon prime video):- Aakariyam gets to the list with its slow burning narration, detailing given to the characters, initial setup of beginning stage of covid. Though the slowness is bit beyond limit at times, it keeps the viewers eager to know the proceedings of the movie.

3. Sivaranjiniyum innum sila pengalum (Tamil-SonyLiv):- It’s all about the progress of lives of multiple women in different periods. Director highlights the aspirations of women to become independent in society and shows patriarchy in multiple instances with minimal dialogues and background score. Only negative was that last story wasn’t that much convincing as the other 2.

2. Sherni (Hindi- Amazon prime video):- It’s strange that a Vidya Balan starrer is included in this list. Sherni tells the story of an officer trying her way best to serve justice for the villagers and the tigress in a flawed system. Dialogs and satire were spot on.Do watch it for the message it conveys.

1. Kadaseela Biryani (Tamil-Netflix):- Check out my previous review for the summary of Kadaseela biriyani.

Special mention:

Richer scale 7.6 (Malayalam- Roots OTT)
Cinema bandi (Telugu- Netflix)
Eeb Allay Ooo! (Hindi – Netflix)
Madhuram (Malayalam- SonyLiv)

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.

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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

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:

CARGO (NETFLIX-HINDI)
PAAVA KADHAIGAL (NETFLIX-HINDI)
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.

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.

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

PANCHAYAT

Last week, I watched a predictable but touching award-winning film I am kalam on Amazon prime. But after watching the latest Hindi prime web series Panchayath, I think it can change the perspective about web series for a section of audience and thus made the recommendation of the week.

Normally, a section of audience may feel that watching a web-series give them a tiring experience. Panchayath Season 1 contains 8 episodes, each around 30 minutes, packed up with social satire enough to make the audience think about the situations.

First episode introduces the protagonist Abhishek Tripathi (Jitendra kumar), Pradhanji-in charge(Raghuvir yadav) , his wife Manju devi (Neena gupta) who is the ‘Real’ pradhan of the panchayath. Abhishek is an engineering graduate preparing to clear CAT exam to get an MBA admission but get stuck as he got appointed as the secretary of a panchayath in UP.

Second episode traverses through a haunted tree .Abhishek go in search of the truth why villagers fear to go near the tree. Song and background score maintained the feel of satire element and the twist towards the end was hilarious. This episode reflects the nature of rural people where they blindly believe each other.

Third episode talks about a cushion chair, in-charge Pradhanji’s ego and a wedding ceremony conducting in the panchayath office with the complete coordination of the villagers. The scene where groom searches a word and fights with Abhishek brings laugh for sure and it shows how villagers develop a small issue and react to it.

Fourth episode deals with the problem of a slogan and its meaning. It shows how Abhishek manages the problem of protest against the slogan and the order from his higher officials. Look out for the final surprise twist.

Fifth episode covers a stolen monitor in the panchayath office and investigation related to it. This episode gives more importance to the emotions of the protagonist. Director conveys his pain of loneliness and the performances in that scene intensifies the situation. This episode also depicts satirically how police in that village responds to a complaint.

In sixth episode, director tries a goon spoof and succeeds in it without over-mimicking the characters. This episode deals with 2 terms specified by Abhishek’s assistant: ego and self-respect. A small issue occurs when Abhishek and his assistant went out to take a photo in a studio for his CAT exam. This episode highlights the unity of villagers and their peculiar way of conversation. Special mention to energetic background score that spreads through the characters.

Seventh episode deals with a name change issue, questions of the in-charge pradhanji and finding alternative solutions to name change problem.

Eighth episode focuses on Manju as she tries to learn National anthem and host the flag on Republic day. Though predictable, this episode engages with Neena gupta’s terrific performance and the depiction of the villagers accepting a ‘Woman pradhan’. This episode ends with a door open for the audience to think about the plot for the next season.

Dialogs written mostly seemed like local Hindi. For instance, the word ‘kya’ isn’t used anywhere and instead; they say ‘ka’ (It may be mix of Marathi).Cuts were in sync with the mood of each story except the third episode.One of the key reasons that Panchayath works for you is the chemistry among the 4 key characters in most scenes.

In short,Panchayath is beyond the humor it offers throughout.