Putham Pudhu Kaalai: "Interesting anthology that works in parts!!!"

With the COVID pandemic still very much prevalent, the world has woken up to the fact that we will have to find ways to live within especially since the vaccines isn't still around. Even if it does, it would still take significant amount of time before it would be made available to each one of us. One of the things that has taken center stage during this COVID time was the use of social network for both professional & personal interests. The film industry has also realized its potential & joined hands with OTT platforms to showcase their celluloid creations. Seeing the talent on offer, Amazon Prime roped in five maverick Tamil directors for an anthology titled "Putham Pudhu Kaalai". The trailer surely looked interesting & everyone would be curious to know whether it is indeed the dawn of a new beginning.

As mentioned earlier, it is an anthology of five stories whereby the characters in most of the segments are holed up at home due to the lockdown. None of the five directors needs introduction as they have all done impressive work in the past & has done more of the same here as well. 

The first segment 'Ilamai Idho Idho' was about love between two senior citizens, Rajeev (Jayaram/ Kalidas) & Lakshmi (Urvashi/Kalyani). This was helmed by Sudha Kongara while it was penned by Francis Thomas & Shruti Ramachandran. Both Jayaram & Urvashi was impressive as ever & the idea to have Kalidas & Kalyani (who did have a good chemistry) showcase as to how they felt young at heart despite their actual ages was good. However, I really wished there was more of the seniors on screen. 

This was followed by 'Avarum Naanum-Avalum Nannum' where a grandfather, a retired scientist (M S Bhaskar) & granddaughter, an IT professional Kanna (Ritu Verma) try to iron out their strained relationship. With all due respect to Gautham Menon, I was pleasantly surprised to see him in this avatar as we usually relate him with romance. But he has treated this subject penned by Reshma Ghatala in a matured & subtle manner and his eye for nuances of the characters was fantastic. MS Bhaskar was brilliant as we make us empathize with his feelings & he was given credible support by Ritu as well. 

The third segment, 'Coffee, Anyone?' is about three daughters with varying problems of their own meeting up with their comatose mother. Directed by Suhasini, this felt like a family reunion as almost all the artists were related to each other in real life. She has addressed quite a few topics in her section be it familial discord, late pregnancy, dyslexia etc. Though it was relatable & taken aptly, I felt there was something about the performances (especially Suhasini) which didnt seem as authentic.

'Reunion' is about two school friends, Sadhana (Andrea Jeremiah) & Vikram (Gurucharan) who accidentally meet & catch up on the old times. This was the segment that I wasnt impressed at all as Rajiv Menon's creation just failed to make any sense. He wanted to convey that music can be a healer which as such seemed fine, but did not gel as much with the story that was put together.  The choice of artists were really good be it Gurucharan, Andrea & Leela Samson, as it felt they were tailor made for the characters and they have done reasonably well. 

The final part 'Miracle' has two thieves, Devan (Bobby Simha) & Michael (K Muthukumar) who is looking for a huge payday. Karthik Subbaraj made sure that we had a good laugh before the movie ended as I thoroughly enjoyed this comic caper. Both Bobby & Muthu has done a fine job & kudos to Karthik for a segment that had a story & kept us entertained. 

Verdict: The anthology definitely had a couple of ups & downs, but on the whole I felt that it was a reasonable effort that does manage to keep us engaged. There is another Tamil anthology also in the making "Paava Kadhaigal" that also has an amazing array of directors & would be releasing in the near future on Netflix. As for this flick, some of the segments might not be to your liking but it is still worth a try!!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Regards...Ben

Halal Love Story review: "Simplistic storyline dampens an interesting theme!!!"

Even as COVID numbers still hovered around the 70k mark per day, the Centre released the guidelines for Unlock 5.0. One of the key points was the permission to reopen the theatres after close to 7 months from the 15th of October with 50% capacity. Whether that would allow the theatres to recover their operational costs & whether it would allay the fears of the general public to flock inside a confined space remains to be seen. However, we certainly had one last Thursday as Zakariya Mohammed's "Halal Love Story" was released on Amazon Prime. I certainly loved the trailer & looked forward to some fun moments after all his "Sudani from Nigeria" was impressive.

The movie unfolds with the news of the 9/11 attack on the WTC on TV & a talk about how the world was affected by the neo-imperialism of US. Within the first few minutes, the audience is introduced to the political & religious inclinations of the area. The Islamic cultural branch of the locality decides to make a crowdfunded telefilm that would abide by the rules of their faith & entrusts the task to Taufeeq (Sharafudeen) to come up with a suitable script. Once that gets approved by the committee, they start their search for a suitable cast & crew. So will they be able to craft a movie that would give them creative freedom but yet adhere to the sensibilities of their religious group???

Zakariya is an individual who needs no introduction after all his debut venture "Sudani from Nigeria" was loved by both the critics & the masses. In his latest release, he has come up with an interesting subject but fails to nail it effectively. It was way too simplistic with hardly any substantial events happening though the satire keeps us engaged with the situational humour & a reliable cast. On the technical side, pretty much everything was on the money be it Bijibal & Shahbaz Amin's music which was soothing to the ears or Ajay Menon's visuals. 

Quite a few reliable artists were lined up for the project among which Grace Antony was the one who took centre with a solid performance. Equally impressive was Joju George, who seems to get better with each movie. As for the rest, Indrajith & Sharafudeen did their parts aptly along Nazar Karutheni. There were a couple of cameos as well among which Soubin brings the roof down with a hilarious act while Parvathy was natural as ever.

Verdict: There is no doubt that the movie has failed to match expectations considering the quality of the cast & crew and most importantly a novel theme. Even then , it would certainly keep majority of us engaged as most are unlikely to fret about the time spent watching it. In short, do check it out if interested in a feel good flick!!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Regards...Ben

Serious Men review: "Satirical take on the serious subject of class & caste!!!"

Almost 70 years has passed since we have adopted our Constitution which was drawn up by the visionary Dr.B.R Ambedkar. One of the key points mentioned in it is the need for equality & fraternity, and though we have progressed by leaps & bounds as a nation; discrimination based on social hierarchy still continues to be a significant bane. Ironically, both Andhra & Telangana where caste based killings are a routine affair, recently announced about their plan to build statues of Ambedkar. Will it make any change to the life of discriminated individuals? Of course not, after all it is merely vote bank politics. This is the subject that Sudhir Mishra has tackled in his satirical celluloid creation “Serious Men” that released on Netflix last weekend.

Ayyan Mani (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the PA to Dr. Arvind Acharya (Nassar), one of the prominent astronomers in the nation who was working on ‘alien/space microbes’ & barely displayed an iota of respect to his subordinate. This attitude from his boss ate on Ayyan’s mind as he felt that it was primarily because he wasn’t as educated & also coz he was a Dalit. He believed that the only way that his son could rise up the social strata was to provide him with the best educational opportunities possible. With time, things started to pan out much better than Ayyan had anticipated as his son, Adi (Aakshath Das) was a genius & the cynosure of all eyes. But will Adi be able to cope up with the mounting media attention & the pressure from his father???

It’s been quite a while since I have watched Sudhir Mishra’s movies though most of us would have definitely watched Season 1 of the Hotstar web series “Hostages” which was damn impressive. Based on Manu Joseph’s novel, it is humorous, engaging & yet makes us think at the same time regarding the plight of those people discriminated on the basis of their caste. The extent to which Ayyan plans his moves so that his son is held in high regard by the society was interesting but the manner in which the story concluded was definitely not what I had expected. This does not imply that everything has to be rosy at the end but the message it conveyed surely send out the wrong signals when the whole perspective of the subject is concerned. All the technical aspects, be it Karel Antonin’s music or Alexander Sukala’s visuals were executed aptly.

As expected, Nawazuddin was fantastic as the protagonist who is aware about his situation but still had the belief and the shrewdness as to how he can take his family up the social ladder. Apart from him, both Aakshath & Indira Tiwari essayed their roles really well while Nassar & the rest of the cast did their parts aptly.

Verdict: Caste discrimination is a topic that has been discussed earlier but even then this flick manages to engage us due to the satirical manner in which it is presented. There are many sequences that make us laugh and think, though I felt that the climax was rather underwhelming. However, it is a movie that still deserves to be watched!!!

Rating: 3.25/5

Regards…Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nishabdham review: "Hard to remain nishabdh about the mediocrity of the plot!!!"

Over the last couple of days, the White House has remained rather tight lipped or more appropriately lacked credibility when it came to imparting info about the condition of President Trump. Back home, the focus is back on the safety of women after the Hathras gang rape; though many of the political bigwigs who were verbose about the Bollywood drug nexus & the elephant death in Kerala have chosen to remain silent. Coincidentally Hemant Madhukar's latest venture is titled "Nishabdham" which had a pretty engaging trailer. So was the movie worth talking about???

The film unfolds in the 1970s in Seattle when a couple gets murdered in their home under mysterious circumstances. With the police unable to crack the case, it was concluded that some paranormal being was responsible for the murders & the house was deemed as haunted. The view shifts to the present day & the house was in the news yet again as renowned cello player, Antony (Madhavan) was found murdered in it the exact same manner. He had visited the house along with his fiancé, Sakshi (Anushka Shetty); a deaf & mute artist who luckily managed to escape with minor injuries. The case was taken up by Detective Maha (Anjali) & her Chief Richard Deakins (Michael Madsen) who refused to believe that a ghost was behind the crime. So were they indeed true or did Sakshi being the only witness to the murder have a different version???

This was the first time that I came to know about the director Hemant Madhukar, though he had taken a few movies in the past & hence I watched the movie without any prejudice. To be frank, the script by the director was pretty pathetic to say the atleast & it wasn't aided in any manner by Kona Venkat's uninspired screenplay. It started off a decent horror thriller but neither did they explore that angle properly nor did they do justice to the investigation part as the audience were considered as imbeciles virtually spoon fed for every sequence. However, Shaneil Deo's visuals were pretty impressive & the music by Girishh G was fine. 

If the script itself is amateurish, there is precious little what the artists could do & that's exactly what we see over here. Both Madhava, Anushka & Subbaraju did their parts aptly, Shalini was ok while Anjali was damn ordinary. One of the reasons why I was excited to watch this movie was Michael Madsen & to be brutally honest, he was just UNBEARABLE. I fail to understand how an actor who has performed admirably in Tarantino's movies can be so abysmal. 

Verdict: It's undoubtedly a huge disappointment considering the quality of the cast that Hemant had assembled. Apart from a couple of sequences, it was just a dull affair & hence I dont think it's worth time spending for!!!

Rating: 1.5/5

Regards...Ben 

Halahal review: "Engaging realistic drama that could have been paced better!!!"

Over the centuries, India has produced some of the finest minds that the world has seen & it's a testament of our educational system. However, with time just like with every other system this also requires an upgrade & it's high time it is implemented so as to take advantage of the wealth of human resources that we have at our disposal. Our educational system needs to create individuals who could think critically with the knowledge provided rather than merely regurgitate verbatim onto the answer sheet. There has been no dearth of corruption in the education sector where money speaks more than talent at times & one such incident happened to be the Vyapam scam in MP in 2013. This happened to be the inspiration for Randeep Jha's "Halahal" which released last weekend on Eros Now. 

Dr. Shiv Shankar Sharma (Sachin Khedekar), a reputed physician wakes up to the news of the death of his daughter, Archana (Enab Khizra); a brilliant Medical student. As per the the police, they conclude the cause of death to be suicide & promptly decides to close the case much to the dismay of the family especially since there were discrepancies in the autopsy report. The attitude of the investigation team raises suspicion in Dr. Sharma as it was evident that they had some ulterior motive. Soon enough he realizes that his daughter was the victim of a conspiracy though he didn't have any solid evidence to substantiate his claims. So he decides to sought the help of a corrupt officer Yusuf Qureshi (Barun Sobti) who swayed to the direction where the scent of money wafted from. Can Yusuf be trusted & will the real culprits ever be caught???

There is no doubt that Randeep Jha has chosen an interesting topic in the scam of Medical seats which has been penned by the trio of Gibran Noorani, Zeishan Quadri & Sandeep Gade. The manner in which the story reveals itself slowly is a delight & the reveal that is made in the climax is pretty impressive. They have opted to create characters that have grey shades &  have made it in a completely believable fashion. However, it falters as far as the pacing is concerned since Randeep ought to have made the events much more tighter to give that sense of urgency to the audience which isn't there & hence there is a risk of lethargy setting in at times. As for other aspects, Piyush Puty's cinematography deserves praise as the visuals and the colour tone was in sync with the mood.

Sachin Khadekar is in fine form as the helpless & frustrated father and giving him good company is Barun Sobti, who after his praise worthy performance in "Asur" has impressed yet again. There are quite a few decent supporting artists, but the movie is virtually carried forward on the able shoulders of Sachin & Barun.

Verdict: It's not the type of the movie that would wow the audience but it is a slow pot boiler which will keep us interested, though it had scope for more if the execution was better. In short, give it a try!!!

Rating: 3/5

Regards...Ben