ഒരാൾപ്പൊക്കം (Six Feet High) (2014)

Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Writer: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
DOP: Indrajith
Cast: Prakash Bare, Meena Kandasamy
Language: Malayalam

Mahi and Maya share an apartment and are presumably in a living in but open relationship. The film begins with both of them breaking up their living arrangement over an argument about the open nature of their relationship. After a few days, Mahi gets a phone call from Maya from Kedarnath and they patch things up but the call gets cut abruptly. Next day, Mahi wakes up to the news about Uttarkhand floods and he can't reach Maya again. He embarks on a journey to find Maya again.

Sanal's  Ozhivudivasathe Kali was one of the best films from last year and his latest one 'Sexy Durga' got premiered at Rotterdam international film festival yesterday with a very good reception. I was quite desperate to watch this film, which is his major one and was a crowd-funded affair. He had posted yesterday about the films being available via www.moviesaints.com where you can pay Rs. 150 for a film. However, the payment didn't get through as the bank declined it for some reason but the good people from the site sent me a link for free screening and I promise to pay later when the payment issue gets sorted.

Coming back to the film, while ODK had quite austere ambitions on the technical front, irrespective of the single take second half, Oraalpokkam is quite impressive on that front with the stunning post-apocalyptic settings of the Himalayas being the backdrop for much of it. The name 'Maya' translates as illusion and we're not sure whether the character is an imaginary one as well. There are plenty of sequences which suggests so and there is also that shower scene which suggests that most of it is happening inside Mahi's head. That kind of undermines the film as you've to walk a very tight rope of ambiguity to keep your audience invested in the character. At one point of the film, when they show them during the initial days of their relationship, Maya tells Mahi that he is pretending to be something he is not. The film is essentially about Mahi's identity crisis.

It is overall a very good watch without achieving the great heights of ODK. The sequences in the Himalayas are breathtaking and it reminded me of 'Stalker' and 'Eyes Wide Shut' in some places. The main drawback is that it went too far on the ambiguity front, to the point you really don't care. Never go full retard. Performances are really good and the sound design is stunning as well. 

Rating: 3.5/5

മുന്തിരിവള്ളികൾ തളിർക്കുമ്പോൾ (Munthirivallikal Thallirkkumbol) (2017)

Director: Jibu Jacob
Writers: Sindhuraj, Pramod Pilla, Sooraj
Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Anoop Menon
Language: Malayalam 

Ulahannan (Mohanlal) is a Panchayat Secretary with a wife and two children. He is going through midlife crisis and his only solace is the daily liquor fueled meetings he have his neighbourhood friends. One of them is a compulsive flirt who encourages him to spice up his life with an affair.

Jibu Jacob's debut feature  'Vellimoonga' is a film that I found to be very overrated and the script writer for this film, Sindhuraj, is a name to avoid. So this was a film on which I had no expectations when it was announced and was not planning to watch. But the month long film strike and the good reviews that it is getting changed my mind and I got to say it is a very decent one-time watch. It is the sort of film I wouldn't complete if I was watching it from the comforts of my home but a theatre experience vastly improves the film as it removes the option of changing channels and paper over lot of its cracks.

The film begins on all the wrong notes with a subtle veneer of casteism and classism that is quite common in most Malayalam films of this kind. But it picks up with the introduction of Ulahannan's short lived affair and is quite an enjoyable watch till the end with minor bumps along the way. Mohanlal sleepwalks through most roles these days and what you get mostly is the preachy ad version of him. He manages to get into this character which is a very welcome change even though he relapses towards the end which can be blamed on the script. The best thing about the film is that it is not centered on something very dramatic when looking from outside but can be for those who experience it. Director manages to do it in a very non-cringy fashion even though there is certainly a morality message in it. The fact that he doesn't opt to drive it through a hammer on nail approach certainly helps.

They could've easily avoided some songs, Asha Sharath's character (the whole conversation was pure cringe in the 'Niram eda poda fashion') and some of his job stuff, especially in the second half. People can make quite an obvious comparison with  'Anuraga Karikkinvellam' ,not just for the similarity of the font used for their respective roles. AKV  had its very real life like character interactions as its strongest point.  MVT is not nearly as good as it in terms of character interactions but will do very well at box office as it caters to the family audience with their concerns being a central issue in the second half. Overall it is a decent one time watch albeit with fair share of clichés like modern rich are loose on 'morals', middle class housewives are always chaste and very sensible for their age teenagers.

Jana Gana Mana Status: Watched it from a houseful multiplex screen and I sat through it without any consequences. Rest all spacemonkeys stood up for it.

Rating: 2.5/5

God Say (2017)

Directors: Sherrey, Shyju Govindan 
Writers: Santosh Manikoth, E.P. Dineshan Nambiar
DOP: Jaleel Badusha
Cast: Vinay Forrt, Joy Mathew, Mythily, Indrans
Language: Malayalam 

Vinay Forrt plays the role of the protagonist who is alcoholic and works as an announcer for All India Radio. When the guy who does the 'Gandhi Maargam' show retires, he is assigned to take over the programme. Gandhi starts influencing the poor chap and that is how the story progresses.

The film begins with a heavy dose of Aakshavaani and Padmarajan nostalgia during its opening credits and once again reinforces my claim that 'Season' is the coolest film of his. Solomon and Mannarathudiyil Jayakrishnan from 'Namukku Parkkan Muthirithoppukal' and 'Thoovanathumbikal', respectively, where both high on cool quotient but the style of narration from Mohanlal in 'Season' is just something else. Heavily getting digressed here, God Say is set in early 90s in and around Rajiv Gandhi's death and India's economic liberalisation.

Gandhiji's philosophies haven't stood the test of times, be it in the economic sphere or the social one. As the film focuses mainly on the economic realm with a mix of Gandhi and communism, it is not that interesting if you don't much have time for both of these. One could enjoy it as a satire but I don't really think they were really going for that. Maybe if they had focused more on the social angle, with a juxtaposition with the current regime which can be described as Godse worshippers, it might have been more interesting.

It is a typical Malayalam art movie, struggling with its pacing and with heavy drama influence on its scripting and delivery. There is also an extreme lack of subtlety to the whole procedure. But the visuals are sumptuous. Vinay Forrt is getting quite typecast these days and you are reaching a point where you can't differentiate the character from the actor.

PS: This was my first movie going experience after the ridiculous Supreme Court ruling which made it mandatory for theatres to play national anthem ahead of screening. I am not intending to follow it and was quite up for sitting through it as a mark of protest. Turns out, there was only one other guy watching this film. As the anthem began, I sat there and glanced behind to find that he was also sitting through it. Ho-hum. That was as anticlimactic as the film that I was about to watch.

Rating: 2/5

2016- Best Malayalam Films (2016)

Malayalam cinema is ending 2016 with a whimper as there are no Christmas releases due to a strike (Kerala dei!)... So here goes my list of best Malayalam films from 2016...

1. Maheshinte Prathikaram (Dileesh Pothan)
2. Ozhivudivasathe Kali (Sanal Kumar Sasidharan)
3. Monsoon Mangoes (Abhi Varghese)
4. Munroe Thuruthu (Manu)
5. Kammattipaadam (Rajeev Ravi)
6. Idi (Sajid Yahiya)
7. Leela (Renjith)
8. James & Alice (Sujith Vasudev)
9. Guppy (Johnpaul George)
10. Kismath (Shanavas K. Baavakutty)
11. Kali (Sameer Thahir)
12. Anuraga Karikkinvellam (Khalid Rahman)

Arrival (2016)

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writers: Eric Heisserer, Ted Chiang
DOP: Bradford Young
Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker


A linguist is recruited by the military to translate alien communications after 12 alien vessels lands in different locations around the world including one in Montana. While different countries initially coordinate together to share the information they learn about aliens, this arrangement breaks down eventually when they try to pinpoint the purpose of their visit.

The monolithic space craft in the film is the very obvious but what seems a mandatory reference for every space related film to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film's treatment is quite similar to how it was in 'Signs' with the emphasis on what impact it does have on the characters rather than on the aliens or a confrontation. The tagline of the film is 'Why are they here?' and it kind of leads to a somewhat anti-climactic reasoning. Interstellar had a very cringe worthy explanation of 'Love' communicating over space and time and when compared to that, Arrival's message of countries from all around the earth having to unite together and coordinate is executed and conveyed much better. The obvious allusion is to the threat of climate change and global warming. When you come to think of it, the prevailing idea in this genre that aliens would want to invade earth is quite preposterous since them being here itself is proof of their superior intellect. I guess the easy comparison to our own history of colonialism is the reason for this narrative.

Arrival is an adaptation of short story 'Story of your life' by Ted Chiang. A major theme explored in the film is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It posits that the structure of a language affects its speakers' cognition or thought process. The film proposes that when you learn a new language, you begin to think in terms of that language. The alien language in the film has a unique feature which gives the linguist character, played by Amy Adams, a unique ability. The twist in the end would make you see many prior scenes from the film in a new light. Film had begun with Amy Adams kissing her new born baby which looks misleadingly like a still-born. That scene makes total sense in the end.

It is visually a gorgeous film in a foreboding sense when combined with Jóhan Jóhannsson's stunning background score. It sounded quite Indian at times as well. I watched the film with great expectations after the almost perfect reviews that it got and was somewhat underwhelmed by it. Jeremy Renner's character is terribly undercooked and it leads to an unconvincing ending. Denis Villeneuve is one of the best directors going around now and it ends up as one of his lesser efforts along with 'Prisoners'. Still, it is a very good watch people have every reason to be excited by his Bladerunner project.

Rating: 3.5/5 

Munroe Island (മണഡ്രോ തുരുത്ത്) (2016)

Director: Manu
Writer: Manu
DOP: Prathap P. Nair
Cast: Indrans, Jason Chacko, Abhija, Alancier Lay
Language: Malayalam 

Keshu, a wayward and mentally quite unstable teenager, and his father comes to their native village Munroe Thuruthu, an island village, where his grandfather lives in their ancestral home with Kathu, the maid. Father wants to take his son for proper psychological treatment while grandfather insists that he is quite normal and some time spent in the village will do him a world of good. Things don't go exactly according to grandfather's plan.

When the grandfather takes father and son to their home on first day, they reach a point from which two roads begin. Grandfather then tells the quite famous riddle of one road going to hell and other to complete freedom and a pathological liar being the only one who could help you find which road is the correct one to take but you can ask him only one question. So the trick is to frame the question in such a way that you could figure out the road from the fact that liar will always tell a lie. The basis of the film, we come to know by end, is this riddle as the grandson claims to have done or planning to do very bad deeds and we and the grandfather are not sure how much of it is true.

Going by the initial premise of the film one would think that it is another redemptive story where the goodness of village is the catalyst for redemption. We are used to films in Malayalam where the protagonist will have some redeeming in the end no matter how bad their characteristics are. The film plays on both of these by going in the opposite manner by keeping us always guessing and without having any sort of resolution at the end. The central plot point of the film revolves around the relation of the three men with Kathu. You cannot really pinpoint the exact nature of these relationships as the only basis for us is based on what the grandson thinks and he is not a reliable figure for us to conclude anything.

This film can be considered as polar opposite to both Rajeev Ravi's 'Njan Steve Lopez' and Padmarajan's 'Moonnam Pakkam'. At a macro level the premise of the film is quite similar to Moonnam Pakkam but the treatment and reverence of its characters are truly opposite. Steve Lopez was a naïve teenager who revolted against the corruption of adults. But in this film it is the older generation who are portrayed as naïve or acting naïve while the new generation calls out on them by exhibiting some extremely bad behaviour. Again, we are not sure whether the grandfather is acting naïve.

It is overall a great watch and works very well as a psychological thriller. It is the second film to be presented by Aashiq Abu after the excellent 'Ozhivudivasathe Kali' but this one got a very limited release with it playing in just two screens. That is a shame because this one could have done very well at the box office since Malayalees are quite fond of psychological thrillers/horror.  Performances from all concerned are good and at 92 minutes, the film is quite rightly edited.

Rating: 4/5

HyperNormalisation (2016)

Director: Adam Curtis
Writer: Adam Curtis

HyperNormalisation is the latest documentary from counter-historian Adam Curtis and it was released last month on BBC iPlayer. In the film, Curtis argues that since the 1970s, governments, financiers, and technological utopians have given up on the complex 'real world' and built a simple 'fake world' that is run by corporations and kept stable by politicians.

Out of all Curtis documentaries, this one I think would be the hardest to explain in rather simple terms. In the aftermath of Trump's presidential election win, we had articles pointing out that Facebook helped him in winning the election because those who rely on Facebook for news tend to be in an echo-chamber where their ideas are not challenged and they kept on being fed what they want to hear because of its algorithm. The basic point about the documentary is that we are living in a times where everyone is searching for a simple narrative and the politicians also follow that. He cites the example of West's relationship with Gaddafi where both of them cynically played the role that the other wanted them to play for the larger audience. The tendency to put blame on supervillains in search of simple narratives. The whole brooha about Saddam Hussein and WMDs after 2001 was just a repeat of how Gaddafi was portrayed in the 80s when the US really knew that it was senior Assad's Syria who were doing it in the 80s. They didn't want to take on Assad then because Reagan's forces were already driven out from Lebanon by Assad's unleashment of Shiite suicide bombers. Of course, everything came back to bite both US and West back because the concept of suicide bombers have mutated now to become more of a Sunni thing. Senior Assad wanted to unite Arab world and now the suicide bombers are tearing it apart.

The catharsis of the documentary comes up with Trump's presidential campaign and how he draws up parallel with Putin's shape shifting reality. It also focuses on Putin's chief enforcer Vladislav Surkov who sees Russia as one big reality show and the same thing is happening in Trump's USA. Last thirty or so years has greatly eroded people's trust in politicians and what it has resulted is that truth of reality is not much important anymore.

The other main strand in the documentary is about how the major movements that started with the help of social media, occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring mainly, have spectacularly failed. You can get people assembled with social media's simple narrative but they don't have an answer to the present system. Liberal left is failing and far right is filling the vacuum all over the World.

Rating: 4.5/5