Reviews

Monk's quirky behaviour in this episode reached the zenith of tolerance. The mixture of his frequent and stupid behaviour and flashes of regular brilliance is preposterous. How long can the viewer tolerate such utter nonsense. The mysteries are not the best but it is not terrible either. He doesn't seem to get cured of his ailment despite taking extensive therapy sessions with a doctor. How long can the producers pull of this quirky behaviour without irritating the viewer? Beats me. This is certainly one of the worst episodes in the series because the actual investigation takes place remotely.

This is one of the better episodes despite the distraction provided by Inspector Brackenreid and his gang of football fans. Apart from a tightly scripted episode it also features a commendable homage to one of the greatest action scenes every filmed on celluloid, the staircase scene. This scene has been replicated in various guises by some great and not so great directors in the past (one example which comes to mind is from "The Untouchables", by Brain DePalma). In this episode Eleanore Lindo achieves a near perfect copy but it less dramatic in its approach than the original. The scene in question is from the 1952 Russian classic film Battleship Potemkin directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

Dalgliesh is an outstanding series. I have watched 2 stories in the series and both are excellent. Its not your run-of-the-mill British Murder Mystery stuff, so much so that even the much vaunted Midsomer Murders looks like a silly joke on the viewers. The much unheralded Bertie Carvel is brilliant in the portrayal as Adam Dalgliesh. The rest of the cast do justice to their roles as well. Jeremy Irvine's role as detective sergeant Charles Masterson is contrasting to the ones we normally get to see in such series. And I enjoyed his masterful performance in the opener. PD James belongs to the "Golden Era" of detective fiction and her quality in the story telling is clearly evident.

What a dreadful episode. This is the worst of the worst. The whole premise seemed so daffy, silly, nutty and only the Brits can come up with a theme that borders on the insane. The killer was a surprise though, but not adequately backed up by any solid motive or clues. The motive itself was so demented that it worked out more like a comic show. The makers now bank on sensationalism rather than solid story telling. There is a noticeable downslide of the series since the past couple of seasons. I guess, I have to endure watching it because this series has been on air for donkeys years and I love a some of the character. I have only I hate the most is the uppity pathologist. She's abhorring to say the least.

Continuing the course of a lackadaisical Season 18 with some dreadful episodes in the earlier instalments, this one though surprisingly turned up a tard better. The previous episodes were wrought with horrid stories and bad acting. Overall the pace and the mystery was better than the other ones in the series. The episode was propped up a scintillating performance by Ramon Tikaram. It was nothing short of excellent and goes on to prove what a good actor he is. Saskia Reeves as usual was solid. The humour was also back, with Betty and Skeyks providing all the laughs. Hoping the series goes on to be like the earlier Seasons. Overall, a OK episode.

A fun episode to say the least. Neil Dudgeon has evolved as DCI Barnaby very well. He is a fantastic actor and stepped into the shoes of Tom Barnaby with his own idiosyncrasies and histrionics. I admire the way the producers have managed to introduce new characters (main) without a fuss. The three detective assistants namely Troy, Scott and now Jones have had a seamless integration into the stories. Some of the stories have been quite silly and laughable in the past couple of seasons, but that is understandable given that the show has completed 80 episodes so far and it is not easy to keep the ball rolling with gems all the time. Such missteps are inevitable and quite pardonable.

One thing is certain, Neil Dudgeon is a damn good actor. His histrionic talent is pleasantly amusing and rather noticeable. The first episode was rather drab and lacked the class that over the years this series has managed to establish. Though Tom is much loved, John Barnaby on the other hand is admissible. I have started liking him and he seems to be a great replacement for Tom. Ben lends aptly and both form a lovely team. The humour is more pronounced with Ben participating in the repartee. Overall a welcome change.

Edward Fox has proved once again what a great actor he is. He forms the crux of the episode on which the story revolves. Highly recommended.

A very good murder mystery. The central theme of this episode is similar to the fist Midsomer Murder episode written but the author Caroline Graham. The tone is rather dark and this would rank as one of the 5 best stories in the series. Lydia Wilson is remarkable as Zoe and so is James Fox. Nettles and Jason Hughes has excelled themselves in this story. The series was going nowhere with some silly and ridiculous stories. I was about to give up however, this episode had tempted me to keep on going. Apart from this, I wanted to see John Barnaby in action as the new DCI in the series. I sincerely hope future episodes would be as good as this one.

Nna Thaan Case Kodu, Thankam, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam have been such horrible and pointless movies that Iratta stands out like a beacon among the rot that is hailed as great/landmark movies by film critics with liberal ideology.

Joju George has emerged a powerhouse of an actor after a slow and indifferent start to his career. Joseph was the start of the good things to come. This is a scintilatting performance by the much gifted actor.

The movie is an amalgamation of a murder mystery and an emotional tale. The screenplay is near perfect except for role of Malini which adds flab to the proceedings and which is used only to extend the duration of the movie.

The technical aspects is just passable, however the excellent music adds a lot of heft to the progress of the movie.

Movies like Iratta have become a rarity these days in Malayalam Cinema.

I always wondered what has been the contribution of supposedly great arthouse directors of Malayalam Cinema over the years. Its next to nothing. How can you classify their cinema in the context of good cinema several Malayalam directors having being churning out for the benefits of Malayalees across the world. Gems that can be cherised until your last breath. Let's take a case in point of two exalted directors during the 1980 and late 1990. Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Govindan Aravindan. They made awful movies which had no entertainment value of any kind. They got ill deserved praise and adulation from journalists and juries with adherence to a certain political ideology. I remember watching "Kanchana Sita" by G Aravindan, its probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. It was meaningless and pointless, a retelling of Ramayana made by the jaundiced eyes of an ultra-left director. It was so comical to watch the movie, in fact Sita is never shown in a movie centred around her. But crticis educated us by saying that her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. How funny. It became evident to me why these people flourished making such crap during the so-called arthouse, new age period of Malayalam cinema.

There have been great directors apart from the arthouse clique in Malayalam cinema who provided wholesome entertainment which encapsulates what cinema should actually be. To a name of few Ramu Kariat, Padmarajan, K G George, Bharathan, IV Sasi, Fazil, T Hariharan, Sathyan Anthikad, Sibi Malayil, Ranjit etc made sensible and evocative movies. They raised the bar of Malyalam cinema by several notches, not the arthouse crooks.

The same malady is setting with the new crop of directors who are trying to emulate their long forgotten masters and their brand of cinema. The recent, Nna Thaan Case Kodu is a classical case of such cinema, this movie was completely rubbish but had a certain brand of film critics raving and ranting about it. Are they really honest in their opinion? Did they actually enjoy watching it? I guess not.

Thankam falls into this very category of baseless of should I say pointless cinema.

The story is wafer thin, the entire series rests on the premise of abuse. But the silly thing is that the victim refuses to even speak out despite the fact she is educated. Moreover another perplexing reason is that she was consciously putting her children into danger. No mother would do that even if she was an illiterate. The flaw is with the writers in the characterisation of this role. Besides the victim is shown perpetually in tears, does a human being under any circumstances behave in such a manner in real life. Shame is a traumatic emotion but would anyone take it such ridiculous levels. I doubt it. This show is only worth a watch for the histrionics ability of Pankaj, without him it would have been a complete disaster. Anupriya is miscast as she does not live up to the role she is given. I can choose only a handful of Indian actors who show such magnetism as Pankaj, the other actors are Mohan Lal from the Malayalam film industry, Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajpal Yadav, Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan from the Hindi film industry. All other actors (male) of the entire Indian cinema are just wannabes when compared to the greats mentioned above.

This episode was completely out of place, disappointing and a terrible bore to watch. Characters were taking ages to even utter a word, the episode was stretched beyond belief. However the Indian (Hindi) version "Criminal Justice" of the original British namesake (not watched) was more compelling and fulfilling is fantastic with a logical ending, and not contrived by trying to place itself on an intellectual plain, which to my mind is bunkum. Vikram Massey (as Naz) and Pankaj Thripati (as Stone) outguns the part of the cast here hands down. The Hindi version was also unnecessarily stretched but the denouement eroded all that. I rue that I wasted 8 hours of my precious time watching this muck.

Apart from Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Rucha Inamdar and Pankaj Saraswat's brilliant performance this stale long winding yarn could be easily given the miss. Yhe multiple and pointless sub-plots involving jail politics, distasteful eczema affliction of key player, typical family melodrama and horrendous pacing this series falls flat just after the 3rd episode. Anurag Kashyap is the master of zilch and this series epitomises it. Anupriya Goenka is grossly miscast and Mita Vashist hams to the core. Tripathi's performance is rather interesting and highly understated, with his unusual mannerisms and inexplainable pauses between dialogues things gets irritable after a while. There are better Indian series to watch online. Avoid this like the plague.

I believe Season 5 & 6 have been disastrous. The writers are testing the viewers patience with absurdities. Acting by Liz, Aram &, Navabi's acting is disastrous. And Liz is the worst among them. A stump could do a better job! As far as I am concerned its bye-bye for this show. Enjoyed it immensely until Season 4! I know it doesn't matter much though since the Show is off the air! But it is a fair warning to all prospective viewers out there on streaming sites.