6/7: The Grand Impact

January 22, 2016 by Tennyson

How would you create some grand impact as a young actor? You act in the movies which appeal to the audience and provide your best performance in it. A perfect example of making such an impact is that of Prithviraj Sukumaran who had three of his movies running at the theatres at the same time in last year, with them all bringing the audience in large numbers. This week, there are two of his movies running successfully at the theatres at the same time. There are not many actors who can boast of having three consecutive blockbusters, but Prithviraj has done it, and if we take his last seven movies which released from January 2015 to January 2016, I would say that six out of those seven movies were worth our time except for Double Barrel which was a critical and commercial failure. It is not something that happens often, as there are many young actors in the industry who have proven themselves, along with the veterans. Here are those six movies which contributed to that impact!

Paavada
This is the latest review for Prithviraj and happens to be the one which is attracting the crowd; it is the winner of this week, and having watched both the releases of the weekend, this is surely the better made movie too. Telling the story of two alcoholics Paambu Joy (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and Paavada Babu (Anoop Menon), this is a comedy movie in the first half and an emotional drama as well as part thriller in the second half. I expect this one to the first big hit among the 2016 releases. This will work for all kinds of audience, and so I am not going to doubt that; I did see the huge crowd!

Anarkali

Among all the movies in which Prithviraj has acted in during this time period, my favourite is this romantic flick which is shot mostly the Lakshadweep Islands, and has successfully managed to captured the beauty of the isles. It talks about a love story between a former Navy officer Shanthanu (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and the daughter of a commanding officer with whom he is attracted, Nadira (Priyal Gor). This is a love story which goes on for many years, and the message is that of true love. Biju Menon leaves an awesome mark in this movie, especially with the comic side.

Amar Akbar Anthony
This one should be the surprise blockbuster compared to the rest of the flicks which claimed the same title in the recent past. Even though it is mostly a funny movie and tries to bring a message out of nowhere, this one never really scores in totality, and comedy doesn’t work completely either. Telling the story of three friends Amar (Prithviraj Sukumaran), Akbar (Jayasurya) and Anthony (Indrajith Sukumaran), this one is not really the comedy extravaganza which was promised or claimed to be delivered. But it still works, and the credit to the same should go to the main actors.

Ennu Ninte Moideen
All the hype which has been generated related to this movie has made sure that this one is the highest grossing movie of the year and among the top three grossers of all-time in Malayalam. The movie tells the story of B. P. Moideen (Prithviraj Sukumaran) and Kanchanamala (Parvathy) who faces a struggle to be together after falling in love in the 1960s; they will keep waiting and waiting for things to get better as tragedy strikes. The hype from the fans have made this the big movie, and even as I think that this a nice flick, there is nothing much in this one as it is praised, as too many things of the age and of characters are just avoided.

Ivide

Among these movies, this is the only movie which had mixed response with the crowd as well as the critics. It had to battle the Premam season which affected the collections, but still Ivide managed to come up okay. I liked this one almost as much as I liked Premam, if you ask me. It tells the story of an Indian-born police officer in the United States, Varun Blake (Prithviraj Sukumaran) who is investigating the case of a serial killer, while an IT company head Krish Hebbar (Nivin Pauly) and an IT professional Roshni Mathew (Bhavana) become part of the story. This movie often becomes an emotional thriller rather than the crime drama, which should be why some people didn’t like it that much.

Picket 43
This movie undoubtedly began that interesting journey for Prithviraj in the year 2015. It tells the story of Hareendranath Nair (Prithviraj Sukumaran), an Indian soldier guarding an Indian picket at the border who happens to meet a Pakistani soldier Mushraff (Javed Jaffrey). As it is the time of peace, and nothing much happens at the border, both happens to develop a friendly relationship with each other, but it turns out that there is a certain terrorist infiltration waiting to happen from the Pakistani side. There will be friendships and alliances being tested here, and there is a powerful emotional side to this story.

#So, which of these movies have you watched? How much impact did these movies and the actor make on you?

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Pages of the movies Anarkali and Ivide.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

TeNy

Appreciation: Version Two

June 5, 2015 by Tennyson

Ever since beginning its journey on 5th February 2013, Movies of the Soul was not a blog which I was expecting to be popular. It reached one lakh views just after its two year anniversary, but that was also not something which I expected so early to happen. Beginning with the movie Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, it was not initially meant to post Malayalam reviews, as the idea was more Hollywood, which explains the 132 English movies which I have reviewed there.

This explains why I haven’t reached fifty reviews in Malayalam yet on Movies of the Soul, as the number of Malayalam movies which I watched at the theatre only decreased, and it came down in the last year while the number of Hollywood movies remained the same. It was not just about the quality of the movies which was the best for Malayalam in 2013; for it was also about the appreciation which was rather less for Malayalam movies which were like people only wanted to criticize whatever opinion you came up with.

The only significant change was related to the movie Angels, when my blog was mentioned in a video created by the Official Facebook Page of the movie, which was shared by the director Jean Markose and also the one skilled actor who played the central character of the movie, even though not the movie – Joy Mathew. It was important for me as I am not someone used to appreciation. Most of the people I know are only consider people who make a lot of money as “humans”.

It has been a major feature of “The Theory of Relative-IT”, which Albert Einstein might have also thought about. I have been writing so much for no reason, and it was becoming a mechanized process of writing opinions when this appreciation came. It has been like that for quite long, with and even though I had tried hard to write even better, and wrote so many times about the movie Mili, there was almost no appreciation for my ideas. Then I thought that Angels would be the last review from me which would get noticed, but I was wrong.

It was some time since I watched a Malayalam movie; the last one being Fireman. So I finally watched the movie Ivide, and wrote on all those ideas which came to my mind after watching the movie. It was only later that I noticed that Priya Chokshi, the assistant director of the movie had chosen to retweet my tweet with the link to the movie review. She did share other opinions, but I was happy to see someone in the movie field actually choosing to share my review having the link to this review post.

I have been writing Hollywood reviews at Kiagia.com, and so haven’t been caring about the Malayalam movies much. Malayalam movie industry has been going on too much with its fans rather than the regular viewers. But I am glad that I watched this one in the end. The word “ivide” means here, and I am glad that I am here. The Official Facebook Page of Ivide also shared my review on their blog with what I wrote in depth. It is the first time that an Official Facebook Page of a movie is sharing my review too.

It surely feels good when I write about a multi-starrer movie with two of the biggest young stars in the movie, Prithviraj Sukumaran and Nivin Pauly, and that big name in the actress list, Bhavana, plus that amazingly skilled director Shyamaprasad – and then it get shared. It might not be that big for others, but for someone who is always blamed by the relatives in the name of not getting a job and not being married yet, it is the big boon from the heavenly abode.

***The images used in this blog post are from the Official Facebook Page of Ivide. For the review, please check: [https://moviesofthesoul.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/ivide]

TeNy

You are Right Here

May 29, 2015 by Tennyson

Shymaprasad’s Prithviraj Sukumaran-Nivin Pauly starrer Ivide releases today, and with shows at the malls as early as 9:15 in the morning, the talks might already be out in a few minutes, and the opinions will be all around the internet with praises or disappointment. This is actually a movie for which the fans have waited for long, and the trailer has managed to catch the attention too. Ivide has been the talk of the world around, and there is nobody I know who doesn’t want to watch it.

The first reason you need to watch this one is because this is the first commerical movie from the skilled director Shyamaprasad who is trying to go another path this time. He has been the maker or fine movies for so long, and they were rather the classics which got a lot of critical appreciation and many awards. Akale which was well-adapted from The Glass Menagerie remains his best work, but you have to see this movie which is going to show the crowd-pleasing side from him.

Then there is Nivin Pauly and Prithviraj Sukumaran sharing the screen for the very first time. The former has made big impact in a very short time and is a crowd favourite while the second has established himself over a long time claiming the throne of the grand young superstar of Malayalam movie, and these two are the future of the industry without any doubt – it will be a pleasure to see these two together, and the theatres are going to be flooded due to the same reason.

Nivin Pauly plays a different character here unlike what he has been playing, and this one seems to have some dark shades (Da Thadiya‘s villain was just a fraud); his ability to play the someone of the other side is going to be displayed here while Prithviraj Sukumaran plays the role of an investigative officer again, and this is a role which has always suited him; he has been the new classic cop after Suresh Gopi in the Malayalam movie industry and this is surely going to take his skills in such roles to another level.

We haven’t seen Bhavana for some time now, with her last Malayalam movie being a lesser watched Angry Babies in Love, while Koothara only had her in a smaller and less noticed role. It is a pleasure to have her back in Malayalam, as she has been a favourite for so long. Shyamaprasad has got the cast right for all three of the main stars because this is a powerful combination as Nivin and Bhavana comes together for the first time too as something that many people wished to see together for a long time.

The thriller efficiency has been high in the Malayalam movie industry for the last few months, with Memories, Drishyam, Angels, Mumbai Police, Saaradhi and many others managing to keep the level from coming down – the first two have been legendary as Jeethu Jospeph made them score big time. This one though, is going to go bigger from the crime thriller with its possible drama elements, and we will have the lives of three major characters full on the screen with a possible love triangle of past and present.

With the Gopi Sunder effect on music, we are going to have a serial killer in this movie too; we have mostly loved them at least for the last few years, haven’t we? There is going to be another psycho murderer who might be able to take this to another level. Shot completely in Atlanta, this movie is going to take the thrills not only to the Malayalam audience, but also to the Tamil viewers as it has released today, and is running in the theatres right now. All the best to the movie, as the opinions are just on the way!