Ajayante Randam Moshanam

Watched Date : 13 Sep 

Release Date :  12 Sep

Rating 8.5/10.

Vazha

Watched Date : 15 August 

Release Date :  28 August 

Rating 8/10.

Kalki 2898 AD

Guruvayoor Ambala Nadayil

Guruvayoor AmbalaNadayil 

Watched Date : 25 May 

Release Date :  16 May

Rating 5.5/10.

Director Vipin Das who was famous for his previous movie "Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya he" tried to come up with a nice comedy subject through this movie. Even though few comedy numbers of first half clicked in the first half, most of the comedy track didn't work for me. Deepu Pradeep, who wrote kunjiramayanam script have a good thread here in Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil, but cannot say a well crafted script. Movie started well with scenes between Prithviraj and Basil, but slowly fell into non engaging mode. Director and script tried to follow the pattern of old super hit priyadarshan movies here especially in second half, but was not engaging and not at all connecting well. Visuals of Neeraj Ravi was in good combination with editing work of Johnkutty , as per movie demands . Expected music bits in the genre of "nee kannodu kannodu kannoramayi" from Ankit Menon in this movie, but not upto the mark anywhere in this movie. 

Prithviraj, Basil, Nikhila, Anaswara and all lead actors did justice to their role as per script demands along with few new social media influencers. Basil and Prithviraj initial scenes was too good, but can't do much from their side with a weak script while moving forward. Prithviraj being involved as producer of the movie have marketed well like how he did for his recent past movies like kaduva. This will save the movie from failure in box office. The way Prithviraj is marketing his average movies to success resembles how Dileep marketed his average movies to success and how Antony Perumbavur marketed Mohanlals average movies in early 2Ks to success. 

Overall, Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil is a watchable movie in ott, where we have on option to fast forward.

Pavi Caretaker

 Pavi Caretaker 

Watched Date : 29 April 

Release Date :  26 April 

Rating 5/10.

Director and Actor Vineeth Kumar in his third movie have failed miserably in this Dileep movie. It was very difficult to manage watching this movie without falling to sleep mode. Expected a feel good movie from the script writer -Rajesh Raghavan who made his debut with "Aravindante Athithikal". Movie have the flavours of bodyguard movie - emotional scenes in the second half was quite watchable, but poor comedy scenes in the first half totally dragged me out of the movie. Visuals from the camera of Sanu Thahir, who is the brother of Sameer Thahir, was quite okay for this movie,  which gave a feeling of everyone's expected flat life in cities, even though reality for most apartments is quite different and exactly opposite. Feel good visuals in the songs was quite impressive from Sanu, especially vennila kanyake song. Not happy to see Deepu Joseph who was the editor for few LJP movies, not done a great job here. Editor should have insisted director to cut down the unwanted and boring scenes of the movie and trim down entire duration of the movie. Mithun Mukundan, who has composed for Kannada movies mostly along with Rorschah and Ozler in Malayalam, have delivered quite average songs in this movie - not bad, not too good.

Expected comeback of Dileep through this movie with a few good comedy scenes. But it was a total disappointment. Cast and crew of the movie needs to understand that comedy scenes which might have worked 10-15 years before will never work in this 2024. Now we have all type of movies post covid season, except full fun comedy f

Swavies which happened in late 90s and early 2Ks. Everyone is waiting for such movies like Punjabi house, Kalyana Raman, Parakkum thalika, Thenkashipattanam, which had repeat watch value for more than 3-4 times in theatre. I think last such movie was Two Countries. Need to wait again for Dileeps comedy movies.

Movie had lot of new female actress, who are well known in social media platforms- Swati Konde from Kannada as Supermarket staff, Joohi Jayakumar as music teacher, Shreya Rukhmini as one of Apartment owners sister, Dilina Ramakrishnan as another super market staff, Rosmi Thadathil as post women. All of them had nothing much to do, but did their job in limited space very well. Johnny Antony did a decent job as apartment security.

Overall an avoidable theatre watch movie. 

Aavesham

Aavesham 

Watched Date : 11 April 

Release Date :  11 April 

Rating 8/10.

Director Jithu Madhav who is already well known for his famous work of romancham came up with another Bangalore based story this time. Movie is of different kind of genre with full packed entertainment vibe, which may not work well with conventional movie lovers. Jithus script focuses more on the life of entertainer psychopath Ranga. Manjumel music composer Sushin and Editor Vivek Harshan paired with another well known cinematographer Sameer Tahir for this movie - Avesham. Excellent vibe created by entire technician crew made this movie a must watch experience in theatre.

Fahadh Fazil stealing the show as a typical psycho, with full packed energetic performance throughout the movie is the key highlight of the movie. Fahadh was equally supported by Churuli Jeep driver fame - Sajin Gopu with an awesome vibe performance.  College students who were YouTube influencers were also okay cast for the movie especially Roshan and Mithun. 

Songs of the movie was awesome , especially song illuminati. 

Overall a nice theatre watch experience, but not everyone cup of tea.

Manjumel Boys

Manjumel Boys 

Watched Date : 22 February 

Release Date :  06 April 

Rating 9.5/10.

Director Chidambaram in his second movie, came up with Malayalam industry's biggest all time blockbuster. Script based on real time incident happened in 2006 was so heart touching and engaging. Even though movie is based on friendship story, survival thriller elements in the movie was the key highlight. Movie had a very good combination of experienced Cinematographer, Editor and Music Composer, who made their contributions to uplift the movie to a different level of experience. Shyju Khalid framed beautiful visuals of Kodaikanal and haunting moments inside Guna Caves. Vivek Harshan delivered awesome editing work in this movie as usual. Rhythm and friendship vibe of the movie was set from the beginning by kuthanthram song. Background score and music by Sushin Shyam elevated the movie to a rich feel experience. Special mention deserves to the casting director Ganapathy, who is own brother of director. Art work of Ajayan Challissery gave a real feeling of survival drama especially cave scenes.

As I watched movie in the seventh week after release, I had gone through few negative reviews came for the movie till this time. One of the such acclaim which came for the movie was portraying youth as just useless drunkards. But personally I felt the vibe of the movie was apt to set the friendship bond. In most of such friends gang in real life, drinks are like just one of common elements. I was able to enjoy both halves of the movie equally and can say one of the best movies watched in recent times. All the characters in the movie did an awesome performance especially Soubin, Srinath, Deepak, Khalid Rahman and the entire team.

Overall, a repeated theatre watch experience movie