chainamp3

Cast: Jagadish, Vishnu Nandan, Devika Nambiar
Direction: Parthan Mohan
Genre: Horror
Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes

Story: The film is about the spooky events that unfurl in a haunted mansion one night when a group of youngsters get together at the place.

Movie Review: In Parthan Mohan's One there is plenty of dust, cob-webs, shrieks, screams and loads of darkness to typify a ghostly mansion. The film, based on a real-life event that happened in Scotland, shows a group of youths with their teacher reaching a mansion.

It's dark, dusty and derelict. Disconnected phones start blaring, paintings on walls slide upside down, doors get fastened, and articles appear and disappear. Parthan employs all possible ploys to scare his audience. Often he wants his camera to look at his characters from far, almost still, as if somebody is watching them without being noticed.

Most of his frames are drenched in darkness; a natural way to incite fear when instilled with sounds like a deafening scrapping of metal or a squeal. All these could have come out well had it been used with a sense of measure. There are a few scenes where characters act as if they are dumb. At one end gruesome deaths happen with loud noises, while some characters, as though they are deaf, dance in the darkness and check their face on the mirror in the flicker of a candle.

The film's attempts at evoking horror often ends in humour due to the ludicrous acts of its characters.

 Cast: Indrajith, Lena, Minon
Direction: Sidharth Siva
Genre: Family

Story: The film narrates the struggles of a boy whose teacher asks him to frame 101 questions.

 Movie Review: 101 Chodyangal follows a boy on a mission. His teacher asks him to frame 101 questions and he only needs to find the questions. His teacher would give answers as well as a rupee for each question the boy asks. Sidharth Siva, while making his debut film, comes up with a sweet tale and narrates it without complexities.

Minon - who plays the lead - is a boy with a natural curiosity perennially inscribed on his face. His friends make fun of him for his queer name - Anil Kumar Bokaro. Each question supposedly evolves from his own life - a rather bleak one with a jobless but loving father, a bed-ridden little sister and a struggling mother. His questions are not ground-breaking ones, but simple queries that he stumbles upon every day.

Sidharth makes it happen without distorting his narrative. The pursuit of questions slowly becomes a frantic search for a meaning in his life. There is a coldness that gradually replaces curiosity on the boy's face; something that juts out of an otherwise simple narrative. What actually mars this seemingly sweet progression is the use of lengthy sequences that leisurely follow the boy walking on the road, running across by-lanes, holding his book carrying the questions.

Indrajith dons the role of his sympathetic, good-hearted teacher, who is slightly stereotyped but warm enough to strike the right chord. There is a struggle for existence which assumes equal significance even with its share of politics. 101 Chodyangal might be chided for the over-play of hazy sentimentalism but this movie stands out for a memorable debut by the director and a brilliant cast.

Starring :Praveen Prem,Avanthika Mohan,

Manikuttan,Ashokan,Praseetha Menon,

Maya Viswanath,Santhosh Kurup,Vijayan Karanthoor
Directed :Anoop Ramesh
Produced :Anurag Motion Pictures
Written :Sabari Sankar
Music:Arun Sidharrth
Cinematography :Praveen Panicker
Editing:K. Sreenivas
Banner :Anurag Motion Pictures
Release :July 2013
Language :Malayala

Cast: Baburaj, Indrans, Sunitha Varma
Direction: B R Jacob
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
Release Date:19-july-2013 

Story: The film is about the antics of a laidback policeman Shankunni and how he solves a murder mystery.

Movie Review: One of the supposedly comic scenes in Police Maman shows DSP Shankunni (Baburaj) planting a coconut sapling along with his two old servants. The master says that the sapling is brought from Malaysia, the servant is anxious that once it grows into a tree, it will fail to produce fruit having known that it's not Malaysia but Kerala. The master gets anxious too; another servant offers a remedy - 'We will spread a tarpaulin over the tree so that the tree will never know if it is Kerala.'

This is the essence of the aimlessly written film with a crudely conceived plot. It's a caricature, the enlarged version of Shikkari Sambhu who unearths glory from goofiness. In short, a bird-brained cop with a timely knack for heroics.

The story doesn't end here. There is also a murder mystery. The problem with this film, apart from a shoddy tale, is that it never fits into any kind of genre. If it's about a pouty, lazy cop chancing upon vital clues eventually leading to the well of the mystery, he has to be lovable and the clues engaging.

None of these happen, not even once. What is on display is a pompous display of half-baked wits rendered with a distorted flair, either by Baburaj or the accompanying crew.

Cast: Anoop Menon, Balachandra Menon, Bhumika
Direction: Raaj Prabhavathy Menon
Genre: Family
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

Story: The film narrates the life of two women who bring up a boy and the way they come to terms with the boy's search for his real father.

Movie Review: In a film that deals with emotional bonds that arise out of artificial insemination, there is one scene which in every way fits into a weak act of contrivance. The film shows two women Meenakshy (Asha Sharath) and Padma (Bhumika) playing mother to an adolescent boy. Just as we begin to wonder if the women are lesbians, a scene appears more like an afterthought.

Meenakshy and Padma indulge in a fake act of intimacy during a party and while doing that, they declare it as an act to mock other women who take them for lesbians and sneer at them. The scene doesn't produce any comical effect even with all the energetic gurgle of the women. It's as though the scene was added with an apprehension that portraying them as lesbians would be scandalous.

In fact, the film later goes on to wider realms and introduces a care-free middle-aged rich man, Manikunju Thadikaran (Anoop Menon) and his friends which also include Balachandra Menon as Shanku. The narrative is primarily about a boy's search for his father after having been brought up by two women who misperceive men and the practice of family life.

The film does flaunt some lively moments, courtesy some earthy quips from Anoop Menon. However the abundance of emotional downpour drowns the narrative. There are some scenes which leisurely consume time as the characters indulge in mushy recollections and philosophical musings.

Cast: Nedumudi Venu, Kalabhavan Mani, Meera Nandha
Direction: Shebi
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes

Story: Tourist home narrates different stories that happen in ten different rooms of a tourist home

Movie Review: When a camera trolleys along the rooms of a tourist home, pausing consistently to absorb the chatter of each of its inhabitants and trying to weave a narrative, the challenge is immense. Director Shebi confronts this with the aid of a very few moments which stand out in a film that otherwise succumbs to the tedium of confinement and monotony of movement.

There are ten rooms, each occupied by totally disconnected persons. The rooms heave with a set of weighty issues and characters dabble with the evils of society, there are pangs of desperation and the fragility of family ties is exposed. The problem with this film is that towards the middle of the narrative, there comes a strong yearning for some fresh air. The characters often seem buried in a world of their own; their actions are easily predictable.

When a helpless man, bogged down by debts gambles, we easily know what is bound to happen. Some of the stories go completely unnoticed; like that of two youths who occupy a room for apparently no reason and the cause which is later explained is scarcely reflected on their faces.

The rooms are mostly metaphorical of the actions of its occupants, filthy, crumbling and about to crush into oblivion. Shebi deserves credit for the manner in which he tries to film a group of persons in a single shot; however the sheer number of characters and the duration seem to burden him, forcing him to do a balancing act between tale and technique; an act which he does but with a trace of weariness.

Cast: Indrajith, Mamta Mohandas, Aju Varghese
Direction: Prashant Murali
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes

Story: The film tracks the events in lives of a select few in two different cities who share a common pursuit.

Movie Review: If Paisa Paisa goes unnoticed, it would throw up a set of baffling questions. This film presents characters confronting a common challenge in a limited time-span, a theme that has worked well for many films in the recent past, irrespective of language or region.

Paisa Paisa does something similar and a question pops up as to why it doesn't work. A youth who goes for an interview in Chennai is kidnapped and his friend has to collect the ransom within a limited time frame. Ideally, such a thread should be woven into an utterly riveting narrative. There is the always the possibility of pulse-quickening sequences, a natural product of designing character's actions within a deadline. Sudden, sharp twists at key junctures that evoke shock or surprise. There could be moving moments which apparently arise out of the helplessness of characters.

In Paisa Paisa, there are no such sequences. The challenge is serious, the conflict almost nil and hurdles manageable. The movie opens in Chennai with Balu (Aju Varghese) attending an interview. He sits in a tea-shop masking a 'wanted' poster of what we would later learn as that of a terrorist. It's a look alike and although the terrorist is most wanted and most dreaded, Balu has no clue about the fact that he actually resembles the wanted terrorist.

An auto is shown chasing him and he is hurled into a dark, stuffy godown. He calls his lover for help who switches off her phone and later his friend Kishore ( Indrajith).

The film then shows Kishore riding his bike in search of money. In fact the shots that follow him in his bike are so long that a sigh is warranted when the bike finally runs out of fuel and he starts walking. In between, this pursuit of money delays his reconciliation with his wife Surya (Mamta) who waits for him at a restaurant and nags him endlessly.

There is an attempt at bringing out certain moments in life when someone feels totally weak and powerless. In Paisa Paisa, these moments are downplayed by a drag narrative. We are even left wondering what prevents Kishore from disclosing this serious matter to his wife, which could have spared him the never-ending ride on bike or his frantic sprints.

An aid coming from a totally unexpected source or close ones throwing lies at each other even in times of dire necessities are a few moments that stand out in the film, although feebly. Paisa Paisa loses its pace for want of engaging twists and a taut narrative and easily turns into a flick that

Cast: Kunchacko Boban, Anumol, Jyothikrishna
Direction: Babu Janardhanan
Genre: Drama
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

Cast: Lal, Lena, Ineya
Direction: Suresh Unnithan
Genre: Drama
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes

Story: The film is a passionate portrayal of man-woman relationships and the inter-play of traditional beliefs.

Movie Review: Unlike most films that deal with passion and lust in muffled chatter and ceaseless talk, the scenes in Ayal are mostly explicit. This is a film where women, soggy and smitten, writhe like serpents at the touch of the man they love. Desire spills over in blissful groans in the secrecy of darkness and wetness of water.

Beyond these luscious manifestations of lust, Ayal is about a wanderer, an irresistible charmer who draws women to himself like magnet. Lal plays Gurudasan, the blessed pulluvan who could make serpentine gods visible with his fervent prayers rendered in earthy rhythms. Ineya and Lekshmi Sharma play his two wives, who meld conflicting realms of love, lust and devotion.

The film is about a tramp of a man for whom love knows no restraint. Profound values of morality and fidelity do not weigh him down. There is depth in the way the script seeks to explore Gurudasan. His worships, his weakness as his charm and he pays for it with the life of his son. There is repentance, sense of loss and a vague feeling of guilt that shadow him towards the end.

Ayal has a richness of visuals, be it the simmering sensuousness or the bright, colourful rituals that are scattered throughout the narrative. Women characters, all three of them, his wives and his paramour played by Lena are laced with a boldness closely bordering on a brash expression of lustful expressions. Ayal comes across as one of those films with a nice texture to its narrative and a set of characters rooted deep in rites and beliefs.

At times, there is a mismatch of intensity between scenes of intimacy and the repercussion of such moments which crushes the film from attaining a magnitude it promises at times.