Padmasree Bharat Dr. Saroj Kumar - A pain in the backside

X-posting my FK review.

Theatre: Innovative, Bangalore
Show: 10 PM, 14-Jan-2012
Status: House Full (there were a couple of people walking away without getting the tickets, they have no idea how lucky they are!)

The promos looked tacky. Sreenivasan's recent form is pretty bad. I thought even if the movie is boring there would be something to laugh at. The reviews here lowered my expectations further. Even then, I was not prepared for such a crappy film.

It looks like Sreeni wanted to badmouth the stars, especially Mohanlal. I have no qualms at Sreeni doing this if it results in a decent movie and some amount of introspection for the stars and their fans. The problem here is that the movie is pretty much a collection of badly written skits, overacted to perfection by Sreeni. Even Suraj was better in comparison!

The story is about how Saroj Kumar continues to be an ass and how he gets his ass busted by his actions. Unfortunately, the second part happens to the audience. Terrible script by anybody's standard and not just Sreeni. Its Sreeni not the superstars who need to shut shop and go away. They atleast give us a watchable movie or two every year. Direction is sub-par and not a good start to a career. Only time will tell whether its due to the interference of the "super star." Camera, editing etc didn't really make any impact whatsoever. The only portion I liked in the movie was the song Kesu. The songs were pretty good and certainly undeserving of such a stupid film.

Fahad and Vineeth did well, though Vineeth just don't have the kind of look that goes with a young and upcoming star. A big waste of Mamta. Jagathy and Mukesh also didn't have much to do, but some of their dialogues were pretty good.

Looking for positives in this movie is like searching for something in a pile of crap.

TL;DR: Padmasree Bharath Dr. Saroj Kumar is a terrible movie. Stay away unless you have a penchant for masochism.

Rating: Horrifying! (not the good kind!)

Asuravithu - A true, but flawed sequel

Theatre: Kairali, Trivandrum
Show: 11:30 AM, 6-Jan-2012
Status: Around 90% Balcony, More than 60% in FC I guess.

Stop Violence is a pioneering film in Malayalam. It showed the brutal world of quotation gangs. The habitat of soul less men. Probably the most important film in Prithviraj's career after Nandanam. Saathan, the quintessential anti-hero, still endures after nearly a decade. No better vehicle for A K Sajan to make a great comeback and for Asif Ali to showcase another dimension as an actor. While Asif Ali did what he could, Sajan simply disappoints after laying the groundwork for a promising film.

Don Bosco is Saathan' son. He was abandoned by his mother (Lena replaces Chandra Laxman) fearing for his safety from CI Stephen's father Abbaji (Vijayaraghavan), a Jew who controls the Kochi underworld. Baburaj (a priest) takes care of Don Bosco and in his youth, Don decides to become a priest. Marty (Samvrutha) is a boat owner-conductor smitten by Don. One day, Don witnesses the murder of a customs officer (Rekha) and is beaten to pulp for refusing to falsify his testimony. The incident and several altercations with Abbaji's family changes his life forever.

Asif Ali was good in the first half. No where near as fit for the character as he was for Salt n Pepper, still pretty decent. He was able to convey the emotions of a conflicted young man. In the second half, all he had to do was walk around in a suit, wear sunglasses, and dally around in jaguars and porsches. Vijayaraghavan was wasted in his role which had a lot of potential. Other villains (and villathis!) where pretty decent and did enough villainy to gather a lot of hate. Siddique was also wasted in a role which could have been utilized in a much better manner. IM Vijayan has a cameo (thankfully!), could be a takeaway from the movie, Quotation. Lena had to cry for the most part and she did an ok job. Samrutha was the usual bubbly girl and was absent in most of the second half.

AK Sajan did a decent job of connecting the films together. We rarely have proper sequels in Malayalam where the second film actually follows up on the first instead of the protagonists appearing in a different setting. He completely failed in conjuring a proper narrative. The first half was pretty ok, apart from a couple of scenes in the first half which exposes the Don for the first time to the viewer and certain inconsistencies. 2-3 good action sequences are there in the first half which are quite nice to watch. Sajan as a director and a writer fails completely in the second half. Don looks like Don from Malaysia rather than Kochi. There are some silly stuff like Don written across the screen and a "D-Company" seal displayed whenever Don makes a kill. The way things happen around Don is laughable at times. Girls keeping the umbrella over Don. People standing while Don watches a movie. People calling Don as "Bhaiyya". Don wearing a suit all the f**cking time in the heat of Kochi. If Sajan had removed at least these silly stuff, the movie would have been very much reasonable. Better yet, he could have weaved a better story. Heck, even I can think of a generic yet better story right now.

Camera work is pretty good. Technically the movie is slick. Action sequences are also good without being too over the top. No sandstorm or flying thugs here. Still pretty exciting. Asif has done a decent job in the action scenes. The pure quotation sketches are also there which I liked. BGM is loud but effective. Editing is also slick, save a couple of glaring holes towards the end.

Asuravithu is a movie which had a lot of potential. Had AK Sajan though through the movie properly, he could have made it a good one at a much lower cost. For Asif Ali, it could be a setback even after making a good effort and partly succeeding.

TL;DR: Asuravithu is flawed movie, made watchable by an intriguing first half and a couple of great action sequences.

Rating: Average to Below Average

Orkut oru Ormakoot - Good start to the year

Cross-posting my FK review. For more comments and discussions, visit FK.


Theatre - Kripa, Trivandrum
Show - 6:15 PM, 5-Jan-2012
Status - 30% Balcony

Title of the movie, though catchy, is a bit misleading. The writer-director could have used a better name instead of going for a name which was trendy over an year (or more!) ago. The plot does center around the arrival of an online friend, but the online activities are pretty minimal. The movie is more about self-discovery and coming of age.

The main protagonists are five friends living in a flat complex. Typical upper class yuppies who really doesn't care about anybody in their life and likes to goof away for most part of their lives. They enjoy their nightlife and desperately trying to get laid. All of them have issues at home, some serious and others not that much. One of them hooks up with a girl online and she decides to show up changing their lives forever. Rest of the movie centers around the mysterious girl and her journey of self-discovery with the help of the youngsters which in turn affects them as well. I liked the way the movie ended. Quite touching to be honest. Though some of the ends could have been tied up in a better fashion.

The five guys have acted pretty decently. Nothing mind blowing but competent enough for their roles. Rima has done a good job. The role is right up her alley and she does well barring a few sequences towards the end. The casting is pretty good and there are a lot of small characters which add life to the movie. Sreejith Ravi, Siddique, Menaka (though too much of a weepie-do), Kaviyoor Ponnama, and a couple of other young actresses have done pretty well.

Direction is pretty good for a first timer. The first half is quite enjoyable while the second half feels a bit stuffy and some disruptions to the overall flow. Screenplay written by the director is to be blamed since there were far too many tangents in the script. Placement of certain songs in the second half didn't help much either. The film dragged for a good 15 minutes more than what was required. Over all, had script been more lucid, the movie would have been excellent. I liked some small touches by the director like different getups of Kaviyoor Ponnamma in one of the boy's dream sequences.

Upper class cliche is liberally available in the film. Flat neighbours not caring about each other. Parents who doesn't care about kids and vice versa. Usage of certain slang and english words in conversations etc. Same kind of stuff in reverse can be seen in the village scenes. If you can sit through these cliches (which may be true to an extent), the dialogues are pretty fine. I liked the palakkadan slang in the village sequences and some of the dialogues between the boys were quite witty.

Camera work is pretty good and the production values are quite good for a movie with debutants and a dominant female lead. There was some animation work during the titles which could have been avoided. But they do seem to sync with the mood of the initial phase. Editing is crisp during the first half and slightly choppy towards the end. Songs were decent, but there were far too many in the second half.

Orkut oru Ormakoot is a good start in 2012 for Malayalam cinema. The commercial success is a question mark. If Johny Sagariga cannot make this movie a hit, I don't think anybody else can.

TL;DR: Orkut oru Ormakoot is an entertaining film with a good plot, decent execution, and fresh situations.

Rating: Good.