It's celebration time courtesy of Eid & Vishu, & to cash in on the festive mood the Malayalam film industry came with three big banner releases. However, PVR threw a spanner in the works when they temporarily banned the screening of Malayalam movies for a day or so, over the visual print fee. Anyway, they have reversed the decision & people have continued to flock to the theatres. So how did the three releases pan out for me??? Varshangalkku Shesham: "Humour & earnest performances saves it!!!" To be frank, this was the movie that I was most excited about among the three &am ..read more

Over the past one month, our industry has been witness to some great news with Chidambaram's "Manjummel Boys" having become the highest grossed Malayalam movie ever. To add onto that,  "Premalu", "Aadujeevitham", "Bramayugam", "Ozler" etc., have also reaped rewards at the box office. At the same time, there has been no dearth of mediocre movies that has continued to flood the theatres to no avail. I happened to watch quite a few of them & thought to club them together as I feel they might struggle to find takers even on the OTT platform. Secret Home: "Despite the twists, the movie wi ..read more

The much awaited magnum opus "Aadujeevitham" from Blessy sir has finally hit the screens after almost 16 years from the time he decided to join hands with Benyamin and immortalize the latter's acclaimed work into celluloid. With a run time that was a shade below 3 h, the veteran film maker transports us to Najeeb's world where we are hooked onto the emotional drama that unfolds in the desert of Saudi Arabia. It was undoubtedly an immersive cinematic experience that transcends boundaries and tugs at our heart cords with its authenticity in its narration & performances.  As majority of ..read more

Even as "Bramayugam" has garnered both critical acclaim & commercial success, there were a couple of others that had released the week priot to that which had kept the box office bells ringing. Though I had watched them last week itself, I didn't quite have the time to pen my opinion about them which incidentally had satisfied the audience in me. The movies in question include Darwin Kuriakose's "Anweshippin Kandethum" & Girish AD's "Premalu". In addition, Chidambaram's "Manjummel Boys" also joined the bandwagon to make it one of the most profitable February of the industry in recent t ..read more

Which movie in recent times had the most interesting publicity designs in the lead up to its release? I guess most people would have different opinions but if I am to answer that, it is undoubtedly the work done by Aesthetic Kunjamma for Rahul Sadasivan's "Bramayugam". For one of the most awaited movie of the year, the hype & expectations were already sky high & the design team took it up a couple of notches. So how was the experience inside the theatre? Oh boy...it was just exquisite.  Based on the script by Rahul Sadasivan & dialogues by the esteemed TD Ramakrishnan, the ..read more

The much awaited magnum opus of LJP hit the screens on the eve of Republic Day & from whatever I have heard, the opinions has been rather mixed. Well obviously everyone perceives each movie according to their own taste & hence it is important that other's opinion are taken with a pinch of salt before you have actually seen it. So did the LJP magic work this time around??? Since this was his first collaboration with Lalettan, the pre-release expectations had touched stratospheric levels.  As LJP had said in the promotions, the movie is set in a fictional space & time where the ..read more

It's been quite an eventful Christmas for the various film industries as we had big banner releases that had taken the box office by storm. Well I have already penned my opinion about them & I thought to make use of that holiday season to pen my views about some of the movies that I had watched but didn't have the time to write about them. This writeup is about many of the Bollywood movies that I had watched in the last six months of 2023. So without further ado, here it goes. Animal: "Sandeep takes violence to the repulsive level!!!" Even before the release of the movie, it was the talk ..read more

A couple of weeks into 2024 & we already have had a couple of interesting movies from pretty much most of the industries. Despite some mind boggling numbers at the box office last year, it still saw a good number of producers burning their hands for investing on projects that barely had anything worthwhile. At the same time, there has been instances where a deluge of movies meant there were lack of adequate screens for certain movies that had the potential to break even. Anyway January should bring in smiles as there are movies that are poised to do well at the box office. Aattam: "12 hyp ..read more

I still remember the day when my friend asked me check out the trailer of "KGF" which completely took me by surprise. As I spent about 5 years of my career in IISc, I was no stranger to Kannada movies though barring a few, none of them had managed to make me sit through it for more than 15-20 minutes. Hence Prasanth Neel's magnum opus was a revelation & it was released around Christmas as well. After the "KGF" series, Prasanth is back with his latest release with Prabhas & Prithviraj in the lead which was more than ample reason for most of us to be excited about the project. So does th ..read more

The much awaited Jeethu Joseph's "Neru" finally hit the screens on Thursday. It was the biggest Malayalam release for this Christmas & undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated movie of the year. Though there are quite a few big banner releases from other industries like "Dunki" & "Salaar", I am sure that just like me many others would have been more excited to see the combination of Lalettan & Jeethu in the hope that they can recreate the "Drishyam" magic. As always, Jeethu had tried to tone down the hype by stating that it is an emotional courtroom drama that has been kept as auth ..read more