Aswin Bharadwaj

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The production design of the movie has done an impressive job in recreating that period in many scenes, especially the railway station scenes in the climax.

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What made me watch the new Malayalam film Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal was that it was written and directed by Vipin Atley, who made an impressive debut as a writer with his first film, Homely Meals. In the pre-release interviews, the crew talked about how they had to get the camera at the last minute during shoot days. The bad performances due to the casting limitations of an indie project like this are understandable. But Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal is not making an effort in the key area that has nothing to do with funding: the writing. With a loosely edited film that has a satirical goal and no intent to polish it through writing, Antappante Athbudha Pravarthikal is a half-hearted attempt that rarely felt like a potent idea.

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In one, he was mocking politics, and in the other, he was questioning the blind belief system of religious people. In his latest directorial venture, Karuppu, which is huge in terms of scale, the core idea has a fantasy element that involves God. While the first half of the movie is an enticing blend of commercial masala flavors and an interesting concept, the second half runs out of ideas, and it does not even have clarity on how to reach an effective culmination. With the movie excessively depending on Suriya’s aura to stay lively, RJ Balaji’s attempt at making a Shankar film ultimately felt like a lost opportunity to get the best out of Suriya.

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The script of this movie is basically a collage of almost all the gangster films that have been released to date. The backstories of gangsters, the “Valayar Paramashivam” tactics of the hero, and the entry of unexpected helpers, they have basically done good research on what to extract from where. The only issue is that they have forgotten the fact that we have also seen all these movies. Hence, when we see the hero failing, we can clearly guess that it is a buildup. Just like Marco, in this movie too, we have certain characters who are shown as these massy, stylish villains, but their deaths have that unintentional comedy vibe.

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On the surface, the idea of Madhividhu seems pretty simplistic. In the first half of the movie, one can predict the structure of the story, and what keeps us engaged in the narrative is the placement of humor, as well as the organic evolution of the lead pair’s romance. The twist in the tale that happens at the midpoint is something we have seen, but the film succeeds in placing it in a hilariously impactful way by distracting the audience with certain other elements. Post the interval point, the movie struggles to re-enter the humor space as the emotional angle in the romantic chapter is dragging it backwards. However, once that is over, it again goes after the comedic conflicts, and that pretty much saves the movie from being sloppy.

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With the typical jump scares and extremely underwhelming and predictable events happening in the story, Maharaja Hostel even forgets why the movie was given that name.

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Varkey’s songs are extremely entertaining, and I loved that scene where Bimal’s housekeeper AI creates a sad version of the Ormakal song from this movie’s album. With several intercuts intended to keep us invested in the fast-paced narrative of the movie, one can see Krishand rewriting the film in the editor’s table. The only area I felt a sense of drop in the energy was towards the end during the trial, where the need to mock the media culture forces the movie to be on the louder side. However, the minimal counter dialogue humor is keeping us entertained, and what happens at the very end is making us look at all this in a different light.

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If we can call Blast the action version of Drishyam, Parimala and Co had the scope to be that dark humor version of Drishyam, something that Mohiniyattam managed to crack. Unfortunately, a scattered script that runs out of fresh ideas and resorts to a familiar template makes this Pandiraaj movie just another film with some scattered humor and wasted potential. It is the kind of movie that OTT platforms can tease the audience to watch the full movie by sharing funny snippets of scenes. There are scattered moments of laughter, but the final result is forgettable.

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The educational part of the script that talks about how the government tracks us despite claiming privacy is protected is actually happening in a very subtle way. The visuals by Manush Nandan are not trying to be eye candy, and despite things being shot on extravagant locations, the visual language is more focused on the characters and their emotions. The detailing in the script is pretty impressive. Sushin Shyam’s background score is really top-notch in many areas, which feels like a buildup. The sound design of the movie also elevates the overall rawness. As I already mentioned, the only area I would have wanted the movie to improve was in the way it conceived action. The curiosity it generated through banter between the big Ms in that floating single shot inside the car demanded a better car chase sequence.

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And what makes the movie underwhelming in most parts is the usualness they have deliberately added to the story.

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Prakambanam, from director Vijesh Panathur, is an extremely simplistic horror comedy that manages to convert even the most generic scene into something that will make you laugh out loud. By creating multiple tracks and juggling them in the final act, Vijesh and writer Sreehari manage to create the much-needed chaos and fun resolution towards the end of the movie. If you have enjoyed Romancham, I would say this one won’t really disappoint you in giving that popcorn fun. With the performances of Ganapathy and Ameen helping the movie enormously in the final bits, Prakambanam is a harmless horror comedy that succeeds in keeping you entertained.

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Well, Kalinga has made it clear that even a breathtaking AI visual is lifeless if the filmmaker’s vision is lackluster.

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The major difference between this film from the previous directorial ventures of Arun D Jose is the style factor. Be it the credits song in the beginning or the fight sequence in the climax, there is this choreographed feel to most of the parts, and the presence of neon lights in frames sets the movie in that slightly unrealistic space. Most of this style change is visible in the first half, where we are mostly witnessing the introduction of several characters. Once the map is laid out, the treatment goes back to the director’s usual style, and there, you get to experience the fun side of things. And the good thing was that they were not overdoing it.

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SPOILER ALERT! The issue with Maareesan lies in the second half. That part of the movie has the responsibility of clarifying who this old man is and why he is doing all these extreme things. Even though the reasons are somewhere giving a logical answer to the inconsistent Alzheimer’s of Pillai, it goes after worn-out ideas of vigilante justice. The writing feels extremely lazy in those portions, and the way the goodness factor gets into the movie is also very cheesy. The first half of the film was so fun that I was hoping there would be some exciting twist in the tale that would elevate this generic revenge tale to something better.

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I am not a fan of the idea of whitewashing stalking by making it look like perseverance on screen. In the first half, when we see Nidhi, she is presented as a girl who is caged in her own house, and the movie almost makes us feel that her parents are big people, and we might even think that her dad might be the villain of the film. But when the movie reaches Tamil Nadu in the second half, even though it is the insensitive obsession of the hero that is taking him there, the whole story takes a different path, and the audience is literally like Who are these people? The screenplay is desperately trying to squeeze in a gangster story subplot into this tale, and it just doesn’t work.

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