Mini Molude Achan

Mini Molude Achan - Movie Review

The present day 'Minimol' is all grown up and lives with her paternal uncle. The house belongs to her dad but the uncle is keeping custody of both the house and her since 'Minimolude Achan' is confined in a mental institution (rightly so). She is relegated to the role of a servant in her own house and is also at the receiving end of taunts by the bachelor tenants of her uncle. Every Monday she goes to the hospital to meet her dad who fails to recognize her. However, the doctors have promised that the patient will be discharged once he is able to  identify his Minimol. In an apparent situation where she is free of homely chores and errands, Minimol picks up her dad's diary. And thus begins the flashback of a lifetime.

In the flashback, the now-madman Pandit is Aditya Varma, a hot shot civil engineer working for the number one company in Kerala(!). While in the flashback, young man Pandit goes back to his childhood and we get to see a young boy (three year old, as per the script) wearing Pandit's patented T-Shirt. Please note that mobile phones were quite popular then. Also, Christopher Nolan may take notes on flashbacks within flashbacks.

In many ways than one, Minimolude Achan resembles Santhosh Pandit's first movie Krishnanum Radhayum. Be it the number of heroines  or songs or the actors involved, it is more or less a rehash of his debut. The dialogues are cringe worthy and the action laughable. His first wife (two songs for her) gets killed so he marries another woman (three songs). His lady boss whose bulk would put Shakeela to shame has the hots for him and so does her anorexic assistant. Yup, a combo song follows. Lyrics of most songs are inaudible and hence saves us a lot of energy.

A young Minimol (Pandit's real-life niece) and Pandit's second wife are given enough screen space but it is the older Minimol that scores big time with her acting. Pandit pays homage to Tony Jaa by using elbows every now and then in the fight scenes, albeit in a way none of us would want to see. Make-up takes the cake, literally, on the face(s). All in all, a full blooded ludicrous product from the Pandit stable that meets the expectations. Go watch it and have a good time.

Cheers....

Chax

Kanyakumari Express

Yet another full blooded bad movie from Thokku. Once again he is in his top cop avatar but with a twist. He happens to be a part time carpenter! His choice of wardrobe makes Govinda look like a Giorgio-Armani-showstopper. His facial expressions, serious or otherwise, will have you in splits. The dialogues are incoherent and the conflict between the characters is never explained thereby leaving you confused till the end. And if you thought that Thokku's act in Chintamani Kola Case was over the top, then this one is even more maniacal. Watch it along with friends. Get entertained.

The Thriller

Starring : Self-Proclaimed superstar Prithviraj a.k.a Puluthiraju as DCP Niranjan
Language : Malayalam, English , Hindi, Tamil (Reason: Puluthi can speak all four at random).
Runtime (Actual Movie): Doesn't matter. It feels much longer than it actually is.
Runtime (Slo-Mo): About an hour. (Now, who taught film-makers like Amal Neerad and B Unnikrishnan that more super-slo-mos mean style?)
Release Date : 17th Nov 2010. Bakrid. (Relevance: Spoiled an otherwise enjoyable holiday)

Make Up : Puluthi is portraying a fiery cop but the thick lipstick and rouged cheeks make him look like a wimp.

Worst Dialogues : Puluthi (To superior officers, villains etc), "I dare because I'm daring, damn daring". Classic!

Puluthi again (This time, to Home minister), "....I'm speaking for the oppressed and the repressed and the suppressed and depressed and the.....", the list goes on and I lost track. A gem indeed!

Puluthi (To Sampath), "Enne paartha bhayame bhayanthu odiduven". Now, we thought Vijayakanth had patented 'bhayam' lines! But, Puluthi is close on his heels.

Best Dialogues : Commissioner of Police to Puluthi, "You are a pain in the ass". Wish somebody told him this to his face outside the confines of the movie world!

Heroine#1 to Puluthi, "He was an asshole". Again, we wish the subject was Puluthi himself!

Anecdote on Heroine#1: Puluthi interrogates the girl with questions set in English and Hindi. She responds likewise, narrating her life as the girlfriend of Simon Palathinkal, a business scion. That life had its share of songs and dances, as we get to see in the flashback scenes. But the girl singing in fluent Malayalam? Now, that is impressive!

Anecdote on Heroine#2 : Interrogation time, again. This girl is Simon's secretary and also happens to be Puluthi's ex-girlfriend. Puluthi shows several photographs of hers in compromising positions with Simon. Her explanation? The boss used to shoot pictures with his arms around her even before she had the time to react. Not once, but several times! Say, what? Sati Savitri in torn jeans!

Worst Named Characters : Paaramada Subhash, RDX Anil, Mullaani Biju, Martin Dinakar etc. We thought Pattas Balu and Pan Parag Ravi were bad names. How wrong!

Footnote : Kanichukulangarayil CBI, Brahmastram and now this. Our film-makers better stay away from the 'based on a true story' stuff.

Mr. Bean as Kuruvi!

Please check out this video where Mr.Bean tries a Vijay!

No Nonsense

*

Malayalam movies sometimes carry absolute gems of dialogues in English, Hindi or Tamil. These sentences are most often translated from the native language to the foreign ones, and hence when spoken, they result in unpretentious humour.

My all-time favourite line comes usually in a conversation between (a) Police Official and his subordinate, (b)Doctor and Patient, (c) Father and Son. And the sentence - "What nonsense are you talking"?

Shambhu

*

Whats Hot - Vijayakumar as an innocent-turned-criminal college dude.
Whats Not - Riyaaz Khan as a straight-laced budding politican who doesn't ham it up until the finale when he shows his true Villain colors.

Why Watch It - For the scene where Vijayakumar confronts a poor little Rat. See the acting genius of the Rat! This is Vijayakumar at his worst "Achuvetta-Njan-Onnum-Ariyaathe...." mode.

Pokkiriraja

*
Starring : Mammootty as Older Brother
Prithviraj as Younger Brother


What would you think if a movie begins with with rolling credits? Would you consider leaving the auditorium? As Pokkiriraja began in such a hitherto unheard fashion I contemplated leaving the theater then and there taking it as a cue. But the hardcore bad movie fan in me got the better of my body and I sank back into the seat witnessing a collage of scenes copied and pasted from a slew of past movies, especially those starring Mammootty himself.

The opening scene reminded me of Pothen Vava where two families where fight it out to decide who will organize the yearly festival held in their local church. While keeping the situation essentially the same, the writers of Pokkiriraja simply changes the premise to temple in place of the church. They follow it up with a scene straight out of Aaraam Thampuraan where a patriarch in the mold of Narendra Prasad schemes to disrupt the festival in question. Soon, scenes resembling Rajamanikyam and Annan Thambi depicting the childhood antics of the two Hero-Brothers fill the screen space.

Charged with a murder that he never executed, the elder one is ostracized from the community by the kids' idealist father. That it was the Dad who had accidentally committed the crime makes matters worse. The son now has to keep the reputation of his dad intact and dutifully accepts the punishment. This situation paves way for the Dad to ask for forgiveness to his son in the later part of the movie on the lines of (yes, you guessed it) Narasimham.

Well, the brothers are separated and they grow up in different circumstances. Younger Bro has an introduction song designed for him and where have we heard that exact tune before? Aadungada Ennai Suthi from Pokkiri it is. Meanwhile Older Bro turns out into a good-hearted Don much like Mammootty's role in Chattambinaadu etc. And as destiny (a big yawn) would have it, they meet in the most ridiculous way since the time of Manmohan Desai. One brother completes the siblings' childhood motto for the other and the younger one recognizes his blood. I'm sure nobody would want me to list those movies from the 70s. Moreover, the duo keeps exchanging praises using lines which has more to do with their respective acting careers and nothing to do with the movie as such. Soon Mammootty's stooges too join them with some crap about Fans Association and one gets the feeling if it is a frigging documentary on Superstars.

It doesn't end there. So, we have a dumbass Commissioner of Police and his screwed up family (Not sure about the bloodline of Shriya Saran - is she from the Cop's first marriage or from his current wife? ). In any case, our younger bro is madly in love with her and older bro would go any lengths to unite them. Dont mistake me, this is not an action drama as the title may suggest. This is purely what we in our BAD lingo would term 'wedding movie'. Hell, maybe not in the same vein as 'Seethakalyanam' or any Sooraj Bharjatya flicks, but there you have it. A confrontation scene between Bros and goons inside the villain's den (Police Commissioner nonetheless and it doesn't matter that the Bros are too goons themselves) is what gave me the creeps. All we normal viewers get to see (I say normal because it helps the cause of this explanation in latter parts) is a ruffian holding a gun straight at Mammooty and in the next shot we see the poor chap lying on the floor with Mammootty sitting relaxed in a chair while holding the same gun. Now, our Villain is so awestruck that he hasn't got a clue about what might have happened. And it is the turn of Bro Younger to persuade his Dad-in-Law-to-be to visualize the movement in super-slo-mo because Bro Older's action cant be comprehended by us mortals in 'normal' speed. Villain obliges and we see what actually transpired between the poor extra and Mammotty. Apart from the silliness of the whole sequence I was appalled by the fact that it was lifted from Mahesh Babu's 'Athidhi' which was released some three years before Pokkiriraja.

Special prizes for guessing the pranks (yes, pranks!) played by the Bros on the Villain before Prithviraj and Shriya tie the knot and we have our biggest summer release. If this isn't the abyss that most people claim that Malayalam Cinema has sunk into in recent times, then I don't know what is.

Aalwar

In this Anniyan-meets-Ghajini movie, Thala Ajith Kumar plays the role of a one man army obsessed with eliminating criminals. He works as a morgue attendant in a hospital but is hell bent on donning a few avatars from Hindu mythology while he carries out his executions.









In the beginning, his selection of victims is either random or circumstantial. But a few minutes into the second half and we get to know that this is a standard revenge drama. The flashbacks show our hero as innocent as one could possibly be, courtsey Anniyan.







The villain kills his family, hits him on the head with a rod and leaves him for dead, courtsey Ghajini. Special mention - the scene where Ajith extends his hand towards his about-to-die sister, a straight lift from Ghajini. What is worse? The girl is named Kalpana!









The climax is yet another spectacle with Ajith getting burned from head to toe and escaping unscathed.










The presence of a heroine in this melee makes matters terrible and Asin ensures that we have a hell of a bad time watching this movie in entirety and her antics in particular.

Rakhee

Rakhee features one of my favorite 'bad stars' (pardon the anagram), Jr NTR in one of the worst avatars he could possibly don. Now, I have always made statements on how not to get confused about an actor's on-screen and off-screen character, but NTR's role as Rakhee, the savior of women, made me feel like i was witnessing Pamela Anderson give a speech on chastity. For a star whose each and every film (including the one under scanner) carries several songs and other sequences with two or more heroines in skimpy garbs and compromising positions, it was indeed very funny to listen to several lines referring to the sanctity of womanhood and how not to take advantage of the fairer sex.

Not only does he make infinitely long, tearful, boring speeches on the same topic, Rakhee (short for Rama Krishnan and also refers to the pious arm-band ) also takes revenge on behalf of his beloved multi-million number of sisters on anyone who has ever (a) teased (b) molested (c) raped (d) tortured (e) traded (f) killed them. The motivation - his real sister's tragic death in the hands of her in-laws. He begins with finishing off the entire family responsible for her death and takes up the bigger cause. So we get to see a Rakhee who goes on a killing spree without caring about the degree of crimes committed against women.

As is the case with most serial killers whose have made their presence on screen, Rakhee too follows a pattern but unlike them he takes a much lesser complicated one. He carries a small plastic bag filled with petrol and walks/drives up to his target in broad daylight and breaks the packet on the victim's head . Soon, the victim gets drenched in the inflammable liquid from head to toe (with just a quart litre) and our hero finds enough time to light a match and burn him to ashes. Now, a killer of this sort should leave something on the crime scene as his signature and what better choice than a brightly colored rakhi.

Pic: A typical Rakhee assault

The Police Department shown in the movie deserves a special mention and so does actress Suhasini. Her role of a Deputy Police Commissioner in Rakhee can single-handedly shatter all the good work she has done in her past movies. And expectedly her character who begins pursuing the killer ends up supporting Rakhee for all his 'good deeds'. She goes to the extent of shouting at her superior that Rakhee is the only real cop out there. All this adds more fun to the plot and lets us laugh out loud at the absurdity of it.

As promised by the promos, we have several songs featuring NTR either with a gorgeous Ileana or a voluptuous Charmi, both being in their near-naked best and proved to be the much needed breaks between laughs.

Pic: All those rakhis on his arm were tied by his innumerable 'sisters'!

Neelathamara

This is one Malayalam movie which would enrage those perpetual haters of the tharavadu-kindi-montha-kitchen-sambar template. Moreover, there are several visuals and subtle references to various elements of flora and fauna around the tharavadu , repetitive shots of a revered pond where the sacred lotus blooms and the exaggerated accent of all characters involved. All these are bound to make this movie a hell of sorts for any viewer who would love to see Malayalam cinema get emancipated from these age old shackles.

Watch it when you are in a sleepy mood. It would take more than 10 minutes for anyone to hear you snoring. Else skip the sleep inducing first 30 minutes and treat your hormones to the occasional display of cleavage by the leading lady.

Verdict: This lotus has no color.