Amidst sky high expectations, Alibhai arrived. Sky high expectation, record number of release stations, festival season – as we mentioned in the preview, this movie might work in box office. But if you go by the reviews,as a movie, it falls short. Reviews were identical in many aspects, commonly used terms being – talks about Rajni like acts (Shivaji Hangover!?), Meesa piriyal, talking directly to camera, lack of story line etc.

tvmtalkies writes 

Story : Mohanlal plays a Calicut based goonda, supposedly based on a real life character Ali Bappu. The story line is he defeats all the villains. End of story. Lal gets introduced around twenty times in the movie; every time Lal comes into a scene, it is in slow motion with a loud, rather amateur leitmotif in the background. There are around 2500 characters in the movie, almost everybody except say my dentist.

Shaji Kailas proves again that he has forgotten movie making long long ago. It is not necessary to release a movie every two months, if they are movies like “Chinthamani”, “Time” and “Ali Bhai”. “Ali Bhai” reeks of the basic Shaji Kailas qualities – sheer lack of subtlety (when Mohanlal says he smells, the camera focuses on his nose) and scriptlessness (there is no script).

Sify,com reviews:

Welcome, to Mohanlal’s mass masala action movie strictly meant for his legion of fans and the crass festival audiences.
Don’t look for reason, logic or story, as the film is all about Mohanlal’s ‘heroism’ and interaction with his mass viewers, and most of the time he talks directly to the camera! Today, audiences in Kerala just want to have a good time by watching Mohanlal, the one-man entertainment troupe, instead of seeing a film which has a storyline and human emotions.

Ali Bhai (Mohanlal) is the uncrowned king of Palayam market in Kozhikode. He is the savior of the poor and downtrodden (Cochin Haneefa, Jagadish, Shammi Thilakan, Ganesh, Sooraj Venjaranmoodu, Vijaya Kumar, Sudhish, K P A C Lalitha, Zeenat etc). Two girls in the market, the flower seller Chenthamarai (Navya Nair) and a tea shop assistant Ganga (Gopika) are crazy about Ali Bhai, but he has no time for love because he is obsessed with taking up and fighting people’s causes.

IndiaGlitz.com comments:

Shaji Kailas had earlier heard a lot of criticisms for the Mohanlal’s Meesa Piriyal films which have him twirling his moustache. But now in his best of the times, audiences in Kerala may digest having good time by watching Mohanlal’s mass masala action than him in a film which has a humane storyline and stronger emotions. Don’t look for reason, logic or story in harder terms, as the film is all about Mohanlal’s ‘heroism’ and interaction with his mass viewers, and most of the time he talks directly to the camera!

Alibhai is a thorough Lal fare which has him in another hard-hitting performance, most of which we had seen earlier. Apart from Lal, there are very few reasons why one can spend money on this movie.

(Photo Courtesy : sify.com)

Another exciting production from director Shaji Kailas, who was instrumental in making Mohanlal Next-door-Man to He-Man. There is no question on who this movie is aimed at, as throngs of Lal fans assembled on the launch of this movie, which was held on Mohanlal’s birthday. And the movie will be released in, hold your breath, 75 centers. That leaves behind just Attapadi and Silent Valley.

The story of Alibhai is based on a real life persona.

Mohanlal plays Akbar Ali, a trade union leader who controls the famous Palayam market. Ali is the darling of the masses and downtrodden and helps anybody who comes to him without expecting anything in return. He never backs out from a fight, even though he never dreamed of living as a goonda leader. Once he had to enter into a fisticuff with Bada Bhai, in which the later gets killed. And from that day onwards, he was the unquestioned leader of the six thousand laborers of the market. They called him with love Bhai.

Alibhai once had to flee his home when he is wrongly accused of a crime. The film is also about how he influences so many lives. T .A Shahid models the character on Ali Babu, a person from real life who lived like Ali Bhai in Kozhikkode, decades ago.[Alibhai: the one man army to conquer]

We hope that Mohanlal would entertain us with Kozhikode style lingo, a la Kilichundan Mambhazham. Mohanlal has two heroines in this movie, Gopika and Navya Nair. Script is T.A Shahid. Alex Paul does Music.

With Alibhai’s release scheduled in 75 centers, released during Onam, the verdict of Box office is a foregone conclusion. Other small matters, we’ll wait and see.

PS: The million dollar question is, does this movie have a Murugan song?

Photo courtesy: sify.com

The natives are not doing bad either. Remya Nambisan has two movies, Anthiponvettam and Shalabham while Padmapriya too has two movies, Suhruthu and Veeralipattu. The other heroines we will be seeing in the near future include Vimala Raman (Kolkotta News), Priyanka (Kichamani MBA), Mythili (Subhadram), Roma (Chocolate), Bhama (Nivedyam), Udayathara (Patham Udayam), Divya Vishvanath (Indrajith), Indraja( Indrajith), Urvasi (Suhruthu), Lakshmi Sharma (Ayur Rekha), and Samvritha (Kalchilambu).

Looks like Kavya’s plan of sticking only to Malayalam movies playing heroine to Dileep and Prithviraj did not work after all.

Recently, facing charges of sexual harassment, Public Works Minister, P J Jospeh quit the Communist ministry. The allegation that he misbehaved with a woman on a Kingfisher flight from Chennai to Kochi was investigated by police and found to be true. Thus P J Joseph joined the long line of ministers like Neelalohithadas Nadar and Kunjalikutti to quit public office after facing sexual harassment charges.

Ministers are representatives of people and when they misbehave like this, can the public be far behind? The case which rocked Kerala was the Suryanelli case in which a 16 year old girl was sexually abused by forty people in that many days. Then there is the Vithura case in which a minor girl was was raped by more than 40 persons for several days together after she was lured by a woman in her neighborhood. Ice-cream parlor and mobile prostitution ring have become regular features in our highly literate state.

How did the movie industry react to all these? If you look at the blockbuster movies of the past year you may get an impression that Malayalam movies create mainly escapist fare. One more movie in which Suresh Gopi plays a cop or another one in which Dileep and Kavya dance in New Zealand, or the M&M’s acting as do-gooders will be at the top of your memory. The troubling atmosphere in Kerala has been dealt with realism by various film makers, but since they did not star any superstars, they did not get noticed.>

Sheelabati, directed by R.Sharath and starring Kavya Madhavan and Sunil covers various issues. On a visit to Kerala from Bengal, Sheelabati (Kavya) notices the exploitation of both the land and the people. The movie covers issues like the shortage of water, the troubles of farmers and the sexual abuse of girls. The movie was filmed like a documentary, appeared confused and failed to make any impact on us.

Imagine someone knocks your head with a coconut every five minutes and says, “Look, girls are being abused”. This is the technique which T.V.Chandran used in his film Kathavaseshan starring Dileep as Gopinatha Menon, who commits suicide unable to bear the society. This movie also failed to impress us due to its contrived script and unbelievable characters.Compared to the above two, Kanne Madanguka had a straightforward narration. There was no artificiality or scenes of someone walking along the road for five minutes which is typical of movies trying to act serious. The movie traced the transformation of a poor but brilliant school student, Karunya (Navya Nair), from a rank holder to a prostitute. In the movie, Karunya leaves the house to work in Gulf and is later found in Nagercoil in a jail. What actually happens to her is never shown and there lay the brilliance of the movie.

While Kanne Madanguka ended with the arrest of Karunya, Achanurangatha Veedu depicted what happens to the victims and their families after that. Salim Kumar played the role of a Govt. Employee with three daughters. One of them, again like Karunya, who is good in studies does not come home one day. Later she is caught in a prostitution ring and comes back home. Politicians, Media, Courts and Police does not make life easy for this middle class family and their helplessness is captured brilliantly by Lal Jose in this movie written by Babu Janardhanan.

We liked some of the movies and did not like some. But Dileep, Radhakrishnan Nagavally, K G Prasannan and Reji Kuthazhath, the producers of the four movies have our respect for talking about these issues. We also admire Kavya Madhavan, Navya Nair, Dileep, Jyothirmayi, Sunil, Murali, Samvritha and Salim Kumar, who are well known commercial actors for acting in such low budget but important movies. It gives us hope that good realistic cinema is not dead in Malayalam.

varnachitram reviews: Seelabathi, Kathavaseshan, Kanne Madanguka, Achanurangatha Veedu

Even though she stays close to Guruvayoor temple, Balamani (Navya Nair), the servant maid of Ambalapattu Tharavad never gets to go to the temple because she is overloaded with work. Like the servant characters played by Manju Warrier in Sallapam and Mammotty in Rapakal, she too talks a lot, mostly to herself. Unlike the other two characters, she talks to a photo of Guruvayoorappan kept in her room also. She confides her happiness, anger, frustration and sadness to the Lord.

Her main job is to look after the grandmother Unniyamma (Kaviyoor Ponamma) who had a fall recently and cannot walk. There are three other maids in the household, all old, and they relax, eat food and get the work done by Balamani. The other characters around the house are the poojari Kummidi (Jagathy), Kesavan Nair (Innocent), and the neighbor Janu Chechi (Kalaranjini) who is waiting for the arrival of her son Unni.

The story takes a twist with the arrival of Unniyamma’s grandson Manu on a brief vacation before he heads to Los Angeles. Manu takes a liking for the chirpy Balamani and she too likes him. She is warned of the consequences of this love by various people as it is between two people belonging to two different social status. When she is in doubt, she talks to Guruvayoorappan to see if she is wrong but Manu convinces her that he will marry her and there is nothing to worry.

Manu’s mother Thankam (Revathi) arrives for the vacation and notices a change in her son. She is more worried about getting him married since he is going abroad and fixes an alliance with her classmate’s daughter who is settled in Los Angeles without asking Manu. On knowing this Manu is devastated and he wants to confront his mother. Balamani forbids him saying that it would be a sin to break that single parent’s heart.

Still Manu tells his mother but it is too late. The preparations for the marriage start and relatives start appearing. Suppressing the sadness in their hearts, Balamani and Manu go through the days. Then one day Janu Chechi’s son Unni appears. Always found with a beaming smile and a radiant face, he is always an optimist. He also seems to know everything in Balamani’s heart and reassures her that everything will be fine. He knows the love between them and even the dreams which Balamani had not told anyone.

Meanwhile Thankam is grilled by the relatives for the tight marriage schedule. Then news comes that the girl with whom the marriage had fixed had eloped. A replacement girl is offered by one of the relatives. Kummidi rules that the horoscopes do not match. They call another astrologer and Balamani is worried. Unni once again reassures Balamani that everything will be fine. The news comes that the astrologer has met with a car accident. Then an emboldened Thankam proposes the marriage with Balamani and there is an absolute revolt among the relatives. They want Balamani to be sent away immediately. Then Unniyamma takes a stand and decides to unite the lovers.

If you look at it, this is a simple love story of a rich boy and a servant maid. There is nothing unique about it. What is unique though is Ranjith’s script which gave fresh perspective to this oft repeated tale. The divine angle in the story played very well without looking laughable. It merged well with the narrative and when finally things start going well for Balamani and Manu, you start feeling a sigh of relief.

The second aspect which makes the movie interesting are the characters. Though we have seen characters like Unniyamma, Thankam, and Manu before Balamani is a very memorable one. Like any live wire girl, she is opinionated, works hard and dishes out her verdict on anything and anyone if you want it or not. The supporting cast too had some memorable ones, like Kummidi, Kesavan Nair and the three old women in the house who are supposed to work along with Balamani.

The third aspect of the movie is Ranjith’s dialogue. When Manu tells his mother that he loves Balamani, she tells him, “You could have told this to me earlier. Like any mother I would have opposed this. I would have used words like family status also. In the end I would have agreed”. When Balamani is asked to leave the house on the day of the marriage, Unniyamma calls her. She asks her about the new dress. Then she asks Balamani to sing a song. Unniyamma does not ask her not to leave, but at the end of the song, everything turns around. With refreshing dialogue and beautiful scenes Ranjith holds our attention.

The final aspect of the movie is Raveendran’s divine music and Girish Puthenchery’s lyrics. The songs Aarum, Gopike, Manassil Mithuna Mazha, and Mauliyil are a delight to hear and see. The song Sreela Vasantham was enacted by Yesudas himself, but the heartfelt rendering of Karmukil by Chitra stays in the mind forever.

Ranjith, one of the best script writers in Malayalam cinema proved that if you have a refreshing narration a movie can do well even if it does not have superstars. His talent lies in bringing to life a simple world, making it believable and getting us interested in the result. When she acted in this movie Navya Nair was not a famous actress, but she lived the character of Balamani in a flawless performance. Prithviraj making is debut held against veterans like Revathi and Kaviyoor Ponamma. There are a host of special appearances by Kalabhavan Mani, Jagadeesh, Sai Kumar, and Siddique.

The movie does not end with the marriage. After the marriage Balamani rushes to Janu Chechi’s house to see Unni and she is told that he has fever and could not attend the marriage. Rushing upstairs Balamani sees Unni (Sudheesh), but he was not the same person with whom she was talking all along. Then the realization hits her that the Unni she saw was Guruvayoorappan. She runs to the temple. Since a VVIP is visiting the temple was closed for visitors and once again she does not get to see the Lord. As she prays from far away and is turning, she sees the Unni near the gates, dancing with a smile and she tells Manu, “I saw. I alone saw”.

This beautiful movie is a must see.

One day while Bhagyanathan (Murali) is lying in a cot in the verandah of his hut, his two daughters Karunya (Navya Nair) and Sowmya (Neeraja) come in the morning to say bye while they are going out and his eyes swell with tears. This is because Sowmya is going to school while Karunya, who was the rank holder in her class is going to work in a small weaving company owned by a relative.

Bhagyanathan and his wife Vishalam (Shobha Mohan) are quarry workers toiling under the sun doing hard labor. With their meager income they want to give excellent education and make life comfortable for their children. One day Bhagyanathan’s legs are hurt in an accident and the doctor tells him that he can no longer work. The relative then offers a job for Karunya in his company and when Karunya had to go to work because of him, it became unbearable to Bhagyanathan.

Karunya works hard and pays her sister’s fees regularly. One day the relative comes with another offer. They want to send few girls to gulf to work in a garment company. The pay would be excellent and the accommodation would be arranged by the company. Bhagyanathan does not think for a moment and says no. Vishalam meanwhile influenced by other women convince him to send her. From Gulf, Karunya starts sending money regularly and gifts for her parents. The first gift is a wheel chair for her father. With rest of the money they remodel the house and buy good dresses. The gifts and letter are delivered by the relative who had send her to work.

It seemed like life was good when one day people of the village spot a story about a girl arrested in a mobile prostitution ring in Nargecoil. The girl has a resemblance to Karunya. Bhagyanathan abuses the person who bought him the news and throws out the newspaper. Vishalam meanwhile is not convinced. She goes to the police station in Nagercoil to meet the girl called Swetha. It turns out she is Karunya. She refuses to identify her mother and speaks to her in Tamil, but when the mother turns back, she cries and the movie ends.

When it comes to novels and movies, there is this concept which says “show, but don’t tell”. What this means is that instead of saying Karunya’s parents have to struggle to educate her, show it through various scenes so that the viewer gets the idea. This movie follows this principle to the dot. The struggle of her parents and her realization of that fact is portrayed very well.

Once when Sowmya wants to go for a school tour, she is afraid to tell her father. Karunya does it for her. Bhagyanathan knows that he will have to work harder for that money, so he thinks for a moment and agrees. He also asks Karunya to go on the tour. Knowing that it will be a struggle for her parents, she lies that she has lot to study. Once when the lighting is not enough in the room, Bhagyanathan gets a table lamp. Once when a boy writes a love letter to Karunya, he meets the boy and tells him not to do it again. He does everything in his power to ensure a trouble free education for his daughters.

The biggest impact of the movie comes from not showing what happens to Karunya after she leaves for Gulf. In fact we don’t get to see her till the final scene. Shown from the family perspective they see letters and gifts arriving at regular intervals. How does she become a prostitute? Who is responsible? We don’t know and it does not matter. This movie does not blame anyone explicitly, nor does it offer any solutions. It also does not try to hammer the message into your head artificially. All it does is put a human face to tragic stories we read in papers.

The movie is not preachy also. It is not arty and the story moves at a good pace. There is no explicit villain in the movie. The relative who send her to Gulf says it was through his friends whom he trusts. Did he know what was going to happen? Even that is not made clear. At the end what becomes clear is that due to some circumstance this girl from a poor family who had to take up responsibility turns a prostitute and that message hits hard.

All this is convincing not just due to the straightforward narration, but also due to the exceptional performance by the cast. Navya Nair won the state award for her portrayal of Karunya which was well deserved. From a simple school girl with just studies in her mind, she turns to a wage earner and the changes in her character are very well done. Neeraja who played Sowmya also won the state award. A person who should have also got the award was Murali for his brilliant performance as Bhagyanathan. As usual he becomes the character.

In most of the scenes natural background sounds are used, still this movie falls into the manipulative background music trap and sometimes irritates us with some loud music. The portrayal of the artistes was so natural and powerful that no music was required. We hope Director Albert restrains his music director next time and uses it only when absolutely necessary.

Director Albert, who also wrote the film has done an excellent job in extracting controlled performance from all his artistes. The narration and individual scenes are not boring for one moment. In the house the actors talk and behave as if they live there, not as if they have been transplanted there for that scene. For such a serious movie, there are even some funny scenes. Made on a shoe string budget of Rs. 30 lakhs, this film proves that it is not money, but sincerity in the making movies that matter. It is sad that such movies do not get widespread publicity.

This movie is highly recommended.

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Famous actress Sneha (Navya Nair) comes for shooting in a small village and Jeevan (Jayasurya), her biggest fan sees her stepping out of the car. He makes a sound like a chicken clucking. Then he produces a sound similar the one made by dogs when someone throws stones at them. He then rolls his eyes and shows all his teeth. Apparently this is Jayasurya’s way of showing excitement. Did I say he also wears dark glasses all the time?

There is a marriage scene in the movie and Jeevan gets to act as Sneha’s groom as the hero’s double. He takes it seriously, frames the wedding photo in the house and starts talking to his imaginary wife. His parents (Bindu Panicker, Janardhanan) get worried. Meanwhile the film unit moves to another location and Jeevan turns up there. Sneha does not recognize him and this makes him upset. So he makes sounds like the clucking of a chicken and the one made by dogs when stones are thrown at them which is Jayasurya’s depiction of anger.

Frustrated, he kidnaps Sneha, drives to a forest and ties her to a bed. While rest of the world is worried that the famous actress is missing, Jeevan’s parents are happy that he is on TV. They invite all people of the village to their house, and serve them food, while they all watch TV together (It’s a demographic miracle that all the people in this village have the same low IQ). Sneha gets very angry at Jeevan and tells him how much she hates him. Soon the producer of the movie comes searching for them and he is also tied to another bed. Their attempts to escape are thwarted by Jeevan.

Finally Sneha tells Jeevan the sad story of her life and then Jayasurya makes the sound of a clucking chicken. Well you get the idea ! Jeevan releases her. After reaching home she decides to marry Jeevan. Ha, you didn’t expect that did you?

This movie is a work of art and poetry, if you are sufficiently drunk. The story, screenplay, dialogues and direction are all by Rajasenan. The movie seems to be a set of unrelated scenes finally assembled together by the editor. The movie left many unanswered questions. Was the character played by Jayasurya, a comical one or a tragical one? Was he a villain or a hero? Was Rajasenan smoking pot or kanjavu? Was he even present during filming?

The movie has many brilliant scenes like the one in the forest where we see Sneha tied to the bed and Jeevan sitting next to her. Jeevan unties her and they break into a dance. After the dance is over, he ties her back again. Then there is a scene where Jeevan has kidnapped Sneha and Sneha tries to escape from the vehicle. Jeevan hits her and her head hits the soft part of the back seat and she falls unconscious. We really laughed for this one.

Somehow the director realized that Jeevan was an irritating character and to lessen his impact he decided to make more intensively irritating characters. One such character is the producer of the movie, who walks with ear pieces from various cell phones and shouts into each one when a call comes. Giving him good competition was Janardhanan who seems to have dubbed the movie by swallowing the microphone. When I say, Salim Kumar is the most subdued actor in this movie, you can understand how strongly the others have acted.

The camera work is by Nambyathiri and he deserves a few awards for some shots. There is one scene where the police officer played by Cochin Haneefa comes to flirt with Jeevan’s sister. First the camera shows Haneefa’s face trying to display sringaram but actually looking like constipation. Then the camera tilts about 15 degrees to the right and shows his face again. Then it tilts another 15 degrees to complete a full circle. As you are searching for Tylenol, the camera does the same thing on the actress playing Jeevan’s sister. Hollywood producers must be camping outside Nambiathiri’s house (or atleast Tylenol manufacturers).

We have not seen many movies of Jayasurya, but in the most recent one, Pulival Kalyanam, he showed that he cannot act. He confirms that with this movie. He has lot of dialogue in this movie and talks often looking at the camera and you feel like throwing 10 paise to him just to shut him up. The only major emotion on his face is that of a drunken monkey.

Navya Nair has nothing to do in this movie and probably this experience must have been the reason she moved to Tamil. Rest of the characters like Bindu Panicker and Janardhanan seem to be fighting with Salim Kumar to see who could be more irritating. Siddique gives the performance of his lifetime when he appears in three scenes, two of which are two second scenes of him watching TV and showing the thumbs up sign.

I think the movie had songs, but I was busy applying ice on my forehead and might have missed them.

At the end of the movie, we wanted to start a fundraiser for Rajasenan so that he does not make anymore movies. While watching the movie our mood swung between exasperation and desperation. If you hate someone and want to hurt them bad, send them to this movie.

Have you seen this movie? What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment in the box below.