I watched this whole movie and I am still not sure who did it and why and all of that. But it was certainly entertaining! Although not as entertaining as the last CBI movie I watched, Jagratha CBI, where the twists were just BONKERS.
Well, I’m back to the classics! Because Bharatham starts with a “B” and therefore was next on my DVD shelf after ABCD. And also because I was in the mood for something thought provoking and good, and I knew this one would be.
Last night I went the North American Film Awards, which are essentially the Malayalam IIFAs. So, the IIFAs without any backup dancers or rehearsals, but with a lot of really detailed eloquent speeches and as much applause for the directors as their was for the stars. And in a theater which is about the same size as a high school auditorium, and wasn’t even sold out. But that’s not important, what’s important is I got stuck trying to get out of the parking lot because I was blocked in by NIVIN PAULY!!!!
Well that was an interesting movie! Took me a really really long time to figure it out. And then in the middle of the night I suddenly sat up and went “Of course! It’s all about the 3 chains!”
I am continuing my “well, it’s the DVD on top” decision making process for films as I unpack. After two good Malayalam choices and one so-so Telugu, I have landed on a really quite bad Malayalam film. It looks like it was a big of a box office hit, but most critics agree with me that it is generally no good.
I just cycled through a whole bunch of variations on that title, “unexpected”, “juxtapositions”, “breaking boundaries”, but really it’s just shock. That kind of “I can’t believe they went there!” shock. Which is why it is really too bad that I saw this film after having already seen a whole bunch of other movies that went to the same kind of shocking place. Since all the others were just imitating this one, it should have had the privilege of shocking me first.
I fell behind this weekend, and now I have to write my Monday post seconds after finishing the movie. Which is really too bad, because this is a film that really needs you to sit with it for a while before you are ready to talk about it.
Isn’t this amazing, that there is a whole Indian genre of “women escaping relationships that aren’t terrible, but aren’t what they deserve”? I watched this movie and could compare it with Queen, English/Vinglish, How Old Are You?, and plenty of others. But this film has a twist, this film ends with the “unthinkable” actually happening.
This was a kind of interesting film. Not a great film, maybe not even a good film? But an interesting one. Well, interesting in the last twenty minutes. The set-up for that was a bit of a drag. But most important (for me), this was a FREE film! It suddenly popped up at my library, while I was in the middle of the move (DVDs finally unpacked as of this morning, but books still in boxes), and I had to watch library DVDs. So it was perfect for me.
Well, this was a bit of an interesting downer! A movie about sex that was not at all sexy. Appropriately so, sex work is not sexy for the sex workers, it is just a job that they do from necessity. And it’s not necessarily sexy for their clients either, it is also something from desperation and misery. So, woo! An accurate depiction of life for a sex worker! Which means, depressing and grinding and tiring and dangerous and yet dull at the same time.
Well, I finally saw Oppam. Only 6 months late. Oh well, this is what happens when the theaters only give one screen to Malayalam films, and there are 4 (or 5?) major releases for Onam weekend. I saw Oozham, which was in a similar genre but not quite as good as this. Because Prithviraj is not quite as good as Mohanlal and Jeethu Joseph isn’t quite as good as Priyadarshan.
This is a nice small idea film. But it is a real gem of an idea, and one I very much appreciate, especially since it is following the highest ideals of communism and treating the world as a community by highlighting an issue totally unrelated to Kerala.
Happy Monday! I’m all-Bahubali, all the time, only I know I’ve got my nice faithful Malayalam readers too, and I don’t want you to feel left out. So I managed to take a break to watch a not-very-good, but very popular, Malayalam film.
I avoided this movie because it looked scary, and I don’t like scary movies! But it really wasn’t bad, because it was less about the “scary” parts, and more about the character parts. The specifics of the danger weren’t the point, it was the way our heroine rushed headline into the danger that was the point. Because young women are very very foolish!
What an interesting movie! It’s about stuttering, but not really. It’s about growing up, but not really that either. And it’s also a little bit about Mukesh being a really nice guy. It’s all of these things combined, it’s just sort of about life.
Baahubali!!!!! Instead of my regular Malayalam post yesterday, I put up the first half of this Baahubali review, because it was dubbed in Malayalam and a big hit there too. And now the second half is today’s Telugu/Tamil post, because obviously it was also a big hit in Telugu and Tamil versions. And also, I am putting so much work into going through the film scene by scene, I don’t have time to do any additional post yesterday or today.
BAAHUBALI!!!!! I saw it 7 times in 10 days in the theater (Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday again, and another Tuesday), and then pre-ordered the DVD and watched it 4 more times with the few friends who had missed it in theaters. But that was a couple months before I started the blog, so I’ve never actually written a review of it. But now that Baahubali 2 is about to come out (FINALLY!), it’s time. And since this is a looooooooooooooong one, I am splitting it in two days, Monday and Tuesday. Hey, it was released in both Malayalam and Telugu/Tamil, right?
I watched Double Barrel! Only one Pellissery left to see. And I think this might be my least favorite of all the Pellissery’s I have seen? Which doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, just means I didn’t like it as much.
My second Pellissery Monday! And 3rd Pellissery week over all (counting the Tuesday I saw Angamaly Diaries). And this movie is rawer, but still better than Amen. But not as good as Angamaly, which combined the powerful spirit of this film with the technical brilliance of Amen.
I’ve watched this movie twice now. Once really seriously, pausing and rewinding if I thought I missed something, and once more just skimming, letting it play while I brushed my teeth in the morning or wrote blog posts at night. And I know I have still missed SO MUCH. But I am going to do my best to try to understand it and present it to you.
What a fascinating movie! Oh my goodness, SO INTERESTING!!!!! Starting from the opening shot, which sent me down a whole mental wormhole of film history. But mostly, I am SO GLAD I watched this film the same week I saw Angamaly Diaries! Because this film makes the hypothetical argument that Angamaly Diaries proved in reality.
If you want to know why this film is just breathtaking, then you should read my no spoilers review. Because the amazing part of the film isn’t in the story it is telling and what happens, it is in how the story is told. But if you want to read a little more in depth discussion about the film and every aspect of it, not just the breathtaking parts, you can read on.
You know the problem with pioneer films? They are so groundbreaking and wonderful when they come out, but then after they have cut out the new path, the films that come after it are so much more luxurious and elaborate, it makes that poor struggling scratched and damaged first film look like nothing in comparison.
My first Malayalam movie from my huge online shopping haul! It was so-so. I think I remember why it was recommended to me, because it was Nivin’s first movie, and the first movie Vineeth directed. It was kind of cool to see how both of them started out, and the movie was also sort of interesting in its own right to look at how a plot I have seen in Hindi and Tamil films was done in Malayalam. But I wouldn’t say it is exactly a “Great Film.”
I mentioned last Monday that I saw two Malayalam movies in the theater. This was the other one! The showtime gods were kind to me, I realized I could catch a matinee of Ezra, grab a lassi at the concession counter, and then move right into the show for Fukri.
dontcallitbollywood 