Director : M D Rajendran
Director Sathyan Anthikkad in his fifty's movie ‘Kathu Thudarum’ has come up with an offering that is a bit atop of his regular melodrama formula flicks. He is here, amidst an engaging storyline with a layer of social satire sprinkled through almost every scene, without taking that preachy line of his previous movies like ‘Innathe Chinthavishayam’.
A touching narrative about self made decisions that ultimately decides life and its moments ‘Katha Thudarum’ has Mamtha Mohandas as Vidhyalakshmi, a Brahmin girl who dares to start his life with a keyboard player Shanavas Ahamed (Asif Ali), despite the objections from both of their families, apparently due to their caste differences. Life was all that smooth for Vidhya till one rainy night when Shanavas sets off to buy mangoes for their beautiful young daughter Laya (Baby Anikha) and got killed by a misled quotation group.
As the young lady and his cute daughter is left in a busy city, helpless with no one to care, they tryout their ways to catch up with life but with very little success, until she meets an auto driver Preman (Jayaram). This straight forward man takes her to his reticent colony, with a lot of well mannered people living in unpretentious situations. And every Sathyan regulars like Innocent, K P A C Lalitha, Mamukoya, Lakshmi Priya and Chembil Ashokan are their in the colony taking on some satirical caricatures who turnout to become inspirations for Vidhya, who ultimately restarts her studies and turn a new leaf in life.‘Katha Thudarum’ has that vintage Sathyan in full form even in the scripting side but with some new age story telling devices and techniques, with ample support from cinematographer Venu. He defies to go through conventional elements and ways, most of the time, though all the characters in the colony marked out in shades of white seems unbelievable and idealistic that real life. Sathyan’s decision to go by the straight forward narratives than to resort to flashbacks and the use of the child character in the most helpful and appropriate manner to push the narratives, using her innocence to tell how little hearts rather than grownups easily adjust to any big shocks of life and newer situations, have the big positive effects on the movie.
The bits of social satire passing through has that great sincerity, even in the case of HR supplier played by Mamukoya or the one played by Chembil Ashokan who is regularly used as a scapegoat by police. The lead character of Vidhya is safe in the hands of Mamtha Mohandas, her deft handling is shown in many intense sequences of the movie, the only suggestions that stand being related to her dress codes and makeup in the later half, that was hardly needed in this scale. Jayaram plays to the demands of the role with lot of control. Asif Ali gets another opportunity to show his mettle while the big highlight of the movie that charms every viewer is of Baby Anikha, who plays Vidhyalakshmi's daughter.
Ilayaraja’s songs are shot well and good for listening with “Doore…” the pick from the three. Altogether ‘Katha Thudarum’ is a safely prescribable movie to the families, offering a lot of genuine questions about Kerala life which is sure to grow in them, even after you leave the theatre.
The movie has Urvashy as Clara, the ''mummy'' and Archana Kavi (‘Neelathamara’ fame) as Jewel the daughter, with two opposite characters mostly due to their generation gaps. While Clara is an imposing mother who wants her daughter to listen to and follow her in every ways, Jewel is more a new generation college girl roaming all round in her bicycle, with earphones plugged on. She likes the companions of internet than anyone in her home. Rahul (Kunchacko Boban) is Jewel's senior in college, the son of Thomas and Mary, the family friends of Joseph and Clara. Though Rahul is also a single child, he shows more maturity and doesn’t like to expose his love that he has for Jewel. Often he plays the role of her guardian in college and gets involved in all kind of fisticuffs with other college rowdies.
The scheme of daily fights at home between the mother and daughter concerning Jewels' dress codes to hair setting styles makes Joseph (Mukesh) to play the referee between the ever feuding home mates. To prevent Jewel from spending more time outside home mostly on internet, Joseph presents Jewel with a PC. She immediately finds a chat friend in an anonymous 'Ameer' who starts reforming Jewel like anything into such an extent that she eventually falls in love with him, even without seeing him. The film goes on to tell how the parents with the aid of a psychologist try ways to get over the newer crisis that their daughter has got into.The USP of the movie is a simple, uncomplicated and identifiable story. But what could've been narrated in a concise format is stretched so much that it starts to test the patience of the viewer. What could have been an interesting cinematic experience, gets into a preachy tone with the arrival of a psychologist (Anoop Menon) who appears in every third sequences in the later half, to dig out his explorations into the case. The screenplay relies on the same old tricks and the same old situations, but the director manages to make you smile at times, without the aid of any comedians in sidetracks, but with the witty, well timed dialogues. Especially towards the second hour, the pacing of the film gets slower, and the big problem with the movie here is that you just don't feel the pains of those whose life has gone upside down. The lack of onscreen camaraderie between the characters played by the lead players is another major pitfall in the presentations.
Anyhow, the plus points of the movie include Mukesh and the new child artist playing Jewel’s younger brother in admirable roles with their intense timing of wits. Archana Kavi plays to the demands of the role but doesn't reach up to the promises she offered in her debut movie. Kunchakko Boban is very natural and shakes his legs well in the couple of songs. Urvashy looks jaded and her makeup is over the top, though she has some moments to relish. Shari, Lalu Alex and Janaardhanan are in their usual roles.
’Mummy And Me’ has some beautiful songs by debutant Sejo John, the pick being ''Aarume…'' which is also well picturised. The other four songs also give the feel that, the young musician is here to stay. Jeethu has found some good locales for the movie, but the cinematography by Vipin Mohan remains just ok. The grading is average and the great loss in transfer during digital projection also seems to have taken the hearts of the tones out, in the initial reels.
All in all, ‘Mummy And Me’ has some good messages which may appeal to the family audience. Though it has some sunny, pleasant moments, don’t preset your mind that you are going to watch something unusual.
Vineeth Sreenivasan has a very good track record in Mollywood, as a successful play back singer, album producer and a hero in a couple of well made films like ‘Cycle’ and ‘Makante Achan’. And now, the talented youngster is all set to prove himself as a movie director, calling shots for his debut film made in the title 'Malarvadi Arts Club'.
Following the trends of recent movies in other languages of the south and Bollywood with fresh faces and rustic backdrops, ‘Malarvady Arts Club’ also narrates the spirit of fun filled youthfulness.
The story of ‘Malarvadi Arts Club’ is mainly about the ties and adventures of five friends in a village called Manassery in North Malabar. As they have reached an important point of their lives, having completed their studies and are in the lookout for a job, they have no other place for a hangout than their old children’s club. The Club is at the edge of destruction with new generation children showing no interest in group activities, other than those related to their studies. The five some decides to somehow run the Club and organize better activities with the help of the local men. ‘Malarvadi Arts Club’ follows the hilarious attempts of the quintet, to establish themselves and their club in their silent hamlet.
“Malarvadi Arts Club’ will present five well groomed newcomers, with the characters of the movie named after them. The five men in the film are good at heart, but with different temperaments”, says the young director, who presents his five heroes. Prakashan, who is having the thickest beard in the group, is the most impulsive one while Praveen, the guitarist is the most reserved one in the group. Santhosh, the soft spoken lad is the most financially sound guy among the quintet. Purushu is the romantic hero whose discourses swing between foolishness to seriousness. And then they have a Kuttu, a tenth standard drop out, with no real talents, but the most essential team member. Janapriya Nayakan Dileep is expected to come up in a cameo in the flick.
The cast list of the movie also includes Nedumudi Venu, Jagathy Sreekumar, Suraj Venjaramood, Salim Kumar, Kottayam Nazeer and two fresh faces as heroines, Revathy and Geethu.
While P Sukumar is in charge of the cinematography, the director himself pens the lyrics for the songs set to music by Shaan Rehman. Produced by Dileep in the banner of Grand Productions ‘Malarvadi Arts Club' will hit theatres in July.
For all those film festival buffs who had been the ardent fans of the Iranian films, that narrated simple emotional stories with children, this one is indeed a treat. Debutant director Mohan Raghavan has created an unusual Mollywood movie exactly in the same league of festival winners, with his debut film 'T D Dasan, Standard VI B'.
The movie has debutant Alexander as T D Dasan, who lives with his mother Chandrika (Shwetha Menon) in a sleepy village near Chittur in Palakkad. Chandrika who is deserted by her husband Diwakaran long back, works in a local matchstick factory and is struggling to get both ends meet. One day, while searching for something in his mother's trunk box, Dasan gets an address of his dad who walked out of their house when he was a year old. Dasan immediately writes one letter to this address explaining all his woes and pains for not being with his father. The letter reaches Keystone Villa to where it was addressed and where Dasan's father Diwakaran was working as a driver.
But as of now, the house is inhabited by an ad filmmaker named Nandan (Biju Menon), who lives there with his only daughter Ammu (Teena Rose), a little prodigy and a short story writer. She gets affected by the innocence of Dasan's lines and starts writing replies to Dasan, as if they were written by his dad. The reply to Dasan comes to him as every sort of blessing, an only chance of reconnecting to his father .But very soon the myths, surrounding the village and coincidences were to take his story to a different turn.
The soft social commentary that runs all along, addressing the anti-coal war to the social forestry promotions that never take a preachy tone, is the highlight of the movie. The marvellous direction coupled with sensitive writing makes Mohan Raghavan, the most impressive debut in recent times. The director gloriously continues his experiments with narratives allowing the ad maker Nandhan to think wild around the frame of the letter addressed to a long gone father.His attempts on finding its possible later half, for a feature film is constructed inside the narratives in a charming way, never dissuading any interests from the original story. The movie upholds the belief on human values and at the same time gives the multi layered diverse viewpoints of village and town, reality, myths and fiction, and that of children and grownups.
The movie which is definitely a brilliant outcome, is supported by everyone from its lead cast of children, who are spontaneous in their acting .Others including Biju Menon, Vatsala Menon and Shwetha menon plays their parts to true extremes.
The only song by Sreevatsan J Menon is another great piece of work, after his songs for ‘Laptop’. Sreevatsan's BG scores are also a treat to hear. The camera work by Arun Varma and editing by Vinod Sukumaran also needs special mention. So is the art work by Sunil Kochanoor and costumes by Rasak Thirur.
At the same time, It is also of great regret to say that the reviewer was only able to watch the movie in his third attempt, the first two becoming unsuccessful due to the need of a minimum audience to run the show in the release centers .If this is the fate of sensible, brilliant Mollywood movies in Box Office, we are damn sure that no kind of producer agitations or financial regulatory measures are going to help the industry from a possible destruction.
The connoisseurs of good cinema, it is high time for you to stand up and parade inside theatres to help such honest sensitive ventures that are going to be the worthy mascots of our industry, everywhere.