Salt n Pepper

This movie is like a perfect dish which has all the ingredients added in correct proportion by an excellent cook. Director Ashiq Abu has made perfect choices of actors for his characters. Baburaj who until now had remained as a villain and nightmare has turned overnight to comedian and he excelled in his new Avatar, cook Babu.

Story runs as different threads woven together in a beautiful manner. Kalidasan (Lal) is an archeologist, Maya (Swetha Menon) is a dubbing artist, both in their middle years. What connects these two are their passion for cooking and soon their friendship blossoms to a "delicious" relationship. Meenakshi(Mythili) Maya's roommate and Manu (Asif Ali) Kalidasan's nephew too portreyed their part well. With some twists and turns and all is well ends well, this movie is a sure watch. Other casts include Baburaj as Kalidasan's cook, Kalpana as Maria who runs a beauty parlor and gives paying guest accommodation to Maya and Meenakshi, Vijayaraghavan a fellow archeologist.

Music is rendered by Bijipal and there are some good songs and the Aviyal band has also rendered a good song.

Traffic

Linear narrative is the simplest way to tell a story and we have been hearing, reading, and watching the linear narrative for most of the time.  But when the story consists of different strands, woven together by the hand of fate or destiny, can linear narrative do justice to the story or the characters, each of whom has a different story to tell ? I dont think so......A complex story can be told very clearly using non-linear narrative, which is just the case with Traffic.  Just imagine the toil put in by the script writers (Bobby n Sanjay) to tell this story, which moves from multiple points and the director (Rajesh Pillai) who has manned the movie beautifully and thereby not letting us slip into traffic jam, at any point..............great work guys.......The innovative way of multi-speaker perspective keeps the viewers on the tenterhooks and I am not surprised that I heard so much good being said about this movie.

The story moves forward from a 4 person perspective, a traffic cop (Sreenivasan), a doctor (Kunchako Boban), an actor (Rehman), and a TV journalist (Vineeth) who is embarking on his first assignment, and it consists of the happenings in a 12-hour period, in which all the 4 characters are involved.


If you are among the few who have not watched it yet, then go ahead and watch it....it is an entirely new experience for a Malayalam movie watcher.


Tamil and Hindi versions of this movie are in the offing, I sincerely hope that they won't be tinkering with the script.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Mankind has and will survive every adversity it faces. Humans are generally passionate and intelligent. It is our intelligence that has brought us where we are today. However in our own quest for knowledge and medical breakthrough we started experimenting on animals. Animals have been sacrificed for generations with 'for greater good of mankind' as the reason.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a movie that showcases this view point from both the human standpoint of research breakthrough and the animal's viewpoint of oppression and suffering, in this case the apes.

Hold on can animals think logically and are capable of reflection and contemplation. Yup this movie shows how and moves way beyond. In a way it tells the story of all mankind under oppression and what happens when it goes beyond the breaking point.

The movie is well directed and the story line is good. It is a complete movie experience and highly recommended. I hope I have convinced you guys without giving away anything. Watch it and get the awesome feeling. If you guys missed the trailer here it is.

Tum Milo To Sahi

Watching a (good) movie is similar to sipping a warm glass of tea on a cold rainy day.  It is a wonderful experience, sipping slowly, breathing in the aroma, letting in the essence of the tea leaf through ones senses.  The tea (Tum Milo to Sahi) in my case was accidental and going by the reviews available on the net, I would have never sipped it in the first place.

TMTS tells the story of Lucky Cafe, which is a restaurant plus children's library run by an elderly Parsi woman Delshad (Dimple Kapadia).  Her cafe is not just a cafe for her, she has nurtured it like her own child for many years and has a dedicated band of followers.  Many people who met over a cup of tea at TMTS become life long friends, Amit (Suniel Shetty) and Anita ( Vidya Malvade ~ chuck de goalee) being one such couple.  In the mad rush of life, Amit has become so obsessed with his work, that he will go to any length to usurp Lucky Cafe for his MNC real estate company.  In order to evict Dimple, the MNC hires legal counsel.

Subramaniam, (Nana Patekar), a retired legal clerk, a loner, and an eccentric, whom we are introduced to earlier, steps in to help his foe turned friend Delshad.  Many of the memorable moments in this movie has Subramaniam in the frame, but every one else has given their best shot too.   There is also a budding college romance between Bikram Jit Singh (Rehan Khan) and Shalini Kasbekar (Anjana Sukhani)....

That I skipped the songs in this movie may have increased the aroma quotient and taken me closer to the essence of the movie, something which the reviewers may not have had the privilege to do.  But still, if you are in need of a good tea, you can have it here.