Director Lal Jose has never disappointed the Malayalam movie lovers ever since his debut. Except for twice – with films like “Pattaalam” and “Mulla” – his movies are widely accepted by the Malayalee audience. His movies are mostly set to the backdrop of a typical Kerala village and both the story and camera capture the essence and beauty of the place. The song sequence in Lal Jose movies are a visual treat and he doesn’t go out to Singapore or Switzerland to shoot for a song, yet captures the breath-taking beauty of the ordinary places/villages. His latest (though I am yet to watch it) is one of the 10 short films in the movie “Kerala Cafe” which is already a hit with Mammootty and Srinivasan doing the lead roles.
“Neelathaamara” is one of the year’s much awaited Malayalam film. Lal Jose teams up with writer M T Vasudevan Nair to do a remake of an old Malayalam film. And Malayalees have huge expectation over the film as two magicians (MT and Lal Jose) join hands for this film. The movie is taken in a very low budget. I just saw/heard one song and it has such stunning visuals. I don’t have much to praise the song though. The tune somewhat reminds us of the old popular Malayalam hit songs composed by Vidyasagar himself (what is it with music directors these days recycling the old wine?). The song reminds me too much of Vidyasagar’s early (Lal Jose film) hit “Karimizhi kuruviye kandilla”. And though it is my sweetheart Shreya Ghoshal [;-)] singing the song, the pronunciation at places were bumpy in the song. “nirayum” for “niRayum” for example. Shreya is usually so keen on the pronunciation part and has sung even much more difficult Malayalam song lines with ease (“Vida Parayukayaano” and “Chaanthu Thottille” for example), so I would blame it on the people who were in the studio for this mistake. Another bumpy thing was the over stress at “ka” in the word “akale” by the male singer. But generally it is a good melodious tune, but nothing new.
So here is “Anuraaga Vilochananaayi” mostly for the visual treat it offers. And do check out Lal Jose’s blog.