Anwar: Slooow Poison!

Cross-posting from the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.

Theatre: Athulya, Trivandrum, 6 PM show
Status: Full. I was sitting in the box above the balcony.

Amal Neerad has shown once again that he is a one trick pony. Stylish shots with no substance. The problem with Anwar is that the stylish shots does not manage to hold the viewer's attention. Most of the time the movie just meanders along the way in ultra slow motions with nothing much happening. Even if things happen, you just stare at the screen sans emotions. The only time I got excited was the starting of the last sequence were Anwar takes on the bad guys. All the other stunts does not provide much value. Its often left to the viewer's imagination. They should "know" and "feel" the power of Anwar, rather than "see" them on the screen.

Story is threadbare and its difficult to divulge anything without breaking the suspense. The story was something on the lines that I had expected and it was no big surprise at all. Ditto for the 3 who watched the movie with me, one of whom is barely 14 without the burden of having watched countless hollywood flicks. Story is sometimes overrated as Amal once said in an interview. But in those cases, you need a strong script to back you up and great dialogues. Script is absent in Anwar, but dialogues at places are good.

Prithviraj's performance is the only salvageable aspect from the movie apart from the songs. He has matured as an actor with a very controlled performance required from the character. His role did bring back the memory of Stop Violence, where is brooding look worked and not his sound. But in Anwar he has come a full circle where his looks and expressions were great along with perfect sound modulation. Comparison could be because of them the fact that I watched Stop Violence first day in the same place!

Mamtha had nothing much to do. Lal was good as usual. Prakash Raj was good, but didn't have the meaty role the man deserves.

Some people would call the movie technically brilliant. I would disagree and call it rubbish. Using the latest techniques won't make a movie any good. Ultra slo-mos should complement story telling, not take over the entire movie.

Crowd reaction. Cheers for Prithviraj. Majority booing for Mammootty. Lots of boos in some sequences and the loudest boos were reserved after the movie when the outro song ends. Even I booed!
Loudest cheers were for this dialogue.
: Ivinentha kuzhappam? Nalla payyanalle? Pinne kure ahankaram undu.

Prithvi should be careful at this juncture of his career. Couple of bombs could set him back a lot. I am afraid Anwar is one of those.

Rating: 4/10 (I am being very generous here, a brownie point exclusively for Prithvi for improving as an actor.)