Antony Moses
13th July 2009, 07:17 AM
Theatre : Palakkad Aroma
Date : 12-July-09 (Sunday)
Time : 5.30 PM (First show)
Crowd : Balcony - Full
1st Class - 70%
Rush created mainly by families. Lot of women. While waiting for the tickets, decided to check out the adjacent theatre (Priya) where Bhootham was playing. Asked a random person how the movie was and pat came the reply "Waste", but he added also "But the shows are housefull, though it won't sustain".
Now for the review :
Let me coin a new word to describe the movie : It is blatantly shamelessly "Lalsploitation" (Lal + Exploitation). I can only shudder when I think about the scenario had the title character being played by anyone other than Lalettan. It would have been a colossal flop. And I cannot remember a movie in recent times, where an entire cinema was reduced to being a one man act (three tbh if you add the cameraman and KPAC Lalitha).
'Thus far you shall come, but no farther" (Job 38:11, The Bible)
An apt description of Blessy the filmmaker, one feels. While he must be given 100/100 for efforts, which is valiantly obvious in each frame of the film, there is a limit to where efforts alone can take a person. To transcend beyond that, the inherent talent in a filmmaker has to blossom, which, with all due credit to him, Blessy does not possess. He tries to emulate both Bharathan and Padmarajan, his mentors, and sadly falls flat. Mind you, it is a good effort, but then, Bharathans and Padmarajans are born, not made.
It is as if each frame of the movie shouts out "See look at me, look at this masterpiece in the making", but never quite delivers the knock out punch which could elevate the movie from "Good" to "Masterpiece".
The story is wafer thin. The screen play is devoted to so much detailing that it loses its cohesiveness in the final scheme of things. Unnecessary detailing of some characters who would never add to the tone of things, has only led the movie to stray and wander off especially in the first half. My mother, who is a hardcore Lal fan, remarked at the end of the First Half, "Unremarkable". Given the nature of the movie, my opinion is that the screenplay should have matched the pace of the chase, and given the theme, and the fact that only 3 characters are basically stressed upon, it needed a much tighter taut screenplay, even if that meant the movie would be reduced to perhaps a 2 hour watch or even less. It needs a re-edit in my opinion. Some flashback scenes, which slows down the movie, without any real value additions, could be chopped off. In fact, the entire scenes involving Bhoomika and the daughter could have been chopped off and replaced by just a reminiscence by Lal and the movie won't have lost anything.
Which brings me to the choice of props (I would like to call all the minor roles apart from Lal in this movie). One aspect of Papettan, which Blessy emulated to a good degree of success was his choice of actors who'd play minor characters. Be it be Mammoos character in Kazcha, Arjun's and Meera Vasudevan's character in Thanmatra, it is well developed and essential for the main protagonist's journey in the film. Here he unfortunately faltered in that. Bhumika and the kid plainly sucks. To be fair, am fair bit of flummoxed by the way Bhumika's character reeks of sheer immaturity, that one wonders if she were a 17 year old complaining teenager with options wide open, or a 30+ (?) mother and wife of 5(?) years. Blessy also leaves one cringing and uninvolved (almost wanted to run out of the theatre) at a pivotal moment in the film, due to some extremely pathetic acting from both the mother and daughter.
I cannot overemphasise how good Lal has been, and it will be waste of time and space to dwell upon his performance, which we have already seen and discussed. He just reminds you that the genius has not gone out of him, despite the SAJs and Bhagavans of late. And he also painfully reminds you of the despicable situation mallu films are in of late, where superstars are reduced to being clowns, and tries to do a one man Narasimham act to salvage singlehandedly Malluwood out of it. But then, there is a limit to what one person, one character and one film can do.
There is one more star other than Lal in this film, and that is the cinematography. It rocks. Absolutely rocks. Be it be the moody opening sequences in Coimbatore where the camera is absolutely still the demonstrate the dull sameness of nuclear families, to the thrilling sequences in the second half, when the camera itself seems to have developed a soul and wanders restlessly around the characters, and is able to paint the mental picture of Sivankutty, juxtapositioning the ragged, dangerous, muddy, unpredictable but ultimately splendid backdrops of Munnar.
But the same cannot be said of another two crucial aspects of the film, editing and sound engineering. While the former fails to sustain the tempo of a road movie, the latter fails to capture the mysterious sounds of the valley which could have added another dimension to the picture.
Positives
Lalettan
Camera
KPAC Lalitha
Negatives
Bhumika and the child
Editing
Sound
Screenplay dwelling on unneeded details.
Overall ratings : Do watch it for Lalettan's sake. You could never come across films elsewhere in the world blessed with the capabilities of the lead actor like Lalettan's films, and this is definitely his best work in the last decade, since Vaanaprastham (including Thanmatra).
Date : 12-July-09 (Sunday)
Time : 5.30 PM (First show)
Crowd : Balcony - Full
1st Class - 70%
Rush created mainly by families. Lot of women. While waiting for the tickets, decided to check out the adjacent theatre (Priya) where Bhootham was playing. Asked a random person how the movie was and pat came the reply "Waste", but he added also "But the shows are housefull, though it won't sustain".
Now for the review :
Let me coin a new word to describe the movie : It is blatantly shamelessly "Lalsploitation" (Lal + Exploitation). I can only shudder when I think about the scenario had the title character being played by anyone other than Lalettan. It would have been a colossal flop. And I cannot remember a movie in recent times, where an entire cinema was reduced to being a one man act (three tbh if you add the cameraman and KPAC Lalitha).
'Thus far you shall come, but no farther" (Job 38:11, The Bible)
An apt description of Blessy the filmmaker, one feels. While he must be given 100/100 for efforts, which is valiantly obvious in each frame of the film, there is a limit to where efforts alone can take a person. To transcend beyond that, the inherent talent in a filmmaker has to blossom, which, with all due credit to him, Blessy does not possess. He tries to emulate both Bharathan and Padmarajan, his mentors, and sadly falls flat. Mind you, it is a good effort, but then, Bharathans and Padmarajans are born, not made.
It is as if each frame of the movie shouts out "See look at me, look at this masterpiece in the making", but never quite delivers the knock out punch which could elevate the movie from "Good" to "Masterpiece".
The story is wafer thin. The screen play is devoted to so much detailing that it loses its cohesiveness in the final scheme of things. Unnecessary detailing of some characters who would never add to the tone of things, has only led the movie to stray and wander off especially in the first half. My mother, who is a hardcore Lal fan, remarked at the end of the First Half, "Unremarkable". Given the nature of the movie, my opinion is that the screenplay should have matched the pace of the chase, and given the theme, and the fact that only 3 characters are basically stressed upon, it needed a much tighter taut screenplay, even if that meant the movie would be reduced to perhaps a 2 hour watch or even less. It needs a re-edit in my opinion. Some flashback scenes, which slows down the movie, without any real value additions, could be chopped off. In fact, the entire scenes involving Bhoomika and the daughter could have been chopped off and replaced by just a reminiscence by Lal and the movie won't have lost anything.
Which brings me to the choice of props (I would like to call all the minor roles apart from Lal in this movie). One aspect of Papettan, which Blessy emulated to a good degree of success was his choice of actors who'd play minor characters. Be it be Mammoos character in Kazcha, Arjun's and Meera Vasudevan's character in Thanmatra, it is well developed and essential for the main protagonist's journey in the film. Here he unfortunately faltered in that. Bhumika and the kid plainly sucks. To be fair, am fair bit of flummoxed by the way Bhumika's character reeks of sheer immaturity, that one wonders if she were a 17 year old complaining teenager with options wide open, or a 30+ (?) mother and wife of 5(?) years. Blessy also leaves one cringing and uninvolved (almost wanted to run out of the theatre) at a pivotal moment in the film, due to some extremely pathetic acting from both the mother and daughter.
I cannot overemphasise how good Lal has been, and it will be waste of time and space to dwell upon his performance, which we have already seen and discussed. He just reminds you that the genius has not gone out of him, despite the SAJs and Bhagavans of late. And he also painfully reminds you of the despicable situation mallu films are in of late, where superstars are reduced to being clowns, and tries to do a one man Narasimham act to salvage singlehandedly Malluwood out of it. But then, there is a limit to what one person, one character and one film can do.
There is one more star other than Lal in this film, and that is the cinematography. It rocks. Absolutely rocks. Be it be the moody opening sequences in Coimbatore where the camera is absolutely still the demonstrate the dull sameness of nuclear families, to the thrilling sequences in the second half, when the camera itself seems to have developed a soul and wanders restlessly around the characters, and is able to paint the mental picture of Sivankutty, juxtapositioning the ragged, dangerous, muddy, unpredictable but ultimately splendid backdrops of Munnar.
But the same cannot be said of another two crucial aspects of the film, editing and sound engineering. While the former fails to sustain the tempo of a road movie, the latter fails to capture the mysterious sounds of the valley which could have added another dimension to the picture.
Positives
Lalettan
Camera
KPAC Lalitha
Negatives
Bhumika and the child
Editing
Sound
Screenplay dwelling on unneeded details.
Overall ratings : Do watch it for Lalettan's sake. You could never come across films elsewhere in the world blessed with the capabilities of the lead actor like Lalettan's films, and this is definitely his best work in the last decade, since Vaanaprastham (including Thanmatra).