അനന്തരം (Anantaram) (1987)

Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Writer:    Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Cinematography: Mankada Ravi Varma
Cast:        Asokan, Mammooty, Shobana
Language: Malayalam

Ajayan was an orphan boy who was left at an hospital, the place of his birth. He is adopted by a widower doctor who also has a much more elder son (Mammooty). The film is told largely through monologues by the Ajayan character as he tries to narrate how he became what he is now.

The younger version of Ajayan is played by Sudeesh and the older version by Asokan. The last shot of the film has Ajayan as a boy counting the steps to a pond by using only odd numbers and just after that him doing the same but this time with even numbers. That essentially explains the film or what Adoor is trying to do. The first half of the film goes in a feel good fashion as it is mostly good things that Ajayan narrates. But second half is like a psychological horror with Ajayan choosing to tell all things that he left out initially. So the film is basically about storytelling and how our perceptions about things are shaped by what is revealed to us.

The sad thing about the film is that while the concept is really good, the execution is not that great. Film suffers with some poor performances in first half with extended silences that doesn't look natural and you feel as if actors are not sure about how awardishly they should behave. It would have aided the film a lot more if the behaviour was quite normal in first half as it would have made for an even more impactful second half when the nature of the film flips. It is hard for me to take Shobana seriously in her earlier roles because we got so used to the voice that dubbed for her in the latter part of her career. Mamootty is quite good throughout but Asokan is not consistently good. Overall it is still a good watch but could have been a much greater film with better execution. It just doesn't get past its conceptual greatness. It did win Adoor a national award and he is said to have modeled the protagonist based on himself- a dual personality who is both an introvert and an extrovert.

Rating: 3/5

Barfly (1987)

Director: Barbet Schroeder
Writer:    Charles Bukowski
Cast:       Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Alice Krige

Film is based on the life of successful poet Charles Bukowski and his exploits in Hollywood during 60s, 70s and 80s. 

I had seen '9 Full Moons' two days back and Barfly was something that came up frequently while reading about it. The comparison is based on the odd personalities of the couple in question. In 9 Full Moons, they were a bit more subtle about it while in Barfly, both of them are equally 'damaged' heavy drinkers. Mannerisms of Mickey Rourke, playing the author character Henry Chinaski, is a bit off-putting initially but you get used to it. I guess those who are familiar with Charles Bukowski would know what to expect. I have seen the film 'Factotum', which again featured the character Henry Chinaski, many years back and kind of knew what was coming. In Barfly, the romantic angle is not the center piece of the film and is more of an examination of the character Henry Chinaski. I think if you don't already know that the character is an aspiring writer, then you might find the intermittent burst of literary flourishes bit out of the blue. 

Overall the film is a great watch but not for everyone. I found it endearing by the end even though I really don't buy his theory about living the life this way to help aid his literature. Maybe, I need to read some of his work to totally get it. The opening credits with shots of various bars/pubs sets the tone for the film and the visuals for it are stunning to say the least and reminded me of  the bar scenes from 'Swingers'. Night scenes in the film are especially great and 'The Kino Flo' lighting was first developed for this film. 

Rating: 4/5

                                                                               

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Director: Richard Donner
Writer:    Shane Black
Cast:       Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey

A veteran cop, Murtaugh (Danny Glover), is partnered with a young suicidal cop, Riggs (Mel Gibson). Both have one thing in common; hating working in pairs. Now they must learn to work with one another to stop a gang of drug smugglers. 

It can be best described as a mixture of buddy cop genre with odd couple one. I had contemplated watching it earlier so as to catch up with Mel Gibson's earlier works but opted to watch the Mad Max series instead. Got on to this eventually when I was actually trying to decide whether I should watch 'The Goonies'. The writer for this film, Shane Black, was also familiar to me from his excellent 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' which is again a much more comedic take on similar genre characteristics. Mel Gibson indeed had a niche action genre to himself and his character in this film is more worthy of the description Mad than Max from Mad Max series. The central plot point of the film is that a bunch of ex-CIA special forces guys are doing Heroin business and these cops comes across them through a murder investigation. These guys had helped run Heroin business during the Vietnam war to finance the native groups whom they were backing and this angle (albeit in South America) was explored recently in the film 'Kill The Messenger'. This thing was supposed to be a big secret till this journalist Gary Webb exposed it in the 90s. So I was kind of taken aback by this casual reference in Lethal Weapon.

Film is a good watch and the relationship between the two characters are very well fleshed out. Action sequences are very well done but towards the end it does go a bit self-indulgent. I really don't think there is anything more to be explored since the establishment of the characters was the interesting part and I don't have any intention to watch the subsequent three films made for the franchise. All of them were big box office successes with the last one coming in 1997. 

Rating: 3/5