Category: Movies

Title: Fanaa
Starring: Amir Khan, Kajol, Rishi Kapoor

A tragic love story set in Kashmir. The Director attempts to blend terrorism and a love story and succeeds in delivering a watchable film despite its shortcomings (too many predictable circumstances). He definitely deserves credit for restrained acting and the avoidance of unnecessary melodrama despite plenty of opportunity throughout the film for the same. Instead he has stuck to subtlety throughout the film. Amir Khan in the lead role looks a lot older in the early part of the film. Kajol appears to have returned with minimal changes in her looks! Amir handles his role with ease as always. Two seasoned stars, a blend of love and present-day favorite topic (terrorism), good music, great visuals and tactful direction, together sums up the movie.

Jatin Lalit’s music is good. “Mere Haath Mein” attempts to re-create the “Sooraj hua Madham” look and feel and succeeds.

As a follow up to the highly successful Hum Tum, the Director delivers a serious film which also appears to have been a huge box office hit.

Language: English
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon

Based on the life of Johnny Cash, the country music star, his rise from humble beginnings to stardom, followed by struggle with drugs etc. Joaquin Phoenix does a terrific job in the lead role. Reese Witherspoon handles her role with ease. I didn’t find her acting in this film anything out of the world or definitely not deserving of an Oscar. The movie as a whole is engaging and worth a watch. Personally, I was quite ignorant about Johnny Cash’s life, so the movie was informative for whatever its worth.

Title: Rasathanthram (“Chemistry”)
Language: Malayalam
Starring: Mohanlal, Meera Jasmine

An enjoyable film. Mohanlal and Meera Jasmine have put in good performances. There is very interesting portayal of a father-son relationship played by Gopi-Mohanlal. This part in particular was handled very well by the director.

The movie has good music from Illayaraja, some good comedy and a fairly decent storyline, making it a complete package. The photography fully exploits Kerala’s natural beauty. The locations are outright gorgeous and must be seen on a big screen to be fully appreciated.

Title: Perumazhakalam
Language: Malayalam
Starring: Dileep, Meera Jasmine, Kavya Madhavan, Vineet, Biju Menon

A very nicely made film. The Director deserves credit for his superb handling of an unconventional theme. Barring what I thought was a small gap in the script/storyline (I prefer not to discuss that here because it is hard to not give away the story!), its an engaging and moving film. This is a women oriented film and both of malayalam’s leading heroines Kavya and Meera deliver very impressive performances. The movie is definitely worth watching. The music is good and blends well with the film though the songs appear to borrow heavily from old hindi tunes. The photography is outstanding. Set in the raining season in Kerala, showing homes on the river banks, the picturisation exploits Kerala’s natural beauty to the fullest.

The story revolves around two families, one muslim and the other an orthodox hindu brahmin family. Its a common Kerala family phenomenon with the husband in the gulf and the wife and kid in Kerala. The Brahmin and the Muslim are close friends but the Brahmin is killed accidentally by the Muslim in the midst of a fight that breaks out among friends in the gulf. It was an accident but as per the law of the land the accused will face a death sentence unless the family of the victim issues a written pardon. The movie is about how these two families deal with the crisis and in particular how the Muslim family approaches the Brahmin family to seek their help.

Language: Tamil
Starring: Narain, Bhavna

I picked up this movie because I had heard that it was this years surprise hit. Man, what a disaster of a movie. The direction was awful. All the actors were so loud and hysterical it was impossible. The hero and the heroine are Malayalam imports. Narain (Sunil in mallu) portrays his character in the most irritatating manner! Bhavna was needlessly hysterical like most others in the movie. Middle class girl falls for thug and the rest is the usual stuff with some twists. Bad and a complete waste of tme.

Avoid this film if you can!

Seen the recent Bollywood film, Corporate? Check it out. The recent ban on Pepsi/Coke in Kerala and the related controversy in other states seems to be straight out of the film!

(The movie btw is very well made and worth watching)

Language: English
Oscar winner, must-see.
Starring: Lots of actors (Matt Dillon) and actresses (Sandra Bullock) with no specific lead role. (Don’t know the names of the other actors though many of them appear to be familiar faces).

A brilliantly made film that revolves around events that occur over a period of 36 hours all of which involve several different characters from different ethnic backgrounds living in LA. At the end the story tactfully brings all these characters and events together. Along the way, the director manages to explore each character’s motivations, strengths and weaknesses. Illegal immigrants, gangsters, racism, armed robbery, ethnic stereotyping, politics and political motivations, homicide, you name it –All the present day issues are blended into the story. The editing is excellent so there is no dull moment and its fast-paced.

A fine plot, excellent film-making, great acting, brilliant direction. This film is a “must watch”. Make sure you are alert will watching the film. If not, you are likely to miss the subtleties, and the various linkages in the story.

Saw a brief preview of Krrish, the sequel to the Hrithik Roshan hit, Koi Mil Gaya. The effects were pretty cool — Hrithik Roshan flying around a la Superman/Spiderman! The trailer was way too short to pass a judgement or fair recommendation of any sort.

Koi Mil Gaya borrowed heavily from ET, sounds like Superman/Spiderman is Papa Roshan’s target this time.

Title: Waqt
Language: Hindi
Starring: Amitabh, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra.

One word to describe this film. Awful. Please avoid.

Useless son (Akshay) gets married (Priyanka), doting father (Amitabh) decides to fix son, drives him out, then Dad turns sick doesn’t tell son, heavy melodrama follows (Dad and daughter-in-law wheeled into the hospital at the same time!), and then it ends. Thank God! As always, a few meaningless, yet glamorous songs are thrown in. Amitabh was his usual self (its obvious he’ll do any role as long as you pay him well). Priyanka Chopra is there purely for glamor purposes. Akshay has nothing special to offer either.

In short, this film is complete trash. Thankfully, I slept through parts of it.

I am told that the movie was a big hit in India! Please….

Movie: Lion
Language: Malayalam
Starring: Dileep, Kavya Madhavan