Thamasha review: Light hearted & realistic take on body-shaming!!!"

How many of us have been made fun of by our friends or even strangers for the way we look? Well I havent faced it much but I know some of my friends who had to endure it repeatedly for their extra pounds or receding hairline. Just a couple of days back Pakistan's Captain Sarfaraz who had to face the brunt for his team's loss to India, was mocked by a fan in a mall by saying that he looked fat like a pig & posted it in social media or the flak that Anant Ambani constantly faces for his weight gain. This goes to prove that no one is actually spared from this form of bullying irrespective of what your social status might be. Incidentally, this is the topic that is discussed in Ashraf Hamza's "Thamasha" & from the looks of the trailer, it seemed like a fun filled movie. 

Sreenivasan (Vinay Fort) is a lecturer in college who is constantly mocked by his students for his baldness. It became a cause of concern even more when his family started searching alliances for him. Due to constant rejections from prospective brides, his friend Raheem (Navas Vallikkunnu) advises him from his own experience that such complications wouldn't arise in a love marriage. Fuelled by Raheem's words & on the latter's insistence, Sreeni tries to woo his colleague Babitha (Divya Prabha). Everything seemed to move along as he expected until a handsome lecturer joins the college. This deflates Sreeni's confidence & he was back to his sulking self. At around this time, he gets acquainted with Safiya (Grace Antony) who seemed to take an immense interest in him. So was this girl that Sreeni was waiting for???

This is Ashraf Hamza's debut venture & he has penned the script as well though the idea of the thread came from Lijo Jose & Chemban Vinod who had produced it along with Sameer Thahir & Shyju Khalid under the banner of Happy Hours Entertainment. It's a relevant topic evident from a recent survey conducted across women in eight cities in the age group 15-45 where about 47.5% of them have said that they have faced body shaming either in school or at their workplace. Ashraf keeps the whole scenario real while at the same time ensured that it was conveyed in an enjoyable manner. Both the halves keeps the audience entertained as none of the sequences lagged. Kudos to the team for the apt casting coz apart from Vinay, pretty much everyone else were relatively green horned. Sameer Thahir was brilliant as usual with the visuals while Rex Vijayan & Shahbaz Aman's music were in sync with the mood.

In the first scene when Vinay Fort is shown writing on the board, it is inevitable that our mind takes us back to Vimal Sir in "Premam". It's an iconic role that would never be forgotten but the similarities between Sreeni Maashe & Vimal Sir ends there as the former is made in a completely different mold. He has excelled in it to such an extent that I would term this as his career best performance as he conveys his frustrations & insecurities effectively. When it comes to the female leads, Divya Prabha, Grace Antony & Chinnu Chandni Nair have done utmost justice to their roles. However, the pick of the lot was definitely Chinnu who was confident & charming. Navas deserves a special mention while Arun Kurian & the rest have done their parts well also. 

Verdict:  It's not a preachy type of movie but it gives us a glimpse as to how mean the world could be when it comes to mocking others over their appearance. All of us might either be a victim or knows someone who does face such insensitive comments & it's imperative that we take efforts not to do the same on others. As for the movie, you can rest assured to be entertained & hence dont hesitate to watch it!!!

Rating: 3.5/5

Regards...Ben

  

And the Oscar Goes to review: "Endearing tale of dreams, passion, tears & efforts!!!"

The World Cup is in the final stages of the robin league & our Men in Blue has been on a roll despite a middling middle order., thanks to our excellent bowling unit. Similarly, Tovino Thomas had also hit a purple patch with box office hits on the trot which is a result of his hard work, smart choice of movies & good fortune. In the past fortnight, two of his movies has hit the screens of which "And the Oscar Goes to" was checked out first. Since it is directed by Salim Ahamed, I had pretty high hopes about it as I have always liked his celluloid creations. So how well did Tovino blend into Salim's style of movie making???

Izhak Ebrahim (Tovino Thomas) is an aspiring film maker who had been trying for quite a while to make his mark in the film industry. After numerous failed attempts to find someone to fund his movie, he decided to take up the mantle of a producer as well. As expected, it was a tough ordeal but he manages to complete it & his efforts bore fruit when it was chosen as India's official entry for the Oscars. So will his movie achieve what Ashutosh & Aamir's "Lagaan" couldn't???

It's been quite a while since we have seen a Salim Ahamed movie with his last one being "Pathemari" in 2015. As in his previous ventures, he has adorned the hat of a director, producer & script writer yet again. With regard to the script, it's surely inspired from his own experiences as his debut movie "Adaminte Makan Abu" had won the National Award for the Best Film in 2011 & was also chosen as India's Oscar entry for that year. Salim tries to discuss quite a lot & I dont think he was as effective in conveying it in the first half though the second half was quite an eye opener as it gave us a glimpse about the influence of money & lobbying to get nominated. Kudos to his choice of actors as all of them have done a fantastic job. On the technical side, Madhu Ambat is a person who needs no introduction & he was brilliant as usual with his cinematography. Bijibal's music was soothing to the ears & Vijay Shankar has done a decent job in the editing dept. 

When I first heard that Tovino was the protagonist in Salim's movie, I was excited to see as to how he would fare in a meaty role. He has done a fantastic job as the struggling director & I certainly believe that when it comes to expression, this is his best to date. There are quite a few scenes which are perfect examples for that such as the look on his face when a kid sells the CDs of the latest movies in the train, his anguish of being forced to give an interview even as he is famished, his despair on being forced to accept the buyer's offer after the latter backtracks on his original offer etc. The rest of the cast have all done justice to their role be it Anu Sithara (her chemistry with Tovino was impressive), Salim Kumar, Siddique, Nikki Rae Hallow, Srinivasan, Lal, Appani Sarath etc.

Verdict:  Salim has once again given us that is both endearing as well as tugs at our hearts. There is definitely a freshness in the content in the latter half & gives us a fleeting view about the hardships of film makers. Tovino strikes gold yet again with a praiseworthy act & though it might not be a whooping money spinner, but it should still do well at the box office. I certainly liked the movie & I would certainly suggest all of you to check it out!!!

Rating: 3.25/5

Regards...Ben

Virus review: "Supremely crafted & magnificently performed!!!"

As all of you would be aware, the Medical community has been rattled by the constant attacks that relatives of patients inflict on them if the treatment doesnt pan out in the manner they expected. It's absolutely outrageous to say the least & it's high time that authorities adopt a rigid stand against it so that doctors can discharge their duties to the best of their abilities without having to fear for their well being. Surprisingly, many people tend to forget numerous occasions where the selfless service of the Medical community has averted major tragedies. One such incident was the Nipah virus attack that broke out in Kozhikode last year, but a concerted effort of a host of individuals both from medical & non-medical sectors ensured that the death toll were kept to a minimum. Aashiq Abu has tried to re-create this event in his latest movie "Virus" that features a galaxy of stars. Invariably real life events gets way too dramatized in celluloid that it loses its soul, so does "Virus" also become a victim of that???

Aashiq doesnt waste time to set the stage as the audience is thrust right into the middle of the sequence with the focus being on Dr. Abid's (Sreenath Bhasi) busy casualty schedule at the Kozhikode Medical College. One of the patients that he had attended to had presented with symptoms of fever, vomiting & headache which progressively worsened in quick time. At around the same time, Dr. Salim (Rahman) of Baby Memorial suspects one of his patients to be infected with Nipah which is confirmed by Dr. Suresh Rajan (Chackochan) of Manipal Institute of Virology. The number of patients with similar symptoms steadily increases & it becomes evident that it is the outbreak of an epidemic. The Health Minister C. K Prameela (Revathi), collector Paul Abraham (Tovino Thomas) & district health department swings into action in the hope that they can rein in the disease before it wrecks havoc. How exactly they manage to do it with the support of the doctors, community workers, nurses, drivers etc forms the crux of the movie.

A couple of years have passed since Aashiq has called the shots with the impressive "Mayanadi" being his previous venture. His latest is undoubtedly his best creation to date where he has cleverly cast a plethora of stars & yet made sure that each one had a meaty role that was integral to the story. Hats off to Muhsin Parari, Sharfu & Suhas for their exceptional writing skills that keeps us hooked to the tension & fear that is created as Nipah proves to be too strong an adversary.  There is absolutely nothing that I dont like about the movie as everything seems to gel so well & the manner in which they try to identify the index patient along with the source is extremely well depicted. The back story given for each patient & how he could have spread the disease is a painstaking exercise for the writers, but they have done it systematically & without exhausting the audience. Kudos to Sushin Shyam's minimalistic music which strikes the right chords & Rajeev Ravi's cinematography was excellent as always. In the performance department, each & every artist (Chackochan, Sreenath Bhasi, Tovino, Joju, Rima, Revathy, Parvathy, Indrajith, Poornima, Asif Ali, Rahman, Soubin etc) has done their part brilliantly and hence it's hard to pinpoint as to who was the best among them. The most befitting reward for this ensemble cast will be to award all of them for the best performance 

Verdict: It's undoubtedly one of the finest Malayalam movie that I have watched. Both the cast & crew have done praiseworthy work & deserves applause for their brilliance. I kind of felt that Soubin's part pretty much stretched the movie a bit too much, but still the manner in which it was linked to the main thread was interesting. This is a must watch movie & you can rest assured that it will be a worthwhile viewing experience!!!

Rating: 4.75/5

Regards...Ben

Unda review: "Hits the target with precision!!!"

It's been a while since I have written a review which was primarily due to a dearth of movies that enticed me to watch & also coz I had recently moved base to a different city. Since I have started to get acquainted with the new place, I noticed that "Unda" had released in a theatre near by & was more than eager to check it out as the posters as well as trailers had aroused my curiosity. Apart from the fact that it had Mammookka in the lead, it was Khalid Rahman's second directorial venture which raised my expectations. Since the title has the scope of being used as an expletive as well, which choice of word will I use to describe my opinion about it???

The 17th Lok Sabha elections concluded just a month back & if we think about the electoral process, we do realise that it is a mammoth task as we are home to about 900 million eligible voters in a nation which is the seventh largest in the world. As expected, law and order issues are likely to occur in many places but most of them gets nipped in the bud thanks to our efficient armed and police forces. This story is about one such police battalion from Kerala who are entrusted to protect a polling station located in the Maoist prone Bastar in Chhattisgarh. The leader of this nine member team was SI Manikandan (Mammookka), an approachable humane officer who treated his subordinates as his family. They receive a rather inferior welcome at the destination & are mocked for their inadequateness. It soon dawns upon them that they were entrusted with a dire task that they have neither faced before nor equipped to handle.

As I mentioned earlier, this is Khalid's second venture after the well received "Anuraagin Karikkin Vellam" that I absolutely loved. Inspired from real life events, he has penned the script in the company of Harshad & it hits the right notes from the beginning itself. Unlike other cop movies of Mammookka where he is always shown as a macho one man army, SI Mani is a vulnerable middle aged officer who is compassionate towards his fellow beings. There are various aspects that the writers has touched upon be it the hardships that SC/ST officers face even in an educated state like ours, the pathetic situation of the natives in Maoist infested areas where they are looked upon with suspicion both by the armed forces & Maoists, the nexus between politicians and businessmen who try to force the natives into leaving their land & unethical electoral practices with utter disregard for the rules of the administration. We also get a glimpse of the attitude of the present day females who believe that they dont have to compromise for the gross mistake that the husband does.

On the technical side, Sajith Purushan's visuals captures the rawness of Bastar brilliantly and is complemented by Prashant Pillai's music. Mammookka has been on a roll ever since 2019 began with movies like "Peranbu", "Yatra" & "Madhuraraja", all of which has either been critically or commercially acclaimed. This will also be added to that list as he was fantastic as the officer who has his own insecurities and fears. There are a host of other artists as well each of whom have done their parts well such as Arjun Ashokan, Shine Tom, Bhagwan Tiwari etc with Lukman being the pick among the lot. 

Verdict: A couple of minutes into the movie reminded me of Rajkummar Rao's "Newton" primarily coz of the choice of the location as well as Bhagwan Tiwari's character which was similar to Pankaj Tripathi's. But the similarity ends there as "Unda" has an identity of its own that makes us laugh & think in equal measure. We empathize with the hardships that the police goes through both from anti-social elements and bureaucracy. It is undoubtedly one of the finest flicks of the year & I hope you guys wont miss it!!!

Rating: 4/5

Regards...Ben