It’s the end of the year and 2008 was not a stellar year for malayalam cinema. There were a few bright spots though. Sethumadhavan in PFC lists out what he thinks are the best movies of 2008.
2008 was a very average year for Malayalam cinema. The truly artistic movies seemed to be far and few.Hindi, tamil and dubbed telugu releases continued to flood the market in Kerala. Given below is my personal take on the Malayalam movies released in 2008-
Best Movies
Malabar Wedding- It was a small movie with Indrajeet and Gopika in the lead. Based upon a tradition called- ’sorakalyanam’ prevalent among some parts of the Malabar region of Kerala, the debutant director duo,Rajesh- Faisal was able to portray the tale in a very realistic way.Music by Rahulraj was also adequate.
Thirakadha- Directed by Renjith and allegedly based upon the romance between Kamal Haasan and Srividya, Thirakadha was a poignant tale of a young director (played well by Prithviraj) trying to make a movie based on the romance between the current superstar and a yesteryear actress. Priyamani was brilliant as the actress. Overall a well appreciated effort.
Gulmohar- Directed by Jayaraj,this movie marked the acting debut of director Renjith.As Induchoodan, a former naxalite who looks back at the earlier days of the naxalite movement and then sets forth on an unfinished mission, Renjith was clearly brilliant. Unfortunately the movie was not well received at the box office.
Twenty: 20- Yes I am being a bit indulgent here in my choice. But having all the big stars like Mammooty, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi,Dileep, Jayaram etc in a single movie and doing justice to them is not a joke. For this reason alone director Joshy and producer Dileep deserve all the applause. ( check out my write up http://passionforcinema.com/twenty-20-%e2%80%93-indias-biggest-movie-ever/#more-9128 for more details)
Calcutta News- While this movie is not on the same level as director Blessy’s Kaazcha or Thanmadra, the movie was still reasonably realistic and had some good performances from Dileep and Gopika. It was another take on the flesh trade in Kolkata’s Sonagachi and reminded you of Kamal Haasan’s Mahanadi.
Veruthe Oru Bharya- Jayaram made a strong comeback with this surprise hit. He played a typical nagging husband who believes that his wife ( Gopika) should just be happy enough to do whatever he says. One fine day Gopika rebels and leaves home. Though the movie did not have a landmark story, Akku Akbar the director was able to ensure that the movie brought the family audiences back to the theatre.[Tamil and Malayalam Cinema in 2008-An Overview]
What is your take on the best movies of 2008. Is there any movie you think should have made to this list?
PS: Which was the best movie of 2008? Take the poll on the right side bar.
(Frequent visitor James left this as a comment. It addresses an important topic and hence it is promoted as an article. If you are leaving a comment, it has to be within the context of the acting differences. If you want to you simply state your favourite actor is superior as a slogan, then this would be the wrong place.)
It is true, in some ways, of the fact that Mammootty’s style in more inclined towards the more famous part of method acting. Whereas Mohanlal’s style seems to be the opposite to it. Due to the fact he doesn’t prepare all that much for a role.
I’m not saying one actor is better to another; I’m just talking about their acting schools. There are many different acting schools, and the most famous among them is method acting, internationally, which was born out of the Stanislavski’s system, but both of them are different schools. “The Method” is popular because of legends such as Brando, DeNiro, Pacino, Dean, Newman etc. who were students of it. My personal fav in this school is Montgomery Clift (recently saw the underrated Hitchcock film I Confess).
Coming back to the point, Mohanlal is more of a spontaneous actor. As he usually says in his interviews. He transforms into the character as the director says ‘action’. One of his best abilities is showing the most inner feelings of the character, the expressions in his face so naturally. In films such as Kireedam, Bharatham, Iruvar, Vanaprastam etc. But an actor like him can’t play historical figures or other characters who are based on real life because his weakness seems to be the inability to transform physically into a character, or to change his accent as to the character. But I wouldn’t completely say Mammootty is a full fledged “method actor”. I’m saying his style is inclined more towards it. With his performances in films such as Nirakkoottu, Thaniyavartanam, Oru CBI Diary Kurippu, Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, Mrigaya, Padheyam, and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
I’m no expert, I’m no actor. I’m just a guy who dreams of being a filmmaker.
I mean all I know is what I here in these documentaries, interviews, wiki, or the performances of method actors where people like DeNiro and Bale change their weight (change physically) to be like their characters in films such as Raging Bull and The Machinist. Or where Pacino changed his accent in Scarface to be like his character: a Cuban. Even Brando changed the outside appearances (physical) to be like a gangster and an Italian-American in The Godfather. I thought this was what Method Acting is all about, or at least the main style of it. But it seems like that just a part of it, there’s more to it.
As Micheal Mills puts in his site the Method
“emphasized an individualized, psychological approach to acting”
“The “Method” required a performer to draw on his or her own self, on experiences, memories, and emotions that could inform a characterization and shape how a character might speak or move. Characters were thus shown to have an interior life; rather than being stereotyped figures representing a single concept (the villain, the heroine), they could become complex human beings with multiple and contradictory feelings and desires. It was the ability to convey the complexity-indeed the confusion of inner feelings that made the Actors Studio-trained Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean such emblematic figures for the Postwar era. ” (this is of course what Mohanlal did best!)
Hence, the Method mainly is an acting school which taught both aspects that Mammootty and Mohanlal excelled at.
So a perfect actor is some one who has mastered both of these aspects. Though “the ability to convey the complexity-indeed the confusion of inner feelings” is a very hard thing to do. Very few can do it, and that’s why I consider Mohanlal to be one of the best actors in the world. As Anthony Hopkins puts it “these people, they come up once in a century”
Now that I think about it, Mammootty can hide himself and become some one else, he can be his character. Mohanlal is able to easily portray human emotions quite easily and naturally. Though the way Lal handled his Aadu Thoma character, it seems to have a “method acting” technique to it.
The thing that made Marlon Brando quite extraordinary in the 50s was that he had both Lal and Mammootty’s abilities.
Pritviraj’s Shafi directed Lollipop is turning out to be not a sweet experience for its distributors Mulagupadam Films. The climax of the film was changed, a day after its release!
The audience’s reaction to the film which released on Friday (December 19), was very bad. They just could not digest a ghost (Jayasurya) narrate the story in a flashback. By evening Shafi and co decided to change the climax.[Lolipop climax changed!]
So, what’s wrong with Malayalam Cinema?
Dud!
Sreeram says that this Lollipop sucks:
Lack of originality in script, repeated comic sequences and dialogues that irritate, boring songs and dull song picturizations, overacting by most of the cast (Salim Kumar and Jayasurya are the saving grace), shoddy editing, tacky art direction and outrageous props- these are only some of the drawbacks of this listless enterprise. One can only feel sorry for the young brigade of Malayalam Cinema- if these are the kind of scripts that the youngsters are going to choose, this industry will be ruled by the 2 mighty superstars till they die. Shift your attention across the border guys- let us look forward to the theatrical release of Abhiyum Naanum, Villu and the like- they will definitely entertain us better!
NowRunning.com writes that Lollipop is a loser:
The film is a no-life zone of hideous magnitude that deserves nothing more than yawns and groans for the two and a half hours that it runs. There is neither a balance between wit or tension and not even a far-off sense of astuteness to be seen around. There’s little consistency between scenes, which doesn’t matter ultimately since it gradually proceeds from the familiar to the annoying to the truly maddening stuff.
This is no sugary candy on a stick, let me tell you. Flip your tongue over this Lollipop in all eagerness, and you would wish you had sunk your teeth deep into a raw bitter gourd instead.
Tags: Lollipop review
Shahul (http://www.shortz.in) saw 24 movies at IFFK 2008 and had put his impressions as a comment in vc. We thought it was appropriate to publish it as an article.
Here are my brief opinions on the 24 movies I watched over five days, in the order in which I saw them.
1. Magician by Ingmar Bergman
Brief synopsis: A travelling magician/healer and his team reach a city where the authorities are trying to expose the team as frauds.
A typical Bergman movie – like most of his stories, this one also takes place over a period of two days, without any flashback. Bergman reuses the same cast he used in most of his movies – Max von Sydow, Gunder Bjornstrand, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, etc. The story exposes the hypocrisy of both the magician’s team and the city officials. In the climax there are some interesting twists, of the kind usually seen in a Hitchcock movie rather than a Bergman movie.
2. We are Jazzmen by Karen
Brief synopsis: Few musicians try to promote Jazz in Communist Russia against oppositions from those who consider Jazz as bourgeois.
Had seen some online reviews calling this one a “gem”. Though there were some hilarious moments, I felt that this one did not deserve to be in IFFK.
Favorite dialogue:
“His name is at the tip of my tongue… It has some relation to meat…”
“Is it Porkov?”
3. Kanchivaram by Priyadarshan
Brief synopsis: a weaver of silk sarees wanted to drape his wife in silk on their wedding day, but fails because of economic reasons. When his first daughter is born, he promises that he will gift her a silk saree on her wedding.
After going through many previews and reviews, I was expecting Kanchivaram to be a melodramatic tale of poverty, exploitation, communist movement, etc. But, I ended up watching a true classic. Each and every frame is composed and choreographed brilliantly. The screenplay is excellently crafted. Hats off to Priyadarshan – I don’t know if any other filmmaker in the world can boast of such a range - both Kilukkam to Kanchivaram have been crafted by the same person!
The movie starts two day’s after Gandhiji’s murder, when Vengadam (Prakash Raj) is released from jail on parole for two days. He and two policemen board a bus to Kanchivaram. The movie jumps back and forth between scenes from the bus journey and flashbacks from his past life.
Favorite scene: (contains spoilers) In the flashback we see Vengadam’s wife dying in his hands. In the next shot we see people carrying a dead body. One by one they enter the frame from behind the camera and walk away and away from it. Then we see this crowd crossing the bus in which Vengadam and the policemen are travelling. A really smooth transition from flashback to the main story…
A long description of the movie’s historical premise is displayed at the beginning of the movie. It could have been avoided, as most of that info is weaved into the story at later stages, and as the movie would have been understood and enjoyed even without all that information.
4. Breath by Kim Ki Duk
Brief synopsis: A prisoner, who is in death row for murdering his wife and kids, attempts suicide for a second time. A young lady whose husband has an extramarital affair meets the prisoner and starts a relationship with him.
The fan base Kim Ki Duk has in Kerala is amazing – the queue for Breath was probably the longest in this IFFK. The crowd was so unmanageable that they closed the theatre doors half an hour before the screening, to be reopened only after a lot of discussions. And the movie validated all the rush.
Favorite scene: (contains spoilers) In a computer monitor which displays input from the prison’s surveillance cameras, the young lady and the prisoner are seen making love in the visitor’s room. Then the operator changes the display in the monitor to input from another camera, and we see the lady’s husband and their daughter happily making a snow man in the prison’s courtyard.
5. Yellow House by Amor Hakkar
Synopsis: A young man is killed in an accident. His father drives to town to collect the dead body and takes it to their village. He is also given a video tape with some message from his late son. Back home, the soldier’s mother is unable to cope with the loss. They purchase a TV and VCR to watch the video cassette, only to realize that they cannot use them as there is no electricity at their home. Then they meet the town officials, get electricity, and watch the cassette.
I heard many people praising this movie, and it even won an award. But, I felt nothing attractive in it, and still wonder how this one made it to the competition section.
6. Postcards from Leningrad by Mariana Rondon
Brief synopsis: The story of 1960s’ left upraising in Venezuela is told from a child’s perspective
The movie had an innovative structure, with occasional use of animation and TV footage. While we have seen a dead body doing the narration in Sunset Boulevard, here we have an unborn child narrating events like her parents’ first meeting and her conception. Though the story is told from children’s perspective, there are some scenes of torture and butchering of a pig.
7. Hafez by Abolfazl Jalili
Brief synopsis: A Quran scholar is stripped of his Hafez status when he peeps at the local priest’s daughter while teaching her to recite Quran
To be honest, I was not able to follow much of what happened in this movie.
8. Firaaq by Nandita Das
Brief synopsis: Some survivors adjusts to their new life about a month after the Gujarat riots.
Firaaq was one of the best movies of this IFFK (I would rank it just below Blindness and Kanchivaram). It has a multiplot story, with characters of various storylines occasionally crossing each other’s paths, as in Crash, Babel, Traffic, Yun Hota To Kya Hota, etc. It is similar to Crash in many ways, though less well made than Crash. And the relationship between different plots is not as interesting as in Babel. Still, it is a very food film.
Favorite scene: (contains spoilers) Some background info before coming to the scene proper– a Muslim youth whose house was burnt during the riots plans to revenge, and collects a gun and a bullet with help of his friends. One from the group fires a shot, police hears it, and starts following them. This Muslim youth is followed by a policeman through narrow lanes. In a wide shot, a person standing in the balcony of a big house is seen asking the policeman “who was it?” The police man answers that it was a Muslim. That man happily points to the policeman the way through which the Muslim youth had gone. After some time, the policeman is seen going back, unable to find the Muslim youth.
After some time, the Muslim youth comes out, and stops near that big house to take some rest. In the same wide shot we see the man on the first floor leaving the balcony and going into his house. Someone from the audience commented “He is going to call the Police.” After few seconds he reappears on the balcony, and drops something like a concrete slab to the head of the Muslim youth standing below, instantly killing him.
9. My Marlon and Brando by Huseyin Karabey
Brief synopsis: In the initial days of the US invasion of Iraq, an actress tries to cross Iraq border to meet her lover.
There have been many movies which tried to depict the condition of a country by following someone travelling through it, like Kandahar, Getting Home, etc. There was only one interesting aspect I noticed in My Marlon and Brando – In one of the first scenes the actress receives a video cassette from her boyfriend. We see the video in full screen -it is shot on a handycam, and contains his musings about his love for her. Further into the movie, whenever the couple talks over phone, the guy’s part is shown as if he is speaking to the handycam.
I was able to guess the climax about 30 minutes into the film (and I assume you have guessed it already)
10. The Photograph by Nan T Achnas
Brief synopsis: A struggling prostitute and a widowed photographer get close to each other
Another good movie from this IFFK. It had a Padmarajan touch. A theme that could have easily slipped to clichés and melodrama was handled in a subtle way, with magnificent cinematography and background score adding to the magic.
11. Short Sharp Shock Turk by Akin
Brief synopsis: a story of three friends, their crimes and their girlfriends
This one was like one of those commercial Hindi movies. I don’t know why they chose it for IFFK.
Favorite dialogue: (contains spoiler) The movie has a good last line. As one of lead characters is in his home preparing to leave the country after a murder, his father invites him to join him in the prayers, saying: “Like every film, every life is also going to end.”
12. Blindness by Fernando Meirelles
Brief synopsis: A city goes blind.
In last year’s IFFK I was enthralled by Sleepwalking Land. This time I was expecting more movies of that standard, but only Blindness came close. The director of City of God has come out with another magnificent work of cinema. The way Memento puts us in the protagonist’s shoes by saying the story from end to beginning, Blindness puts us in the blind men’s position by using faded, out of focus, black and white, under lit or over lit shots most of the time.
Blindness is based on a novel by Nobel laureate Saramago.
13. Dreams of Dust by Laurent Salgues
Brief synopsis: Mocktar joins a desert gold mine in another country to escape from the grief of his daughter’s death.
This one was another disappointment. Those who have not seen Woman of the Dunes or Lawrence of Arabia may feel that this movie has excellent shots of the desert. In one scene, the gold miners are seen watching television – and on the screen there is the song “Chalte Chalte” from Pakeeza.
14. Farewell, Gulsary by Ardak Amirkulov
Brief synopsis: A story about the ill effects of “nationalization” of agriculture by Stalin, told through the relationship between a communist party member and his beloved horse. This movie uses an interesting perspective to deal with a political issue, and clearly succeeds in it. The story on which the film is based is available at http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/b…..lsary.html
15. Machan Dir: Uberto Pasolini
Brief synopsis: Few unemployed Sri Lankan youth masquerade as National Handball Team to enter Germany.
The lead characters will remind you of Dasan and Vijayan. A really hilarious movie, which rightly won the Audience Choice award. It is interesting to note that the movie was made by a director from Italy.
Favorite scene: when the “National Handball Team” is learning the rules of handball, a Police jeep approaches and stops near the ground. One “player” mutters that we are going to end up in jail instead of Germany. Two policemen get out of the jeep, one whispers to the other that “these are the suspects”. Upon reaching the anxious players the policemen take out their own passports and visa applications, handle them over to the players, and join the “team”!
16. Tokyo Sonata by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Brief synopsis: Four members of a Japanese family cope after the father/husband lose his job due to outsourcing.
The father/husband hides the news of job loss from the family, and after trying to get another good job and eating free lunch from a charity for many days, joins as a sweeper in a super market. The elder son joins US army. The younger son diverts his lunch money and flunks classes to attend a piano school. The mother goes on a ride in her dream car with a thief and spends a night with him in a beach. One of the good movies from this IFFK. Though it is based on the usual-festival-movie-theme of the ill effects of globalization, the story was developed and told in an interesting way. The mother’s subplot was a treat to watch. This movie had won Jury Award in Cannes.
17. Two Legged Horse by Samira Makhmalbaf
Brief synopsis: A boy is hired to carry a handicapped boy on his back.
Another good movie. Iranian directors seem to have a special skill in getting excellent performances from child actors (remember Children of Heaven, Buddha Fell out of Shame, Turtles Can Fly, etc.) Can you start hating a handicapped young boy within the first few minutes of a movie? In this one, Samira succeeds in forcing you to do that.
18. Gulabi Talkies by Girish Kasaravalli
Brief synopsis: Gulabi, a separated Muslim woman living in an island, is a movie buff. She gets a TV and dish antenna in her hut, and the life in the island slowly changes.
One of the disappointing movies. Both the script and direction had many flaws. The screenwriter wants you to believe that listening to TV serial’s story can motivate a lady to elope with someone. The director takes some day-for-night scenes in which there are very sharp shadows and bright light over the sea when one of the characters reminds us that it is midnight.
Favorite shot: (contains spoilers) The movie had a good closing shot. When most ladies in the island crowd in the Gulabi’s hut to watch the serials, two old Hindu ladies stay away, saying that we cannot enter “their” place. In the climax, when Gulabi is driven out of the island, these two old ladies are seen entering her hut and sitting in front of the TV.
19. Parque Via Dir: Enrique Rivero
Brief synopsis: A house keeper tries to cope when the house in which he has been working for decades is getting sold.
Winner of the suvarna chakoram. This is a really unusual movie. The audience was very restless and had started hurling abuses in the first 30 minutes. Reason – all that happens in the first 30 minutes is that the house keeper is repeatedly shown doing his daily chorus – drying the clothes, mowing the lawn, cleaning the window panes, brushing his teeth, having food, passing urine, checking his weight, watching TV news while eating some snacks, going to sleep, getting up when the alarm rings, then again doing the same things once more… I myself would have walked out of the theatre if I did not already know that this movie has won an award in Locarno. But, after all these monotonous shots, the house owners get someone to purchase the house. The plot gradually thickens, till it reaches a surprise ending.
Favorite dialogue:
“How are my thighs? Aren’t they cute?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Why”
“Because they are the first things I am going to move apart”
20. Song of the Sparrows by Majid Majidi
Like Kim Ki Duk, Majidi also has a strong fan base in Kerala. The theatre was full, even though first screening of the movie was at 9 PM. Amir Naji, who acted as the children’s father in Children of Heaven, plays the lead role of Karim. Karim loses his job when an ostrich escapes from the farm in which he works. The movie is a series of small but interesting incidents which occur when he tries to make the both ends meet. Though Majidi has even used some magnificient helicopter shots in this one, I rate this one two points below Children of Heaven.
Favorite scene: When Karim rides a taxi in Tehran, he gets a chance to escape with a refrigerator. While he tries to sell it in the market, he sees few ostriches in a shop. The birds remind him of the previous job in which he was honest, he changes his mind, and returns the refrigerator to its owner.
21. Faro by Salif Traore
Brief synopsis: An engineer returns to his village to find his father and to educate the villagers about their blind faith in a water goddess.
Yet another tale dealing with the conflict between tradition and modernity, Faro was full of clichéd characters – a village drunkard, a villain who wants to become the village head, his son who desires the hero’s girlfriends, etc.
22. Three Monkeys by Nuri Ceylan
Synopsis: (Contains spoilers) A politician kills someone in an accident. He persuades his driver to accept the crime, in return for a huge sum of money that will be given when he returns from jail after nine months. The driver agrees. The driver’s son needs money to buy a taxi, and sends his mother to the politician to get some advance from the amount he is going to pay the driver. The politician and the driver’s wife become interested in each other, and they meet in her house. Driver’s son comes to know about this, but hides the news from his father. The driver gets out of jail, comes to know that his wife had visited the politician to collect the money, and suspects that the two may have started an affair. The driver’s wife wants to continue her affair with the politician, but he is reluctant. The driver’s son is aware of the raising tension in the family, and kills the politician. The driver requests a tea shop owner to accept the crime, and offers to give him a large sum when he returns from the jail.
Three Monkeys was a simple story told in a beautiful way, and it had won the Best Director award in Cannes.
23. Teos Voyage by Walter Doehner
Another tale of human love and national borders, like My Marlon and Brando.
Synopsis: (Contains spoilers) Teo, a nine year old boy whose father is in jail, has been living with his uncle. His father comes out of jail, takes Teo with him, tries to cross the border from US to Mexico illegally, and disappears when the group is attacked in the night. (Those who have seen Babel or Traffic will remember the desert in US Mexico border – it always looks great in films.) Teo reaches Mexico, tries to cross the border back to US with few friends, gets lost in the desert, and is rescued and taken back to Mexico by an army helicopter,. In the meantime he comes to know that his father has been actually trying to take him to his mother who is in Mexico. In the last shot we see Teo’s mother approaching him.
24. Kippur by Amos Gitai
I watched only the first half of the movie. It looked more like a documentary on a war. Besides, it was projected from a low-quality DVD, and the picture quality was poor.
Tags: IFFK 2008
It’s time for YRF to start their celebrations as Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has had a successful run at the BO since its release last week. And if that was not enough the news is that YRF has got a call from the Oscar library requesting them for the script of Rab Ne… for its permanent collection.
News has it that it’s basically the sensitivity of the screenplay and the unusual love story that attracted the attention of the Oscar library. For the uninitiated, the scripts in the collection are kept at the famous Margaret Herrick library and are made accessible strictly for research purposes only. It’s actually the students, filmmakers, writers and actors who can avail the scripts. Also, the screenplays may only be viewed in the library since they do not get circulated and no screenplay is allowed to be photocopied. [Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi makes it to Oscars library]
Most readers might think what these folks were smoking when they asked for the script, but there could be some good reasons also. Couple of things which come to our mind are, one it could be to illustrate the successful formula of making box-office bollywood hits or it could be to show serious students of cinema how movies should not be made.
Tags: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
All your four films have been hits. What is the secret of your success?
I think I know what the audience will like. I like to be among them and observe the changing trends — the kind of stories people will appreciate. Script is the most important ingredient. Then comes the screenplay.
Creativity becomes fake when you lose your contact with the public. I think of success, not money. If you are successful, money will follow automatically. But if you only think of money and no success, it’s of no use. [rediff.com: 'I was doubtful if Aamir will suit the role']
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