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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Secret of Kalinga is just a collage of borrowed ideas, and they are trying to overcome their budget limitations by adding unoriginal and lifeless AI visuals. I was someone who believed that AI would enable non-established filmmakers to make great visual spectacles. Well, Kalinga has made it clear that even a breathtaking AI visual is lifeless if the filmmaker’s vision is lackluster. Saneesh has shown the audacity to announce a possible sequel to this movie, and if AI improves dramatically in the next few years, he might well release a fully AI sequel. Secret of Kalinga, is an ultra-generic imagination that doesn’t know its own rules when things reach the finale.

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.

Most of the discussion around Sarvam Maya was about whether it would be the much-anticipated comeback of Nivin Pauly. Well, when you approach the movie strictly from that perspective of wanting to see the Nivin Pauly who made us all laugh out loud with his comical timing, then there is enough there for you to feel happy. However, when you look at the story in totality and evaluate the movie, there are many predictable patches where the screenplay depends on Nivin Pauly’s charm to make the viewer overlook those flaws. There is a version of self-love philosophy that we hear from one character, and there is another dialogue that talks about the importance of peaceful sleep. I think the sporadic addition of these minute yet memorable lines about being content is what helps Akhil Sathyan make his movies, these comfort-watch films.

Nahas Nazar has managed to crack the humor convincingly, in my opinion. The movie has certain less verbal comical instances, and everyone sort of got the intended humor. It is the emotional shift that happens in the mid-way that causes issues to the film. For instance, the interval block feels somewhat forceful just to create a sense of rift, which fades off instantly in the second half. Then, in the second half, they are making it a different journey, and like I already said, Suraj’s character’s hesitation to tell his situation doesn’t make much sense. For the movie to work wholesomely on an emotional level, empathizing with the loneliness of the rich person was somewhat essential, and I think that was one of the shortcomings of Thankam’s script. The background score by Jakes Bejoy was really good.

A high-concept film doesn’t necessarily mean a high-budget film. What you need is a solid idea on paper, and with accessible and affordable tools available in the market, you can actually pull off something exciting if you have that creative smartness. In a way, Gaganachari is a great example of how one can convert limitations into an opportunity. They use smaller aspect ratios, freestyle cinematography, confined spaces, colors, fashion choices, etc., to transport the story to the future. And ultimately, it is a mockumentary, and subconsciously, we are not seeking ultra-perfection. After a point, we are more focused on the satiric aspect of the writing, and when contemporary political references and movie references pop up in the future, that simply enhances the fun element in the story.

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