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Reviews
Moothon (2019)
The elder one
Moothon tells a story on a part of our society that many do not like to acknowledge.
There are many similarities to Salaam Bombay as both movies are shot in same location and portrays a similar picture of the people there.
The story is basically a tale of repetition of fates of two siblings who have somewhat confused gender identities who are trying to get away from the past but finally falling to the same fate.
Every cast member gives a fantastic performance. Nivin Pauly has matured as an actor and he portrays two sides of a person with real ease. Sanjana who plays the sibling also gives an amazing performance for a debutante. Special mention to Sasank Arora and Roshan Mathews with the latter being a treat to watch in the short screen time given to him.
Theres the overall movie flavour you get when you have Rajeev Ravi and Anurag Kashyap onboard with great cinematography and brilliant in all technical aspects.
There is a recurring violin theme throughout which was a really good composition.
In short this is not everyones cup of tea .
Joker (2019)
Joker is brilliant
Joaquin Phoenix has given the performance of his career and that's saying something because it's Joaquin Phoenix. He has given a fresh take on the iconic villain rather than repeating any previous incarnations including the comic book versions. He has given mutiple shades of madness to his joker. Truly Oscar worthy.
Direction , music , cinematography and editing are all brilliant and perfectly blended in this masterpiece. Theres a scorcese vibe throughout the move and also there is a subtle reference near the end to Heath ledger's joker in a shot which was beautiful.
Joker is basically a saddening tale of abuse on people whom the mainstream soceity considers weird and what it can do to a person who in his own words has never been happy for one minute in his life.
Arthur fleck coming out and embracing his true potential of the Joker persona is symbolic to DC focusing on it's darker source materials like TDK trilogy and not try to be another MCU.
In short Joker is Brilliant piece of cinema on one of the most iconic comic book villains who rightly deserves this!!
Naked and Afraid XL (2015)
Survival with drama
Naked and afraid XL is the next level for the contestants as well as the viewers of the regular naked and afraid Survival series.
A Single episode is too short to cover the ordeal of 21 day survival challenge hence Discovery has come up with XL which covers the 40 day survival challenge instead of 21 and is spread across an entire series.
The highlight of the show is that Many veteran survivalists come for a more gruelling challenge or are given a shot at Redemption through XL and it showcases how human nature changes when the same person is pitted in a different group.
Group dynamics plays a major part and each person has to come up with his survival plan for the 40 days. You can see lot of survival plans/fails, and a lot of drama too which is obvious when many people are pitted together and decisions clash.
It's true that the show is edited in such a way that events seem to be more linear and a lot of drama is triggered by the showrunners themselves like asking specific questions intentionally or deliberately picking contestants who are sure to bring in drama. But thats obvious considering this is a reality TV show and not a documentary.
It would be amazing if a crossover with Bear grylls is done someday.
In short this is an amazing survival series if you consider this as a reality TV show which is more real compared to all other current crop of shows.
Glass (2019)
Perfect ending to the unlikeliest Superhero Trilogy
Glass is a perfect ending to the Eastrail 177 Trilogy and is in sync with the tone of both Unbreakable and Split.
The acting from the lead actors are amazing and James Mcavoy steals the show completely. Samuel Jackson portays the titular Mr.Glass to perfection. For those who are critical of Bruce Willis's performance please remember that David Dunn was a very reserved person in Unbreakable and 19 years later you can't expect his older self to be a Tony Stark.
The pacing is slow but I did not feel any sequence to be boring. There are a few light comedy scenes as well unlike the previous 2 movies. Even the shyamalan cameo makes sense to connect Unbreakable and split as his previous roles in these were totally different.
Most of the movie takes place in one building similar to Split .Also Footage and music from Unbreakable and Split are nicely used in Glass.
Through out the movie there is a lot of focus on drawing parallels from the world of comicbooks and the existence of superheroes and villains as a pair.
The very essence of the film as a continuation from Unbreakable (and also the ending) highlights that heroes exist because of villains and vice versa and either both have to exist or none. In short the movie belongs to Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass.
The Revelation about Kevin's father and how it connects with the Unbreakable storyline was a bit unexpected. One small afterthought about its logical correctness. Joseph could so easily track the fate of Kevin's father using internet search but Kevin still had no clue about his father despite having data in public records.
Apart from this everything else makes perfect sense.Dont listen to the critics and go and watch the movie if not already seen.
Aquaman (2018)
The King has Risen
This movie is a complete package. Great action,good character building,decent score and a good old story line.
Jason Momoa is tailor fit for Aquaman.The way he towers over everyone is simply amazing. I was a bit sceptical about the underwater sequences after seeing the same in Justice league. But here they have taken the effects and cinematography to another level.
There a lot of cliches and few forced laughs too.But they don't matter much because the very next scene it's something fresh as the editing is super fast paced.
The supporting cast is also pretty decent with good performances from the entire cast. This is a much needed boost to DCEU and Iam looking forward to the sequel.
Idukki Gold (2013)
Down the memory lane
Movie is all about a decades-after reunion of 5 school friends.
Frequent bouts of nostalgic punches fuel the entire movie.
There is a subtle underlying theme of sadness and loss in their adult lives.
Good acting (esp maniyan pilla Raju ),Music & cinematography are the major pros.
Aashiq Abu again copies Tarantino's style including separate chapters titled in yellow fonts but kudos for making a movie based on a shortstory and with yesteryear actors.
Pretham (2016)
Pretham Scores
The ghost story has evolved over the ages in Malayalam cinema but most of them somehow end up still with many clichés .Similar tried and tested formula is used in Pretham also but is handled in a very different and in the so called New gen way. The last comic horror movie that comes to my mind is In ghost house Inn which was simply painful to watch. Adi kapyare was mostly a comedy movie with a hint of supernatural towards the end.
But pretham is about exactly as the title suggests it.The first half has some spooky thrilling sequences and lots of laughs.There are many subtle comic references to Manichitrathazh which is nicely done. Jayasurya has done a good job as usual and his new look perfectly suits the mysterious character of a Psychic. Aju varghese and Sharafudden deliver decent comic relief without trying much. GP is simply out of place and provides mostly blank faces and forced dialogues. Kudos to the director for keeping things tight and for not including any songs as well. All in all a decent family watch and a nice addition to the comic horror genre in Malayalam cinema.
Ivan Megharoopan (2012)
A nostalgic window to the past malayalam era
I remember seeing the movie posters of Ivan megharoopan when it was released. They had a hint of a B grade movie feel to it, maybe done to somehow increase the box office collections. In any case that did not happen. The movie had only a few days run in theatres despite bagging 4 state awards.
Finally saw this movie on DVD having the same B grade like poster but it was a really pleasant experience and unlike any other movie seen in recent times. The movie is very well crafted and is a remarkable achievement for the first time director P.Balachandran. All the actors have done a wonderful job and Prakash Bare lives as the titular KP Madhavan Nair.Cinematography and Music are also really good and they very well complements the spirit of the movie. The movie's portrayal of the legendary poet Kunhiraman Nair is somewhat one dimensional and focuses mainly on his relationship with various women during different stages of his life. Dialogues may seem taken out of a school textbook at times. A tighter script could have made Ivan megharoopan an all time classic.