Category: Movies

Music review – Payyans, Living Together

(This music review was first appeared in Sound Box – India’s Premier Music Trade Magazine. Do check out the magazine from the nearest news stand.)

Movie: Payyans
Music: Alphonse Joseph
Lyrics: Kaithapram, Anil Panachooraan
Rating: 3.5 stars

People outside Kerala would know Alphonse Joseph as the guy who sang the ballad “Aaromale” in Tamil movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya, composed by A R Rahman. Alphonse’s plus point, be it in singing or composing, is his strong influence of western music and his ability to sing high-octave songs. Payyans, the new filmy album from Alphonse is also a satisfying album in that genre. The album consists of four original songs, an unplugged version of the opening track and three karaoke tracks.

The first song “Thennal Chirakundo” is sung by Karthik and Jyotsna. The song starts off with a beautiful guitar riff and bass. The good thing about this song is that it does not over kill the vocals with orchestration and each compliments the other beautifully. One thing that does stand out though is Karthik’s Malayalam pronunciation at parts. Other than that both the vocalists have done a good job on this song. The unplugged version of this song is also included in the album.

The music arrangement at the beginning of the second song, “Route maari nadakkaam” would remind you of the song “Oru koodai sunlight” from the Rajnikanth movie Sivaji. This is a trendy song and the vocals of Benny Dayal and Reshmi is a perfect choice. What irritates us with this song is its lyrics. Many of our lyricists seem to think that just throwing in some words like style, blue tooth, pizza, facebook, chat etc would make a trendy, peppy song. But in fact it is the lyrics that puts us down. If not for the vocals of Benny and Reshmi, you would have skipped to the next number right away.

“Katha Parayaan” is a beautiful melodious number sung by the veteran singer P Jayachandran. This song would steal your heart in the first listen.  “Doore vazhi” is sung by Alphonse Joseph himself. The song fits his voice and range like a T. It’s mid to high octave singing is a perfect fit for Alphonse. The orchestral arrangement is also very interesting with a mix of eastern and western style.

I would go with 3.5 out of 5 for this album. This is certainly one good work from Alphonse Joseph, the music director.

Movie: Living Together
Music: M Jayachandran
Lyrics: Kaithapram
Rating: 3 stars

When it comes to M Jayachandran’s music, what you would primarily expect is some melodious numbers coupled with a semi-classical number. MJ does not disappoint his fans with this album. His choice of singers for this album is also notable. There are 8 tracks in this filmy album.

Paattinte Palkadavil is a melodious dance number sung by Shreya Ghoshal. Shreya has done an awesome job on the vocals of this song. It’s admirable to see this singer rendering her songs to perfection, no matter which language it is. There is a male version of this song, sung by Vijay Yesudas.

Raaga Chandranariyaathe is a beautiful duet by Karthik and Swetha. Karthik’s vocal in this song is quite good. Saamarasa Ranjani is a semi-classical number sung by M G Sreekumar. MGS has done this very well.

It looks like M Jayachandran cannot do an album without Yesudas. He has spared a beautiful melodious number called Mayangoo Nee Sakhi for Yesudas. Yesudas’ voice is straining with his age and it is obviously evident in the songs which he have been singing lately. But still it’s amazing to see this man singing quite well for his age.

Kuttikurumbaa Vaa is a fun song that opens with a children chorus. Anila has sung this song and she has put so much energy and fun into the song that it requires. Sudeep has sung the male version of this song which is also an energy-filled version. Ilaku Naage is sung by Sannidhaanandan and Janardhanan. Sannidhanandan is the perfect choice for this folk-ish song.

To sum it up, this album is a mixed bag of folk, dance, semi-classical, romantic melodies which you would definitely like if you have always liked M Jayachandran’s music, but do not expect any surprises here. I would go with 3 out of 5 stars for M Jayachandran’s music for Living Together.

(Images courtesy: Metromatinee.com, Kerals.com)

The Hollywood-phobia

I don’t understand what it is with our intellectuals that they hate Hollywood so much so that they cook up some ridiculous claims when they talk about something. I read an interview with film editor Beena Paul that was published in the last week’s Mathrubhumi weekly. The interviewer says this in his question –

“The biggest cultural invasion in the world is from America. Hollywood movies in particular try to portray the past tortures (especially the persecution of Jews) in the markets and film festivals these days. After 9/11, they have created a logic that says ‘not just the Muslims but we also were persecuted ‘. Movies like “Usama” and “Passion of the Christ” are examples to this.”

After cunningly weaving this highly (pseudo) intellectual question, he goes on to ask, “have you noticed such global political tactics gaining ground in our film festivals?”

Either this fellow, I remember his name is Sreekumar, has not seen many Hollywood movies or he is just weaving some intellectual conspiracy. One thing that is beautiful about America is that there are so many people in it’s society and intellectual/academic circles who would openly voice against any injustices of their Government in the public. People like Sean Penn or Michael Moore and some others were vocal against war in the off-reel world. So while most of our academicians and intellectuals would observe a criminal silence on sensitive issues most of the times, for a couple of awards that their political friends might fetch them, the Hollywood never hesitated to voice themselves even in the larger events like Oscars or Grammys. Against their own president or government and it’s strategies, knowing that the whole world is watching them. If it was our film industry, our patriotism would have drooled out first.

Secondly, there have been many movies from Hollywood that does not victimize themselves but take sides of the side-liners. The quick ones I can remember are Rendition (which was based on the Islamophobia post 9/11), Green Zone (which Michael Moore called the most honest film about Iraq) and not to mention a number of movies which had  been made on Vietnam war (many of them are now classics). I also heard of the recent movies like Redacted which are also based on the Iraq war.

So I have one suggestion for such kings of their small dens like Sreekumar. Try to watch some Hollywood movies before you start criticizing them. And try to learn something about producing movies that would be artistically and technically perfect (Learn from Enthiran that just spending some crores won’t fetch you quality of work). Just blabbering something and making up conspiracy theories won’t help.

“The Juniors”

Got the link to this shortfilm through an email from someone I don’t know. I don’t have any details, but this is a brilliant work. I could see glimpses of a Quentin Tarantino style in this movie and the guys who did this really deserve a thumbs up! Watch it.

Shankar’s “Enthiran”: You better watch “Matrix Reloaded”

This is what film makers who cast Rajni fail to understand. Rajni is a ‘son of the soil’ and he does his best in such roles (remember Padayappa or Muthu?). I loved Basha and it is after watching it that I made sure not to miss any Rajni movie. Sivaji was perhaps the maximum he could do but when you stretch him far you get “Enthiran“. A boring, exhaustive, three hours long film with graphics and songs fit in here and there. Luckily, I had the company of Hiran, or else I would have bored myself to death.

I’d say you should go watch “Matrix Reloaded” again than spending your time and money for Shankar’s “Enthiran“. It is not only because “Enthiran” copies some of the cloning ideas or the road chase scenes from Matrix, but the makers of Matrix made a convincing movie out of a very fictitious story. This is what Shankar & co has to understand. Paying up huge sums of money to some big-wig Hollywood animation studio can only get you some amazing graphics but never a convincing script. You need talent to do that.

Director Shankar has played a bit of Congress party in the Common Wealth Games for this film. Almost all the people you see in the movie are fair and beautiful except for some who faces a fire tragedy. The hospitals, research centers are all huge and beautiful buildings like you see in the Hollywood movies. Still you would know it happens in India. 😉

Rajni, the supernatural, is so boring in so many scenes. There is no punch line, not even his trademark gestures but some weird actions of the villain Rajni. I enjoyed the train fight scene though. About the director, I wonder how people call Shankar a perfectionist. The scenes where the animation is plugged into outdoor scenes are far less convincing because the animation bumps out from the scenes. Or look at the tiny things. Like the lab where it is written “Restricted Area”. A red tape kind of thing that you have seen in many old movies to read “ICU”, “No Entry” etc. It is so amateurish for an otherwise gaudy set. It is small things like this that make all the difference in “convinving” people.

The songs are boring but the visuals are stunning. The first song sequence in the desert is the most beautiful of it all. But when the songs keep coming in and out, you get bored. A R Rahman’s score is not captivating too.

The movie is not without it’s positives. It starts well and you would blindly believe the robot story in the beginning before it started falling off. The animations are perfect and though it copies many Hollywood movies that we are familiar with, it also has some nice animation towards the climax scene (the snake, the giant robot – all made up of robots etc). The climax scene of the robot dismantling himself was good. The editing of the song sequences is good. Aishwarya Rai does her job well too – of looking beautiful. The most believable character of the movie is neither the hero Rajni, nor the villain Rajni. It is Dr. Bora, played by Danny Denzongpa. He was amazing and we realize how artificial and made-up the other characters are when he comes on screen.

To conclude, I want Rajni of Baasha back. Or Rajni of Padayappa. These folks have now made him a robot that  painfully tries to move us but terribly fails at it.

Review: Elsamma Enna Aankutty

I thought I should spare this for the last line, but I gotta tell you this now. Lal Jose does a Sathyan Anthikkad with his latest movie “Elsamma Enna Aankutty”. You have seen the story of this movie in many Sathyan Anthikkad movies where Sathyan Anthikkad would usually jam so many issues into one pack and gives it to audience. You have seen it all before. The eldest child taking care of the entire family by even giving up on her own studies (in which she had been doing well), the lone parents with children living abroad, the city folks coming to the village and taking advantage of the young girls there, environmental issues, anti-liquor campaign and so on.

Elsamma is supposed to be, as the title says, “Elsamma, the boy”. But it is not Elsamma who makes her seem being stubborn, but the characters around her. Ann Augustine (who played the title role) has to thank her experienced co-actors for that. And I think it is not her problem that she couldn’t fully convince us of Elsamma’s character. For a first timer, she did really well (she has the most beautiful smile I have seen in Malayalam cinema recently as well). So I think it is upon the director who chose to cast a new comer for such a big role.

Almost all the actors have done their job well in this movie. Kunchako Boban as Unni and Indrajith as Eby have done total justice to their roles. One good thing I felt about the movie is that Jagathy Sreekumar seems to have come back to his old spirits. He did the humor exceptionally well and with much ease like in the old days. And another thing that you have to thank for is that Suraj Venjaramoodu is not puke-prompting as he is in other movies of the recent times.

There is one song that has the signature Lal Jose touches to the song sequence, but even there there was a terrible tribal costume with lousy make up which would make you puke right up there in the theater. The cinematography is good and it captures the beauty of a hill side village. What lacks in this movie however is a good script. One of the box office bombs of Lal Jose happened when he teamed up with Sindhuraj (for Mulla) and here you have it again. Not that this one is a boxoffice bomb, but it packs the popular elements of the successful movies and feeds us again. But you will keep seated to the end because of the scenic beauty of the village and the wonderful performances of this movie’s supporting stars.

Lend me a silicon mask, please!

When Mammootty and Kamal Hassan, two actors from the South have got 3 national awards each, how could Hindi cinema, the so-called Bollywood, afford not to be on par with them? Especially when they are marketing themselves as Indian cinema? (I mentioned the “southern” factor specifically because the media always highlights it to distinguish them from the rest of India, like this IBNLive article says “southern music mastero Ilaiyaraja“. A R Rahman is lucky to have been adopted by Bollywood, so he doesn’t have to bear that “Southern” label when he is mentioned in the reports).

So this time when the National Film Awards were announced, we learned that the Best Actor award went to Amitabh Bachan for “Paa” and the close competitor for the title was Mammootty for his performances in Kutty Srank, Palerimanikyam and Pazhassi Raja. And many people believe that this time, again, the award jury made an unjust decision. They say that the award should have gone to Mammootty and not to Amitabh Bachan.

If I was in the jury, I would rule out Mammootty’s role in Pazhassi Raja, because the actor did not have much to do in that film as an actor. It was the film as a whole that stole the show entirely. The film was a blend of so many amazing talents on many fronts and Mammootty was just one of them. I believe he did not have much to do in that film as an actor. I haven’t seen Kutty Sraank, so I would not comment on that. But various reviews have praised Mammootty’s acting in that film to the core. I have seen Paleri Manikyam and the way Mammootty mastered the role of Kunjahammed Haji was just amazing.

I have seen Paa too. Comparing to himself, Amitabh Bachan was awesome. Auro was perhaps the best character he has ever got in his acting career. So I would rate him coming to a close second in the competition but not above Mammootty’s Haji in the race for the best actor.

For one thing, like most of the sentimental, teary-eyed Indian movies, Paa lacked the cinematic maturity of treating a subject like this. It purely banked upon the melodramatic overtones and it’s father-son “star” cast. Bachan’s make-up did not even let you see his face, leave alone the facial expression. Many people argue that his body language was perfect for the character, and I would agree with that, but the body mannerisms alone should not have brought him that award. Mammooty had different mannerisms in Paleri Manikyam too. He had to put on different facial expressions, body mannerisms and even different dialects to work with in that film and he had succeeded in all that. I hear that in Kutty Sraank also he had the same or bigger challenges.

This is not the first time that the national award jury snubbed the Malayali actors for Amitabh Bachan. When Bachan got an award for playing typical Bachan in Agneepath, the person who left out was one of the best actors ever happened to Malayalam cinema – Thilakan – for an unforgettable role he portrayed in the script of MT – Perumthachan. And now, Mammootty.

I don’t understand the criteria put forward by the jury. Is this a sign that such award juries have not come of age? If an actor does a sympathetic character with lots of scope for raining tear drops and an imported make-up man, would that be enough to actually get him an award?

The story never ends…

Version 1: A father whose wife left him has to raise his kid by himself
Version 2: A mother whose husband was killed has to raise her kid by herself

Version 1: The father and son live in a rented apartment
Version 2: The mother and daughter live in a rented house

Version 1: Father is broke, without money and a job
Version 2: Mother is broke, without money and a job

Version 1: The dad skips paying rent each month and tries to escape the landlord
Version 2: Mom does the same.

Version 1: On returning one day, they find that their house has a new door-lock put by the landlord
Version 2: Same as above

Version 1: With the small luggage they have, the dad and son spend a day in the park and the night in a railway station.
Version 2: The mom and daughter do the same.

Version 1: When they try to spend a night in the railway station toilet, people knock on the door outside and the dad struggles to not let his son  know what is happening.
Version 2: When they try to take a bathe in the railway station toilet, people knock on the door outside and the mom struggles to not let the daughter know what is happening.

Version 1: The dad tries the best to make it seem like they are playing a game.
Version 2: Mom does the same.

Version 1: The dad’s last hope for money, a medical device, is being stolen.
Version 2: Mom’s last bills of money that she gets after selling the gold ornaments, is being stolen.

Version 1: Dad donates blood in a hospital for money.
Version 2: Mom does the same.

Version 1: The dad takes a cab drive, but has no money to pay, so asks the driver to drive even more, finally when the cab stops the parent runs away as he has no money to pay.
Version 2: Mom does the same, except that here it is an auto rickshaw, not a cab.

Version 1: The dad applies for an internship at a big-wig stock broking company and finally gets it which puts the end to their financial mysery.
Version 2: The mom completes her MBBS and gets a job in Kuwait which will put an end to their financial mysery.

By now, you all would have guessed it right that with version 1, I was referring to the 2006 movie “Pursuit of Happyness” which has an amazing performance by Will Smith that brought him an academy award nomination for the best performance in a lead role. Version 2 is a Malayalam movie that runs in packed houses across Kerala now. The movie name is “Kadha Thudarunnu” and is directed by the much celebrated director Sathyan Anthikkad.

Sathyan is talking to the media, in the TV etc, as if he’s just re-invented the Malayalam cinema whereas it seems to be just a copy of a beautiful Hollywood movie. He even lifted some of the story events scene-by-scene from the original movie, added a bit of his usual “social message” thingy, some Kerala touch here and there and made his movie. I think the writers of the Hollywood movie should sue Sathyan for millions of dollars so that it will teach a lesson to the copy-cats in our movie industry.

This is not a first time that pioneers (?) like Sreenivasan and Sathyan Anthikkad have been accused of plagiarism. But we have always ignored it, thinking how it is possible that the people of their stature and ‘calibre’ can do such a shameful thing. Only when the director combo Siddique Lal became massively popular and accused Sathyan Anthikkad for not giving them credits for the storyline of the movie “Naadodikkaattu” that we seriously gave it a thought. When numerous other people came out in open against Sathyan and Sreenivasan we did not give it a damn as those people were not known names. Siddique Lal was lucky that their talent got the deserving recognition so their words became credible to the public. What about the other unlucky souls?

When a good friend of mine emailed me about the parallel story line of both the movies, I brushed it away. I thought it is a generic response and kind of a popular trend these days to ‘investigate’ the original versions of a movie. But then I watched Kadha Thudarunnu on last Sunday and I was totally stunned. I don’t know what Sathyan was thinking. In the old days, this trick would have worked because very few people watched or had access to Hollywood movies but to do it in these days Sathyam Anthikkad must have had some guts. Or he is seriously insulting the Malayalees as a society that it doesn’t have exposure to cinema outside India. Whichever way it is, it is a crime and I wonder why nobody in the media is talking about it except for one or two TV channels.

PS: Another movie which is “written” by actor-writer Sreenivasan, has Mohan Lal in the lead and marks the entry of singer M G Sreekumar as a music director, has been ordered to stay its release by a court order. The movie was scheduled to release in the second week of May.

The stay was given, following a complaint from K Vijayan from Mukkam, accusing senior actor and scriptwriter Sreenivasan to have lifted his story and used the same for ‘Oru Naal Varum’. Vijayan says that he has met Sreeni once with this story who dismissed it as a naive one with no big comedies. Later Vijayan published the same in the title ‘Ee Kaliveedil Ninnu’ in a popular magazine. Sreenivasan was not available to respond of this new accusation. [via]

As usual, the tactic of both Sathyan Anthikkad and Sreenivasan to face these allegations is to say that “this doesn’t deserve a response” or “these people do it just for fame“(?). So much to our great, ‘creative‘ souls.

“Up in the Air”

Up in the AirYou know what? I like Shahrukh Khan. I think he has an amazing screen presence and on-screen energy which makes even his dumbest movies watchable at least for the first half. His on-screen chemistry with the leading ladies is always awesome. Yet, regardless of those screen names – Rahul, Raj or whatever – Shahrukh is always Shahrukh.

What I said about can be applied to George Clooney also. The man has a killer charm, wonderful on-screen presence and energy, yet remains to be Clooney for most of the times (perhaps except in the movie “Syrianna“). Be it Danny Ocean (Ocean’s series), Michael Clayton (Michael Clayton), Miles Massey (Intolerable Cruelty), Harry Pfarrer (Burn After Reading) or Ryan Bingham in “Up in the Air“. Clooney, with all his admirable charm and acting skills, hardly turns to become the character. He, like Shahrukh, gives the Clooney identity to most of the characters he played.

Which is why it turns out that the most notable performance of the movie “Up in the Air” is by Vera Farmiga with her portrayal of Alex. Alex is a frequently flying “air-companion” of Bingham and they have a casual sex relationship. Even an emotionally strong man like Bingham (his job is to fire people for corporate companies) who doesn’t spare enough time for family or friends (his friends are not even mentioned) gets the hang of boredom and falls for Alex. There you see Alex who asks “what are you doing here?” when Bingham knocks on the door of her house, where she lives with her family about which she never mentioned to Bingham. She goes ahead and tells him that her family is her real life and Ryan is simply an escape. Yet she does not bother to tell him later that they can meet up again. Vera simply handles the role of Alex who leads two parallel lives and compared to Clooney, she totally immerse herself into the character than Clooney making a Clooney out of Ryan.

The movie looks into the brutal realities of the corporate culture and it handles the theme so well without too much drama. Another actor who stands out in the movie is Anna Kendrick as Natalie Keener, an ambitious young woman who works with Ryan. Her performance is very honest and convincing.

The movie is subtle, convincing and comes with wonderful performances by the lead actors, but Clooney’s nomination for Best Actor in the Oscar? I think it’s not worth it.

Malayalam movies, English titles

2009 is perhaps an year in which we have seen more Malayalam movies with English titles. Early 2010 movie titles also are not much different. Look at some of these titles below. Going by this, it will be too difficult to figure out the language of a movie by its name. 🙂

Senior Mandrake
Happy Husbands
Bodyguard
Decent Parties
My Big Father
Chemistry
Kerala Cafe
Angel John
Robin Hood
Loud Speaker
Duplicate
Daddy Cool
Dr Patient
Passenger
Moss N Cat
Sagar Alias Jacky
Love in Singapore
Colours