August 1 , which got released in the late eighties was based on 1971 novel, The Day of the Jackal, by English writer Frederick Forsyth. 23 years later, S.N.Swamy and M.Mani(the producer of August 1)have come up with it’s sequel tilted August 15.Mammooty reprises the role of Perumal, (who was the DySP, CB-CID 23 years ago)in this sequel directed by Shaji Kailas.

The plot and the characters:V.G(Nedumudi Venu) is the C.M. of the state of Kerala. He is in loggerheads with the secretary of the party(Saikumar). The lottery,Sand mafias want the C.M. to be killed. So they hire an Assassin(Siddique)to get their job done. What happens next is what August 15 is all about.

Mammootty as Perumal: Mammootty is Perumal,the CBCID . Perumal looks good, rides a Royal Enfield, attends calls in his mobile,walks in slo-mo with a peculiar gait and a loud BGM playing behind, teases his superior officer Peter Zachariah(played brilliantly by Lalu Alex)to kill his time, plays with Photoshop and even cracks funny dialogues like this through his mobile phone(which rings with a ‘Nokia tune’ all the time!)

Perumal: (to someone called Ammini George)-Hello, Ormayundo ee mukham?.
Ammini: Pinnillathe,Engane marakkananu!

Siddique as the killer: Siddique,who is a really talented actor is wasted in this poorly written role . A cat and mouse game between the assassin and Perumal was what we had expected from this movie, but sadly there is nothing of that sort here. Siddique repeats his ‘Bada Dhosth’ act here also.

Loop Holes galore:  Siddique,the assassin gives an anonymous call to all the leading newspapers and the visual media.Alas,the content of what he told them is the headline of all the newspapers,the next day!  The doctors who are treating the C.M, the private secretary to the C.M and a couple of other insignificant people are always a part of the super confidential meetings called by Perumal and co to find out the killer!  The super intelligent Perumal browses the poison page in our good old wiki and finds out the toxic substance that the killer has supposedly used to harm the C.M.!

The Best Scene:  The confrontation scene between Perumal and the ADGP Peter Zachariah (at Peter’s office) . This one is a pretty hilarious scene, thanks to the brilliant actor Lalu Alex. As Peter Zachariah,he is a real treat to watch and is unarguably the only saving grace in this otherwise dumb movie. The scene at the Party secretary’s house involving Perumal, Peter and the secretary(Saikumar dressed up like the CPI(M) secretary,Pinarayi Vijayan)is also a cracker.

Meghna Raj and Swetha Menon– The 2 main female characters in the movie have less than ten minutes of screen time in the whole movie. They blabber something and fade into the oblivion.

Background score – The re recording is competent. It serves the purpose of waking up the few who have already gone into deep slumber.

Good Acting:  Lalu alex as the ADGP is the only good thing about this movie. With his impeccable comic timing,he steals the show.

Shaji Kailas’ direction:  Nothing worth writing about. There are a lot of weird shots in the movie. Multiple extreme close up shots of tea being poured into the tumbler are included in this movie, the reasons for their inclusion is known only to the director, I guess.

What went wrong: S.N.Swamy repeats the same mistakes which he made in Sagar Alias Jackey, Baba Kaliyani, Positive, Rahasya Police. The Perumal in August 15 is only an extension of the character played by Mohanlal in Baba Kaliyani. The styling, body language et al are repetitive and even reminded the iconic ‘Sethuramayyar’ at places. The story is exactly the same as that of August 1.To spice up the proceedings a bit,the recent clash within the CPI(M) is also dealt with topically but the treatment and the writing is so bland that it fails to become even remotely interesting. Nothing much happens in the first half. But the most terrible thing with the script is that the mission, the assassin, the motive, the conspirators, the method and almost everything else get revealed way too early(within the first fifteen minutes to be exact)leaving behind Perumal nothing much to do for the next 2 hours or so. So we can’t really blame him for walking in slo-mo and mouthing silly dialogues, right?

The climax: Some 25 minutes before the climax we are made to believe that the assassin(Siddique) has a deadly plan to carry out on the 15 th of August, the Independence day. But even after the end credits started rolling, neither Perumal nor I had any clue about what S.N.Swamy was talking about. A badly choreographed action sequence shot in some C class theatre followed by the mandatory S.N.Swamy twist (which is the end result of the ‘inky -pinky-ponky’ game between the script writer and his characters)were what we had in store instead!

Verdict: Drona 2010, the Shaji Kailas directed M.Mani production with Mammootty in the lead role was a disaster .The gentleman he is, Mammootty gave dates to the producer M.Mani again so that he can make up for the losses incurred in his previous film, thus August 15 was born. We wish Drona 2010 had never happened.

Rating- 3/10(Stay away from this dud)

Reviewed by nikhimenon@gmail.com,nikhimenon.blogspot.com

Since ‘Rowdram’ and ‘Sound of Boot’ have just been released, I thought it would be apt to run through what would typically runs through the minds of the likes of Renji Panicker and Shaji Kailas when planning a new movie.

The Hero: Suresh Gopi, Mammootty or Mohanlal. If its either of the first two, they can be educated from some fancy-sounding school outside Kerala (and mouth epithets like shit, crap, bullshit, damn etc in every couple of sentences), and also be the son or grandson of some retired honorable politician whose roaring days are over, thanks to backstabbing partners (who the hero can abuse during a later scene). If its Mohanlal, he’s probably an orphan who migrated to an outside state/country when his parents were killed, and picked up classical music along the way. And yeah, a music composer needs to be hired as well – fit in a classical or semi-classical song somewhere. Otherwise, ominous-sounding background music would do (what are Enigma CDs etc for?).

The Heroine: Optional, only for eye-candy. Should be pretty, knowledge of English preferable (since there’s only one female dubbing artiste in Kerala, who’s knowledge of English would rival that of a kindergarten kid). Make her an honest government servant, like an policewoman, or a collector or sub-collector. Should be tough, but marshmallow in the hero’s hands once he’s called her a ‘bitch’ or something else equally derogatory.

Crony of Hero Who Dies Just Before Climax: Biju Menon, Tony or one of the new young blokes whose debut films have flopped. An orphan who the hero accosted in his childhood and brought home. Faithful companion, insert scene where crony cries and remembers his gratitude to hero.

The Betrayer: Pretty much the same as the crony, except the betrayer is money-minded (insert scene where the hero affectionately chides him for being so darned money-minded). To add insult to injury, this character has to suffer through the verbal diarrhea of the hero (insert couple of Sanskrit shlokas if Mohanlal, hire Sanskrit professor for 2 days of shooting) before being killed.

Hero’s Father: Either a garlanded photograph on the wall, in which case an affectionate mom is mandatory, or some veteran actor like Madhu or Janarddanan who makes all the appropriate noises.

Hero’s Mother: Mandatory only in certain cases, as outlined above. Pretty much delegated to serving food, and to the puja room. Probably fit in a scene where she worries about her son, and the dad consoles her saying that their son is a man (as opposed to Dileep).
Poor Man / Woman Who Hero Helps: Usually, an out of work actor suitably disheveled. The character would be a victim of some tragedy, waiting for justice tearfully after being abused by the system and/or corrupt politicians and policemen. Enter the hero, who then delivers a lecture on how Gandhi said that the heart of India is with the poor etc, and promptly delivers justice.

Object of Abuse: There’s hardly any other way to describe the likes of Kollam Thulasi, Rajan P Dev, Devan, Shammi Thilakan etc – placed in the movie solely to provide the hero an opportunity to mouth off. These would usually be corrupt politicians / police officers. Typical verbal attacks include being called a pimp, being accused of being the hero’s father’s barber (or some such) who then proved ungrateful, and at the end (or just before interval) being asked to do a countdown, or insert an external object into a hidden body part.

The Villain: Sai Kumar or Siddhique, who seem to be our only charismatic actors around apart from the 2 Ms. They have nothing much to do except drink malt whiskey, slip in an oblique reference to Karunakaran/Antony, and then summon up suitably indignant expressions as the hero indulges in verbal diarrhea yet again.

That’s it, that’s the formula. And hey presto, you have the latest Mohanlal / Mammootty / Suresh Gopi blockbuster ready to hit the theatres!!

Sify.com says:

Shaji and Rajesh wanted to say a message that there are so many similar people who lost out their dear ones during the emergency period and no justice or compensation has been paid by the government and those responsible for the emergency excess are still roaming around free. But what the director fails to understand is that “emergency excess” is old hat and it does not strike a chord with today’s audiences

Added to that there are no nuances, twists or turns, and no drama in this non-thriller, with only Suresh Gopi bringing some cheer to otherwise a film that will put you into a deep slumber!

IndiaGlitz.com reviews:

In the technical sides also the film is superior with crisp editing by Arunkumar (Sorry, for his credit is montage) and moody photography and extreme angles by Raja Rathnam in which no values are compromised, even though the film was shot in a record 25 days. The only song in the film ”Yamuna Theeram” is an unwanted suffering, but Rajamani in rerecording definitely sets the pace with enthralling theme music.

If you can walk away with several weak plot points that may inquire your intellect, the movie may make you feel as a well made ‘‘endeavor’’.   It may be unfair to expect a wondrous exclamation, from the viewer’s side ‘ at the end of a picture but certainly ”Sound Of Boot” is not the one to be avoided, at least for its atypical narratives. Perhaps that may be the point that the makers are also bearing in their minds.

Rediff.com reviews:

The prolificacy with which Shaji Kailas and Suresh Gopi churn out movies is amazing. What is more interesting is how they derive the plot of these Malayalam films, where the protagonist is more often than not a policeman. Sound of the Boot is no different.

So, how do we make the distinction? Apart from the title and the names of the characters, the director has found an ‘innovative idea’ of changing the mannerism of the hero. So, here he tightens the lace of boots (symbolic reference to the title) after getting down from the jeep at every crucial juncture.

Now the third thing: the movie is a tragic love story. No, we are not talking about the producer of the movie, but the story of the movie itself which has been made public. The movie is set in a Holiday Home, which is a place frequented by tourists and lovers. When the character Rahul Krishna (Bala) and Meera Nambiar (Honey George) reach this place something bad happens.

Suresh Gopi plays the investigative officer who comes to a hill station to find the real culprits behind a murder, which rocked the state. Shaji Kailas has made Boot in a different way from his usual style of film making. There is a lot of suspense element in the movie, with a twist in the climax. The film is very important for Gopi and Kailas who are going through a bad phase.[`Boot` on Dec 7 ]

Every time we read the words, Suresh Gopi, Shaji Kailas, different way of film making, we fall of our chair laughing for selling Lux soap in a new cover does not make it new lux soap. If Shaji Kailas wants to see different way of film making, he has to see Vargam and Chocolate back to back or Paradesi and Rock’n'Roll back to back. Changing an IPS officer to a CBI officer is not different film making.

According to Shaji Kailas, he chose the name Boot because it is the right symbol for people who have been oppressed through the ages. It would be the right name for the Shaji Kailas movie since he has been oppressing us with terrible movies for the past decade or so. But then hey who are we to tell Shaji Kailas what to do. If he wants to make another police training video, he should do it. As viewers we will evaluate on its merit or else we will go and watch OSO again.

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 subject of Shaji Kailas’s movies always have contemporary socio-political issues in the background. There will be a group of corrupt and greedy politicians, bureaucrats and police officers who form the caucus of villains, after a series of setbacks, the hero would finally break free with the blessings of a benevolent politician, usually the Chief minister, and vanquish all the baddies. Fast editing, agile camera work and quick pace are the trademarks of Shaji Kailas movies. Baba Kalyani is no different from Shaji’s usual movies, except for 2 crucial differences. One Mohanlal replaces Suresh Gopi and two the theme deals with Islamic terrorism.

The ATU (Anti-Terrorism Unit) headed by Baba Kalyani (Mohanlal) gets into action, when they investigate an email tip about a VVIP assassination plot in Trivandrum. This gives us a chance to see the members of the team in action, all decked in gadgets, with belts like that of Bob the Builder which has a flash light and conducting investigations in day time. Baba Kalyani updates his boss every second on the status (I am walking, I am talking) on his blue tooth headset in a highly irritating way. While following the assassination plot, they discover some RDX, ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in a dilapidated lodge. Learning that the people who had stayed in the lodge had gone to Kochi, Baba Kalyani makes a statement that Kochi is getting hot. He also makes a claim that terrorists would create trouble on Dec 6th, just by staring at a calendar.

Since the movie is written by S N Swami we did not expect a brilliant script, but he slowly started testing our patience. Baba Kalyani and team transfer to Kochi and start investigating the prominent figures. We would have given another 30 mins and the movie could have ended. Swami had other ideas. He wanted to give a useless role to National Award Winning actor Murali.

Murali makes an appearance as Arackal Asokan, a politician who has some history with Baba Kalyani. There’s nothing special about the way Murali acted in this minuscule role, nor was the role special enough to warrant an actor like Murali. Baba Kalyani was in love with his daughter Madhumita (Mamta Mohandas) and their relation fell apart over a misunderstanding. But then hey, they patch up everything and who would have guessed that?

Large scale proliferation of fake currency notes points fingers to Iza Mohammed Haji (Sai Kumar). Zahir Ahmed(Indrajith) is Haji’s son-in-law who is a college lecturer. Haji runs some charitable organisations, which the investigating officers think is a front for his illegal activities. Since Sai Kumar is Malayalam’s Uber villain, the viewer is left in no doubt that Haji is behind the terrorist plot. As the plot unravels, it becomes clear that the Haji is just a decoy. All this means only one thing. More time has to be wasted in an irrelevant sub-plot.

Baba Kalyani looking for a house to stay in Kochi ends up in Meenakshi Amma’s(Kaviyoor Ponnamma) house. Meenakshi Amma reminds Baba Kalyani of his mother and biggest marketing gimmick of recent times ensues – the song Kai Niraye. Meenakshi Amma has no relevance to the story or the movie and actually affects the pace of the movie.

As the magic date December 6 nears, the investigating team gets a vital breakthrough and scene shifts to Palani. Without getting into details and revealing the climax, the ‘complicated tactical approach’ promised by Mohanlal turns out to be coming down from the roof hanging on ropes wearing Spiderman 3 getups. Everyone shoots everyone else and all ends peacefully.

The movie had enough material about 45 minutes, but writer S N Swami decided to make it an aviyal by adding various unrelated incidents. As Shah Rukh Khan mentioned, our movies have to be a variety show and the hero must display all emotions in all movies. The slick editing and fast pace tries to conceal the lack of logic in the script, but then too leniency in that department finally catches up. At the end you end up wondering, if the plan was to bomb Palani, then what were the Kochi based terrorists doing in Trivandrum?

Mohanlal is one of the saving graces of the movie. He portrays the role of intelligent police officer with ease. Mamta and blue tooth headset vie for viewers attention and headset wins, by the virtue of Mohanlal’s attention to it. Jagathi, SaiKumar and Indrajith did decent jobs. Innocent appears in a minuscule role, so does Siddique with a lean look and a new wig.

Remember the time when Doordarshan used to cover cricket matches with one camera? When the batsmen hit the ball, the cameraman would scan the field looking for the ball like as if it were held by a drunken monkey. The camera movement is similar in this movie. We would have complained more about the camera man, if not for the background score by Rajamani.

It is as if Shaji Kailas told Rajamani that there should not even be a single moment of silence in the movie. Due to this his background score is played constantly, like a lottery ticket sellers tape, for every action Mohanlal makes on the screen. When his jeep comes in the horizon, the BG score starts, when he steps out of the jeep, it plays again, when he sneezes, it plays again. Some one has to tie Rajamani on a chair, play this music for 24 hours, like what the US Marines did to Manuel Noriega and make him feel how irritating it is.

Shaji Kailas movies are indistinguishable from each other from their presentation style or narration and this one too looks like yet another Suresh Gopi movie. We wish experienced directors like him pay more attention to the script, fix the loop holes and make it tight without adding unrelated events and characters.

Photo courtesy: Sify.com