Durandhar the revenge Review

 Durandhar the revenge ..Review 

warning long post 

Yesterday we saw the film which has created box office history of being one of highest grosser made ever and also one of longest 3.55 hours .

The film handles a very complicated subject of decades long Indo pak enimity and venom of Pakistani ISI and its army political underworld terrorist elements combined violent upheavels on India and its murdering many innocent Indians  by maiming and killing thousands over the years .

Such a subject which takes History and truth to appear as a fiction film based on a true story convincingly needs a talent 

Young Aditya Dhar the creator Director has that in plenty in this part two as much as his part one of the Bienalle magnum opus DURANDHAR .

Its almost an Indian answer to the world to the unfair violent series of harm inflicted on us over the years by Pakistan and how it was handled with clever and adroit moves by India where its secret service gives  blows as big and powerful as its army has been doing on off .

In Dhurandar part one its shown RAW , read Ajit Doval our superspy recruits a Punjabi army trainee and moulds him into an one man fighting machine to send him across the borders as a Pathan of Balochistan named Hamza who manages to quietly merge himself into the faith of one of the most powerful Baloch gang leaders Rehman Diktait in Karachis Liyari area often called as the underworld den and a factory spawning smuggling and terrorism and accepted as the kingmaker of Pakistani politico army ISI higher ups .

The first part ends with Rehman Diktait killed off by Hamza with none knowing it ,he just being the sad loyal assistant left behind to take over his masters underworld kingdom and a smiling Doval across the border happy his animal machine was giving returns in an unexpected scale .

The second part starts by showing us on the genesis of Hamza giving us muggles  the inside story of how secret agencies create spies to infiltrate decades ahead .

The best part comes by the end of the film in another of Dovals surprise on  a plant 4 decades and more back  who Hamza thought he was using him when he and us realise it was other way round by films end .

The secret service agencies all over the world are as powerful and calculative in their shadow fights and work for years with great foresights .

Even Gorbachev who dismantles the great web of Communism of USSR and its satellite countries like a pack of cards by his Petestroika  is said to be a plant by the CIA !

and 

so is Juskrait a Pathankot  army recruit  saved from a life sentence for his revenge decimation of a criminal gang killing many in his family raping his,sister .

Its Ajay Sanyal ( brilliant understated quiet menacing perfomance by Madhavan of Ajit Doval sir himself Indias super spy our James Bond )and his powerful team in RAW that saves him from doors of death offering him freedom ,security for his mother and sister forever all for becoming an one man automaton called Hamza willing to lead his life across the border gaining trust and brilliantly murdering one by one all those who had harmed India with help from  Balochistan rebels .

These are very likely to have happened in reality too .

we come to know how demonitisation in 2016 never adressed black money hoarding by Indians , the real damage  was to the Pakistani haters of india who by developing  counterfiet currency of an accuracy unsurpassed thanks to our own finance minister then giving them the moulds used in Indian currency factories ( this part was missing when I saw film ,probably lifted off ) 

By this brilliant stroke of Modiji which cut off the legs of the Pakistani planners on one debilitating stroke and one of the biggest debacle to the ailing Dawood Ibrahim in his Karachi house .

This part shows how,a bedridden Dawood still holds the cards and commands of ISI underworld pak army and pokitical powers to fund India hatred and damage .

Hamza manages to reach that iinner circle of trust and tries to quietly finish off Dawood using a tiny patch of a chemical developed by DRDO in India for political assasination but is unable to carry out the act .

By end of film we smile knowing Dovals long time plant had done it years back and Dawood was in a slow death thanks to that , though finishing it off quickly could not be done we can be sure the inevitable death of Dawood would be by Indias hand .

Truly comforting to know this .

The movie ends by Hamzas exposure and torture by Iqbal the ISI head who had killed his own father an ex army officer of Pakistan priding himself of raping thousands of Bangladeshi women unlike his emasculated son who was duped by Indian RAW all the time Iqbal ends the man by calling  him a cheat and a coward he had borne for decades 

Aslam the senior Pakistani police officer ( Sanjay dutts awesome perfomance ) is also finished off by Hamza .

And with the big plot of weapons transfer to India for terrorism by Hamza directed and funded by Dawood is,occasion used by Iqbal to catch Hamza .

Though the conflict ends in great damage to Pakistan and weapons transfer niched in bud again by Ajit Dovals machinations Hamzas tortures brought him close to death by Iqbal and a Pakistani general who was interrogating read murdering him slowly till a phone call from Ajit doval read Ajay sanyal who sends a video clip of the said general double crossing his country selling secrets to Israrlies .

Ajit Doval tells the general to hand over Hamza quietly in a location if not to be exposed.

He asks the general " did you believe that Israelis wont share the video for us to use in such a situation ? "

showing howIsraeli secret service works in tandem to RAW in their common endevaour of controlling Islamic tertorism ..

Hamzas rescue by the surprise in the film the earlier plant himself is the icing in the cake and he is quietly flown back to India met by Ajay sanyal and team .

Hamza read Juskrait read Ranveer Singh the hero who with his powerful action shînes in second part sharing no glory with another actor( Akshay khanna )  like in first part .

And finally what has not been said or discussed by any is the two Durandhar epic films hosted on us Indians by Doval and Modi to tell us the truth that we are under clever rulers

The ultimate Durandhar

its POSSIBLE 

Looking forwards to part three .

Film reviews..Avihitam and Bharatanatyam

 Avihitham ( illegal  Affair ) and Bharatanatyam 

Malayalam films review .

Only in malayalam can they take films with such taste ,simple story laced with intelligent humour without crutches of costly actors made in a shoestring budget and with every single actor doing his role to perfection and at end of film making us happy and satisfied .

Think in that sense Malludom is like ISRO consistently creating waves at minimal costs but maximal use .

Of course Mallu films too have got into the big star crores mega films cycle but the soul of it lies in topics of daily life blended to its soil culture and language with no pretensions .

Two films I would recommend to all are

Bharatanatyam ( Amazon prime ,Manorama max ) and Avihitham just released in Jio hotstar .

Bhatanatyam is a simple story of a family whose respected head is revealed to have a hidden side and family unknown for years and his illness brings them home !

How the elder son manages to hide all this from the nosy friends and neighbours and how one of them does detective work to prove his point of something strange in the house and how family fears the new wife and son have returned to claim the wealth and what happens after the man who caused all this died .

Its a laugh riot and a feel good film .

Avihitham again focuses on another mallu habit of snooping into others to expose affairs as a community .

moral policing by mallus is a realtime hobby .

Here too military strategies are made to catch culprits in a clandestine affair from an unexpected family lady and it all results in a surprising anti climax with a nice message to the community itself .

Real fun

watch both films.

BRAHMAYUGAM

 

The film that gave Mammooty his best actor award .

I am reposting my post last year after this film was released

Brahmayugam ...review 

First of all Iam giving NO SPOILERS for I want every one of you to see this film in its nitty gritty and go through what each one of us in theater did today 

In that sense this is an unconventional review 

Malayalam movies are known for thier horror genre ,from Bhargavi nilayam ,Ezra ,Rahul Sivadasans Boothakaalam ,Vayanaadan thambaan ,lisa etc many were impressive unlike  comedies labelled as horrors in some other languages .

One reason could be the stories kerala spurned in its mediaveal and even later periods of old haunted houses palaces black magic satan worship which even to this day persists in temples in Trissur dt .

Of course Manichitrathaazu would get the price for a horror film taken so slickly with great actors like Shobana ,Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi it almosts cheats one to think its a happy colurful family drama which ultimately it ends to but not withput taking all for a ride into the supernatural .

Now lets talk of Bramayugams megastar Mamooty 

Mamooty is I feel taking the ideal path a succesful senior superstar can and should take , but most  wont take ,as they are stuck to thier imprisoned grooves and fear to venture out .

Last few films  Mamooty had shown us his forays into non comfort zones and doing it extremely well too 

Amitabh Bhachan probably is the only megastar who has similarly experimented and suceeded .

Look at kamal Rajni of course they all are thier older versions but still not beyomd what thier fans have been used to seeing while Mamooty surprises one in most of his films these days .

Brahmayugam ( its the part of kaliyugam described as age of madness )  rightly described is a black and white film that brings the grey of horror into ones soul  through its 2.30 hours of unrelenting forebodes .

Unkempt mansions ,satanic laughters  ,blood curdling sounds,cannibalistic witches cauldrons ,all not stilted or unreal but plausible in mediaveal kerala where black magic or Durmanthravaatham ,Chaathan seva or satanic worship ,and yakshis erotic captures of susceptible young men are part of the tapestry of stories of this part of the country .

A  smiling calm Mamooty  just puts one off gaurd only to suddenly punch  us into revulsion by his chameleonic changes ,

The pouring rains in the pitch dark forest or clouded daytime in leaking mansion  ( till interval there was no rain and  I was wondering how the Director left rain alone with a mansion perfectly suited for it to instil more dread and then he gave us rain in abundance post interval telling us well you asked for it have fun )

 There are only three actors in the film all males  other than the female yakshi who appears in just a scene ,( a lesson to some films from other languages and Hindi spending ten to hundred times the 27 crores spent with less than one hundredth of the punch this film would leave you with ) 

Each actor did thier job best but it was Mamooty   who takes  away the crown and if as an actor if  this film doesnt fetch him a national award I wonder which other actor would deserve it more then him !

I have given no spoilers but to say it s a period film in 16th  century during the Portugese colonisation 

It  is based loosly on a Namboothiri illam or an  ancestral house inside a forest where evil happenings take place and redeemers attempts turns awry .

Director Rahul Sivadasan

Actors 

Mamooty 

Arjun Asokan 

And Siddharth Bharatan 

Christo xavier music 

Photography.. hats off by Shehanad Jalal 

I assume the mansion was somewhere inside Malayatoor hills and all marks to the ones who scouted it out .

jaya jaya

 One has to say Malayalam filmdom is rare one that it has the temerity to make films which aren't in the run of the mill ones like with a hero heroine and the works .

The variety of subjects it takes and the melding of its cast to roles not fitting the moulds is just amazing.

This is one such film .

Male chauvinism is an Indian trait and Kerala men at least many aren't much different.

Mollycoddled by their mothers many Malayalee men are spoilt children with mustaches who build a wall of defense of arrogance and cynicism to safeguard their inadequacies.

Many use anger or violence to establish the superiority they are made to realize is their birthright.

What happens when the woman reacts to one such loser is the story.

In the film the hero a small-time wholesale poultry Farmer with some success in it a doting mother and a helpless divorced sister who are all dependent on him is an Emperor within the confines of his house where from his daily breakfast of string hoppers which his mother makes so meticulously to the chilies for drying everything is done to suit his whims.

So he marries and brings a girl home who is a bright student and wants to study further but is married off by her family.

In a few days, the man started slapping his wife on and off to establish his power later apologizing for it typical of domestic violence prevalent in real life.

No one objects to this slapping at home and the girl's parents just ask her to adjust.

So one fine day when slapped she gives him an unexpected hard slap and finally a kick which sends him sprawling.

We come to know over the past few months she had been studying karate online and learned it pretty well.

The husband is wary for sometime later, hesitating to ask her if she dares hit him again.

The slaps passed on between the two ends up in her kicking him so much that he gets thrown out of the house just when his mother and sister come back home from a wedding.

There's some talk of compromise and they live together for some time.

He sweet-talks her into getting pregnant as advised by his friend to tie her to eternal domesticity.

She comes to know of this walks out on him and lives in a working women's hostel takes a bank loan and starts an enterprise.

The video of her hitting him which he had recorded becomes viral and in humiliation, he files for a divorce.

The courtroom scenes with a brilliant lady judge asking questions to both exposes the male chauvinism prevalent in society .

In the end she too signs for a mutual divorce and has a last laugh when she too buys a poultry business to compete and almost destroy his .

To approach such a sensitive but alive topic with sensibility and humour the film passes a message that both men and women are equal and its better to adjust be flexible be complimentary to each other .

A story told with finesse.

Ultimately it always conveys that intelligence skill alone isn't sufficient for success, you need a complimentary supportive environment

For eg the lady hero of the film is far more clever than all in her family or the family she married to.

She would have reached heights in a career like being an IAS officer or professional if allowed to study before or after the wedding but she has lesser beings who never supported her no not even understood her.

She shows signs of business management too when she tried to correct her husband's poultry farm workers who ignored her and her husband too carried it in his foolish ways

If only he had included her as a partner in business she would have made it a better success but ultimately he grew her as a competition and IM sure she would become a corporate magnate.

How many girls are there suppressed and stuck in small egos in the state?

Intriguing question indeed.

Aranmula valliya sadya

 

Aranmula Parthasarathy is a famous ancient Sree Krishna temple in South Kerala .

It's near to Chenganur and can be reached by road or Rail. 

From Ernakulam one can go via Kottayam in MC Road or via NH 66 via Ambalapuzha Thakazhi in Kuttanad ,Chakalathu kaavu and  Chenganur .

Aranmula temple lies adjacent to river Pampa .

The area has so many small villages nearby and in earlier times the river was main transport as no roads existed and it was thick forests .

The locals used long slender snake boats or valloms..Chundan valloms .

These were long slender smooth and had a rising edge on one side .

The oarsmen either stood or sat on it to row and sang songs in unison to help thier rowing .

The temple itself is said to be more than 5000 years back built  during Mahabharatha days .

There are many stories behind it .

The Pandavas after Mahabharatha war and winning it appoints one of thier children to rule thier  kingdom and travel south .

Each of them build temples nearby .

Arjuna chose the  idol of Vishnu as Parthasarathy the divine charioteer to install but it  was near Nilackal a thickly forested region hence a raft made of six bamboo poles is used to bring it to this spot  hence called Aru Mula or six bamboo raft .

Another story says Arjuna during Mahabharata war was assuaged by Bismapithamahas steady volley of highly powerful arrows. 

Krishna who was driving chariot for Arjuna gets angry and leaves his whip in chariot getting down and raising his Vishnu Chakra to finish off Bhisma , but Arjuana cautions God his friend ,and tells him that he Krishna had vowed he would not fight in this war but only drive the chariot and hence had to keep up his word .

Krishna agrees .

This place is said to be where it all  happened and Lord Vishnu as Parthasarathy is the idol here is all glory but without a whip .

Aranmula has three things which make it different from other temples .

Aranmula valla sadya

Aranmulla kannadi or mirror

And

Aranmula Vallamkalli or boat race .

We had come to Aranmula in 2020 september once .

Aranmulla kannada and vallamkalli I shall write later .

Aranmula sadya or feast goes on for more than a month in time with Astami Rohini or Krishnas birthday .

It starts end of July goes on till september .

Every day three or more people give sadya as an offering to God .

At present the  price is 65000 Rs for one offering and more than 300 bookings are on now .

There is a story behind it again .

Once upon a time there was a Namboodiri called Bhatathiri near Aranmula who served delectable sadyas or feasts ( vegetarian ) to many every day .

One day no one turned up and he was very sad .

A very handsome youth came in a snake boat rowing and said he wanted sadya .

Bhatathiri served him with so much happiness and love and youth too relished the sadya .

At its end Bhatathiri requested the youth to come every day to partake the sadya .

The youth laughed and said ha ha Iam busy you bring it to me to my temple and disappeared .

Knowing it was Lord Krishna himself who came to eat from him Bhatathiri started habit of serving sadyas to nearby villages and they would come to temple in thier snake boats .

They were recieved by bhatathiris people with great love and honour and they too would come up steps of temple ghat to go into temple where they were honoured with dhakshina and then go to lunch hall for lunch .

A minimum 64 items to 80 items was a must in the plantain leaf sadya .

And the boatsmen would sing in praise of sree Krishna and later while eating food would demand items of food to be brought to them all in verse and songs .

Whatever was asked should be given to them with a smile .

The inner meaning is Lord Krishna would be amongst the common boat people and one never knows who it is ,so all are seen as Krishna and served with love and hospitality .

The message is regardless of who it is see all living beings as God and serve with love to spread happiness and joy .

What a great message !!

After the sadya they would sing to bless the family sponsoring thier sadya and show thier delight in partaking it .

Our friend Asokh told us about another mutual friend Suresh whose  family was offering sadya today and invited us as guests .

We had heard about it but we were delighted at this divine oppurtunity.

So Asokh , myself.  premila ,our dear friends Raviettan and Ratna chechi drove in our Hyundai Creta to Aranmula .

We reached around 10.30 am .

Saw the para or offerings to Lord in temple by the family and went to ghat with them to recieve the boat men who were from a particular nearby village .

Nowadays they just row symbolically only all coming in bikes etc .

The river too has lot of sandbanks and without rain is shallow .

The welcoming is akin to welcoming a Bhaarath in a north Indian wedding .

The boisterous singing of the youth rented the air and we all saw them being honoured with dakshina and later went into hall nearby .

We were given a token to enter and managed to get in with the main invitees as Suresh saw to it we were seated comfortably .

Because more than having sumptuous food its the divine ambience and the songs that we could witness .

Each of us had in front of us a plantain leaf with many items served already .

The preparation would have begun previous night and it had lots of regulations on items etc .

The caterers also knew that the main guests could ask for anything during feast and it was like Lord Krishna himself asking it and family had to serve with a smile .

The young men would break into songs on vegetable curry or Sambhar or pappadom or butter they needed or ask the family to grace them with hand held fans !!

It was all fun and symbolic and there were smiles laced with love and divinity .

It was a very vibrant ambience there and the food was delicious ,warm, tasty and one of the best I have had .

There were all items in a Kerala sadya .

There were different fried upperis like Kaya varathathu ,chena varathathu ,Sarkar upperi mango ,lime pickles, one big and two small pappadam Pazham  ,pansaara and so many side dishes before hot red unhusked rice was served with dhal and ghee , later Sambhar Rasam ,mor kootaan,Avial varatha aracha elisseri ,ollan , four types of Payasams .

We could hear the boatsmen demanding certain items to be brought and the family scurrying to obey .

It was a once in a life time experience to partake a sadya in his divine presence which was felt there and our hearts glowed with happiness and gratitude at being given a chance to do so .

It was a most memorable day indeed .

Dulquer Salman

Dulquer Salman son of Superstar Mamooty who is a versatile actor and a legend in Malayalam films ,has proved himself as a true son of a lion.

In his very first film in Ustad Hotel he came across as a genial likeable actor  .

I recently saw his latest film Kurup and an older one Vikramadityan .

Kurup is based on the true story of Sukumara kurup the James Bond of Kerala almost a folklore though a conman and criminal .

He schemed to kill a person covered up as himself to claim a huge life insurance taken abroad and lived to tell the tale .

A street smart con man with devious ways of living and making money was up his alley and his greed would increase as he cheated and grew more .

Iam not going into the story ,its worth seeing .

Vikramadityan is on friendship and competition amongst two childhood  local boys who grow older and with love to the third a girl .

Even though its a triangle it gives ample oppurtunities for effortless acting by Dulquer and Unni mukundan .

The prize of course went to Nivin pouly who comes in a guest role to deliver the punch with panache .

Truly another good movie available online .

 

Meenakshi Sundareswar ..Film review

 

We saw Meenakshi Sundareswar a Hindi film with Tamil charachters and tamil culture based in Madurai and Bengaluru .

All the creative people are from north India including actors .

Though the social media from down south accused the film as a biased and artiviral film based on shallow pereceptions of the south Indian way of life from those in North .

I did not feel so .

For one either in south or north of India or for that matter any part of the country we do not have uniform sets of people with similar culture as demographic blocks

How boring ! It would be then .

The spotless vestis, the sacred mark on the forehead of the sqaure hero ,and the kanchipuram silk sarees of its ladies, are blamed by many Tamils as they are  not worn by all  all the time as northis think we do .

Of course not , but guys this is about one family and mostly a very rich orthodox family from Madurai and mostly showing festival or wedding scenes definitely torn jeans would get worser reactions from your kind .

Whats wrong in showcasing an orthodox families living in antique well kept houses ?

Plenty of such houses dot Tamilnadu villages and such people are not mirages .

In fact many Tamil films show such families in technicolour so why get agitated ?

Of course if the cast or makers had a couple of Tamil names you guys would accept it .

As it is I would recommend this film to all and mind you I spent my childhood in most conservative backyard of Tamilnadu .

Sardar Udam singh ..film review

 

We saw Sardar Udham Singh in Amazon Prime today .

Udham singh was hanged to death in 1940 for having shot dead Former lt Gov of Punjab province British India 

Sir Michael O Dwyer .

The name sounds very similar to General Dyer who ordered the firing of unprotected hundreds in a meeting in Amristar the notorious Jallianwala massacre .

O Dweyer we come to know had ordered gen Dyer to spare no efforts to give a punishment to the Indians which they would never forget .

So though the act was done by Dyer this man ordered it to him and justified it later .

Though most of us have studied on the massacre and I had visited Amristar and gone to Jallianwala bagh itself a memorial park today i never knew about Udham Singh .

This is how our history sylabus full of Tipoos and Aurangazebs and Robert clive and the one and only Nehru had missed out on such a great martyr .

The film is an eye opener and I feel should be shown in all schools and colleges so that our youngsters realise but for Gandhi and the one and only Nehru there were such great men who bought us freedom by giving thier lives .

Every Indian should see the film

Jai Bhim ..Film review

 

Jai Bhim an OTT film in Amazon Prime is based on a true story of an young lawyer who fought for ill treated Tribals .

The lawyer in real life  later would become a judge .on whom the film is based .

Directed by Gnanavel with Surya doing the pivotal role of Justice Chandru the film is crafted exceptionally well .

Even though Reservations have existed for seven decades in our country we all know we still have stark poor ,ill treated lower castes and tribals, who do not fall in any slot as some have no documents and no vote and hence are discriminated against .

Its also a fact such poor are ill treated by powerful officialdom .

Even though the Reservations have been there for last seven decades ,the benifits are accrued by those who benifitted while a large number are still ill treated and marginalised .

The film tells of how a tribe of Irulars who live catching snakes and other reptiles ,are nomads with many not having papers .

The film is based in rural Tamilnadu and timed aroung 1994 .

Three of them are main accused in a robbery case which was hoisted on them and who are tortured .

The second part is on a brilliant lawyer who fights for these people and files a Habeus Corporis petition in the High court to investigate the police torture .

Its hard work and an uphill task for the lawyer to get to the bottom of things fighting powerful people .

At the end the tragic death of one of the irulars in custody is brought out and the police men who did the deed get arrested .

Brilliant fast paced script .

The torture bit in first half of the poor Irulars both men and women is painful to watch .

We are part of the efforts of the lawyer who works hard to get to the truth .

The Court room scenes are fast paced  logical ,and restricted to no cinematic scenes .

Its time Reservations beniffited such tribals 

In the end there is some closure 

There has been accusations of changing the SI a xtian into an upper caste Hindu if thats true its an agenda 

Goodbye

Bayanagam film review

 

Bayanagam ...2018 Malayalam film which got National award for best Director 

Best Cinematography and Best Actor .

Bayanagam means fear and its in series of films on Navarasa by ace Director Jayaraj .

Its based on a part of the big epic Kayaru by famous novelist Thakazhi Sivasankara Pilla who recieved jnanmpith award and several more.

Its based on Kuttanad the rice bowl of Kerala and a waterworld where one can reach places only by row boats in the days the film is based on .

Its all about the two world wars which actually did not affect south india much though Kuttanad had several recruits to the British Army to face their abject poverty.

More than 650 die in a war fought for someone else .

Film starts post first world war with an army retired postman on crutches having lost use of one leg rowing into a village to take up his job as a postman who is  the only link of communication with rest of country bringing good and bad news .

He stays in a house with a lady whose two sons has gone to fight the war .

The postman brings letters from all the sons in distant vilages reads it to iliterate villagers and money orders paid as coins and rows backin his boat .

But as war continues he brings them telegrams from the  army to convey the bad news of death to the houses .

He is hated now and even harmed though he persists and plods on sincerly .

He tries to hide the tragic news of death of both children of his lady friend as he finds it difficult to convey the truth to her .

The sombre film is photographed with excellence in sepia tone .

The background music stands out in its moody genre to me a bit like that of film  Dunkirk called Sheppards effect .

Music Director Arjunan master the veteran creates a lovely song probably his last .

Sreekumaran thampi wrote the lyrics .

Renjith panicker actor script writer plays the postman is at his careers best portraying the plight of the  postman which is fear and terror of the times.

Asha Sarath the lady tries to be chirpy for long finally sad probably guessing something was seriously wrong .

A headless coconut tree reflected in the backwaters with a sad postman in a silhoutte ends it all picture postcard as a brilliant creative effort 

Please see

Bicycle marathi film

 At times we are fortunate to see rare good films or read a rare book .

Today I saw a Marathi film Bicycle of course with subtitles.

Way back in 1948 Vittoria de sica took the first neo realistic film Bicycle thieves which even inspired Satyajit Ray in his Pather panchali .

This film is definitely not a copy of the legendary one but for the theme of the search of a bicycle which gets stolen .

In this film the protaganist is an astrologer Keshav  living in a small village leading a simple honest life with his wife small daughter and father .

The film starts with keshav taking his daughter back home ftom school in his cycle and daughter wants to hear the story of his bicycle though he had told it hundreds of times .

He repeats it with his daughter filling the gaps as she knew it so well .

Even the villagers know the story so well .

His daughter tells him to give the bicycle to her when he leaves the world !

Keshavs grandfather too was an astrologer and indeginous physician .

He once cures a British officer of his perpetual colic and the officer when he retired and before he leaves India to go back to Britain gives his prized bicyle to him .

The bicycle thus gathers great fame in the region .

The grandfather not only teaches astrology to Keshav he bequeaths the cycle to him to even the consternation of his father .

Keshav loves his cycle and takes meticulous care of it even keeping it inside his house .

Hes a gentle human and treats anyone who comes to him with affection and hospitality and has great concern for the poor villagers whom he knew were innocent simple folk .

During the temple festival when the whole village is gathered in the temple to watch the yearly ballet two thieves break open a house stealing jewelery and while returning see keshavs cycle parked outside his house .

As he had to urgently leave to temple keshav had left it outside for the first time .

The thieves find it convinient to ride away in the cycle .

Its a great shock for the whole village when they hear of the theft and they all turn up to console Keshav who is very sad .

Though the other house had lost costlier jewels theres so much sympathy for Keshavs loss as his bicycle is famously a village heirloom as everyone knew his passion for it ,above all Keshav was liked by all .

After a few days Keshav decides to go in search of his cycle and tells his family he would return only after he gets it back .

The thieves meanwhile get great welcome wherever they go in nearby villages as all recognise Keshavs cycle and question them on it which the younger thief weaves a tale that being Keshavs cousins he gave them the cycle for a few days .

Though this was difficult to believe the villagers were simple folks they accept it and give the best to the thieves because every one of them had some experience with Keshavs kindness.

The thiefs even get invited to adress a school and one of the children even gives her saved tooth to be given back to keshav when the cycle is returned !

In a house of a local big man where they are taken they are asked to stay the night as its late and they were Keshavs cousins .

When they leave in the morning the thieves realise they had accidentaly left  thier stolen jewels  in that house .

They realise thier risk and by now they had formed an opinion of the stolen bicycles owner as all respect they got really belonged to no not to the cycle but to its owner .

So they decide to return the cycle too and so leave it in a shop with a letter to him .

A tired Keshav gets back his cycle but the journey had opened his eyes on attachment to matireal things and he thus becomes a greater human being .

Director Prakash kunte got best director award and it also got best film and best screenplay .

The brilliant photography of scenic Marathi villages should have got an award too I feel .

Such a simple but wholesome feel good film do see this .

Pics from online

Can remove if objected .

Sanju and Njaan mary kutty ..film review

Saw two excellent films in theater this month .
Malayalam film Njaan Marykutty where the hero Jayasurya dons the role of a transgender albeit an educated one desirous to become a Sub inspector of police .
the rigors he has to go through and the humiliations society heaps on him is well depicted but there are always some who sup[port the right and i the end he wins the unfair fight using his intellect and perseverance .
Such a role is not easy one could slip into vulgarity or self pity or tragic comedy but jayasurya has echoed a very sober subdued personality and acted with dignity and aplomb and its an eyeopener to the hard world of Transgenders

The second film is a biography of Sanjay dutt the actor accused to be a terrorist and had long hard prison terms ,born to celebrity parents and loss of a loving mother in his adolescence and a disciplinary father from whom he could never get acceptance Sanjay dips into drugs on off and goes through the rigors of de addictions ,finally when he hits off as a cinema hero crime and his association with slimy underworld and misplaced sympathies make him a target to be used by anti nationals which is what the film says no one knows the real truth ,with criticism of glorifying a criminal if we keep that part of it apart and not consider the film as a testimony of truth of Sanjay we can appreciate the superior ability of the director who handled this very difficult contemprory and controversial biography of his favorite hero
Most scenes start as flashbacks and later we get so immersed that we forget its a tale being told when we get back real pat should go the director indeed Raj kumar hirani has once again excelled after that wonderful munnabhai series .
Ranbir kappor has done a very impressive impersonation of a likable sanju at his different ages and the final song when he dances with the real sanju is cool too
the surprises are seeing a tired Manisha koirala who lived her role as Nargis and AR Rehman delivered as usual his songs with panache only he can posses

Pics from online thanks..can be removed if objected

Brain on fire ..review

Brain on fire

This is a true story of a very pretty blonde girl Calahann working as a budding journalist in New York post who is liked by her boss for her dedication .
,she is dating an young  musician Stephen
her parents are divorced but she is close to both of them .
suddenly all goes topsy turvy as she goes into trances ,has auditory hallucinations and near accidents ,also gets mood swings and finally develops seizures .
all blood tests and investigations like MRI brain EEG does not reveal anything wrong and she keeps getting worser admitted in a hospital and finally doctors start thinking it could be a psychiatric disorder and she may be moved to a specialized center for such patients .
The parents are adamant that this should not be done as they still feel she has a problem not recognized by the doctors .
one of the neurologists Dr Ms Khan approaches an Egyptian specialist doctor who had taken a sabbatical only for teaching and not seeing patients .
Persuaded by Dr Khan Dr Souhel agrees to see her .
He reaches her bed side and does his detailed examination goes through all reports and tells her that he will try to find out to his best ability the cause for her problem and then treat it .
he gives her a paper to draw a clock face strangely she draws only one side of clock face leaving numbers from 6 to 12
this raises suspicion of dr Najjar souhel who feels the problem lies in one half of the brain and a brain biopsy is needed to find out the cause and treat her .
in the biopsy its seen that she suffered from an autoimmune type of encephalitis called NMDA encephalitis and started on treatment and after months she recovers completely all thanks to Dr Najjar
NMDA encephalitis started to be in the suspect list of many doctors after this
till date more than recorded cases of NMDA encephalitis is there
thinking loud would a PET scan have helped to pick it up earlier
nice film
please see in Netflix

 By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54364596

Ee Maa Yu

After a long time I saw a good Malayalam movie in the theater .
Ee Maa Yau a film on death,
no not morbid but a tragic satire .
Eeso mariam Yauseppe is whispered in the ears of the dead body as a habit amongst the coastal christian community in kerala the title is an abbreviation of this .

Vaavachan mistiri is an old man with a daughter and a son who is married ,vaavachan is a loving father but has long bouts of absence from home and also has a second wife and son nearby .
He comes home after a long time and when he gets down in the bus stop one local ridicules him about a love affair of his unmarried daughter and he hits that man and goes home ,

He never talks to his daughter about this as he loves his family but is disturbed ,he and his son get drunk that evening and he tells his son how he gave his father the best funeral in that coastal village of chellanam off Ernakulam ,the slang of the coastal village and the dashing waves ,the wind rustling the coconut fronds and the eerie dusk is well portrayed by the camera with the larger than life music looming behind , foretelling of tragedies ahead .

While the duck Vaavachan brought home is being cooked by the women of the house the son promises his father that he will one day give his father a funeral which will surpass what his father gave to his ! and then when the son sneaks for a smoke the old man happily drunk just falls down and dies and in the fall injures his forehead and has some bleeding ,there is lot of fuss and in minutes the neighbors arrive they all know the old man is dead and gone .

Here is when the close friend of Eashy the son enacted by Chemban
vinod arrives
He is Ayyappan a panchayat member and a good Samaritan of the village .
To me Vinayakan who took up this role and had proved himself as a good actor surpassed all in this film with his superb acting .

Eashy tells his friend what he promised his dad and Ayyappan knows Eashy has no money to keep up the promise so they pawn Eashys wife's only necklace and Eashy buys a costly coffin spending half the money though Ayyappan tries to dissuade his foolish friend the best .

They also send word to the local parish priest who by now had heard there was something suspicous of the old mans death as he had some bleeding from forehead ,the priest who loves reading detective novels sees shadows in the plot and calls up the local circle insector and with his authorirty asks him to look into this ,
Meanwhile the night drags on like in any death house with the crowd trickling down by dawn the current going off and an angry Ayyappan forcing the line man to repair it in the heavy rains .
The priest comes down and insists that the body has to be seen by the doctor in the morning as he smells something wrong and just certifying by a nurse wouldn't be enough .
This angers Eashy the son who is frustrated at all the blocks for his dear dads funeral he hits the priest in anger who swears he wouldn't allow the burial in the church cemetery by any chance .
Morning comes and the father is put into the new coffin which promptly gives way and the body falls prompting confusion and clamor then the big pandal collapses in the rain all foreboding signs .
Finally ayyapan brings the police inspector to clear the air and the doctor also says the old man died naturally and rest was rubbish but since the priest was unwilling for a burial in cemetery Eashy goes wild and starts digging a grave in the house compound like a mad man and no one could stop him finally he does that .
The last scene is shown wherein the dead father in white along with a couple more who died that night stand on the grey dark dawn looking to a big boat full of lights and hooded figures to go into the nether world
All about a death but taken well by Director lijo jose pilliserry

Uttama Villain

Uttama Villain

 

Kamal Hassan is one of the versatile actors that Indian cinema has produced and can be included amongst the greats like Sanjeev kumar,Shivaji Ganesan ,Mohanlal and Naseerudhin shah ,of course Amitabh Bachan .

The sheer variety of the roles  Kamal has done over the years  is mind boggling .

 From the quintessential lover boy which I feel suits him the best ,to the innocent orphan he portrayed in Kalaathur kanamma where  captured the hearts of a million mothers to the sun glassed serial murderer in Sigappu rojakkal

As an agile dwarf clown  in his own Mera naam joker ,

how could one forget the middle aged matron with inviting eyes in Chachi 320 where he showed how a man could do a stag act with perfection ,or the raw emotions of a mafia don who loses his dearest in Nayakan , classical dances which he did with élan and grace unbecoming of a man are legends

 what about the many comedy roles he has done with so much ease ,

once upon a time he was the darling of many girls in Kerala as the most popular red lipped hero of those times .

Even today above 60 he can give a run to other younger heroes in romantic roles even with a paunch that threatens to peep out  these days .

Movies Maro cahritra the Telugu romantic taken by his mentor K Balachander are almost epics (Maro Charitra   later on became the hindi super hit Ek duje ke liye )

In Tollywood they say if one needs to ne knuckled in the head better to get it done by someone wearing a diamond ring and that mostly means to be groomed under Balachander because that is like a passport for success in the  tinsel world .

It’s not a myth but a truth .

look at all those talents he groomed from Nagesh the brilliant comedian and actor par excellence to Kamal and Rajini and countless others .

To Balachander amongst his protégés Kamal and Rajni are like his own children .

It’s this relationship that is the most significant in this film made before the legend left this world

It’s a rare few who can live a role with a mentor just as in life and kamal is lucky that he could .

“ Utamma villain “ is almost his story with him in it  being a superstar having a mundane family life with a fat wife of convenience and a lover in the form a doctor .

Very dramatically in the film kamal gets to know he has Glioblastoma multiform which is a brain tumor stage four and his days are numbered so he goes back to Balachander his mentor director who shouts at him at first telling he has done all he could with him and the present kamal is more of an icon than the one he knew but kamal goes on to say that he needs to do a film again directed by his mentor ,

finally he blurts out the truth and the scene that followed was one of the best I liked in the film ,

K Balachander is not only an excellent director he is such a wonderful actor probably all his love for Kamal was really expressed on the camera as he pours his grief on his protégé ,he agrees to do the movie and the film is about the film making and the story of the film that is made which is a period film where kamalhassan is a lucky guy thought to get the spell of life forever and the funny things that happen with a clowning Nasser as the king and seductive heroine who is after kamal and this gives them pleny of ops to romance on the screen and it all ends with a narasimha avatar to kill Hiranyan

strangely here the hero is Hiranyan and narasimhan the villain gets a sudden itch to go to the loo when its time for him to tear the villain to pieces and the villain becomes the king

This part was excellently choreographed by blending theru koothu ,theyyam and nangyar koothu and since it was kamal doing the dance with others there was no doubts about the professionalism in the dances

The film making was blended with real life scenes of kamals illness slowly getting known to his family ,the scene between him and his teen son after he knows the truth is one of the most outstanding ones ,the sheer emotion is portrayed so well by both .

An in the end Kamal bids farewell with a mischievous wink the hallmark of his in real life too

I liked the movie a lot

Please do see it

 

Adaminte Magan Abhu

Some Malayalam films these days are showing the sensitivity that they are  known for and thier quality is improving  after a precipitous dip to crass masala recently .
Surprisingly two films Pranayam and Adhaminte magan Abhu have dealt with the seniors in society who are considered  not very market worthy in film commerce .
Adhaminte got the national award for acting for Saleem Kumar known for his comedy forte .

The story  is that of an old couples yearning for a pilgrimage to Mecca with thier meagre savings .
ignored by thier only son working  in the middle east
The couple find it difficult to gather the funds needed even by  selling thier loved few posessions like an old tree in the house  and a  cow and calf which provides them livelihood and to them  more like a child
 .
Good people are willing to help beyond the constraints of religon or blood relationships but Adham being a stickler to the laws of his faith and pilgrimage rules refuses them with love .
the couple almost prepare for thier trip at one time before disappointment sets in and go to people they know even to those who have done them harm and apologise for any wrongs committed by them which is said to be a prepilgrimage ritual ,and they find that the Almighty works in strange ways unfathomable to meagre mortals .

The trials and tribulations that fall on good men who stick to thier principles but  are stonewalled by poverty is depicted with finesse .
both Saleem Kumar and Zareena Wahab have essayed thier roles with grace and dignity the dark at time grotesque and sad eyes of Saleem strangely contrasting with those of the still beutiful Zarina
The wrinkles of Saleem in a tired  face breaking into myraid emotions and  eyes filled with love and devotion makes him worth the national award

The couple dont make it to Mecca but bring back thier cow and plant  a new sapling in thier house ,depicting a new beginning
A very good movie
hope more of this genre is made