In this movie, like in Myshkin’s previous movie — Chittiram Pesuthadi — Narain is a revelation. In this movie he changes from a street rowdy to an angry police officer, thus transitioning from the anamala of machoism to Mount Everest. In between he handles romance and comedy as well.

We think he is the best person to take over the mantle from Suresh Gopi as the angry-about-everything-man. Malayalam cinema always needs an angry young man and most of our actors have graduated through that path. Young Prithviraj had three such movies with Padmakumar and now a days he is busy doing comedy. Dileep tried being an angry young man in various movies, but they turned out to be comedies.

Producers know Narain’s talent, but they are sceptical about his saleability in Malayalam. Thus they cast him in miniscule roles in Classmates and Ore Kadal, and when they make him the hero it turns out to be a low level movie like Panthayakozhi.

We hope our producers watch Myshkin’s two movies one after the other and create a real angry young man image for Narain. The best thing: you only have to pay him the same amount it costs to make Suresh Gopi look young.

I don’t have absolutely anything against mindless entertainers.After all, cinema is an escapist fare and as long as they manage to entertain the audience it doesn’t matter how good or bad the story is..But what will you do if a movie (which is scripted and directed by one of the cinematic geniuses whom you admire the most) is at the same time mindless and fails to entertain you? That is exactly what Minnaminnikootam is.It is such a trash that makes you cringe to your seat and put you in deep slumber!

Minnaminnikootam starts the ‘classmates’ way,goes to the flash back mode and then comes to the present in the climax scene.Ya…right from the beginning it sounds clichéd no?This is the main flaw of Minnaminni.. it is clichéd,predictable and except for a few gags from Jayasurya and Roma is plain boring. Kamal’s intentions are clear,to make a movie about a group of friends who are I.T.professionals (who quite often behave like teenage boys and girls, and their main job is to sit and chat in the Office ‘Canteen during working hours!) and their woes in life.But what Kamal lacks is a strong story line which keeps the viewers hooked to the movie.

Coming to the performances…The movie has a dozen of stars from the youth brigade though the story revolves round the lead pair of Narein and Meera which infact is the biggest blow as far as the audience is concerned!While the supporting cast of Jayasurya,Roma,Indrajith,Samvrutha have done their roles effectively both Meera and Narein seems to be miscast in their respective roles.Narein lacks screen presence ,his acting is pretty bad (at times amateurish, esp in the ‘drunken’ scene!).Meera’s role is nothing but an extension of what she did in Vinodayathra,Calcutta News and a dozen of other recent films.She over emotes at times and becomes irritating often..Anoop Chandran and Radhika have nothing much to do except to look pretty in the posters designed for the movie!

The songs by Biji Bal and Anil Panachooran is a big let down.Technically also the movie is weak.Cinamatography by Manoj Pillai is just ordinary.

Bottom Line: This Minnaminni is not worth your time and Money!

Velu writes:

This is a film that turns out to be significant not merely for its singular plot, but for the tower house performances of its leading cast as well. It starts off with a series of vivacious shots of its protagonist making love; and in conversation, looking harried and a tad jaded. Mammootty lets go of an alleged reticence and is at ease being the unfussy womanizer; the slipshod gait or the unyielding gaze as he words those hazy lines in an outlandish accent lingers around as a trademark of a seasoned actor who knows his way about a job that he simply loves.Meera builds up her feat not out of grand gestures, but out of countless subtle little moments of growing love; the frenzy and the fury of a hapless woman caught in the midst of a surge of passion that leaves her devastated has been dexterously captured. Bela is an otherwise uncomplicated persona that should throw no fresh challenges to the fantastic actor in Ramya Krishnan. But the kind of anguish that she carries somewhere deep inside reflects particularly in her hazel eyes that refuse to shed a tear. The obstinacy and sturdiness of a bruised heart is all too evident in a staunch stare or a casual smirk.

Naren as the mystified spouse confidently underplays his part to perfection as well.The vital tale simply glows and demands a genuine attention to the nuances of voice and gesture. This is an account that could so easily be vulgarized, could be reduced to obvious elements of seduction, sex and melodramatic parting. Mammootty and Meera weave a spell, and it is based on that particular knowledge of love and self that transcends all ages and time.

Sify.com comments:

Dr S R Nathan ( Mammootty) is a renowned social economist, who is also a well known writer on the social inequalities in the country. He is basically a loner, alcoholic and a womanizer (whenever physical need arises!), who has a long standing relationship with a high class call girl Bella (Ramya Krishnan). Nathan has hardly any human feelings or emotions when it comes to matter of love. He is in love with himself, his work and says- “It’s economics that rules, not emotions”.But fate has something different for Nathan, when he helps a lady staying in his apartment complex with a sick child in arm, who has no money for treatment! Nathan comes to know that Deepti’s ( Meera Jasmine) husband is unemployed and she has no money even to pay her rent! ( Nathan: “In India the biggest problem that the middle class is facing is unemployment, there are 20 million unemployed people in the country.”).Soon Nathan takes a fascination for her, which ends in bed, nothing new to him, but it opens a whole new world for Deepti. She is drawn emotionally to him, as her husband Jayan (Narain) is still looking for a job! Nathan, on Deepti’s pleading, gets him a good job, which makes her more indebted to him emotionally; though he makes it clear he has no time or inclination for any kind of feelings or love.

India Glitz.com writes:

Told poetically and uncompromisingly by the director, once again employing an extractive style and imagery that transcends realism. Ore Kadal is a sensitive tale of Deepti, a middle class housewife, who is irresistibly drawn to a radical, forthright intellectual, Nathan, who is a renowned social scientist, more comfortable with his theories. Dr Nathan a loner and alcoholic, who is studying the inequalities of the Indian society, hardly recognize any feelings of life as he finds economics, as what that rules the world. He often shares his values with high class call girl Bela, who is his only friend and who often shares everything with each other for “Being happy for the moment, which is your life and realizing that there are no mistakes in life, only things you do and don’t do”. He doesn’t believe in relationships, or any kind of emotional bonding, rather than the needs of the hour. The movie also delves with the changing value systems of the middle class in this age of globalization, where the dividing lines between right and wrong, honesty and deceit, loyalty and betrayal, are increasingly narrowing down. It may be the same self-torture that the two protagonists are exposed to live with..

Mammootty, Joshi and Co tried their best to race against time to get Nasrani finished in time, so that they will have a crass commercial potboiler ready to match up against Alibhai during Onam season. Nasrani wouldn’t be ready for Onam 2007, which is a blessing in disguise for Ore Kadal. As it would be Onam season, lot of people would watch this movie, unlike other unfortunate art house productions.

Ore Kadal has a lot of firsts – Mammootty with Shyama Prasad the director, Mamootty with Meera Jasmine, Mammootty with Naren – to name a few. As this movie is getting released in the lucrative Onam season, there could be another first – Viewers seeing Shyamaprasad’s movies.

Shyama Prasad’s previous movies were also based on literary works. Agnisakshi was based on Laithambika Antharjanam’s novel and Akale was based on Tennessee Williams’ play. Ore Kadal is based on a Bengali novel Hirak Deepthi by Sunil Gangopadhyay. As it is fashionable these days, there is a law suit pending about this movie’s story.

Mammooty is Dr. S.R. Nathan in the film, an internationally acclaimed economist, molded in the likes of Dr. Amartya Sen. He is more focused on fiscal and economic matters and roams around in careless dresses amidst lazyness and his big intellect. He leads a lonely life and is an alcoholic to boot, who never believes in long lasting relations.And after a travel around the world, he comes over to a flat to make a living for some time. Their, by the oddest of circumstances he meets a housewife, Deepthi, who instantly develops a fancy for the world renowned economist. Deepthi is living in one of the neighboring flats with his husband Jayan who is a marketing officer of an insurance company. In course of time they learn that they have much common between themselves. Both due to their own circumstances, they have been to same emotional strains, which bring them together for a matured romance that starts budding between them.[Preview: Ore Kadal ]

Shyama Prasad is optimistic about viewers accepting Ore Kadal, as he’s emboldened by the good run of movies like Kazhcha and Tanmatra. Like Shyama Prasad we also hope that this movie does well in the box office, only if it’s a good movie.

We were very curious about Lal Creation’s Vishu release, as it was touted to be the movie to take on superstar releases. As we wrote in our preview and as per all the reviewers, the story didn’t seem to offer anything new. Narain receives positive feedback in all the reviews for his performance.

Sify.com reviews:

If you think that the story has come on screen several times earlier, there lies the problem with Panthayakozhi. Even the villain, a typical Gounder, who in our films are always the rich, brash, rural chieftains and has the whole village waiting for his commands, seems to have come straight out of some old flicks. Again, the mother clad in a white saree who can prompt the hero to thrash the baddies with some hard hitting dialogues remind you of Rakhee or Nirupa Roy doing the same in umpteen Bollywood films.

With item numbers becoming an accepted ingredient in Malayalam films these days, it could be natural for the hero to rush to a dance bar, when he is in anguish! There are four songs in the film, tuned by Alex Paul with Karimbanude Naatil… being the pick of the lot. Pallaseri has rehashed some of his earlier dialogues. Narain as Nandagopal is terrific, and has the potential to be a full fledged action hero. Pooja has hardly any chance to emote other than looking good in songs.

 Rediff.com says: 

Once upon a time, Malayalam cinema was the story hub for South Indian films but now the trend has changed so dramatically that we see Malayalam directors taking up decade-old stories from other languages, all in search of that elusive hit.

Panthayakozhi, directed by M A Venu and starring Narain, is one such attempt where gory fights end with chopped limbs and songs popping up at regular intervals.

This is the story of a happy-go-lucky man, Nandu (Narain) thrown into a situation that changes his life: conflicts he has to overcome, falling in love and fighting for his mother and sister. But in the midst of all of this, he also finds time to dance!

 IndiaGlitz.com writes:

Lal Creations’ Vishu offering Pandhaya Kozhi belongs only to Narain, who after many acquaintances in Tamil has matured into a dependable actor.

In the film he creates laughter, he spreads innocence, cries louder and throw his legs to a couple of dances and make some best fight sequences. What more do you expect to honor him as a convincing hero? 

Pandhaya Kozhi is all about a young man, Nandagopal played by Narain who is flocked around by a lot of problems and responsibilities

Picture courtesy: sify.com

Producer Lal wanted to make a movie with one of the superstars and the story line he approved went like this. A youngster comes to Kalimuthupalayam in Tamil Nadu to sell a house and some property. There he meets a Tamil girl Chembakam and falls in love. The house he had come to sell had lot of problems and how he solves them forms the story.

The superstars refused dates for this movie. Probably they thought why bore the audience with yet another Malayali-lands-in-TN story. Haven’t they seen Paadipada, Kerala House Vilkanundu, Mayilattom, Thommanum Makkalum or myriad of other movies which dealt with Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Thevar, Gounder, House, Daughter, and Thevar’s henchmen? Which angle has not been covered so far?

Miffed by the snub of superstars, Lal has decided to launch Narain aka Sunil as the new hero in Malayalam. Sunil/Narain was just awesome in the Tamil film Chittiram Pesuthadi, but unfortunately he has not been able to show his talent in Malayalam films to that extent. Yes, he has acted in few movies like Sheelabathi, Annorikkal and Classmates, but all those roles were not so demanding as the Tamil film.

Besides Narain, the movie also stars, Geetha, Madhu, Sudheesh, Janardhanan, Rami Reddy, and the heroine is Pooja. The story is by M.A Venu who also directs the movie. The music is by Lal’s brother Alex Paul and the lyrics are by Vayalar Sharatchandra Varma.

This Vishu season, Narain is facing an uphill battle against both Mammotty (Big-B) and Mohanlal (Chotta Mumbai), but also against Rajnikanth, whose much awaited Shivaji is releasing in 60 theatres in Kerala. Producer Lal has gone and booked the best theatres for Panthaya Kozhi, but then people come to see the movie not the theatre. We wonder what made Lal chose a stale story like this, but he is one person who has a good story sense and hope he will pull some magic out of his hat, for Malayalam Cinema definitely needs a hero like Narain.

In the teaser scene of the movie you see Sukumaran (Prithviraj) chasing Sateeshan (Jayasurya) along the campus. Finally Sukumaran catches him and beats him to pulp. Someone throws him a hockey stick and as he is about to kill Sateeshan, someone shouts that their friend Murali (Sunil) is found dead in the generator room. Suku wakes up from his dream and gets ready to go back to Kerala from Mumbai for a reunion among those classmates.

The reunion of the 1991 Chemistry batch was organized by Prof. Iyer (Balachandra Menon) and his wife (Sobha Mohan) in memory of their son Murali. The plan was to have a get together in the evening, recollect memories, stay in the hostel for the night and leave in the morning. Besides Sukumaran who is now a diamond merchant the other people who arrive are Sateeshan, who is an MLA, Pius (Indrajith), who is now in Gulf, Thara Kurup (Kavya Madhavan) who is a professional dancer and Raziya (Radhika).

As they arrive one by one, both Thara and Sateeshan give a hostile looks to Sukumaran and you know something is not right. His only friend is Pius, but since his daughter was sick, Pius leaves to see a doctor at night at the insistence of Thara. As Suku is drunk and lying in the hostel room at night, Prof. Iyer comes to meet him and talk about Murali and his guitar which Iyer kept in another room. That night when Pius returns he finds Suku is strangled by the guitar string and police comes to investigate.

Suku was not dead and he is moved to the ICU. The police meanwhile find his diary in which he had written that he wanted to end his life, but before that he wanted to go back to his past one last time. Iyer does not believe that it is suicide. He walks along with Pius and tells that to understand the present, we have to go back into the past. The movie then flash backs to 1991.

The college life of that era was a time of strikes, a time of romance, a time of political fights and the time of love letters hidden in books. Suku is the leader of SFK and Sateeshan that of DSU and they have their tiffs. Suku also has an ongoing feud with Thara ever since she refused to leave class following a strike call issued by him. They play pranks on each other and finally it turns out that they both are madly in love with each other.

To disrupt this, Sateeshan influences Thara’s father, a big shot in DSU and makes her a candidate in the elections. She disregards Suku’s warnings which irritates him. Murali meanwhile is the favorite of everyone as he is a singer and non political. Pius is the local kamadevan trying to flirt with everyone in the campus including Raziya who is called Penguin because of her purdah. Sateeshan plays dirty in the elections, steals a love letter written by Thara to Suku and deposits it in the ballot box.

Thara and Suku fall apart. Then Murali’s death happens and a disgusted Suku stops his education and leaves. Iyer then goes through more details with Pius and slowly he pieces the story of the last 15 years. In this process he learns how his son died. He also learns who attacked Suku. This unfolding of events forms the story of Classmates.

There are two aspects which made this movie very interesting to watch. The first one is the nostalgia it creates for the campus life. We studied in a college which is exactly same as the college shown in this movie. We had friends who were like Suku, Sateeshan and Thara. Writer James Albert has made that era very lively and realistic. In one of the scenes one of the guys mentions that he was in love with a girl for almost two years and another one asks, “Does she know it”. We had a friend who fits this silent lover to the t.

The second aspect is the very interesting way of narration. Initially a set of sequences are shown, both in the past and present. Then as Iyer learns more and more, the gaps left in both past and present and filled one by one leading to the identity of the killer and attempted killer. Also in this layered narration, a hidden story of relationship is also revealed which was very interesting. Due to this, characters who remained in the background in the first pass get more prominence in the second around. The same scenes are shown again and you get to see the new angle. Due to this style of story telling, even after the movie was over, we were re sequencing the story in our head. This was clever writing.

The movie was funny. Any college movie should have pranks and the ones between Suku and Thara where he swaps her dance song for a Rajnikanth song and kidnaps her from the hostel while she is sleeping had us laughing. In another scene, Murali is asked by SFK guys to sing their revolutionary song for campaign. As he is singing, he is lifted by the DSU guys and forced to sing a different son. Then the SFK guys chase him and he starts singing both songs.

The movie had strong emotions too. The point where the relationship between Thara and Suku turn from hostility to love was refreshingly done. Similarly the hostility between Suku and Sateeshan build up over small incidents resulting in frequent fights and finally it reaches the climax with the ultimate prank that Sateshan plays which destroys Suku’s life completely. The drama here and the tension between the characters make for compelling viewing.

Besides writing such a layered story, dialogue by James Albert is non cliched as well. When Suku asks Thara not to stand for elections, she simply asks him to marry her immediately so that she does not have to listen to her father anymore. When they are locked up in the Chemistry lab, both Suku and Thara talk about their love for each other, mostly in third person which was interesting. When you have so many characters giving each one of them time is not easy, but James Albert has done justice to all the characters.

The movie is not without its drawbacks also. There is a scene where police enters the campus and beats all students including girls. We studied in a college where this was a regular feature and not once have we seen police beating girls. Also in this movie, lot of events happen because one person overhears what he is not supposed to. Thus we see Sateeshan overhearing the conversation between Thara and Suku, Sateeshan’s friend overhearing a conversation between Pius and Suku about Thara’s love letter and finally the person who attacked Suku overhearing something incriminating. This overhearing in fact forms the pillar of the movie and was overused.

Prithviraj did an excellent job as Suku. As we saw in Vargam, playing arrogant head strong characters is his forte. But in this movie he gets to be a romantic as well as a devastated helpless man. The other revelation is Indrajith. There is one scene where he grabs the letter Thara wrote to Suku and reads it out while Suku tries to grab it. His body language and the way he does it was really funny. Though we are not big fans of Jayasurya after seeing terrible movies like Immini Nalloral and Pulival Kalyanam, we were impressed with his role as Sateeshan. He can make a good villain. One versatile actor is Sunil, who morphs like a chameleon into each of the characters he is playing whether it is the rowdy in Chittiram Pesuthadi, or Police Officer in Four the People. In this film too he plays the musician’s role with ease. Among the actresses Kavya as usual has done her role very well. Radhika who played the role of Rasiya got some excellent scenes.

The music of the movie too deserves mention. Alex Paul and Vayalar Sharat Chandra Varma’s songs re-create the spirit of the campus with very memorable songs. Our favorite is Ente Khalbile. Technically too this film stands out with the use of steady cams to get us into the middle of the action. Director Lal Jose has impressed us with movies like Meesha Madhavan, Chanthupottu, and Achanurangatha Veedu. Once again he has impressed us with this well made movie.