Jawan of Vellimala - Excellent Premise, Bad Execution

Theatre: Innovative Multiplex, Bangalore
Show - 11:45 A.M, 20-10-2012
Status - Around 20 people in FC, Balcony must be similar

What should have been an excellent film ends up as an average-tad above average fare. Direction is sad to say below par. A director should have a notion of what the end product must be. JOV lacks homework big time. There are a lot of shots and scenes which are disjointed. Placement of songs are quite bad. Some songs should never have been shot at all. The horror song is completely against the idea behind the film. Anoop Kannan manages to narrate decently without much lag. The film moves quite swiftly. A big factor in making it watchable. The outdoor shots are gorgeous. The horror feel is really good. The director should try his hand at a proper horror flick. The cameraman deserves kudos for some good visuals along with the director.

James Albert managed to bring in a unique setting. But he fails in delivering a good script. Bad characterization and lack of good moments are quite striking. The way the story is structured is also flawed. The film should have dealt with how Jawan is redeemed in front of his village as well as the audience which would have made a lasting impact. Another bad outing after Venicile Vyapari though not a dumb as VV.

Camera is good in outdoors and exceptional in night shots. Car and bike shots are too shaky though. BGM was decent, I loved Jawan theme though. Superb! Editing is absolutely shoddy at places. Sound was good, if not a bit too loud.

Mammootty should have had a brilliant outing had the characterization been done correctly. He manages to lend credibility to Jawan. The end portions are pretty striking and his last dialogue was touching. Asif Ali was good, better than SnP infact. Mamta, Sreeni etc were wasted to be honest. Baburaj is tolerable, but his comic act is going south.

An opportunity to make an excellent film has been wasted by the makers. They should be kicking themselves regardless of the BO result of the film.

TL;DR: JOV ends up as a watchable flick what should have been a great film.

Rating: Average and slightly above

The King and the Commissioner - Not the best of returns

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Theatre: Innovative, Bangalore
Show: 24-Mar-2012, 1:30 PM
Status: FC - Around 60%, Balcony - Must have been more than 90%

I had very little hope in the movie, despite the glowing reviews. Lowered expectations probably got the movie to an average level for me. The story revolves around the exploits of Joseph Alex in New Delhi, ably assisted by Bharath Chandran. The core issue of the length and lack of character development of antagonists probably stems from this fact. This movie would have better suited to either of the characters, not both. A lot of time had to be spent giving time to Joseph Alex, Bharath Chandran, and their bonding.

Nothing to write home about the screenplay and story. Renji Panikker totally fall flat here. The one department he shines is the dialogues. Eventhough a lot of the dialogues are rehashed, there are quite a few dialogues that make your blood boil. Pass marks to him for that. Shaji's direction is something we have seen over and over. Some of the multi-frame cuts look silly and would have been fit in a Telugu movie. He does manage to hook you onto the seat for most of the time. Quite an accomplishment considering the length of the film. You can't help wonder, when you would get to see a Shaji without these stupid gimmicks ala Commissioner.

Mammooty was good as Joseph Alex. Not fiery like in The King. He managed to control the dialogue modulation to suit his current stature and manages to deliver big. An intelligent performance. Suresh Gopi was also pretty good, manages not to go overboard unlike his recent outings. The man can still swear like a pottymouth and make it look cool! Aside from the leads, only Biju Pappan made some impression. Good performance from him. In an ideal world, this movie should have had King or Commissioner with Biju Pappan as the side kick. The biggest disappointment by far is Sai Kumar. I am big fan of the man. But this has to be one of his worst performances. Totally unconvincing. The other villain characters were simply caricatures. Poor job by the writer in character development. Mohan Thomas and Jayakrishnan would be rolling in their graves if they knew about such insipid villains.

BGM was on and off. Some parts good, most of the time pretty loud and lame. Editing also felt a bit shoddy.

Except for the perfomances and dialogues, nothing much goes for this film. Some sequences could have trimmed or cut away altogether. The film just plods along at times testing your patience. Probably the biggest disappointment was the climax. Same old warehouse, dishum-dishum, bharathamatha kee jai. A combination of king and commissioner climaxes.

This is a film I would recommend to Mam fans (and SG fans), who would lap it up following a disastrous period. For the others, it would be decent enough only if you like Renji Panikker dialogs.

TL;DR: King and Commissioner is an average fare with some great dialogues and good lead performances.

Rating: Strictly Average

Best Actor Review: Not the best, still pretty good

Cross-posting the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.

Theatre: Innovative Multiplex
Show: 11/12/2010, 10 PM
Status: Housefull

I had high expectations when I went to watch the movie after reading the review and preview reports. Slightly disappointed at the outcome. When I thought about it later, the movie did not have any glaring negatives. Only thing that dampened my spirits was the expectation. You cannot really blame anybody for gushing about the movie. Best Actor is probably the most proper Malayalam commercial movie to come out in a long time. A good story, great performances, and enough elements for a wholesome entertainment regardless of whether you are a fan or not.

Not going on to the story since its been repeated more than 50 (or is it 60?) times in FK itself! Martin Prakatt deserves a pat on the back for doing a proper homework and execution with no glitches that first time Directors make. Direction was decent in the first half. Pace was pretty decent considering the fact that nothing much happened for most part of it. I thought the second half was brilliantly executed. It had all the recipes that could make or break the movie and Martin skilfully weathered the storm. Script was also decent, but a better script could have turned the movie into a classier affair.

Kudos to Mammootty for taking a chance with Martin. He looks younger by the day and I suspect that he has turned into a modern Dorian Grey! His performance was top class. The most notable scene is when Srinivasan spurns him in the school. He expresses the emotional turmoil perfectly. His avatar as a Bombay Dada was very good, well aided by his motley crew and the dialogues. Only gripe I felt was in a couple of Hindi dialogues. They seemed to land somewhere in the middle of punchy and comical instead of veering towards the right path.

The other cast members were really good and got decent screen time. Salim Kumar looked good after a long time and Nedumudi Venu was awesome as Aashan. Sreenivasan was adequate fitted the role of a no-nonsense Director perfectly. The heroine was not that great. Granted that she had very little to do, but there was space for a great performance given the limited screen time. It would have fleshed out the movie a bit more. This should have been taken care by the Director/script.

Ajayan Vincent's camera was outstanding. Editing felt choppy in the first half, but Don Max was in his elements in the latter half. Songs were ok and BGM was good.

Martin Prakatt is someone to look forward to in the future. Its great for Malayalam cinema that this year witnessed the emergence of quite a few talented Directors.

TL;DR: Best Actor is a wholesome entertainer for all kinds of audience, packed with great performances and good direction.

Rating: 7/10

Pranchiyettan and The Saint: Good but disappointing

Cross-posting the review I wrote in ForumKeralam.

Show: 25/9/10, 10 PM
Theatre: Innovative Multiplex, Bangalore
Status: Balcony: Full, First Class: Full (I think!)

Lots of expectation from the Ranjith-Mammootty combo, especially since Renjith has supposedly moved away from making typical movies. Sadly, the movie does not meet the hefty expectation.

The movie started off quite well and established the fun part with the graveyard scene itself. The sequences with the Saint were hilarious and consistent through out the movie. The actor that portrayed the saint was fabulous. I was expecting a little better dubbing from Renjith though, still nothing much to crib about. Mammootty was brilliant was Pranchi. Thrissur accent was almost perfect. Innocent was refreshing after a very long time. Siddique, Khushbu, Pranchi's sidekicks...almost everybody did a neat job. In the acting department, Priyamani had nothing much to do and the child actor was misdirected at certain points. The boy looks like a good actor barring a few awkward scenes where things look forced. I would blame the Director than the kid for such sequences.

Script and Direction was top-class in the first half. Pranchi's trysts with chasing fame were hilarious. Quality comedy makes a return after a long time. Co-incidence that Suraj was missing from arguably the best comedy film of the year? I think not! Unfortunately, the things go wrong in the second half. The movie runs out of steam and meanders towards the climax. Priyamani's entrance and character never syncs with the rest of the movie. Helping the kid pass the examination sequences could have been gold, but looks very hurried. Revelation part in the climax looks good on paper, but ended up being not so good. The three revelations are predictable, dud, and lame respectively. The only parts worth remembering are in the first half where Mammootty rules the roost and the saint.

My major gripe is against Renjith. In his interviews, he hyped the movie saying that its something you never saw before in Malayalam movies. I could find nothing like that. Saint reminded me of Guruvayoorappan in Nandanam. So, it has something even Renjith himself attempted before with a lot of success. Movie was supposed to be a satire. Move along, nothing satirical here. Renjith has gone down a couple of notches since Paleri Manikyam.

All that said, its the best among the ramzan movies, derailed by lacklustre writing and direction in the second half. Its a typical commercial movie and not an experimental movie by any stretch of imagination.

TL;DR: Pranchiyettan and The Saint is very good in some parts, competent if not predictable in the rest. A good watch for its humour, performance of Mammootty, and the saint.

My Rating: 6.5/10