Cast: Archana, Kailash, Samvritha Sunil, Reema Kallingal, Suresh
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues: MT Vasudevan Nair
Direction: Lal Jose
Synopsis
The movie is based in the 1970’s where Kunjimalu (Archana) is a maid at the house of a rich family. Haridas (Kailash) is the heir of the family who has returned from the city after completing his studies. Haridas tries to woo Kunjimalu but Kunjimalu feels that their respective backgrounds are an obstacle to have a relationship. So to sort out her confusion, she takes the help of a common belief of the Neelathaamara flower to see if she should proceed with the relationship. Will the Neelathaamara bloom in her favour? If so, what will happen forms the rest of the movie.
Performance Of The Cast
The movie has a lot of fresh faces. Archana is really good as the cute, timid, silent Kunjimalu. Archana portrays Kunjimaalu with such sincerity and dedication that you feel every emotion that Kunjimalu goes through. Her expressions, antics and body language are very good and she succeeds in bringing out the helplessness and innocence of Kunjimalu
Samvritha Sunil has put up an powerful performance in the role of Rathnam. Rathnam is very different from the usual characters that Samvritha plays. Though she has very less screen time, she puts up a very impressive performance as a thinking, forward, bold housewife of the 1970’s.
Reema Kallingal is good in the small role she plays. She is confident, positive and delivers a steady performance. Suresh Nair is also good as Kunjimalu’s the arrogant village ruffian-like would-be. The actors who portray the older versions of Rathnam and Kunjimalu and the other supporting cast also put up a good show.
But to me, the star of the movie was Kailash. It has been a long time since a male debutant has come up with such a convincing, strong and confident performance. Kailash gets into the skin of Haridas. He comes up with all the right expressions and antics of a well educated and little arogant rich youth of the village who is seen as the next ‘pramani’. How one wishes he had more screen time in the second half.
Analysis
Direction by Lal Jose is nothing short of excellent. The performance he has generated out of the new comers is a exemplary. He has delivered a visual marvel which drags the viewers into the life of Kunjimalu and Haridas. The narration is excellent with the director having good control over the story and characters.
MT has modified the old script to suit the present generation of audience and this seems to made the difference. MT has come up with a good story which has a simple storyline but a lot of things to tell. Screenplay is very precise and only drags a little in the first half. Characterisation and casting of all characters is excellent. Dialogues as usual are excellent.
Music by Vidyasagar is topping the charts and picturisation by Lal Jose is excellent. The story of Neelathaamara wouldn’t have such an impact was it not for Vijay Ullaganath’s excellent cinematography. Art directior Gokuldas is to be given full credits for recreating all the articles seen on screen. From the cigarettes to the newspapers, from utensils to radio, everything in each frame has the required 1970 look.
Verdict
Neelathaamara is a very good movie with fresh faces which steals the viewer’s heart and leaves an impact even after one has left the cinema hall. With endearing performances, excellent storyline and marvellous direction, Neelathaamara is the movie to watch this season.
Rating:- 3.5/5
Kambakkht Ishq is a mega budgeted comedy flick starring Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor with some Hollywood stars doing cameos. The movie is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and is directed by first timer Sabbir Khan. The movie is a remake of a hugely succesfull tamil film, PammalK Sambandam, which starred Kamal Hassan.
Synopsis
Viraj Shergil (Akshay Kumar) is a leading stuntman in Hollywood. He doesn’t believe in marraige. When his brother Lucky (Aftab Shivdasani) gets married to his girlfriend Kamini (Amrita Arora), he advices Lucky against marraige. Enter Simrita (Kareena Kapoor) who is a sworn spinster. She too chides Kamini for getting married and tell her men are only interested in women for ‘sex‘. Thus begins the battle of sexes between Simrita and Viraj.
Analysis
The movie’s main USP is its lead stars Akshay and Kareena. The battle of their ideologies form the crux of the script, but the catfight between them is vulgar and offensive. The scene in which Akshay kisses Kareena to stop her bickering or calling each other ‘dog’ and ‘bitch’ or the scene in which Akshay tries to hook Kareena up with a girl since she hates men is simply lousy and cheap.
Like his previous string of comedy movies, Kambakkht Ishq relies heavily on gimmicks to engage the audience. But unlike his previous films, this film is filled with cheap gimmicks which don’t even make you smile. Like the Kareena’s watch ending in Akshay’s stomach after operation or the women flashing at men during the wedding or the fight at the wedding party. The hero bedding numerous women and the following comedies seems repetitive from Heyy Babby. The scene in which Akshay teasing Kareena to be a ‘Virgin‘ when she says she is not interested in men or women is amateurish.
There are some good scenes in the movie but they are few and far apart. The scene in the operation theatre when Akshay realises that Kareena is going to be his surgeon or the introduction scene of Akshay or the awards ceremony scene are some of the better scenes in the movie.
Performance Of The Cast
Akshay Kumar brings nothing new to this role which is just an extension of his playboy roles in Garam Masala and Heyy Babyy. He tries to be dedicatd to his character and the script, but the character is so shodily developed all his efforts goes down the drain. Kareena Kapoor is good in the role of Simrita. She looks hot and beautiful and carries her role with panache. Aftab Shivdasani is alright in his role and Amrita Arora is mediocre. Its high time she realises acting is not all about wearing bikinis. The hollywood actors Brandan Routh, Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards are just there to add a bit of spice. Excellent actors like Boman Irani and Javed Jaffery are wasted.
Technical Analysis
Director Sabbir Khan has resorted to tried and tested gimmicks to reach to the audience. Apart from a few scenes, he fails big time to keep the movie running. Baring a thousand loopholes in the script, the script is still weak and vulnerable and especially in the post interval part, the movie loses steam once it makes the transition to a romantic track. The dialogues of the movie are not funny and are offensive.
Akshay Kumar in a stuntman role. One would certainly expect some good action scenes but has to return dissapointed. The cinematography is excellent. The viewer is treated to some good shots of the Universal Studios and Kodak Theater. The Om Mangalam teack by RDB is excellent and Anu Malik’s music is good which have been choreographed well.
Verdict
The movie is held together by the sheer screen presence of its main leads and nothing else. Leave your brains at home and watch the movie and there is a small chance that you liked it. As for me, I would call this movie ‘unbearable’.
Rating: 2/5
From my experience, I have learnt the fact that Movie making should never be a race against time. A typical example of what could go wrong when a movie becomes a race, is Prashant Maambulli’s 17 hour wonder, Bhagavan. The movie is centered on a terrorist attack in a hospital when Dr. Balagopal (Mohanlal) risks his life to save the day.
Analysis
It is after a long time that I am seeing Mohanlal so uncomfortable playing the lead character. He doesn’t seem interested and you cannot blame him as Bhagavan qualifies to be the worst movie in Mohanlal’s illustrous career. Direction by Prashant Maambulli is bad. I still can’t understand what was the need to complete the movie in 17 hours (though the movie wouldn’t have been any better even if it had been shot in 6 months).
The entire concept is ridiculous. For a movie to work with the audience, the soul of the movie (the script) should be good. But, in this case, the script (if ever there was one) and the story is silly with a childish screenplay. The manner in which most of the scenes are treated are silly and unexcusable. Be it the childish manner in which the commando units diffusing the bombs is portrayed or the closeups shown again and again, the movie throws at you a string of unthinkably ridiculous scenes. The dialogues are miserable and the word Bhagavan props up in Mohanlal’s dialogues every 100 words.
The director has wasted talented artists like Mohanlal, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy. The film is dumb and drags on and on paying no repsect whatsoever to the audience. Every 15 minutes you see some type of countdown from 10 to 0 on sceen and occasionally when the time of events in the movie are shown, it is then you realised you have been sitting through this movie only for about a few minutes. The movie fails on all technical grounds. The music of the movie is uninspiring.
When young directors like Ranjith Shankar and Swathy Bhaskar have given us refreshingly different movies, Prashant Maambulli gives us one of the most unbearable movies ever. At a run time of a little under two hours, Bhagavan is a bad excuse for a movie. Even ‘Bhagavan’ can’t save this movie.
Recomendation: Not even for your enemies. Stay far far away.
Rating: 1/5 (1 for completing it in 17 hours and for nothing else)
In Sagar Alias Jacky Reloaded, one of malayalam film’s all time favourite action character of Sagar from Irupatham Nootandu is reconstructed. The movie stars Mohanlal, Manoj K Jayan, Bhavana, Shobhana, Jagathy Sreekumar and others. The movie is penned by SN Swami and produced by Antony Perumbavoor. Amal Neerad of ‘Big B’ fame handles the camera and direction.
Synopsis
Sagar (Mohanlal) plays an international don who in a quest to save his friend Manu (Manoj K Jayan) ends up rubbing shoulders with Naina (Suman) and the Rozario brothers. After Sagar rescues Manu, Manu is murdered. At the request of Manu’s wife Indu (Shobana), Sagar searches for Manu’s killer.
Analysis
‘Never judge a book just by looking at its cover’. This saying is perfectly applicable to this movie. SAJR is a stylishly shot movie which stretches a little over two and a quarter hours aimlessly. The entire movie is constructed over one weak premise which actually begins and ends in the second half. The movie moves from one incident to another which have very little relation to each other.
The first half is simply wasted in introducing and setting up the characters. Mohanlal’s introduction scene is very well shot. But then onwards first half hurts badly due to slow pace. The movie wanders too far off track and by the time the movie is back on track, the audience have no patience left. The second half falls badly with an absurd climax which makes you feel silly.
Performance Of The Cast
Mohanlal plays the lead role well as one expects from him. He talks, walks and fights in style. But the dialogues written in this movie for him are childish. It is embarrassing to see an actor of the caliber of Mohanlal speak these words.
Bhavana has very little to do in this movie. She looks ok in the role of a TV reporter but her character has little significance in this role. Manoj K Jayan and Shobhana take their roles too seriously. Jagathy Sreekumar fails to impress. It is very rare that a director fails to use Jagathy properly. His character has no importance at all. Sampath who plays one of the Rozario brothers is someone to be noted. He plays the part with intensity.
Technical Analysis
Direction by Amal Neerad is wayward. The director is clearly confused in what he wants to show on screen. But his work as a cinematographer is what makes this movie one of a kind. All scenes are stunningly shot and the movie has a visual Hollywood feel to it. Maybe the additional role of cinematography distracted the director from his target. It is sad to see that a director who gave a powerful movie like Big B with intelligent dialogues delivers this movie.
I find it hard to believe that SN Swami scripted this movie. The dialogues are childish, screenplay is slow and the story (if ever there was one) is weak. Music by Gopisundar suits the mood of the movie. Background score is irritating mostly. Costumes are excellent, especially Mohanlal’s costumes. Action scenes are well coordinated. The movie has been made on a grand scale with very good production values but unfortunately, the movie fails in most departments.
Verdict
The movie is nothing more than a bunch of stunning visuals coupled with action. Mohanlal and the stunning shots (subjected to digital colour correction) are the only saving graces of the movie. The movie will find it hard to recover the investment.
Rating: 2/5
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