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

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