Madhura Manohara Moham, Nalla Nilavulla Rathri & 18+ Journey of Love: "Humour scores while others fails to impress!!!"

Over the last couple of weeks, though a number of flicks had hit the screens; there were only a few Malayalam movies that really motivated me to check it out. As has been the trend for quite a while, among the three movies that I had watched, two of them were by debutants while the third was one who was into his second directorial venture. So how did these movies fare at the box office even as the monsoon threated to wreck havoc at many places.

Madhura Manohara Moham: "Stephy's moham to give a madhura experience for the audience almost works!!!"

Dr. Girija K.P, the owner of the Girija theatres in Thrissur is a name that is known to many primarily because of the struggles that she had to face being a female entrepreneur. With constant cyber attacks on her establishment for reasons unknown to her, she had to reach out to the authorities & media to help her out of the predicament. As a mark of solidarity, she had received unconditional support from many groups & this included Sharafudeen as his "Madhura Manohara Moham" was the latest release in Girija. 

This movie happens to be the directorial debut of Stephy Zaviour, a well known name in the industry who had build her reputation over the past decade as a talented costume designer. Based on the story by Mahesh Gopal & Jai Vishnu, they adopt a strategy (not sure if it was intentional) whereby they start off building the framework for something & then totally changes path to end with a track quite different. It is essentially a satirical take on the orthodox and the prevalence of the casteism mentality in the society, not to forget breaking the mold of the stereotypical girls from such families. 

The focus over there is Manu (Sharafudeen), the member of the local NSS committee who was in an affair with the NSS President's (Vijayaraghavan) daughter, Salabha (Aarsha Baiju) & his sibling, Meera (Rejisha Vijayan). The latter was the responsible one in the family as their mother, Ushamma (Bindu Panicker) still firmly held to her beliefs of belonging to the upper caste. They were kind of aware about the challenges that Manu might have to face for his wedding due to the financial disparity, but little did they realize the mental trauma they had to face to arrange Meera's wedding.

Frankly speaking, I thoroughly enjoyed the hilarious sequences & kudos for that primarily goes to the performers rather than the screenplay. Though I do applaud the efforts of the makers, I felt they were kind of unsure as to how far they can push the envelope and opted for a rather tame end despite having the potential to try for something more impactful. As for the technical aspects, most of them were done neatly.

Both Rejisha & Sharafudeen has done a fine job with the former taking on a character that was quite unexpected which she aced. It would also be fair to say that Sharafudeen comedy had also improved while Bindu Panicker rocked as usual. The rest of the cast such as Saiju Kurup, Aarsha (definitely a fine talent that has potential), Althaf etc have done their parts well.

Verdict: Quite a hilarious end to a story that started quite unlike what was expected. It does not seek to ask questions & prefers to give the audience an enjoyable time. In short, do give it a try!!!

Rating: 2.75/5

Nalla Nilavulla Rathri: "Predictable survival thriller!!!"

One of the most reputed production houses in the industry is 'Friday Film House' which was launched by Sandra Thomas & Vijay Babu. However, with time their partnership broke up & Sandra walked away from it for personal reasons. She eventually made a return back into the industry with her own production house & announced Murphy Devasy's "Nalla Nilavulla Rathri" as their debut venture. So I was keen to check out the project that she had come out with.

This also happened to be Murphy's directorial debut which he chose to make based on the script that he had penned. It is essentially about a group of friends, who turn on each other when they see the opportunity to make a quick buck. But fate had other plans in store for them. Kurien's (Baburaj) business was in financial crisis & that's when he happens to meet up with his college mates, Dominic (Jinu Joseph) & Joshi (Binu Pappan) who was involved in organic farming in partnership with a couple of other friends. On the pretext of helping his friends, Kurien sees it as an opportunity to help him get of the crisis. However, they also had other plans up their sleeve.

In terms of the story, Murphy takes time to build the characters & deserves appreciation for building up the intrigue and suspense between them. But the moment, the story shifts to the property in Shimoga it is reduced to a normal survival flick & does not offer anything that we haven't seen in the past. It becomes a blood fest as bodies get slashed and disfigured without hardly anything worthwhile taking the story forward. None of the technical aspects deserves mention as it was average at best.

The choice of artists for each of the roles was apt & each one of them have done their parts aptly. But as I said earlier, there is a limit to how much they can perform without a credible screenplay to back it up.

Verdict:  Though it ended with the impression that it would have a second part, I doubt whether Sandra would attempt that especially since there were hardly much takers for this. In short, it will take some heavy lifting to match Friday Films!!!

Rating: 1/5

18+ Journey of Love: "Love between the lead pair didn't seem as convincing, but the humour and the politics was!!!"

This is Arun Jose's second directorial venture after a commercially successful debut in "Jo & Jo". It also featured the combo of Naslen & Mathew Thomas which was the primary reason why I decided to watch it. However, for a change it was Naslen who took centre stage while Mathew had limited screen space though he did feature in a significant role that was quite unlike he had done in the past. As in his debut venture, Arun had joined hands with Raveesh Nath for the script & the screenplay and the duo came up with a story that focused on elopement against the backdrop of caste and politics. 

Akhil (Naslen), a cadre in the Communist party was in love with Athira (Meenakshi Dinesh), the daughter of Raveendren (Manoj K U), a prominent leader of the party unit in that region. Since they knew about the resistance that her family would pose, they decide to elope with the help of their friends. How they manage to elope and the events that unfold as a result of that  forms the crux. 

Though the makers have maintained a light mood right throughout the movie, they do pose relevant questions about caste in a subtle manner. The influence that politics has on the livelihood of the people & the so called progressive speeches which barely holds any significance especially when it comes to matters of their own household is all showcased well. On the technical side, both Christo Xavier's music & Satheesh Kurup's visuals were praise worthy.

Coming to performances, both Naslen & Athira have done a fine job with their individual performances but the chemistry between them wasnt quite upto the level that we would expect. Safwan & Anshad as Naslen's friends provides the comic relief while Mathew did his part aptly. The rest of the cast have also done their parts well such as Manoj, Binu Pappan, Shyam Mohan (as Athira's brother), Rajesh Madhavan, the lady who acted as Naslen's mother etc. Even Nikhila impressed in the cameo though the the primary reason for that was the refreshing take that Arun had on magistrates.

Verdict: Personally, I felt it was better than "Jo & Jo" but whether it would translate into revenue remains to be seen especially with the monsoon lashing. In short, give it a try!!!

Rating: 2.75/5

Regards...Ben