Cobra: A Remixed Rat-Snake !

What does a master chef do when he is bored and has run out of ideas but still has to serve something for a customary festival feast ? Take out his own old dishes from the fridge, churn them in a mixer, add some spices and create a remix and serve as an instant dish. Director Lal who has given us some unforgettable movies in the past including the "Harihar Nagar series", does exactly the same.

But those who have grown up on his delicious old dishes realize immediately that this is a rehash and feel cheated and might even feel nausea. From "Ramji Rao Speaking" to "God-father" through the Harihar Nagar series, Lal [earlier with Director Siddique] had served up deliciously funny comic capers.

Those were movies with infinite repeat value are still cherished even by subsequent generation of Malayalees. So imagine the kind of expectation one would walk into the hall with, when Lal combines with Mammootty ! After over 150 minutes of the movie, I had one word to explain; Repulsive !

Borrowing generously from "Thenkasi Pattanam", "Annan Thambi", Thommanum Makkalum" and many such movies, Lal conjures up what was meant to be a Vishu bonanza. But for evoking extremely rare guffaws, the movie is a total let down.

Mammootty [the sag showing around the jaws], Lal [trying Sreenivasan brand of self-deprecation with little success], Lalu Alex [louder than his usual loud self] and Babu Antony [hardly looking like a villain and more like a real-estate broker] go through the motions.

Maniyan Pilla Raju and Salim Kumar manage to do what Suraj Venjaramoodu has managed to do over the past 2 years; Get on your nerves ! They do it with aplomb. Padmapriya must be having some financial problems, else it is difficult to imagine her doing this movie. A swollen Kaniha looks sullen and worried as if she has left her hungry child at home.

One who imagined a fitness cum martial arts center inside a hospital building deserves to be punched black and blue and then treated in the same hospital. I doubt if they had a story when they planned the movie. The script is not even quarter-baked. The 'Director' Lal seems to have been really distracted by the 'Actor' Lal and thus both fail to show up. Back ground music is sick and the music can safely be branded as noise. Technically the movie is below average. Long drawn fight sequences manage to give the viewers more headaches.

Two brothers yearning to marry two sisters to retain the sanctity of their relationship and camaraderie could have been a wonderful premise to work on for Lal. "Cobra" a popular acronym for "Co-Brothers" should have been or could have been a fun-fest but turns out to be yawn-fest.

One positive about the movie: Suraj Venjaramoodu, a Mammootty movies regular does a great favor by not being a part of this movie. Small mercies !

My opinion: A Remixed Rat-snake - STAY OFF !

22 Female Kottayam

Malayalam movie world is now undergoing a transformation in the hands of a bunch of new people and Ashiq Abu is one among them. After his Salt N Pepper, his directorial venture is 22 Female Kottayam. The name itself had something which urged me to watch this movie. The cast include Rima Kallingal, Fahad Fazil, Prathap Pothan, Sattar,  and TG Ravi among others. The movie makes us leave the theater with a wounded bleeding conscience and a tight slap on our pseudoegos.

Tessa K Abraham(Rima )is one of thousands of nurses working in Bengaluru. She like any other ladies from Kottayam, a town in Kerala where each household boasts of at least 1 NRI nurse, desires to go abroad. Though her friends make use of a wealthy businessman by the name DK (Sattar) by giving earthly pleasures and in turn taking back money and other favors, she decides to stay away from such things. She meets Cyril (Fahad Fazil) working with a Visa Consultancy and he gets her a visa for Canada. As a return gift she offers him treat, and then one thing leads to another and soon she moves to stay with him. Hegde (Prathap Pothan) a wealthy business man who had met Tessa earlier and a friend of Cyril, now frequents Cyril and Tessa's place on pretext of eating good Kerala food. One night after an altercation in a pub, Cyril goes missing and Hegde comes with message Cyril had altercated with some local party people and so has gone into exile for 2 days and to her shock Hegde asks her to have sex with him. A brutal rape follows, never has been in a Malayalam movie, a rape so painfully depicted. It leave us with a bleeding soul, and poor Tessa with broken skull and fingers, with bruises all over. But she decides to forget everything and start afresh. But weeks later the same thing is repeated and we feel nauseous. This leaves Tessa shattered and she decides to fight back. Cyril who is joined with Hegde and actually had taken money from Hedge for Tessa, helps in getting rid of her by placing drugs in her bag. Only when being carried away by police, she comes to know that Cyril was in the plot against her. In jail Tessa was initially feeble but later on decides to take revenge. With the help of an inmate Subaida, she comes out and Subaida arranges help for Tessa through her friend Dinesh. It is the same Dk and he tells Tessa nothing comes free. The advice given by Subaida is the strongest weapon a women has is her weakness, and to use it wisely, rest of the movie deals with revenge.

Every actor has done their part quite well, not much cast but each did their part really really well. Rima as an innocent nurse, Cyril seductor, still naive looking, Hegde the innocent way he asks can I have sex with you, coolly, DK who never wants his female partners to regret the pleasure he gets..Not a feminist movie but surely will leave us think with guilty consciousness, how we treat a rape victim, how the sexual harassers walk free in the society, overall a different experience.

Choodo Kal ki Baatein

We are obsessed with aiming for the sky, setting goals, achieving them, setting higher ones………….a vicious circle of desire and achievement encloses the mind and leads to a tunnel vision where sight is fixed only at the other end, …..caught in such a web of desire and achievement is the lead character of this movie Chodo Kal ki Batein (CKKB) Aditya Pradhan (AP) played by Sachin Khedakar.  I loved the concept of this movie, although I don’t know whether it has been lifted from somewhere. 

AP is a very successful and hard working professional, who wins a career boosting 20 crore contract for his company on Saturday at the expense of missing his daughter’s Arangetram.  Come Monday, and his dreams will be realized by signing on the contract, but there lies the problem.........Monday is not coming!  His Sunday keeps on repeating and he is the only one who realizes this.  The situation is funny and thought provoking at the same time and then there is this mysterious man wearing dark glasses (Anupam Kher) who keeps appearing in front of AP. 

The message of the movie is very good, although I felt it was a little cliched towards the end.  Nevertheless a movie to be watched by all the hardworking guys n gals…………

Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur, narrates two tales at a time. One of Jesus of Nazareth and the other of Judah Ben-Hur. I still remember my uncle narrating some scenes from the movie. He was nostalgic and was sure that those where the days of great movies. I never got a chance to watch Ben-Hur and even when I got I was put down by the length of the movie and the oldness. But today after seeing it, I have to admit, there is a magic to the movie. The atmosphere, the scenes, the characters, the set... they are breathtaking and admirable.

The movie focuses on Judah and his journey to seek revenge. A revenge to his friend for betraying him and his family by putting them in prison without any proper cause.

The story is very moving and touching. It shows the journey of Judah from imprisonment to freedom to riches to the famous chariot race and to the end where he recognizes and realizes about Jesus. It also portrays the tension between the Jews and the Roman empire.

Even though Jesus is not the focus of the movie, the director doesn't fail to keep the viewers aware of his presence. Once he is shown helping Judah by providing him with water on his way to the gallows.

This movie has great characters and roles that one can look up to, and admire.

It is a long movie, but I have to add, it is a great watch.

More information and review at IMDB

Ordinary: Better than Ordinary !

A wannabe Minister lands up as a bus conductor in a remote yet beautiful village Gavi, in high ranges of Kerala. He has the company of a big built and bigger talking driver and a motley bunch of villagers including the Gavi Girl.

The driver with a Palakkad accent and uncanny ability to flirt and the politically conscious conductor strike a nice friendship. Soon they get involved in the day to day life of the small hill-town Gavi. How the duo get embroiled in a complicated accident case and how they handle the situation forms the crux of the story.

Scripted and directed by Nishad K Koya and Sugeeth respectively, "Ordinary" is a fun ride through most of first half and then goes grim. Biju Menon as driver Suku and Kunchacko Boban as conductor Iravikuttan Pillai strike a fine balance.

The main hero of the movie definitely is the dialogue writer. Some superb, crisp and everyday life dialogues pop up throughout the first half like those beautiful water falls along the way we travel in the movie. Biju Menon springs in a fantastic performance and does total justice to the role as well as the dialogues. Kunchacko Boban is affable, efficient and good.

New face Sritha Sreenivas as Kalyani, the Gavi Girl looks like a Nepali and it appears as if she has a long way to reach Kerala. Ann Augustine and Jishnu have very little to do. Lalu Alex is as good as he always has been. Baburaj has attained some kind of star-status post Salt & Pepper. He is there in the movie solely to evoke a few laughs and nothing else. But his drunk act is good and doesn't jar. Asif Ali overacts to the level of getting almost obnoxious. There are many small time characters who are quite efficient. Salim Kumar needs to come out of the award hangover. 

The writer / director duo get confused in the second half and load elements of heroism into the conductor's character and then the movie takes a real ordinary route and meanders to a climax that disappoints. How come the Police or the KSRTC or the omnipresent and omnipotent unions aren't brought into the picture in a politically charged Kerala remains a mystery.

Completely unnecessary songs act like 'Tyre punctures' during the journey. The drive gets really rocky when the two protagonists go on investigating the case themselves and bring justice at the end. Sethuramayyar would have been proud of the investigative brilliance shown by Iravi. A murder mystery and investigative thriller, this movie is not. That part could have been handled better. 

There are a lot of things that are ordinary in the movie. But this being a first time effort from the director, the movie has a lot of good things and we must appreciate and encourage such attempts. The place Gavi, the photography, the humor, the dialogues and Biju Menon are definitely extraordinary and make it worth our time and money. 

My opinion: Definitely worth a watch !

Agent Vinod

A nuclear bomb which can be activated by Ummar Khyyam's Rubiyyat has been acquired by a terrorist group who are planning to detonate it in New Delhi and thereby triggering a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. The plan is intercepted by a RAW agent, who is killed before he can pass on the full information, which brings Agent Vinod on this case.  You will get all that is expected of a spy movie with bomb blasts, shooting, guns going bam bam, lots of running, bike chase, auto chase, everything.  Movie has a fast pace, so it will keep you engaged.  Saif has done a good job as an action hero, he has spotted a stubble (more than a stubble) throughout the movie perhaps in an attempt to look macho.  Kareena looks great.  Prem Chopra, Gulshan Grover, Shahbaz Khan are the other baddies.  The only spoiler in my case was a guy sitting beside me who kept on saying "yeh bakwas movie hai" to his girl friend.  I wonder what more he was expecting in a movie named Agent Vinod.