For those of us used to seeing so called “Entertainers” like Twenty-Twenty or various mindless comedy movies, Urumi is a welcome change. It is a bold move from the producers to think of a big canvas movie, get a pan-Indian cast and film it as professionally as possible. The movie falls into a new category which can only be called fantasy-historical-fiction for it is not historical-fiction. In historical fiction, the writer tries to stay within the historical narrative and weave a tale without violating the space-time continuum. Brilliant writers like M.T even weave a new tale within the given parameters. But in this movie Shanker Ramakrishnan decided to throw the history out of the window. Instead what we have is a tale which takes place during Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India and that is pretty much the history part. Rest of the stuff is his imagination in overdrive mode and he makes it very clear in the begining of the movie when he writes all incidents have been changed for dramatic purposes.

But guess what. We don’t have any issue with it. A story is a story and the only question is if the dramatic purpose has been served. It a revenge saga of a boy who wanted to kill Gama because Gama killed his father. We can call this a Hero’s journey for it tries to follow a set pattern as the hero travels and goes through new lands and has new adventures. In this movie Kelu Nayanar’s calling is revenge. He knows Vasco da Gama is in town and wants to kill him. In fact at the begining of the movie itself the pre-history is given and Kelu has crossed the threshold and made a commitment.

So now that the motive has been given, what do you do for the next 2 hours 30 minutes? We see him travel along with his buddy Vavvali (Prabhu Deva) and during their travel they meet rest of the cast — Chirakkal Bala (Nithya Menon), her father (Amol Gupte), the king of Kolothunaadu and his scheming minister (Jagathi Sreekumar). They also meet Arakkal Ayesha (Genelia), Vavvali’s mother and also an Oracle (Vidya Balan). Finally, as expected, Kelu gets his revenge.

Imagine now that you are on a travel and you meet all these people and take their pictures. It is not really an interesting journey isn’t it. You need some twists in the plot. In fact there are some twists in the sub-plots, but none of them affect Kelu or his personality. The sub-plot concerns the way Kolothunadu is ruled and the succession battle there. There is another sub-plot concerning Arakkal Ayesha and her fight, but that too has nothing to do with Kelu, except for the fact that he is around. In such movies, what you want to see is the hero being put to test, completely pushed to the ground and how he survives that, rises and achieves his goal. Think Devasuram. Neelakantan is pushed to the ground and his machoism cannot save him. He has to rely on Revathi’s character to teach him some lessons about himself and life. As you empathize with him, there is a transformation in the viewer. The viewer who hated him till interval is now rooting for him.

In Urumi though, Kelu is never down. He is like Mayavi who appears in every troubled scene and saves the damsel. That is not really interesting. In Star Wars, when Luke is down, he has to go to a mentor, Yoda, who trains him and he returns back. Our heroes don’t need any training. They are experts in fighting and singing the moment they are born. There is no change in Kelu’s personality in the 150 minutes of the movie. He delivers dialogue in the same dead-pan mode and this makes him really an uninteresting person.

But there are three people who make the movie interesting: Jagathi, Amol Gupte and Nithya Menon. They get quite a number of scenes and it is a delight to watch them perform. These are well etched characters.

We already have written about the music, so lets mention a few things about cinemotography. It is by Santosh Sivan and there is nothing more we need to say. The visuals cannot get better than this. But just watching brilliant visuals without a strong story does not make a memorable movie. But then Santosh Sivan has some staple shots which are repeated in most of his movies. There is a scene in Asoka where SRK and Kareena take bath in slow motion under a waterfall. There is an exactly similar shot in this movie. Another obesession of his is eyeballs and closeups of eyeballs. From Terrorist to this movie, you see the same shot. In one song all the characters jump up and down on an invisible trampoline. You can call these shots his signature, but these repetitive shots pull you away from the immersive experience.

While the songs are terrfic, another let down is the BGM. Look at the scene where Chirakkal Bala is attacked and the music that goes in that scene. It is a fight scene and the music is the most inappropriate one. We know why it was done. Each person has a particular theme and that music is blindly dumped when the character appears. Similarly there is a piece when Ayesha appears and she is asked to sit on the lap of Chirakkal king’s lap. There is a scene where Prithviraj comes to resceue Ayesha and guess what music plays in the fight scene?

The next terrible thing in the movie is the visualization of songs. We simply loved hearing those songs, but when we saw them, some were not interesting. Aarane Aarane was done very well and so was Chimmi Chimmi. But look at the visuals for Aaro Nee Aaro. It is like a rock video songs with all the extras and Prithvi jumping up and down. It looks as if people from the 15th century suddenly time traveled to the 21st century MTV studio. Also the Oracle song called Chalanam Chalanam was simply terrible.

The movie brings up an important issue that none of us know about our history and care about it. Thus when the movie starts we see this guy called Krishnadas who is selling his ancestral property and then after hearing about Vasco’s story, changes his mind. The movie also paints the true picture of Vasco da Gama who was one blood thirsty trader. While the visuals are stunning, there is nothing great about the story. It is not the stuff of classic movies. While the creators have made a decent entertainer, they have missed an opportunity to create a Gladiator. We had great expectations from Shankar-Ramakrishnan-Santosh Sivan combo and maybe that is why we are disappointed.

That said, the movie starts off with the murder of Naxal Varghese (Prithviraj). Constable Ramachandra Pillai was forced by his superiors to shoot the tortured prisoner . Thus within 10 minutes, you know what you need to know that Varghese was a Naxal and he was not killed in an encounter, but intentionally shot dead. So where is the movie heading now?

The movie is a biopic of Ramachandra Pillai, who has a troubled life. His life is a mess. He drinks. He has extra-marital relationships. He is unmoved by the plight of his wife and kids. Now script writer Babu Janardanan after presenting this side, presents the other side as well. He explains why a man who never drank, starts drinking.  Explains the  ‘other woman’ and  nature of  their relation.  But unfortunately, the melodrama of this is wrapped in an Inception like flashback within a flashback making it utterly boring. Even the personality of Ramachadra Pillai is boring. In the entire movie he seems to be a man resigned to his fate, barely raising his finger to change things and accepting everything as it happens. Maybe the real man was like that, but that does not make for good fiction.

It is during his initial posting in Wynad that he meets Naxal Varghese who is played by Prithviraj in an as-wooden-as-you-can get mode. He only has a few scenes with dialogue, but except for a few like the one in the bus with the conductor, everything looks preachy. Now Naxals are supposed to preach ideology, but when your personal conversations with others too appear with similar tone, then it is boring. This does not end when he is alive. Once he is dead, he appears often and preaches.

When you see a well made movie, the director does not stand out. The movie just flows and at the end you get that “wow” feeling. But when you see a Mani Ratnam movie, you can see the director hard at work trying to craft each scene.  You can see that in first time director Madhupal’s work. He tries all sorts of tricks and the one which was a put off was pulling off to a long shot during a conversation scene. There is a scene where the constable and the naxal are talking in a forest. It is a brief line out of the blue without an establishing shot or framing shot to see the characters. But the worst comes towards the last when Pillai goes to meet his dead wife. His brother-in-law (Maniyanpilla Raju) physically assaults him and as the emotional intensity increases, the camera pulls away to show the scenery. This is one scene where you want to frame tightly. Again when Varghese is about to be killed, various 80s style trolley shots are tried. These irritating gimmics take out the emotinal intensity of the scene.

Now contrast it with the movie Social Network which is purely dialogue based. But once the movie starts, you are sitting with rapt attention till the end. In that movie too the script moves between flashback and present, but they all gel very well. At no point in time do you see the director or DOP trying to make a point.

Now the sad part is this. The Naxal movement and the tactics used by the state are an important part of our history. No one can forget what happened to Rajan during Emergency. This story could have been done much better than Thalapavu. Also since Babu Janardanan took an early bail by claiming this is fiction, he could have at least revealed the politicians behind the murder and their justification for this action. He could have shown the side of the state as well. From the way Thalapavu was presented, it resembled a docu-drama.

Coming back to the point about newbie directors, there is a similar movie on Naxals which did not get much attention. Gulmohar by director Jayaraj with super-writer Ranjith playing the title role and it was mostly gripping. You could empathize with the man and his inner troubles. With Ramachandra Pillai, you are just confused.

With another  director and better script, this would have been a better movie.

The shot does not end there. Espósito and Sandoval spot Isidoro Gómez, who they suspect to be the rapist and murderer of the beautiful Liliana Colotto. They both chase him through the stadium as the camera, which is not a steady cam, follows them. Finally Gómez is arrested. Now they have to prove that he indeed is the murderer for they don’t have definite proof. They suspect him based on the way he looked at Colotto in one photograph.

This murder and its resolution is one layer of this brilliant movie written by Eduardo Sacheri and Juan José Campanella. While those events happened in the 70s, there is a thread set in present day when a retired Espósito decides to write about this case and meets his old boss, Judge Irene Menéndez-Hastings, who was a crucial link in solving this case. Espósito had a thing for Hastings, but it never worked out.

Another layer is added by Ricardo Morales, Colotto’s husband. He wants vengeance and spends his time in the railway station looking for Gómez. But he goes through a surprising turn, a turn which is revealed only in the climax.

This is one script which respects the viewer’s intelligence. There is no spoon feeding. There is no Rajamani style deafening BGM. People talk casually and the camera sits non-intrusively. The viewer feels as if he is just a fly on the wall. If you have seen the other excellent Argentinian movie Nine Queens, you probably know how it feels.

The second, important point is the character study. You get to see all these people over a course of three decades and the transformation that happens. The transformation is not just for them, but also in their relationships. On a big scale, it is a story of redemption for all the characters and there are many different shades of redemption. For Espósito it is a matter of getting over his disappointment of Gómez going scott free and Hastings marrying someone else. For Morales, it is a matter of justice. What can he do when the killer of his wife is let go? Or how can he let go of his love for his wife?. In fiction writing, this is called character arc. The character faces a dilemma which affects his core values and he has to make a decision. Some decisions are instantaneous, while others take a long time. All the characters go through this process which is what adds depth to the movie.

That said, we still did not get why Espósito decided to go back to Morale’s farm. It was too subtle or may be we need to see the movie once more. Also the way the suspect was identified, just based on a photo, seems to feeble. But even then, the movie kept us engrossed as the characters became interesting and the back and forth between present day and the 70s very engrossing.

As we were watching the movie, we were thinking of the writing process. It felt as if the planning that went in executing the shot we described in the first paragraph went into the writing as well. The script writers after knowing the entire story had to chop into blocks for the past and present. They had to leave sufficient holes in the past which would be filled by the narrative in the present. Finally it all had to look convincing. That is where the director’s part comes in – to flesh out the scenes so that it looks as if the characters are realistic operating in situations out of their control. The casting helped and there is not one person who looks unbelievable. The Malayalam movie that came to our mind was T P Rajeevan’s brilliant Paleri Manikyam which too solved a murder mystery of the past in the present.

So why are we writing the review of an Argentinian movie on a Malayalam movie site? One day, some creatively challenged writer in Malayalam is going to adapt this. We wanted to write before that atrocity happened.

Srinivasan’s characterization: Srinivasan’s role as a corrupt Asst. Town Planning Officer is half baked and confusing. We are not sure if Srinivasan became corrupt for obtaining a medical seat for his daughter or if he’s corrupt all the way.

Mohanlal’s characterization: Though the movie starts with promise of story a charming common man facing hurdles in life goes off the track when character evolves. Mohanlal’s character lacks details and is not realistic. Lack of chemistry with Sameera Reddy’s character is one of the major drawbacks. Those scenes(involving Mohanlal and Sameera Reddy) are neither well written nor well directed.

Best Scene: Mohanlal’s first visit to Sreenivasan’s house. It’s a hilarious scene aided by some self deprecating humour from Srinivasan, which brought back fond memories of some of the good Mohanlal-Sreenivasan movies of yesteryears.

Sameera Reddy – Trophy heroine of Mohanlal, character has no impact, no acting needed

Background score – jarring and inappropriate most of the time.

Good Acting: Devayani gets the most believable role in this movie and her acting makes the role very convincing. Nedumudi’s competent performance as an ex service man in one of the good things about the movie.

What went wrong: Boring second track, which involves Mohanlal’s family life makes the movie slow down and pulls the movie down. So boring that you desperately want the movie to switch to the other track involving corrupt Srinivasan.

Ending: You know that bad buys will be punished. Script writer chose a hurried ending leaving behind lot of undigested stuff.

Final word: Showed us some glimpses of that glorious period when the Mohanlal-Srinivasan duo did wonders. Very topical subject, but treatment not as humorous as movies like Vellanakalude Naadu. Srini didn’t deliver – as an actor and as a script writer.

S N Swamy and K Madhu enthralled us with the CBI series of movies, each of which progressively declined in quality. It reached a point when the parody became more entertaining than the original movie. So when S N Swamy and K Madhu made another movie and it sank without a trace, we were curious to see why it failed.

The movie is set in a picture perfect village, which has rivers, canals and greenery all around. It is one of those villages where Mohanlal would sing “Manja Kiliyude Moolipaatunde” and Prem Nazir would sing “Suprabhatam”. According to Kerala Film Script Act 23/34, if there is a village, there has to be two warring factions and an elephant has to be involved. Check.

The movie starts with an episode involving the local thief Kesu (Riyaz Khan) who provides the necessary diversion. At this point pretty much even the elephant knows that he is just a diversion and a technique to advance the script forward. No worries.

The police station is run by Jayaram 1 with constables Harisri Asokan and Indrans who perform comedy so intensively that no one is surprised when Kesu jailbreaks. To quantify their acting even better let us say that they make Suraj Venjaramoodu look like a decent comedian.

One day, a girl is killed and Jayram 1 starts investigating when Jayaram 2 arrives as a goonda. But it turns out that he is not a goonda, but from Crime Branch. That turns out to be the cue for Rajamani to blare the CBI BGM.

There are some beautiful scenes which have to be mentioned to explain the quality of this movie. There is a scene where the cop Jayaram is on night duty monitoring vehicles. Then he spots something and looks carefully. He sees a man walking in bright daylight. So he takes a torch and chases the person and the scene turns dark again. In another scene Jayaram is sitting in the police station when he hears his sister screaming in their home. So he runs and reaches the home in time to watch the thief run away.

The production values should also be mentioned. There is a scene where Jayaram 2 decides to lower himself into a canyon using a crane. The scene is probably 10 minutes long, with blaring bgm, filmed with the same quality of a home made birthday video.

Finally in the climax when the culprit is reveleaed it seemed as if S N Swamy did an inky-pinky-ponky on the characters and randomly picked one. It just fails to resonate.

This is a movie which was made three decades late. If it was made in another time and place, it would have been a super hit.

We saw a movie which was made for less than 3.5 crore the other day called Romeo. It was directed by one of our favorite directors, Rajasenan, starring one of our favourite comedy actors, Dileep and written by the successful duo, Rafi-Mecartin.

In this movie Dileep plays Manu Krishnan, a male nurse. That itself is supposed to be comedy. He is on edee, podeee terms with Vimala Raman, a doctor so pretty that you won’t mind staying in a hospital forever. Vimala has a thing for him, but he does not have a thing for her. His thing is for Samvrita Sunil, a candidate on a reality show.

So far so good. Manu’s mother, played by Prithviraj’s real life mother, is a judge on the reality show. Manu’s father, played by Cochin Haneefa, then borrows money from Samvritha’s father played by Bheeman Raghu as a bribe for making Samvritha the winner. Few complications arise, such as Bheeman Raghu wanting to kill Dileep etc, resulting in Dileep ending up in an agraharam looking after a mentallyilla Risabawa. There is a subtle statement here that the characters we met so far were mentally stable.

There is a girl in the agraharam who falls in love with Dileep. But there is another guy, played by Asokan, who is in love with the agraharam girl. Then there is some multiple identity issues as well, with Dileep taking on names of other people. I should re-write that sentence. But what for?

At the end guess where they all end up? In an Ayurvedic resort. We don’t know why this venue was chosen as any place would have been apt – from ISRO to Oolanpara. With that said, then all of them sit on your brain and take it out neuron by neuron that your whole body becomes a phantom limb.

So what happened to the guy who directed Ayalathe Addeham and Melepparambil Aanveedu? What happened to the guys who wrote Punjabi House? What happened to the actor who made us laugh in Meesha Madhavan and Chanthupottu?

Forget the inane story. Forget the casting. Forget the direction. Just look the the characters. The writers are not sure if Bheeman Raghu should be a villain or a comedian or both. It is OK to have a villain who is part comedian, but this falls flat.

The reason it falls flat is because there are others competing for the confused character award. The ayurvedic resort is run by Vimala Raman’s father, who is serious one moment, beating up people the othermoment and trying to act funny some other times. Looks like each minute of script was written by a different person.

There is another irritating thing. Making faces. There are too many reaction shots of people frowning, expressing shock etc. Remember how the camera used to capture the expressions of various characters in the TV serial Mahabharata when one of the cast members made a profound statement. Rajasenan sticks to that level of maturity with the difference that Mahabharata was absorbing even with all the deficiencies in film making.

At the end of it one can’t help but feel sorry for Dileep. Such movies are his forte and Rajasenan/Rafi-Mecartin have an established track record.

But Rajasenan has been on a decline for sometime. He made one terrible movie called Immini Nalloral and this one seems to be in the same genre. Since Rajasenan always has been a less than 3.5 crore guy, we hope he spends more time with the script when he ventures out next time.

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The story of Devasuram – an evil man’s fall and his redemption is quite powerful. The narrative offers many dramatic moments, for the evil to manifest, to experience the fall and then rise up again. It offers the script writer opportunities not just to perfect the protagonist, but also the supporting cast including a very powerful female lead. Ranjith made that script perfect. Mohanlal and Revathy were perfect so was I V Sasi’s direction and M G Radhakrishnan’s music.

Now what happens when one of Ranjith’s protege’s, M Padmakumar, gets obsessed with this script? You get Vargam, which is a clone of this movie. The setting was different, but direction was perfect. A young Prithviraj did his role to perfection, but even now we can’t recollect if the movie had songs or not.

Paying your respects to a movie even once is risky since it can either go the Sarkar way or Ramgopal Varma ki Sholay way. If Vargam went the Sarkar way, guess which way Parunthu went?

In this movie, Mammootty plays Parunthu Purushottaman, a money lender who really does not care about people to whom he has lent money, even if the entire family commits suicide. He goes on a rampage in the first half demonstrating scene after scene that he does not have any human emotions. Then the inevitable happens, like how Mangalassery Neelakantan is beaten and left for dead by his nemesis Mundakkal Shekharan, here Parunthu is stabbed by an accomplice of his nemesis.

The rich man finds himself lying in a hospital bed with no one to attend and no money in his hand. Due to kindness of one of the women whose life he had destroyed, he is saved, even though one of his employees whom he telephoned could have bought the money for the surgery. Within the span of one song, Parunthu turns chicken. He apologizes to everyone, fights the nemesis and everything ends well.

We don’t know what T A Razak and Padmakumar were thinking when they worked on the script. The people of Kerala have internalized Devasuram and so any amount of hand waving will not prevent them from seeing the weakness in the script. And weakness is what the movie has in plenty. An unbelievable rich man played by Jagathi, who has borrowed lakhs from Parunthu but is more interested in conducting industrial grade dandiya in his home. The Revathy equivalent who is too feeble for such a heavy role. An Oduvil equivalent – his mother – who pops in and out. There is even a Kottayam Pushpanath moment when a bullet flies towards Mammootty and he just dances around it. But by then this has become such a comedy that we really don’t care what Suraj Venjaramoodu is trying to do.

Now Padmakumar has made the same movie with Mammootty and Prithviraj. What next? The same movie with the other super stars of Twenty 20?. We have a simple request. Please don’t abuse that script. If we want to see a great movie, we will even skip Vargam and watch Devasuram any day.

Image courtesy: Rediff.com