Ividam Swargam Aanu

My Rating : 1/5

Roshan Andrews was planning 'Casanova' with mohanlal. Due to some problems, the project didn't take off. So they decided to make use of those dates to make a pure commercial 'formula' movie. The movie was titled "Ividam Swargam aanu"

I think the cast was decided by choosing all possible combination of actors which has worked well wiht lal in earlier movies. Like thilakan, kaviyoor ponnamma & Lal, Sreenivasan & Lal, Jagathy & Lal, Shankar & Lal.
James Albert who has written Classmates & Cycle has written the script. (In fact there is no need of a scriptwriter to make movies like this)
Mohan lal runs a 'hypothetical' farm house where he carries out 'textbook' farming (It seems the scriptwriter has watched too many episodes of krishidarsan). There are windmills(that never rotate) to generate electricity for the farm. There are three heroines (Typically mohanlal). There is jagathy, there is shankar, there is sreenivasan. Apart from these, there is nothing.
A villain (Lallu alex) who tries to grab the farm house of the hero for his real estate interests. The fight of the hero against the villain and finally the hero wins the farm house and a consolation price in the form of one of the heroines. Age old cliche.
The only plus point in this movie is Jagathy's performance.
This movie is turning out to be a hit. But it's not surprising as till date all Vinayan movies were boxoffice grossers. Malayalees should be commended for their wonderful taste of movies.

Unnai Poloruvan

I was so moved by the film "The wednesday" that I couldn't resist myself from watching its remake. It was out of curiosity as to how the two great actors can transform the movie in their way.

But the end result was disappointing. It is proved once again that classics cant be recreated.
In wednesday, there are various trivial things that moves you, but those emotions are not carried in "Unnai poloruvan"
Unnai poloruvan disappoints...especially since it is remake of "The Wednesday"
http://listofcinema.blogspot.com/2008/11/wednesday.html

Pakal Nakshatranagal

I wanted to watch this movie for quiet some time. But before i decided to watch this movie, it was out of the theatres. I was waiting for the Moser Baer DVD release. I heard tat this movie revolves around a group of intellectuals who meet at a joint called Daffodills where they discussed creative things. I related this to our not so intellectual group which used to meet at "Chayakkada".

While watching Pakal Nakshatrangal, you feel that the team behind it is interested in just showing off their intelligence without bothering to make an "intelligent" film. They dabble in esoteric themes like mysticism, sexual freedom, death, the after-life and such things, as an act of show off. It is written by Anup Menon and Rajeev Nath is credited with the concept (whatever that means) and direction.

The story begins with a news item of the demolition of the Daffodils, an erstwhile cultural hub where creative people met and discussed their work. The most prominent among them was filmmaker Siddharthan (Mohanlal), fondly called Sidhan, which can loosely be explained as a genius. He used to develop his scripts there and would meet his Thadi-Jubba-Sanji kind of friends here for drinks and other pleasures. Sidhan had mysteriously died by falling from the terrace of the building. It was not proved whether it was an accident, suicide or a murder.

So, his foster son Adi (Anup Kumar), himself a renowned writer, whose previous book Labyrinths of Sanity (for pun's sake, it should have been Labyrinths of Insanity!) was short listed for Man Booker Prize, embarks on a mission to write a biographical novel. In fact it is about Siddharathan's relationship with various women as Siddharathan is a womaniser. Womanising is presented as a "mystical quality in a creative genius about his father in addition to solving the mystery behind his death.

He completes the book in two weeks flat and requests his wife (played by Lakshami Gopalaswamy) to appraise it as a reader and a critic. The narrative unfolds in anecdotal flashbacks as the writer and his wife discuss the book. The string of people he meets, his father's friends, his colleagues, the suspects and even the police officer who had investigated the case.

The interaction between the writer and his wife becomes interesting sometimes. Like when she asks him about the character who could speak with dead souls (played by Suresh Gopi [Images]) who had acquainted his father, and why he was dropped midway after giving him a good build-up. In a way this device helps the writer to give excuses for the loopholes in the story).

For Mohanlal, the role of Siddharathan is a cakewalk; we have seen him in such roles many a time. But, still his spontaneity and sparkle leaves us charmed.

Suresh Gopi oscillates between being funny and being serious as the necromancer. What becomes unintentionally funny is the fact that he is depicted as a person having speech impairment, who has to put a gadget on his larynx to get the words out. The gadget suspiciously looks like an electronic razor!

Anup Menon tries hard to be convincing as an intense writer who wishes to dig into his father's relationship with various women. But, somehow he comes across as pretentious.

Pakal Nakshatrangal no doubt tries to recreate the intellectual vigour Malayalam cinema had in the eighties but falls terribly short.

Bhramaram

The first review that i got was not a good one. Moreover quality of Blessy's movies were degrading with each movie and so it was expected to be a bad one.
Later I heard from some sources that the movie is a different genre. So I went to watch the movie at Sree Kumar Theatre. It was quiet an impressive movie. The visuals were superb (It was a real pleasure watching the visuals and wondering how it might have been shot). The performances of allmost all the characters were good. After many years, mohanlal has choosen a movie in which he could act well,

The film begins with an uncouth person (Mohanlal) who lands up at the doorstep of stock broker Unni's (Suresh Menon) doorstep in Coimbatore and claims to be his classmate Jose of the seventh standard. Unni cannot recollect any classmate named Jose. But, Jose knows every event of that period, so, Unni trusts him.
The purpose of Jose's visit (who claims to be a jeep driver in the high range area in Kerala [ Images ]) is shrouded in mystery. He refuses any financial help or employment offer; he just wishes to talk about something important in isolation. Jose's eerie behaviour disturbs the composure of Unni's family as well as professional life. And, the revelation of Jose's real identity and purpose of his sudden appearance creates further tremors.

Sagar alias Jacky

I was waiting eagerly for this movie. The trailer of this movie was quiet impressive.
Amal neerad's Big B was a delight to watch with its visuals and techniques. His camera work in Black was also very good.
But this movie was a big bore. I hated watching this movie. It killed our favourite character sagar from "irupathaam nootandu"
The visuals, tones, background score etc were almost the same as that of Big B. I doubt whether Amal neerad have any stuff.
This movie was all about mohan lal walking. Jyotirmayees Item number and Bhavana's romance with lal (the pair appeared to be father and daughter)
Sagar alias Jacky in Irupathaam Nootandu was an intelligent, smart guy. In SAJ except for the designer dress, cooling glasses and Hummers and Ferrari's there was nothing much impressive.
And Mr S N Swamy...where is the script????