Turbo, Thalavan & Mandakini: "Turbo downs mandakini and emerges thalavan at the box office!!!"

With the monsoons having started to lash across the length & breadth of the state after a torrid summer, there were a trio of releases last weekend hoping to cash in prior to the commencement of the academic year. As per box office reports, Vysakh's "Turbo" seems on course to recover the costs despite it's high production costs. So is it indeed so good & does the other two stand a chance???

Turbo: "A classic cliché salvaged by performances & Vysakh's skills!!!"

Over the past couple of years, Mammookka's choice of scripts has been top notch irrespective of whichever genre it belonged to. However, to be honest; there was one choice that I was most sceptical about & it happened to be his latest release. The primary reason for that was Vysakh whose action flicks predominantly had that standard template which was predictable from a mile away though I do accept that his film making skills in majority of the cases made it an engaging theatrical experience. 

For a change, this time around he has joined hands with Midhun Manuel Thomas instead of Udaykrishna & that gave the hope that the template would be much better. The protagonist, 'Turbo' Jose (Mammookka) who hailed from Idukki had a habit of getting drawn into fights. The latest issue  that involved Indhulekha (Anjana Jayaprakash) who was in love with his friend, Jerry (Shabareesh Varma) found him having to flee to Chennai. However, as one would expect he found himself in a bigger problem as Jerry & Indhu's lives were threatened by the kingmaker, Vetrivel Shanmugha (Raj B Shetty).

Did Midhun actually even write a script for this or did Udaykrishna ghost write it? There is not even the semblance of a credible storyline as events unfold just like the numerous other similar genre movies that we have seen in the past. There is mention of an act that Vetrivel does which reminded me of Mithran's "Irumbu Thirai" that I happened to watch on Mazhavil Manorama sometime back. Actually, if they had focused on that aspect rather than merely mention it; I personally believe it would have made the movie engaging & impactful. Apart from a brief touch on Jose's bond with his mother, there is hardly anything that emotionally binds us to the characters. Despite all these shortcomings, Vysakh still manages to keep the ship afloat primarily with his skills and the support of his talented crew. Kudos to the action choreography & visual department handled by Phoenix Prabhu & Vishnu Sarma respectively, both of whom were impressive. The same also applies to a certain degree to Christo Xavier's BGM & Shameer Muhammad's editing. 

On the performance front, it is a role that barely challenged Mammookka as a performer but the action sequences required him to put in a lot of hard work & it was there for all to see. The legend was top notch in those sequences & continues to prove that age is just a number. Raj B Shetty is an artist that needs no introduction & it was unfortunate to see him be given such a poorly etched character. However, he made that character shine through with his skills & convincingly gave that villainous aura. Bindu Panicker stood out with some of her dialogues, Shabareesh did his part aptly while Anjana, despite the screen time didnt have much to do. Sunil as Auto Billa was wasted & could have been dispensable, as he reminded me of his mannerisms in "Jailer" while Kabir Duhan was damn good. 

Verdict: It is always a pleasure to see movies do good business at the box office. But it is undeniable that Midhun's script was mediocre & it still managed to garner credible footfalls primarily because of Vysakh's film making skills & Mammookka as well as Raj's performance!!!

Rating: 2/5

Thalavan: "Jis Joy makes a promising transition to other genre!!!"

Whenever Jis Joy's name is mentioned, the first impression that most will have about him is that he is the brand ambassador of 'feel good' movies. Though he tried to break away from that mold with his previous movie "Innale Vare" it failed to impress the audience. Hopefully his latest directorial venture will have more takers as he collaborated with Anand Thevarkkat & Sarath Perumbavoor, for their maiden script. 

Rtd DySP Udayabhanu (Dileesh Pothan) was doing a talk show in a channel where he spoke about the sensational cases that he was involved in (along the lines of 'Charithram Ennillode' in Safari TV). One of them happened to involve two cops, CI Jayashankar (Biju Menon) & SI Karthik (Asif Ali) who were at loggerheads coz of their egos. Things take a turn when Jayashankar becomes a murder suspect & Karthik is put in charge of the investigation. So can Jayashankar expect justice in such a scenario???

First & foremost, kudos to both Anand & Sarath as it definitely had an intriguing plot that kept us hooked until the very end. The character arc given to the artists were impressive as that provided much of the effect but in terms of the knockout punch in the end, it was rather lukewarm. There is no doubt that Jis Joy has done a fine job in executing it well & kudos to him for that while the technical aspects were also executed reasonably well.

Both Biju Menon & Asif Ali have done a fine job in their respective roles with Dileesh Pothan providing decent support. Bilas Chandrahasan was impressive along with Kottayam Naseer though the latter reminded me of his role in "Anweshippin Kandethum". As for the rest, Miya George, Anusree & Joji John did their parts aptly while Jaffer Idukki was wasted in an insignificant role.

Verdict: Though it would not be a thalavan at the box office (didn't quite understand the thought behind that title), it certainly has the substance to keep us engaged. In short, do check it out!!!

Rating: 3/5

Mandakini: "Seems like the makers were intoxicated as well!!!"

The third movie of the week were from a bunch of debutants as Vinod Leela chose to picturise the script that were penned by the duo, Shiju Bhaskaran & Shalu. If "Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil" was the hungama leading upto the marriage, over here it is about the post marriage fiasco that unfolds in the first night. The couple in focus were Aromal (Althaf Salim) & Ambili (Anarkali Marikar), and the issues unfold when the latter unknowingly downs a glass of Mandakini, an intoxicating drink that one of the guests had brought as part of the celebrations. 

To be fair to the makers, they had an idea on paper but failed to flesh it out properly. So much so, I believe there was a significant deal of improvisation in the dubbing stage. The situations created managed to create sparse laughs but apart from that nothing else quite managed to get my attention. 

On the technical aside, none of them deserves special mention. As for performances, Vineeth Thattil tickles the funny bone while Saritha Kukku (as Rajalakshmi) was good as well. The lead pair of Althaf & Anarkali were fine, while Ganapathi, Jaffer Idukki, Aswathy Sreekanth etc supported well. 

Verdict: The aliyan bromance evokes laughs & did have a couple of light moments, but on the whole it didn't have adequate content!!!

Rating: 1.5/5

Pavi Caretaker, Malayalee from India & Nadikar: "Looked promising but fizzled out!!!"

Into the third week of May & there has been quite a few big banner releases. As I have been quite busy over the past couple of weeks, I didn't quite find the time to pen my opinion about them. Though a couple of them did inspire expectations coz of the cast & crew in them, the final celluloid product failed to do justice to the talent of the people involved. Anyway the following are some of the movies that I had watched & what I felt about them.

Pavi Caretaker: "Dileep needs to take care of his career more sensibly!!!"

It's been quite a while since we had seen Dileep in a movie & a significantly much longer time, before one of them genuinely managed to impress us. His latest effort to win over the audience is in Vineeth Kumar's "Pavi Caretaker" where he plays the role of a Gulf returnee who presently worked as a caretaker/security personnel in a post apartment complex in Cochin. He was a bachelor & more of a loner with his pet dog, Bro being the only company that he had. Things moved along uneventfully until his house owner, Mariyamma (Radhika Sarathkumar), a retired police officer informed him that he would have to share his quarters with another tenant, who happened to be a woman. Though reluctant initially, Pavi warmed up to his house-mate through letter interactions as they never got to meet in person since she stayed over in the house only at night when he was off for work. Anyway in due time, Pavi started to develop feelings for her & the movie is about how their relationship panned out. 

This is Vineeth's third directorial venture & he has collaborated with the experienced Rajesh Raghavan who has penned for movies like "Aravindante Athithikal". It is a feel good comedy drama which kind of reminded me of the themes from "Bodyguard", "The Lunchbox" & the slapstick sequence from "Ee Parakkam Thalika". In effect, it didn't provide a fresh feel though I wouldn't say that it tested my patience primarily because of the manner that it was packaged with the emotional sequences being reasonably fine. As for the technical aspects, it was ok with mention for Sanu Thahir's visuals & Midhun Mukundan's music.

There is no doubt that Dileep is a talented artist but his choice of scripts in recent times has been far from good. As Pavi, I felt that the humour which was his USP in the past felt forced while in the emotional scenes, he was quite good. There were quite a few new faces among the female leads & most of them were fine such as Swathi (as Leena), Sreya Rukmini (as Janaki), Rosmi (as Jeena) etc. Johny Antony & Radhika did their parts aptly in the limited opportunity provided.

Verdict: It isn't a bad movie but nowadays when quality movies are coming out quite regularly, it is unlikely to have much of a run at the box office. It's high time that Dileep really thought about his choice of movies rather than merely release flicks for the heck of it. In short, nothing new!!!

Rating: 2.25/5

Malayalee from India: "Screenplay lacked the punch to drive this political satire!!!"

It would be fair to see that all movies require a certain degree of pre-release hype to cash in on the initial which is absolutely essential in this present age due to the limited number of days each one manages to run in theatres. In the case of Diju Antony's latest release, he had to acknowledge Vineeth Sreenivasan's "Varshangalkku Shesham" to a certain degree for the hype & expectations due to the impact Nivin Pauly's character had created in it, not to forget Dijo's previous release was a commercial hit. So how did all these factors eventually pan out???

The movie unfolds in an alien terrain where Gopi (Nivin) was in search of an address & the story is narrated in flash back whereby it tells us how he landed up there. Gopi & his buddy, Malgosh (Dhyan Sreenivasan) were right wing supporters who loitered around without being useful either for their family or society. Gopi's life changes on the night the Indian cricket team loses to Pakistan & that coincided with a couple of Muslim kids bursting crackers. The bigoted mindset of Malgosh makes him to hurl a petrol bomb in retaliation which creates unset in the area & Gopi is forced to flee to the Middle East to his uncle until the tension reduced. However, what was in store for him over there was something that he had least expected. 

This is the third time that Dijo Antony & Sharis Mohammed had collaborated & unlike their previous ventures, they have opted for a satire which looked into the effect of politics and religion. There are some hilarious sequences for sure in the initial segment but in the latter half it felt as if it was left in shaky ground in terms of what tone it wanted to adopt. It looked like a spoof of "Aadujeevitham" with a sprinkling of "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" & Malala and culminates in a predictable manner. At the same time, I felt quite a few of the sequences & dialogues were pretty good. As for other aspects, Sudeep Elamon's visuals were fine though Jakes Bejoy's music didn't quite rise to expectations. 

Coming to performances, Nivin has done a decent job as the protagonist & it would be unfair to put the blame on him for a shoddy screenplay. Dhyan was quite irritating while Anaswara was wasted in a poorly etched role. As for the rest of the cast, both Manju Pillai & Deepak Jethi did their parts well.

Verdict: It was in the news for all the wrong reasons after its release with Nishad Koya making plagiarism claims. Anyway whatever might be the truth behind that, there is no denying that the screenplay was quite mediocre which failed to maximise on the potential of the satire.

Rating: 2/5

Nadikar: "A rather shallow take of events in the latter half!!!"

The cine world has always be so tempting that every one wants to be part of it in the belief that there is nothing more that a person could possibly wish. However, the truth is in order to remain relevant it is a combination of talent, discipline & talent which is a tightrope that many find it hard to balance. Over the years, we have had numerous movies that looked into that world & Lal Jr's latest directorial effort is also along similar lines. 

David Padikkal (Tovino Thomas) was the emerging superstar of the industry with a track record that boasted of an industry hit as well. However, with fame & money; arrogance crept in & his focus turned towards worldly pleasures which caused his movies to suffer at the box office. With repeated failures, his demand was on the wane & on the advise of his manager, Paily (Suresh Krishna); he decided to clean up his act by collaborating with the acclaimed director, Koshy (Ranjith). However, his inadequacies as a performer got exposed by Koshy & he walked out from the project in retaliation. It was at this juncture that Paily suggested that it was indeed time for David to accept the criticism & address the issue. The solution that Paily had was to take up the services of a seasoned yet unconventional acting coach, Bala (Soubin Shahir). So will David be able to swallow his arrogance before it is too late???

Based on the script by Suvin Somasekharan, Lal Jr has crafted the first half pretty well whereby we get to see how arrogance had plotted the downfall of the protagonist. The tantrums of the star, his emotional struggles & demeanour in general to people around him was quite well captured in the first half. But both the writer & director lacked the ability to hook in the audience to the efforts made by the protagonist for redemption. It failed to provide any kind of emotional connect & despite scenes put in to convey that, we don't feel the impact of the efforts put in and the change that is happening as a result of it (especially the one related to his childhood trauma). On the technical side, Alby's visuals were in sync with the mood while Prashanth Madhav's production design was praise worthy. The same also applies to the costume department while Yakzan Gray & Neha Nair's music was just average.  

Despite evident shortcomings, Tovino has done an impressive job as David and effectively conveyed the arrogance & emotions of the character. Soubin Shahir was average while Bhavana was wasted in an inconsequential role. As for the rest, Suresh Krishna, Balu Varghese & a host of cameos did their parts aptly. 

Verdict: Though the idea was in place for the second half, the lack of a well thought story regarding how to incorporate the gravitas to those sequences proved to be the bane of the movie. In effect, Tovino's performance proved to be the saving grace!!!

Rating: 1.75/5

Regards...Ben

Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil: "Bromance & humour works for large parts!!!"

When I first saw the trailer of Vipin Das's latest directorial effort, I was rather sceptical about Prithvi's performance as it lacked authenticity & looked rather odd. However, after having watched it last night; it would be fair to say that all my concerns were put to rest as Vipin had a perfect understanding regarding the cadence at which his characters needed to behave. Seems like happy days are bound to continue at the box office as it does have what it takes to keep the audience engaged.

Interestingly, the USP of the movie is the bromance between two prospective brother-in-laws, Anand (Prithvi) & Vipin (Basil). The latter worked in the Middle East & was engaged to Anand's sister, Anjali (Anaswara Rajan). However, it seemed like he was more attached to Anand for being the brother, friend & mentor who constantly motivated & helped him to recover from the heart break that he had a few years back. So much so, he spoke to Anand more than he did to Anjali. But just a week prior to the wedding, Vipin decided to back out. So what had made him to take that stand & the impact that it had on the onward proceedings is what this movie is about. 

After the success of "Jaya Jaya Jaya Jay Hey", Vipin Das is one of the most sought after director for obvious reasons. To add onto the expectation, Vipin collaborated with Deepu Pradeep who had movies & web series like "Kunjiramayanam" & "Periloor Premier League" to his credit. The script that Deepu had penned is essentially a comedy drama and the first half works big time coz of this bromance. Even the conflict that emerges was hilarious but when the bromance understandably takes a back seat, it affects the second half. The third act which unfolds in the temple was along the lines of "Godfather" & the typical Priyadarshan style pandemonium. However, that doesn't quite touch the highs that the makers would have expected & came across as quite average. On the whole, kudos to Vipin & Deepu for a reasonably fun ride which benefitted significantly coz of the casting decisions especially Prithvi with Basil. The art team deserves praise for the Guruvayoor set while Ankit Menon's choice of music was quite good. 

We don't usually associate Prithvi to handle humour with finesse, but he has certainly done a decent job here. The over-the top expressions & gestures felt apt for the situation that Vipin had created. Basil has his own innate flair for humour & he was impressive over here. The chemistry that the duo shared was top notch & is undoubtedly the main reason why this movie works. Nikhila doesn't have much dialogues but is integral to the story & does her part efficiently with her expressions in the limited screen space. The same also applies to Anaswara, who was fine along with Jagadish, Baiju, Rekha etc. In addition, the comic sidekicks such as Joemon Jyothir, Siju Sunny, Ashwin Vijayan etc also did their parts well. Another major name in the star cast was Yogi Babu, though I felt there wasn't much substance for his role which required him to be casted. 

Verdict: A hilarious first half courtesy of the chemistry between Prithvi & Basil keeps the audience engaged. Though the screenplay falters in the second half, it still manages to stay afloat & should be able to keep the audience satisfied. In short, do check it out!!!

Rating: 2.75/5

Regards...Ben