Tag: Lal Jose

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.

Neelathaamara

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.