The movie has Sharbani Mukherji, whom you had seen before in movies like J P Dutta’s Border and Priyadarshan’s Rakkilippaattu. Karthy, a beautiful girl born into the prestigious Meleppullara Tharavadu, she shared a more than curious relationship with her Uncle Shankunni Menon. Later when she gets attracted to a handsome Muslim trader Mammootty, they decide to elope to his place. Karthy converts to Islam and their happy married life often gets into problems as she finds it tough to renounce her original beliefs. With the consent of her husband, she builds a temple near their home. But gradually this became the talk of the area igniting communal issues.
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Sufi Paranja Kadha - A brilliant Sufi
With his new movie ‘Sufi Paranja Katha’, Director Priyanandanan has once again proved that why he is at the helm of award ceremonies in the previous years. Continuing with his characteristic ease in selecting and presenting themes with maturity, the movie is a simple poignant story based on writer K P Ramanunni’s award winning novel.
Lal Jose has managed to etch out the best from almost all in the frame. But definitely it is Archana Kavi, as Kunjimalu who holds the movie with her cute sincere smile and timid subtle mannerisms of innocence and helplessness. A definite addition to the best heroines list of Mollywood, Lal Jose has offered her the best of the shots to make her emoting smooth and genuine. And Kailas as Haridas too impress, with his confident performances.
Samvritha Sunil has a role of difference, and her impressive run as Ratnam, a straight forward bold girl is a treat to watch. The seniors including Parvathi and Jayamenon who plays the later ages of Kunjimalu and Ratnam, also shows consistency in their acting manoeuvres. Popular television presenter Parvathi is such a suit for a later ages of Kunjimalu that in the dimly lit and shadowy scenes and closeups, we often doubt whether we are in flashback mode or in current age of narratives. The fresh voice of Sreedevi R Krishna who successfully and meticulously dubs for both of them is also a relevation and is a voice to look for in the future. Reema Kallingal though in small role proves that she is equally competent even in that traditional looks Sreedevi Unni, and a lot of fresher name in smaller roles also have done graceful justice to their respective roles.
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Neelathamara - is good
‘Neelathamara’ is all about the traditional beliefs about an extraordinary flower, which blooms in a temple pond as a sign of God’s will on the life of his devotees. Whoever offers a coin at the sacred step of this temple’s sanctum sanatorium and pray to the ‘Thevar’ to lead them out of a confusion, this legendary flower will bloom as a sign for the devotee to go forward with their plans, or else to drop them. People who come from far and near, vouch that this belief has not failed its devotees. Deeply believing in this, Kunjimaalu (Archana Kavi), the naive village maiden brought to the rich family tries to sort out her confusion about what to do, when Haridas, the heir of the family tries to woo her. Haridas has just returned from the town after completing his law studies and from the day one he meets Kunjimalu, he is all after her with a playful romance, taking the advantages of the large and solitary spaces of the house. The movie follows the blooming relation and its aftermath as the ‘Neelathamara’ in the temple pond blooms in Kunjimalu’s favour.
A cat and mouse game about two conman Ravi Varma (Kunchakko Boban) and Jerry (Jayasuriya), the movie offers surprising twists in regular intervals that are highly engaging. As Ravi Varma needs a few lakhs of money in a short notice, to get his father out of the jail, he befriends Jerry – a bigger criminal and adorns him as his guru. They accidentally get into a big deal about selling a fake copy of the drawings of Raja Ravi Varma, to an immensely rich NRI Emir (Devan), making him believe that it is original. Getting an offer of a three crores for the painting, they are now into anything to push off the deal and thus make easy money. There is a funny parallel track of Suraj Venjaramoodu and Bijukuttan, playing cops from Anti Terrorist Squad, now running stupidly after the pranksters to create some slapstick, which is utilized wisely in between.
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Gulumal The Escape - V K P has a winner, in ‘Gulumal’
V K Prakash is the one director who with his all technical finesse couldn’t make one big hit in Mollywood, mainly due to the inane scripts that was offered to him. But this time in ‘Gulumal-The Esacape’, he seems to have opted for a safer route. He faithfully remaked the Argentinean movie by Fabian Bielinsky ‘Nueve Reinas’(Nine Queens),a comedy caper, thereby offering a rollercoaster ride in all its richness and quality and even sticking to the original in its acting credentials. And the result is an entertaining stuff, with stylish and crazy entertainment that won’t give you much time to think in its 140 minutes ride.
Going back to the theme of love for land and labour, the movie has Superstar Mohanlal as Mathews, a self taught agriculturist and a farm house owner, who with the help of his family is maintaining a highly productive farmland, named after his father Jermias (Thilakan). Into their peaceful life arrives Aluva Chandy, (Lalu Alex) a wealthy scheming but idiotic businessman, who is hell bend to grab this beautiful piece of land in the banks of Periyar, as he has got heavy advances from an industrialist from the north eyeing to develop it into a big resort. Chandy and the big land mafia operating under him, goes by the routine, advertises their plans to develop the serene hamlet into a township, pushing up land prices, offering the local men big jobs, acquiring their pieces of land and pressurising Mathews to sell his farmland which is in the centre of the proposed project. He also uses the government machinery to create new troubles for Mathews in the form of pollution control boards, State financial corporation’s loan debts and so on. The movie goes on to tell how the simpleton Mathews finds ways to fight this 'land mafia' and to survive the impending pressures to maintain his land for ever.
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Ivide Swargamaanu - is worth a watch
The movie makes an ordinary start but gradually builds up tensions and curiosity and the final hour of the movie is a scream, 'the best' in the offering with finely worked out scenes, few good wits and one liners. Though some sequences remind you of scenes of Midhunam to the recent 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', James Albert’s story lines had got that sincerity in every dialogues and the protagonist also maintains his 'agrarian' directness in all his proceedings. Mohanlal as usual, has a cakewalk through the role of Mathews, who is never projected as a superhero, but as a helpless ordinary man with right dose of emotions and strains. But it is to Lalu Alex, the film rightly belongs to. Portraying the villainous Aluva Chandy in a peculiar manner that is characteristic to his own style, he has his best role of the decade, in the movie. The three lead ladies presented by Priyanka Nair who appear as Betsy, the Television journalist, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, in negative shades of the SFC manager, and Lakshmi Rai, who appear as Sumathy, the lawyer, does their parts well. The director has been able to bring out the best from every one in the cast lines including Thilakan, Sukumari, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Raju and Shankar.
The director tries to repeat the success duo of small hits of nineties-Jagadheesh and Mukesh to redo the act but fails to complement them with any eventful script that can demand attention. The movie has Jagadheesh as Kumaran, who in a pressured point of life decide to commit suicide. He writes to his wife about his plans of suicide. When this letter reaches his Pancharikkara village, the Innocent villagers join together for the waiting of Kumaran's dead body. Into this Pandemonium of the wait for a dead body that must be retrieved from no known place, arrives Sadashivan, a stranger who turns out to be guardian Angel to his widow Soumini, acting and appearing at the right places and times. And with the discovery of the dead body of Kumaran and some more big twists in the later half, the movie goes on to clear the fable between all occurrences.
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Cheriya Kallanum Valiya Policeum - Poor fare of a police and Kallan
‘Cheriya Kallanum Valiya Policeum’ opens as an average movie at the best and holds the interesting premise for a while. With his caricaturist characters of the village, the movie holds interest to some point in the middle. But the later half falls into the big pit of predictability and the final few reels is really pathetic which won't be appreciable even to the front benchers, who maybe able to sense the coming sequences and dialogues much earlier. The only character creation that comes as a big surprise in this odd movie, is of Kochupreman, who plays a blind Kuttappan making an entry into narratives at certain points with loud observations. Mukesh and Jagadheesh are into their regular roles with out surprises. Mukesh appears too jaded and too aged for the character while Vidhya as Soumini doesn't have much to do than to fill in the mandatory melancholic sequences. Suraj as the police officer gallops through the narrative as an untamed horse.
