Weeping Boy Malayalam, by Rediff!

Rating:**

Off lately we have seen a few Malayalam films tackle the subject of anti-abortion, but Weeping Boy handles it very poorly, writes Paresh C Palicha.

Sreenivasan is a name that guarantees a certain standard for whatever project he is associated with, whether as actor, writer or director.

Filmmakers have used his star power and self deprecating humour to propagate causes they believed in.

But, you cannot help wondering what a new director like Felix Joseph intends to do by giving him the title role in Weeping Boy.

Sreenivasan plays a veterinarian named Sahadevan, who is so sensitive that anything can make him cry. He is locked up in jail and cuts a sorry figure.

He seems mentally unstable as he keeps talking to someone who is invisible to others. This brings on the flashback in which he narrates to a psychiatrist how he had married late and his wife (Lena) had gone through a few miscarriages.

When she got pregnant again, her doctor had ordered complete bed rest and Sahadevan was fully involved in taking care of her.

At this crucial time he gets a posting to a remote village called Kannadikkara. He reluctantly reports for duty as his job was at risk.

Communal animosity runs high in Kannadikkara. Sahadevan is privy to the love affair between Faizal (Arjun Lakshmi Narayan) and Geethu (Shritha Sivadas) and he gets involved in stopping it from culminating in a disaster, which ultimately lands him in jail.

We have seen a few anti-abortion (the crux of this film) films in Malayalam in recent times like Akku Akbar’s Kaana Kanmani(2009) and Anamika (2009), but this film handles the subject very poorly.

The storyline, credited to the director himself, not only depends very heavily on Sreenivasan, but it is confused about whether to tap into his comic image or to make the character a serious one.

This shows in Sreenivasan’d performance--he seems stranded between being outright funny and being sentimental.

Other actors make fleeting appearances, whether it is Jagadeesh, who plays Faizal’s father, or Praveena who plays his wife.

As one witty viewer remarked while leaving the theatre after watching the film, the film is not about the Weeping Boy but about the weeping audience.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-malayalm-film-weeping-boy-will-make-the-audience-weep-south/20131206.htm 

Kalyana Samayal Saadham Reviews from Rediff!

Rating: ***

S Saraswathi says Kalyana Samayal Saadham is not just about a big fat Indian wedding but also highlights the emotional and sensitive topic of stress-related erectile dysfunction that is becoming an increasingly common problem among the modern youth.

Prasanna and Lekha Washington team up for Kalyana Samayal Saadham, a romantic comedy written and directed by debutant R S Prasanna.

The film is co-produced by Arun Vaidyanathan, director of the critically acclaimed Achamundu Achamundu, and distributed by C V Kumar's Thirukumaran Entertainment along with ABI TCS Studios.

Despite its title, Kalyana Samayal Saadham (Marriage Feast) is not just about a big fat Indian wedding.

Besides all the rituals and ceremonies that form an integral part of a traditional wedding, KSS also highlights our belief in horoscopes, blind superstition and the various ego issues that crop up between the families of the bride and groom before and during the wedding.

In addition to all this, the primary focus of the movie seems to be the rarely spoken of and intensely sensitive subject of impotency.

KSS has been in the news since the release of its innovatively presented promotional video song, Mella Sirithai that went viral on all the social networking websites.

Raghu Viswanathan (Prasanna) and Meera Chandrasekaran (Lekha Washington) are both engineers belonging to typical Brahmin families.  Too busy with their respective careers, they decide to outsource the job of finding their life partners to their parents.

After carefully scrutinising the various matrimonial websites and taking into account the job profile, annual salary and family background, Meera’s parents zero in on Raghu. 

After the traditional ‘bride seeing’ ceremony, the families believe that Raghu and Meera would make an ideal match, and the couple gets engaged.  The wedding is eight months away and the beautiful period of courtship begins.

Raghu and Meera slowly get to know one another, while their parents are busy making rounds of wedding halls, decorators, caterers and musicians.

Then, with just a month to go for the wedding, there is a big twist in the story.

It is Meera’s birthday, and after a huge party with friends, alcohol and wine, the couple feel that with the wedding just a month away, it would not be wrong to get intimate. To Raghu’s shock he realises that he is impotent.

What happens now? What do the couple decide? Will they call off the wedding and disappoint their families? All this and more in the second half.

Prasanna deserves special credit for playing a role that most actors would hesitate to take up.

Lekha is perfectly cast as the modern bride, who knows exactly what she wants from life and at the same time has a healthy respect for family and traditional values.  Director R S Prasanna has chosen to handle an extremely sensitive subject with humour rather than being overly dramatic.

He also manages to bring in all the fun and excitement of a typical Tamil Brahmin wedding; the Kancheevaram-cladmamis, who love to gossip, and the silk-dhoti mamas, add a nice touch.

The background score by Arrora is also a plus, especially the popular Mella Sirithai and the Pallu Pona Raja number sung by actor Prasanna himself.

Kalyana Samayal Saadham is a creative, funny, yet thought-provoking film.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-kalyana-samayal-saadham-is-funny-and-thought-provoking-south/20131206.htm 

Bullet Raja Review Rediff!

Rating:1/2

Bullett Raja is more ego trip than cinema, according to Paloma Sharma.In order to enjoy Bullett Raja, it is important to remember that this is not cinema -- it is simply an ego trip. 

Unless you can relate to the characters, Bullet Raja will bore you to death. 

Saif Ali Khan stars as Raja Mishra (pronounced: Miss-raa), a well-meaning yet trigger-happy local boy with a fiery temper. 

Raja is being chased by goons when he sees a wedding procession and joins it in order to escape. The wedding procession turns out to be headed for the local strongman's daughter's wedding.

Raja immediately befriends the bride's cousin, Rudra Tripathi (Jimmy Shergill).

After a day of dancing, leeching and drinking, Raja sneaks into the forest for some sexytime with the unnamed item girl (Mahie Gill) when he overhears a plan to assassinate his new BFF and the rest of his family. 

Raja decides to pick up arms for protection but unbeknownst to him, this decision gets him sucked into the dark, murky world of Uttar Pradesh politics. 

Saif Ali Khan's Raja Mishra is the less sophisticated country cousin of Agent Vinod. Aside from the diction and the tikka, they're both basically the same guy. All that Khan does in the film is look angry. 

Even his hair has more range than him.

Between him and Jimmy Shergill, the latter seems to be the more seasoned actor. Shergill's Rudra Tripathi is the right blend of slick and believable. 

Sonakshi Sinha is back to being the typical middle class, homely Bengali girl with big dreams -- dreams which she gives up at the drop of a hat to run away with her beloved Raja.

Ravi Kishan was handed an amazingly interesting character but unfortunately, the film chose to not explore its potential.

Also, it must be noted that the true star of the film is not Saif Ali Khan but Vidyut Jamwal despite him appearing only in the last half hour or so of the film.

Bullett Raja claims to be an action flick but despite the desi guttas firing almost non-stop throughout the film, Jamwal is the only one who can pull off the tough guy act with ease.

The soundtrack is mediocre and the background score inappropriate at times, almost in contrast with the emotions that the actors are trying to portray.

Bullett Raja is rife with predictable scenes, bad editing and a lack of control over the script, which spirals into an unending loop of absurdity. The pseudo-patriotism blends into personal enmity with the corrupt without much warning, leaving the viewers confused. 

While no two people can like the same kind of films or even agree on the definition of a good film, it is difficult to judge if even hardcore Saif Ali Khan fans should go for this one.

Vishudhan Review Rediff!

Rating:**

Director Vysakh, known for his mass entertainers, has tried to surprise viewers in his latest venture Vishudhan, a dark emotional drama with Kunchacko Boban in the title role.

The film opens with the camera focusing on gore all around and a voice-over intoning biblical phrases. Sunny (Kunchacko Boban), a young priest, is put in charge of a church in a rural area. The people there are faithful but poor. The church runs an old age home which is sponsored by the only rich man in the area, Vavachan (Hareesh Peradi).

There Sunny meets Sister Sophie (Mia George). The two working sincerely in the old age home and in the process discover the motives behind Vavachan's philanthropy. He has an agreement with the home that he gets the unclaimed dead bodies for the medical college run by his son (Krishna Kumar), which is always short of cadavers.

When he is threatened with exposure, Vavachan begins a smear campaign against Sunny and Sister Sophie that gets the sister, an orphan, thrown out of the church on the charge of having an illicit affair with Sunny.

Sunny then leaves the priesthood to be her protector. They get married and eventually come back to the same place to live and prove that they have not done anything wrong. The story is wafer-thin and we cannot help feeling that director Vysakh has taken this sensitive subject just to prove that he is a serious filmmaker, but somehow he misses the larger plot in the process.

His bad guys and good guys are clearly distinct as black and white. The villain is over the top as far as acting goes.

Kunchacko Boban has been trying to do serious roles that suit his age for a while now.  Mia gets a role that is on an equal footing with the hero and she pulls it off. Vishudhan, director Vysakh's attempt to get into the league of serious filmmakers, turns out to be clichéd to put it mildly.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/review-malayalam-film-vishudhan-is-cliched-south/20131125.htm

Vidiyum Munn Review Rediff!

Rating:***1/2

Artist, photographer, visual designer, writer, director and producer, Balaji K Kumar is a man of many talents.  This Chennai-born, Los Angeles based filmmaker is already a name to reckon with in Hollywood.  His Twelve twisted tricks won him the Golden trailer award in 2002; while his film 9 lives of Mara, a cult classic,received a tremendous response and went on to receive a host of awards.  

Balaji makes his debut in Tamil cinema with Vidiyum Munn starring Pooja Umashankar and child artist, Malavika Manikuttan. 

Vidiyum Munn is a suspense thriller that revolves around a sex worker who puts her life in danger to protect an innocent 12-year-old from the clutches of pimps and prostitution. 

Rekha (Pooja Umashankar), a professional sex worker, is brainwashed by her pimp Singaram (Amarendran), into getting hold of a 12-year-old to service a high-end client.  Though reluctant at first, she is lured by the money and the prospects of a better life.

But even as she escorts an unsuspecting Nandhini (Malavika Manikuttan) to the client, she is filled with guilt.  Her conscience troubles her so much that she decides to save the girl and escapes from the city with her, but not before something goes terribly wrong.

Now a bunch of ruthless killers want to hunt them down.  Who are these men and why are they chasing two hapless females is what forms the rest of the story.

Pooja, who was last seen as a blind beggar in Bala's Naan Kadavul makes her comeback in Tamil cinema after a four-year hiatus.  She once again proves her versatility by her realistic portrayal of a seasoned sex worker who is resigned to her fate.

But it is young Malavika Manikuttan, who steals the show.  Her character is quite complex, requiring her to be bold, street-smart and defiant, while at the same time appearing vulnerable and innocent too. 

There are no dramatic flashback scenes to explain how Pooja and Malavika Manikuttan are caught in this dangerous web, but their quiet acceptance of the most horrifying events perhaps reveals even much more.

Vinoth Kishan, as Chinnaiah, one of the villains, appears absolutely terrifying with his compelling eyes and just a handful of monosyllabic dialogues.  Then there is Mani (Muthukumar), Devanayagi (Lakshmi Ramakrishnan) and John Vijay as Lankan, every one fits into their role perfectly and the results are impressive.

Music by Girishh Gopalakrishnan is sensational; it helps create the atmosphere heightening every emotion, and maintaining the suspense and thrill.  Cinematographer Sivakumar Vijayan, a debutant, has shot most of the scenes at night in dimly lit locations that intensify the story and provide the right ambience.

The only minus would be the length and the lack of pace, despite of the deadline of 24 hours, you don’t feel the clock ticking, the sense of urgency is missing.  But that takes nothing away from the anticipation and thrill you feel as each scene slowly unfolds itself.

Director Balaji undoubtedly is at the top of his game, narrating a tale filled with emotions; greed, lust, fear and desperation set in the backdrop of a cruel and aggressive world, where people only look out for themselves, it is either kill or be destroyed yourself.

The stark simplicity of the dialogues, the well-etched characters, the intriguing plot, the captivating music, the cinematography, but most of all the brilliant twist at the end makes Director Balaji K Kumar’s Vidiyum Munn a must watch.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/vidiyum-munn-is-brilliant/20131130.htm

Bullet Raja Review Taran Adarsh!

Rating:****

In this fast-changing scenario, a majority of stars as well as film-makers are experimenting with characters/plots they haven't embarked upon earlier. Trudging around the unexplored trail seems to be the new mantra for the dream merchants. Spanking new combinations are getting formed. Innovative and ground-breaking concepts are being attempted. The intention is to offer wide-ranging, all-encompassing entertainment to the up to date, insightful viewer. Reaching out to the pan-India audience and magnetizing the Indian diaspora globally also appears to be the objective.

Post SHAGIRD [which was disregarded by cineastes, despite strong merits!], PAAN SINGH TOMAR and SAHEB BIWI AUR GANGSTER franchise, Tigmanshu Dhulia has shaped an indelible impression on the viewer's psyche. Consequently, Tigmanshu's cinema is now anticipated with gusto and zeal by movie aficionados and enthusiasts. However, what raises eyebrows -- and logically so -- is Tigmanshu's teaming with mainstream actors [Saif Ali Khan, Sonakshi Sinha] in his new outing. Furthermore, the gifted director goes all 'commercial' to entice that fragment of audience [masses] that enormously add to the big booty. 

The promos of BULLETT RAJA compel you to visualize that this is yet another gangster film with hi-octane drama and power-packed dialogues designed for the masses. The question is, is it one? If true, can Tigmanshu pull it off? Besides, is BULLETT RAJA Tigmanshu's big ticket break? 

BULLETT RAJA narrates the story of Raja Mishra [Saif Ali Khan], a commoner, who gets transformed into a notorious, care-a-damn attitude gangster. A faithful friend and a loyal lover, living life on his own terms, setting his own rules, commanding respect and fearing no one, Raja, in his true inimitable style, takes on the system that creates people like him. 

BULLETT RAJA takes you back to the cinema of yore. A commoner revolts against the system and sets his own rules, shaking the law makers and entrepreneurs in the process. As he gets more and more commanding and authoritative, the powers that be decide on clipping his wings... and eliminate him. Like several films made in 1980s and 1990s, BULLETT RAJA talks of a commoner who revolts against the very system he once devotedly followed. This is Tigmanshu's take on camaraderie, matters of the heart and sacrifice. 

Tigmanshu's cinema has often existed in the pragmatic zone, besides being entrenched in the heartland/interiors, and BULLETT RAJA is no exception. It's raw, unrefined and harsh, much like Tigmanshu's earlier endeavors. Sure, the protagonist may bring back memories of the characters we've watched over and over again on the big screen, but the fact remains that everything happens for a legitimate, justifiable reason here. Notwithstanding the oft-repeated premise, the screenplay has ample twists and turns and leaves you wondering, what's gonna happen next? In fact, the games people play -- not just the politicians -- only envelopes you into the proceedings. The icing on the cake is the twist towards the penultimate moments. 

BULLETT RAJA also works thanks to the dialogue [brilliant; also penned by Tigmanshu] and of course, the casting. Saif has often stolen the thunder from his contemporaries in varied films [recall OMKARA] and the actor, known for stylish, metro-centric characters, is sure to surprise you yet again. More on that later! 

Hiccups? The film stagnates after a brilliant start. The portions in Mumbai and the song that ensues ['Tamanche Pe Disco'] is a put-off. Also, while the songs match the tone of the film, the soundtrack is plain ordinary. 

Technically, this is amongst Tigmanshu's polished and genteel efforts. The background score is effectual, enhancing the drama at key points. Action sequences are realistic. Thankfully, there are no South-style stunts here! 

Saif slips into the unconventional zone without a glitch. The actor delivers an unblemished performance, dominating every scene he appears in. He seems to have worked hard on getting the diction right, while the body language is impeccable as well. It's a seamless leap to look the character. Jimmy Sheirgill is admirable, essaying his part with absolute understanding. The bonding between Saif and Jimmy is simply splendid. Sonakshi Sinha is charismatic and does very well in the required space. 

BULLETT RAJA is embellished with an exceptional supporting cast and each of them adjoin immense credibility to their respective characters. Vidyut Jammwal is luminous in a cameo. He adds solid muscle to the post-interval portions. Raj Babbar plays the scheming politician with incredible ease. Gulshan Grover is first-rate. Ravi Kissen is in terrific form, enacting the negative part with gusto. Chunkey Pandey leaves an impression in a brief role. Vipin Sharma is super. Deepraj Rana, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Sharat Saxena are perfect. Mahie Gill sizzles in the song and sequence. 

On the whole, BULLETT RAJA is Tigmanshu Dhulia's most 'commercial', mass appealing film thus far. One more superior endeavor after the immeasurably acknowledged PAAN SINGH TOMAR and the vastly admired SAHEB BIWI AUR GANGSTER franchise, all of which belong to completely diverse genres of cinema. Enjoyable, engaging and extremely distinctive, BULLETT RAJA is not to be missed!

http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/566240