Nanban -- One notch above 3 idiots!

No matter what, no review is ever going to do justice to such an awe entertaining movie like 'Nanban'. Directed by Shanker, 'Nanban' is a honest, satisfying and stunningly excellent remake of the mega blockbuster movie '3 Idiots' directed by Rajkumar Hirani starring the maverick, Ameer Khan. Most people thought this going to yet another Vijay movie where he does gravity defying stunts and usual cliche. But, this is different. the entire team of actors on screen makes a bonding with your heart. It is about emotions, that are real and very human. In 'Nanban', this surreal feeling gets a further magical touch in the form of technical expertise and stunning visuals that Shankar has patented to be his in Tamil cinema. I've heard people say the original will always be original and no one could replicate the same magic on screen one more time. I can even say that this is a little better and entertaining than the original movie.

Remakes are always tricky, and if the lead actor is a huge star, matters may get complicated. But Shanker and team has pulled it off well. This movie is a scene to scene adaptation of the Hindi blockbuster '3 Idiots'. Vijay plays an engineering college student, whose ideas are always out of the box. Jiiva and Srikanth play his close buddies in college. A major portion of the film was shot in absolute scenic locations in Dhanushkodi and Ooty. Unlike other Shankar films, 'Nanban' was completed in a quick pace. I'm not going deep into the story line as most of the people would have seen the original version. The casting of this movie is worth mentioning. Even I was skeptical about how Vijay is going to fit into the shoes of the versatile Ameer Khan. Even the smallest characters of the movie seemed freshly handpicked. The Script by Shanker was so crisp and sharp that you won't even experience a single dull moment in those three hours. Here you will get everything that you would expect from a youth movie; the camaraderie will give you goosebumps, the pressure of studies, race for marks, the fun, the excitement and anything and everything that you expect from a college movie. Nanban is not a full length comedy and emotions and there are numerous instances which will make your laugh whole heartedly (the ‘karpazhippu’ scene is an absolute beauty). Nanban is a complete package for those who love good, clean, contentful and absolute entertainment.

Coming to the performances of the lead act, we don’t see Vijay in the movie, he enacted the role of Panchavan Parivendhar with consummate ease! He has given himself completely to the role, surrendering to the demands of the script. For an actor whom critics say stereotypical, this is one role that challenges the actor in him and he accepted it with both hands. Vijay proves his versatility and if given roles like this, he proved that he can deliver. The years have not dimmed his boyish charm and energy, you don’t doubt for a second whether he is a college student; an almost perfect performance. Jiiva and Sreekanth brings in their own charms to this movie and Jeeva performance was commendable. You just have to watch him start the ‘induction motor’! Relatively underrated comedian Sathyan gets a huge opportunity and made ‘Silencer’ memorable in Tamil version too; he carries off the utterly important ‘stage’ scene perfectly. S.J.Surya’s cameo is also quite good Manoj Paramahamsa's camera work was nothing but poetry. Harris Jayaraj produces tunes that are indeed foot tapping.

All together, 'Nanban' is a complete package and has something for everyone. Shankar keeps the tempo and the traction going all through with a perfect mix of comedy and emotions through his patented style. Go, watch it now and enjoy the roll a coaster ride!

My Verdict: 4/5

3 KINGS -- Stay away from these '3 kings'.

I walked into the theater with my brain shut off. And even if you enjoy some other typical slap stick, you are going to hate this movie provided you are not aged below 10 or 12. If you go by typical standards, this VKP movie is an absolute garbage. But yet people still love them, which shows the present aesthetic sense of Malayalee film audience.

'Three Kings' is about three cousins who belong to a same aristocratic family that is struggling to make ends meet. But all of them who are of the same age group, born at the same time to three brothers of the family who once inherited palaces, can't stand each other. They are all set to make fast money by resorting to very different ways. But in this race for making it big, each one will also makes it sure that the other two will not make a fortune by themselves. This film tries to dig at your funny side when one of the heroes sings a horrible song, mocking the highly infamous music album ‘Silsila hai silsila...'. Bilsila hai Bilsila goes the lyrics of the spoof. Or when the third hero tries to get into an IPL team? The plot of the film is so funny that it will insult your intelligence.

You know, at times I just wondered what the heck is going through VKP''s head. I would guess a reasonable level of intelligence. So why does VKP, a celebrated ad film maker, feel compelled to direct films of such appallingly low quality? This film defies any sense of logical criticism.So I will keep it plain and simple, this movie is terrible on every conceivable level. The writing is atrocious. The acting is appalling. The direction is misguided. The cinematography is pretty good (Venu sir shows his quality).In fact, I wonder if VKP was carrying out some kind of experiment to see how bad and unfunny a movie he could get away with making. Coming to the performances of the lead cast, I just felt the 3 female lead characters namely Samvritha, Ann Augustine and Sandhya were equally dumb. But the three male protagonists tried their very best to look as convincing as possible.

It is my unfortunate duty now to inform you that, 3 Kings is by far VKP's most wretchedly awful film till date. As the movie went on, I became increasingly intoxicated, and even then, I found it extremely difficult to even force a laugh during this tripe. Don't waste your money.

My Verdict : 1/5

URUMI is a visual extravaganza

Santosh Sivan's Urumi is visually thrilling and viscerally satisfying. Let's start with the good -- the visual style is clearly this film's main asset. The filmmakers have confidence in the ability of the images to tell the most important aspects of the story. Santosh Sivan makes everything visually enticing whether working only as a cameraman or as a director and both. Urumi is a period film, where everything is woven together wonderfully by scriptwriter Shankar Ramakrishnan (Island Express, Café fame), a long time associate of director Ranjith.

Urumi is a historical, mythological thriller which zooms in on some years after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed at Calicut in 1498. The film is set in the backdrop of the fierce warrior clans of Northern Kerala in the sixteenth century in which Prithviraj plays Chirakkal Kelu Nayanar, who is the leader of the group that plans to kill Vasco da Gama. Kelu in his mission to end the invaders, has to encounter a number of conflicts within the Kings, ministers and peasants. The incidents that follow forms the rest of the story. The film presents the time between the second and third visit of Gama to India and portrays a different adaptation of how Gama could have met a bloody death.

Prithviraj's performance in this movie is like a show reel of what he is capable of doing. In this movie, he gets an opportunity to do some real good performance and he performs them convincingly with effortless ease. And he had gone through tremendous physical toil in this film as it involves horse riding, sword fighting, intense dialogue delivery and many more. Prabhudeva who plays an equally important role makes a cakewalk through lighter scenes and makes his Mollywood debut commendable. Genelia is the surprise pack of this movie. She never looked so gorgeous and lovely in her earlier movies and was awesome especially in the Kalaripayattu scenes. This role is a direct departure from her so called bubbly roles. Nithya Menon, Jagathy, and the actor who portrayed Gama did their part in an effective manner. The cameos by Arya, Vidhya Balan and Tabu are also impressive.

The director has been careful not to divert anywhere and he has shown his gift of narrative especially during the first half. Though the content was not much, he has been able to use his experience and kept the audience engaged. The main life and soul of the movie is the cinematography and the breath taking visual beauty without the aid of any CGI. They were well supported by a very good back ground score. The scrip has some loose ends, it lacks an emotional appeal and the character development could have been better. But Shanker Ramakrishnan's effort is mention worthy. Editing by Sreekar Prasad was crisp, two songs were worth humming and the music director of the movie Deepak Dev have succeeded in giving immense richness to the soundtracks. The picturization of the songs was unbelievably stunning. Art department and costumes get full marks.

The film deserves a special credit for many reasons, notable among them is the grandeur of the movie and the amazing technical aspects. This is surely a path breaker in terms of Malayalam film making. It is a valiant attempt to bring such genre to the modern day audience and present it with finesse so that it fits the historical angle and the today’s angle. Though the content part may not be impressive, it is the presentation and the engaging scenes that should take the movie to a success at the box office.

My Verdict : 3.5/5

ARJUNAN SAKSHI is nothing but brilliant!!

Arjunan Sakshi directed by Ranjith Shanker, a person who made an impressive debut in Malayalam film industry is back with a film which brings in a whiff of fresh air and ideas to the industry, which had been terribly off rails with the regular detrimental routines. It is a very well made film rather well-crafted on a relevant concept, that achieves more than what it set out to.

This film deals with the current political and social scenario of Kerala with Prithviraj enacting the role of Roy Mathew, a young architect who was born and brought up outside Kerala. As he had always dreamed of making a life in his native land, he decides to comeback and settle down in Cochin. But when he is finally into his dream surroundings, he realizes that this was not the city that he has always dreamed of. It was a totally different Kochi which was emerging as the play ground of political goons, media, bureaucracy and corruption, with the real estate mafia ruling the entire area really makes him act different, much different than he ever expected. The ever skeptical views of Malayalees and young generation caged with latest Media revolution and mobile phones also put him off. But the chance encounter of a very strange friend Arjunan, makes him think differently. What happens next forms the rest of the story.

The film, balanced well, though with a few loose ends, never quite loses the grip as the screenplay and protagonists talks only as much as is required. There is not even a single unwanted scene in this movie. Now this is what I would call smart film making. It doesn't climb up that high-and-mighty platform to look down on the masses who have gathered to receive those pearls of wisdom that would soon drop down in profusion. On the contrary, it has its theories firmly rooted in the ground, and it occupies a seat beside you and me and takes a look at the world around. And finally, lets us decide.

Coming to the performances of the movie, Prithviraj as Roy Mathew did a commendable job but he still needs to learn the art of controlled acting. Hats off to Ranjith Sanker sir for not utilizing his stardom and not commercializing his role. Most of the cast acted well and good, as they haven't been asked to overdo much in the first place. Ann Augustine excels in her role of a journalist, and in fact never ever creates a dull moment in her sequences. But the mention worthy performance comes from our very own Jagathy Sreekumar, with a very constraint act to live up to the role. The technical department also did well with Bijibal handling the music and Ajayan Vincent was nothing but excellent. The whole credit goes to him for doing a great job with well framed shots, capturing the magnificent frames especially the Vytilla traffic shots.

Overall, Arjunan Sakshi is a movie which will be loved by all connoisseurs of good, contentful and non commercialized cinema. I particularly loved this dialogue from the movie ' ഇവിടെ അര്‍ജുനന്മാരെ സൃഷ്ടികുന്നത് നിങ്ങള്‍ തന്നെ ആണ്'.Go for it if you are not looking for a formulaic ,cliched material. Yes, this is high time to say 'yes' to movies like this, that travels through rarer pastures, not often attempted in Malayalam.

My Verdict : 4/5

TRAFFIC is Magnificent and Mindblowing

Traffic is an awesome movie that will remain with you much long, it is based on the actual 'Chennai traffic incident', which is exceptionally written to suit the screen by Bobby-Sanjay. I feel really happy to see some young movie directors in Mollywood starting to think different in terms of narratives and novelty of themes. 'Traffic' by young director Rajesh Pillai, who debuted with a below average movie 'Hridayathil Sookshikan' is back with a pure awesomeness.

This movie tells the story of a number of characters and an incidents that join them together on a 16th of September, the very day when superstar Sidharth Shankar enacted by Rahman is getting ready to have his latest film's release. On the same day, Traffic Constable Sudevan (Sreenivasan) is trying ways to join back his duty, after being suspended from service for a short period. The same day is also special for Dr Abel (Saikumar) who is celebrating his first wedding anniversary while Raihaan(Vineeth), an youngster is hoping to go big from his beginning as a TV channel reporter, that he is going to join that day. Planned as an emotional thriller, every character is of equal importance as the story unfolds.

The film follows a non-linear narration and the director executed it with magnificent ease. The direction is excellent,the script is flawless, the stories are human and complex and despite their melodramatic or sometimes tragic outcome, they still leave you with a shade of hope - maybe because the humanity that the author uses to create his characters. All the performances in this movie are mention worthy but I must say that Kunchako Boban, Sai Kumar and Asif Ali was nothing but brilliant. All the female protagonists did their part well. I believe that the future of malayalam film industry is now firmly in the hands of script writers like Bobby-Sanjay, James Albert and Blessy. Not that they make the best films, but that they have the current crop of ideas. Craps like Sachi-Sethu and UK-SKT should learn from Bobby-Sanjay that novelty of theme, substance and quality are integral part of film scripts.

"Traffic" is a film that can be watched by audiences who can appreciate and identify good and contentful movies. This film is certainly a whiff of fresh air to the Malayalam industry and it is simply THE best malayalam movie to have come out in recent times. It is definitely prescribed for everyone who likes fresher themes and initiatives in Mollywood. Highly recommended.

MY VERDICT : 4.6/5

MARYKONDORU KUNJAADU is pure entertainment....

Shafi along with Benny P Narayambalam, once again comes up with a film that is a purely entertaining stuff with engaging and believable narration. The story is wafer thin and has been made keeping Dileep's homely image in mind. Anyways the film is all fun 'n' frolic as director Shafi and script writer Benny.P.Nairambalam could have made it a whole lot more cherishable especially in the second half as simplicity is forsaken for chaos but the director has been successful in keeping the audience interested in the movie by touching your humorous side through out the movie.

Dileep enacts the role of Solomon, who is known by the nickname ‘Kunjaadu’ (Lamb). This story is set in a remote hilly village where the majority are Christians where Solomon is the son of the local priest and is brought up in a similar fashion as a simple soul. He is a very silent personality, who fears everything around him, and hence the name ‘Kunjaadu’. The movie had two Mary's in its character list. The first is Mary, the mother of Solomon. The other Mary is played by Bhavana, who is the only daughter of a rich landlord Ittichan. She is in love with Solomon right from their childhood days. But Ittichan doesn’t like the relationship as he has a sober lover story to tell. That is about his old relation with Solomon’s mother Mary, which never got fulfilled. But with the arrival of a strong man with a harsh look into the company of Solomon, the story changes gears suddenly and forms the rest of the story.

Coming to the performances, its Dileep all the way and I was absolutely happy to see him do what he does best. He was offered a role which everyone knows he will be comfortable with and he did with consummate ease. Bhavana had nothing to do other than performing yet another a stereotypical herione. Though Berny Ignatious' music is a total let down, the technical crew has done an excellent job with Joseph Nellikal doing art direction and Shyam Dutt handles the camera.

Overall ‘Marykundoru Kunjaadu’ is indeed a hilarious humor riot that knocks you over the head with its well directed sequences. With its family audience marked out in precise strokes, the film very well caters to their tastes and appeals without doubt and if you are looking for movies that will make you think, look somewhere else. This movie is all about laughter. Forget yourself and your real life issues and just laugh out loud…, the whole theater is with you.

My Verdict : 3.5/5

THE SOCIAL NETWORK is worth a watch!!!

The Social Network is another wonderful film from director David Fincher, who has given us gems like The Game, Fight Club, Seven, Zodiac and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. He holds the film together and extracts excellent performances from his cast. His sensitive and realistic portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg’s personality should be applauded. This movie is about a dramatic,enthralling and interesting story of success. It is not mainly about Facebook as many would think, it is about the mastermind who invented it to attract this much people all around the world with a simple idea.

The Social Network is the story of Mark Zuckerberg enacted by Jesse Eisenberg, a Harvard University student and the founder of Facebook.com. It takes us through the creation of the website, how it made Mark a billionaire and made enemies out of his friends. The seamless and exciting screenplay is the backbone of the movie and it is also excellent in the way it brings out the story of Mark Zuckerberg. The dialogues are natural and memorable. The director narrates Mark's personal life and the chronology of founding of Facebook very well. Although the screenplay moves between the past and the future, the transitions are beautiful, revealing different aspects of Mark’s personality one by one. There is a lot of talk in the film but the intense dialogues, coupled with the excellent performances, make the drama believable and interesting to watch. Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg is outstanding and he enacts with ease the vulnerability of Mark’s character with consummate ease. Justin Timberlake fits well into the shoes of the eccentric Sean Parker. David Fincher is one of those directors whose style is in everything that he makes and while at first that may not seem appropriate for a film about Harvard students creating a social website, it somehow makes the film better. Were this in the hands of another director, I don't think the film would have been as well received. The choice in music, camera angles, editing, lighting and the cast is all brilliant.

All in all, The Social Network makes for a good watch. It is one of those films that is rare in its ability to spark conversation. When the film ends, you can't help but turn to your friend or family member and instantly start talking about what you saw. I can safely recommend this movie to anyone who believe in good contentful cinema and if you are missing it, your education in films has not begun.