Totally Filmi

May Movie Madness: Sankaranum Mohananum in Six Words

 

Mohankrishnan sees (and hears) dead people.

 

 

Sankaranum Mohananum ("Sankaran and Mohanan", Malayalam, dir. T.V. Chandran, 2011)

Starring:  Jayasurya, Meera Nandan, Rima Kallingal, Jagathy Sreekumar, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sudheesh, Bijukuttan, Indrans, Kochupreman, Ambika, Rosilin, Sivaji Guruvayur

Worth Revisiting? Sadly, no.  I honestly did not like this film very much at all.  And that *is* sad, because it's from award-winning and acclaimed art-house director T.V. Chandran.  I would give my eye teeth to see some of Chandran's previous work, and I do search for the DVDs regularly.

But Sankaranum Mohananum  made me think of two French expressions.  The first, "rester bouche bée" which I'd probably translate as "gobsmacked".  But I realized part way through the film that I was honestly sitting there with my mouth agape at what was happening.

The other term it brought to mind is "quel gâchis" or what a waste.  A waste of talent, for sure -- two small performances by Suraj Venjaramoodu and Jagathy Sreekumar are lost, Rima Kallingal is practically not there at all.  The story made absolutely no sense to me.  Okay, I get the idea:  the dead take their worries with them into the great beyond, illustrated by the fact that Mohankrishnan's brother, Sankaran, who has died the day after his marriage, is obsessed with telling his wife that he still loves her.

However, I found the ghost of Sankaran incredibly annoying -- the only person who can see him is his brother, and he just keeps appearing in a series of strange avatars with no explanation why.  He is also incredibly selfish -- when a new husband is found for his widow (a situation which will mean her whole life won't be ruined by his unfortunate and untimely death), he insists that his brother go and beat the guy up and stop the wedding.  Later, he asks only that the wedding be postponed to a time when he will have lost his memories of his wife. 

And I couldn't figure out why Mohankrishnan just blindly went along with everything his brother told him to do, instead of taking a step back and thinking maybe doing what his dead brother is asking maybe isn't the best course of action.

If that weren't enough -- suddenly, and late in the film, Mohankrishnan starts seeing and hearing other ghosts -- this is to reinforce the idea that when someone dies, they are helpless to take care of things that need looking after.

So I think I shall pass on writing about this film any further, and keep my fingers crossed that I can find some of T.V. Chandran's previous films to enjoy.

 

Malayalam Films 2012: May 25th

 

This week, Young Super Star Prithviraj is back, in Hero, an action thriller directed by Diphan:

 

 

There's also Ezham Suryan from debut director Njanasheelan:

 

 

And finally, from director M. Padmakumar, there's Thiruvambadi Thamban,  starring Jayaram:

 

May Movie Madness: Athbhutha Dweepu in Six Words

 

Six words are not nearly enough.

 

 

Athbhutha Dweepu ("Wonder Island", Malayalam, dir. Vinayan, 2005)

Starring:  Prithviraj, Mallika Kapoor, Radha, Guinness Pakru (as Unda Pakru), Jagathy Sreekumar, Jagadish, Bindu Panikkar, Kalpana, Indrans, Ponnamma Babu, Vettoor Purushan, Baburaj, Valsala Menon

Worth Revisiting?  Absolutely.  Athbhutha Dweepu has been described as Gulliver's Travels, without Gulliver or the travels.  And according to the film's Wikipedia page, the rights to the film have been bought by Ron Howard, who wanted to remake it starring Leonardo DiCaprio, with the 300 dwarfs in the film reprising their roles.   I am not making that up.  Frankly, I'm not convinced, but boy, is that a remake I would love to see.  The film is the story of an island where the men are dwarfs because of a curse, and the women are....um...."regular" size (in quotes because I recognize this is a bit of a minefield, and yes, I think it's worth pondering the whole thing about size and whatnot.  The film makes the point by the end that it's not the size of the package but the heart inside it.)  Four members of the Indian Navy end up on the island after their helicopter goes down, and the whole film revolves around how they have to escape from the ruling dwarf princes who want to kill them.  Seriously, there is no way to do this film justice in six words.  And it features a terrific performance from Guinness Pakru, so called because he's in the Guiness Book of World Records because of this film, being the smallest person to star in a feature length film.  All that said, I'm not sure I can stomache the rather gruesome final battle against the cannibal giants a second time.

Yes, I did just write "cannibal giants".  Truly, six words are not enough.

 

May Movie Madness: Sevenes in Six Words

 

Seven friends become a quotation team.

 

 

Sevenes, (Malayalam, dir. Joshiy, 2011)

Starring:  Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Rejith Menon, Nivin Pauly, Aju Varghese, Vineeth Kumar, Rima Kallingal, Ameer,  Bhama, Ramya Raj, Nadia Moidu, Mamukkoya, Manian Pillai Raju, Shivaji, Sri Kala, Preethi Srinivasan

Worth Revisiting?  Perhaps.  I found the theme, about how these friends get roped into forming a quotation team out of desperate need for money to pay medical bills, rather compelling.  One job, they think, will be enough, but then there are more and more reasons to keep going, more bills to pay, until they find themselves in over their heads before they even realize it's happening.   But I didn't find myself emotionally engaged with the story -- the friends all seem likeable enough, but I didn't feel that I got to know any of them well enough to really care about what was happening to them.  Asif Ali's performance stands out for me (as it often does), and I dearly regret that there wasn't enough scope to give they very talented Rima Kallingal a bigger role.  That said, Nadia Moidu was terrific as the tough cop, and I do think there's some scope to revisit the film at some point.

 

May Movie Madness: Tere Bin Laden in Six Words

 

Pakistani Muslim chases the American Dream.

 

 

Tere Bin Laden (a pun:  "Without you, Laden", or "Your Bin Laden" , Hindi, dir. Abhishek Sharma, 2010)

Starring:  Ali Zafar,  Pradhuman Singh, Sugandha Garg, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Piyush Mishra, Rahul Singh, Seema Bhargav, Barry John, Chirag Vohra, Chinmay Mandlekar, Rajendra Sethi, Harry Josh, Masood Akhtar

Worth Revisiting?  Oh, my, yes!  In fact, Tere Bin Laden is precisely the kind of film that would suit Palate Cleanser Week, as it's a welcome breath of fresh air in my film watching this month.  The ensemble cast, the sharp writing, the music -- I loved it all.  And I'm sure Mr. Totally Filmi is going to enjoy watching this one, too.

 

May Movie Madness: The Filmstaar in Six Words

 

A village's suffering inspires a film.

 

The Filmstaar  (Malayalam, dir. Sanjeev Raj, 2011)

Starring:  Kalabhavan Mani, Dileep, Muktha, Rambha, Thalaivasal Vijay, Ganga, Vijayaraghavan, Salim Kumar, Ashokan, Valsala Menon, Devan, Suraj Venjarammoodu, Baburaj, Sadique

Worth Revisiting?   You know, there's much to love about The Filmstaar.  There's a good honest story at the core of it all, with some excellent twists.  But I had the impression at times that the film wasn't sure what it wanted to be.  A simple man's story about how his village is destroyed by industrialisation backed by corrupt politicians?  Or a masala action film?  As a result, I'm left with decidedly mixed feelings.  Perhaps I should write about the film in depth to work through them, but I'm not sure I could face the scene where we find out how Nandagopan (Dileep) loses his leg a second time.

 

May Movie Madness: Gali Gali Chor Hai in Six Words

 

There are thieves in every lane.

 

 

Gali Gali Chor Hai (Hindi, dir. Rumi Jaffrey, 2012)

Starring: Akshaye Khanna, Shriya Saran,  Mugdha Godse, Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Akhilendra Mishra, Vijay Raaz, Murli Sharma, Amit Mistry, Mustaq Khan, Arun Verma, Rajat Rawail, Anita Mudgal, Pankaj Sharma,  Mohit Baghel, Veena Malik

Worth Revisiting?  Sadly, no.  The idea -- a common man becomes trapped in a web of corruption at every turn -- is an interesting one.  There are some terrific actors in this film (including Totally Filmi Casa Faves Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Vijay Raaz and a sorely underutilized Amit Mistry).  There are some very funny moments, but the film just never finds the satirical edge that would make this work. 

 

May Movie Madness: Venicile Vyapari in Six Words

 

Megastar Mammootty solves muddled murder mystery.

 

 

Venicile Vyapari ("The Merchant of Venice", Malayalam, dir. Shafi, 2011)

Starring: Mammootty, Kavya Madhavan, Poonam Bajwa, Suraj Venjarammoodu, Jagathy Sreekumar, Janardhanan, Salim Kumar, Vijaya Raghavan, Guinness Pakru, Biju Menon

Worth Revisiting?  I would like to screencap the opening credits at some point, they are kind of wonderful and cracktastic.  But I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that writer James Albert -- of Totally Filmi Casa Fave Classmates --- also wrote the script for this.  Venicile Vyapari  is a messy film that meanders all over the place before finally getting to the point, in stark contrast to the carefully crafted mystery of Classmates.  However, the film is set in Alappuzha (AKA Alleppey), described as "the Venice of the East" (hence the Venice of the film's title -- the merchant in this case being Mammootty), and the scenery is incredibly beautiful.  The megastar isn't given much to do except be the megastar, but there are some lovely performances in the film, most notably from Kavya Madhavan and Jagathy Sreekumar.

 

May Movie Madness: Bhindi Baazaar Inc. in Six Words

 

Better pick a pocket or two.

 

Bhindi Baazaar Inc. (Hindi, dir. Ankush Bhatt, 2011)

Starring:  Kay Kay Menon, Piyush Mishra, Deepti Naval,  Prashant Narayanan, Shilpa Shukla, Pawan Malhotra, Vedita Pratap Singh, Jackie Shroff

Worth Revisiting?  Maybe.  I should note that Kay Kay Menon's role is really kind of a glorified special appearance, and Jackie Shroff's is almost a blink and you'll miss him one (and, frankly, I could have done without him).  The story revolves around the theme of power and betrayal, so nothing I haven't seen before.  But I actually liked how it was handled here -- I found it more compelling than the similarly themed Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, mainly due to the performance of Prashant Narayanan, who is terrific.  I definitely want to see more of him, and as he's in the 2012 Malayalam release Unnam,  which has just come out on DVD, I shall get my wish.  On the whole, though, the film lays out a lot of plot and subplot, and although it does an admirable job of tying all the ends together, it still takes a lot of patience and attention to hang on to all the threads.

May Movie Madness: Bittoo Boss in Six Words

 

Once again, I think I'll let the film speak for itself:

 

 

Bittoo Boss (Hindi, dir. Supavitra Babul, 2012)

Starring: Pulkit Samrat, Amita Pathak, Rajendra Sethi, Mohan Kapoor

Worth Revisiting?  You know what?  Yes.  I was disappointed that I couldn't love the film -- it doesn't have the effortless charm of films like Vicky Donor or Band Baaja Baaraat, the story is kind of messy and episodic, the supporting characters don't make much of an impression, and there's some not-so-great acting happening at times.  But.  I really loved the music, and the film has such heart, as well as a hero who truly is a nice guy.  The premise -- a videowala who dreams of making films beyond the ones he takes of weddings and other ceremonies -- is solid, even if the execution is uneven.  There are some really lovely moments in this film, and it's just too bad they weren't strung together into a more cohesive whole that I could love.  That said, I think I'd watch it again, and I definitely want to see what both Pulkit Samrat and Supavitra Babul will do next.  Perhaps the second time will be the charm?