Movie#99 Adv. Lakshmanan Ladies Only (Malayalam- India)

This stars Mukesh, Jagadeesh, Ashokan, Harisree Asokan, Suraj Venjaranmoodu and a lot of others whom I'm familiar with but could not recollect their names. It is clearly a work of heart than a work of brain, I mean, the producers/ producer wanted to make a movie out of passion than a planned one with proper script and casts. Anyway, it turned out to be pretty ok, but not in my 'recommended' category.
It shows the story of Mukesh (all names mentioned will be real names), a divorce lawyer, who will go to any extent to win cases. Even when the lady has only half mind and no clear cut reason to divorce her husband, he would convince her and fabricate proof to get the divorce. The divorced lady will then be recruited to his pickle making factory run by a 'hates other men but not this lawyer' lady. One day, Mukesh gets a call from an anonymous girl who admires him. He falls in love with this girl later but the girl is chased by her previous lover. An incident later, they get married but the girl goes missing the next day. Subsequent story is about how the life of this girl and Mukesh are inter-twined, how Mukesh became such a man as this, who is the girl's ex-lover etc etc.
As I had told you before, the story is good but the script is weak. Meant mainly as a comedy peppered with seriousness, the movie was pretty ok. We could easily make out that the actors were blurting out memorized lines than improvising in the scene. Barring a few veteran actors, all others fail to bring out respective emotions in dialogues.
Considering that many of the big budget movies starring so called super stars, show stereotype roles and stupid story lines, this one is a refresher. Majority of the actors act within their capacity, I think. My personal rating is 2.5 out of 5…

Movie#98 Legend of the Guardians- The Owls of Ga'Hoole

Jackpot! I had read the review in a magazine and the trailer shown on TV reported it as 'from the makers of Happy Feet'. And there is an owlet, Eglantine, which resemble the penguin in Happy Feet.
I should say that animation movies are definitely a better option, if there is a choice, because of the variety of storyline and advances in 'near life-like' visuals. The story is that of two owlets, Kludd and Soren, very different at heart and nature. Both get kidnapped by the Pure Ones clan, who are building an army to takeover the owl kingdom. Soren refuses to join them while Kludd got other ideas. To defeat the Pure Ones, Soren and his friends set out to find the Guardians of Ga'Hoole.
Watching the movie reminded me of the nazis and allies war. The storyline is similar as nazi considered themselves as pure breed and destined to rule over others. The allies (read US) comes from the other side of the sea (read Atlantic Ocean) to war. Even though things are different now, there is a lurking fear that the nazis could be regrouping. Same here too. The visuals of the bad owls are so similar to nazis. Maybe it is my paranoia…
Ok now, I felt very much tickled by the mannerisms and comics of a cute talkative owl, Digger. I find it to be the funniest in this movie. But I guess there are a variety of choices in character for each of the viewers. View it for a happy family movie or a romantic evening. My personal rating is 4.5 out of 5…

Movie#97 Kacheri Aarambam (Tamil- India)

Want to watch an idiotic, childish, implausible and manic depiction of a flimsy story? watch this!
I was hitting my head on the wall for renting this and wasting time. This work of art is such an entertainer that it would make us apathetic to the story, be it comical or romance or serious (huh?) or thrilling or action, unraveling in front of us. Watch it and you would get the feel that it was meant for the illiterate because every action, comedy or supposedly shrewd, had to be narrated so that the viewer could understand. It implicitly shows that the director/ producer does not have basic understanding of the literacy level of the audience or maybe they understood exactly how to make the audience in their locality understand a 'complicated' storyline. The comedian's expressions are so manic. It fails to convey the comicality in anyway.
Ok, the storyline now. Hope you understand what I type because it is very very complicated. A carefree guy, fights with his distressed, hard working and rich father after they discussed about his future, leaves his hometown and comes to Chennai to work for a stupid boss of a smuggled stuff shop for Rs 3000 pm. By fate, he was saved by a sweet and beautiful girl during one of his dazed walks (please note: whenever the girl is shown in the picture, somethings have to drop, for example–  tennis balls, heart shaped red balloons etc etc, –  absurd!). He falls in love with the girl but comes to know that the girl was also wooed by a local millionaire goon. The girl tells her tragic story of befriending the devil (goon) during a dangerous incident one night, and since then regrets that night. The hero devises the world's most ingenious plan (read stupidest) to befriend the goon and manipulates him to give the girl to him. Don't you feel the complication? Watch it to believe it. The fights are so silly and unrealistic and the heroine is just a beautiful commodity to woo in salivating wolves. Hope she was well compensated for such a degrading script.
The positives are just the songs and dance, and fast paced storyline. My personal rating is 1.5 out of 5…

Movie#96 Aagathan (Malayalam- India)

Apparently short, sweet and well executed. I find that malayalam movies and India ODI cricket team are similar, because when both loses credibility and are in the dumps, one performance changes all opinions. I have been beating down malayalam movies in my previous reviews of them and then feel that there could be something after seeing this one.
It stars Dileep, one of the most stereotype performer around, Sathyaraj,  Lal, Innocent, Biju Menon and Charmi
It shows the story of Gautam (Dileep) who has a tragic past but now successful, falling in love while on the quest for justice. The performance is different from his usual role as a comic hero. Here he is shrewd, calculating and decisive. But there is a big flaw in his planning as far as I'm concerned. How can one factor in a girl's love into a plan? Love have to be spontaneous and cannot be planned. Anyway, that is why movies are termed fantasies.
As far as the total movie is concerned, it is well taken. The story does bring forward the frailty of man, which turns him from saviour to monster in seconds. I'm not saying that it is endemic to a single country, just because 'paid news' focus on one side of the story always. In the quest to train humans to ruthless warriors, one forget to teach them humanity and love. It could be that both types of emotions antagonized each other and seconds may decide whether one lives or dies, hence it was better to teach them emotions which could ensure his survival than his opponents'.
The locales of the shoot is simply beautiful. The songs are pleasant and relaxing. It made the travel bug inside me to buzz, to pack and just go somewhere such. My personal rating is 3.5 out of 5…

Movie#95 Sufi Parnaja Katha (Malayalam- India)

A story from a acclaimed director, Priyanandanan. It stars some actors who are not very famous, locally. But with such performance as this, they are bound to be, soon. It has Sharbani Mukherji (actress Rani Mukherji's sister), Thampi Antony, Prakash Bare, Jagathi Sreekumar, Babu Antony, Indrans and Augustian.
It shows a state of Kerala many many years ago. The time when majority of the state is divided by caste and filled with superstitions. I'm not saying that the place had advanced into a forward thinking situation now. Even now, with high educational levels, I'm ashamed to say that superstitions still exist and religious differentiation prevails. Otherwise how does one explain the presence of and exploitation of people, by fake gurus, imams, priests and swamis in Kerala. Ok, coming back to storyline–  a girl is born into a ultra orthodox hindu family with a peculiar horoscope. She grows up into a pretty girl, loved by everyone. By fate (as indicated by horoscope–  I told you about superstitions, right?) she falls in love with a muslim trader. They elope, and she converts to islam to marry her lover. Her hindu gods come calling and she, with the help of her husband, erects a prayer room in her compound. This irritates the orthodox muslims in the locality. Tension arises within family members and also with the society. All this lead to certain expected and some unexpected endings.
My personal rating is 3 out of 5…

Movie#94 Resident Evil- Afterlife

I'm a big fan of Resident Evil series. Seeing this one, I sincerely suggest the franchise to wind up before they destroy all their good deeds. Gosh! what is this?
I find that the director lost what to bring to the theaters in terms of novelty. Maybe because there is no novelty in the storyline,  and he's at his wit's end. So he decided the next best thing, as bollywood movies–  copy. Thus, this became a clip show of Matrix stunts and the creatures/ monsters/ zombies taken from action series, Blade. Also there is another giant zombie, which I'm sure that I have had seen in another movie but could not recollect now. For all those who care and follows this franchise, the gist of the story is the same–  Alice (Milla Jovovich) resumes her quest to destroy The Umbrella Corporation. That's it, short and sweet.
The film salvages some pride from the superb back ground music which I'm sure is a good listen while driving. Other than that, the gore and encounter with creatures keep coming down episode after episode, together with logicality, such as availability of resources to keep moving on a plane and the american way of wastage of resources (fuel for fire and water), even when faced with extinction…lol. For that reason, I think the creatures did a perfect role in balancing out to save world resources. Let me move away from sarcasms now….
The stunts are stunning and the franchise promises to come back again with another episode. So, waiting with my fingers crossed. My personal rating is 2.5 out of 5…

Movie#93 Mummy and Me (Malayalam- India)

Ok, I'm losing my interest in my mother tongue movies. I have had mentioned previously about movies that were so boring and dull but redeemed itself in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Well, this one is just the opposite! It started and progressed with so much promise, only to shoot itself on its leg at the end. What else will I term this absurd ending.
The story theme is fairly ok. It shows the relationship between daughter with mother, at times with her father and brother, infrequently with her childhood friend, and finally with a chat friend on yahoo. Archana Kavi, the Neelathamara star, plays the role of a teenage girl having problem with her mother, Urvashi. The generation gap and the rebellious nature of teen are nicely brought out. Mukesh, is the bread winner of the family and plays refree and mediator in the fights. Their family friends, family of Lalu Alex, comprising of Kunchacko Boban and Shaari as other members, contribute to the problems and happiness of the theme family.
The story fails to bring out the emotional problems underlying the rebellion of the girl. True, there is a song in which the mother's pain is portrayed nicely but teen life is seen through stereotypical eyes, such as dancing in college, enmity with colleagues etc. The middle part of the story is just plain boring. It goes with the dull line as most teen movies. The climax at the end was a shocker. Why do the director want to show the chat friend after it became clear that he had his own plans? This is where the director fails to understand his audience. The ending shows that the director wanted to convey the theme verbally than by acting. He under-estimates his audience as illiterates who would not understand anything. And another stereotypical act which is seen Suresh Gopi's movies is that need to say all dialogues twice, once in english and then in malayalam. So lame!
My personal rating is 2.5 out of 5…