Sigaram Thodu

Looking at Vikram Prabhu’s trend of movies, the producers might want to call him as a safe bet and with Sigaram Thodu, the grandson of the legendary actor looks to take that reputation home. Putting on the Khaki has always been the dream of any actor, and Vikram Prabhu has the privilege of doing justice to the prestigious linen. Gaurav has scripted a story around the life of a retired cop and the burning desire of a parent to fulfill their ambition through their kids, and when the roads cross what happens?

The Movie

A Police ceremony; where the cops are felicitated for exhibiting their exemplary piece of bravery on the grounds, there is a cop who has lost a leg, and then comes a woman with her child; receives the medal of honor on behalf of her husband who lost his life in an encounter. The little tear that she sheds evokes Goosebumps and makes you salute the next cop you would see. Director Gaurav stresses the role of a retired policeman essayed by Sathyaraj who wants his son to fulfill his lost ambitions.

On the other hand is Vikram prabhu the dutiful son who nowhere has the idea to enter the Police station and looks himself as a bank manager in future. Well, this forms one part of the story, and Gaurav shells out the looming issue of ATM loots that became quite common recently, and then he spins another tale where the bubbly Monal plays Vikram’s beau who detests Police and has no intention of marrying a cop. This sums up the first half, that with some of Sathish’s one liners, a few touching father-son sentiments and romance. The second half forms the crux; with the aspiration of every individual taking its toll, and emotions, fights, twists take the front seat.

Whats good

There has been a number of movies on Father-Son bond, the emotional toil they both need to go through, Sigaram Thodu is one such movie which banks on powerful performances from the lead cast. Sathyraj is an enigma to watch, his body language, and jumps to the situation and steals the main act from the hero. The little expectations of a father sweeps you off the feet, thanks to Gaurav’s smart and emotional screenplay.
Vikram Prabhu matures with every movie and in Sigram Thodu there is a lot of scope for the actor to emote, he has improved his sluggish body language which lagged in his previous movies and brings the majestic feel of a policeman. That said there is enough scope for the actor to improve his comic sense. Sathish is his usual self, the friend you want to have with sly cupid ideas, one liner and what not. The rest of the cast do justice to their roles with Monal looking clean and sweet in looks and acting wise. Imman’s BGM is sensuous and has an emotional connect to the movie, apart from Taku Taku, the other songs are more enjoyable with the visuals than the tune itself.
The ATM robbery, behind the scenes where the planning and execution of the card fraud is quite new in terms of cinematic experience, hats off to the director.

Whats bad

As always, a director trying to make a sentimental movie falls in trap for the length, screenplay and romance. Starting off well, the romance segment appears quite too long for comfort with the first half itself looks never ending.

Why, how and what?

• The major crime of this movie is around ATM card fraud; surprisingly the pressure from the banks to dig the scam is not shown convincingly.
• The biggest crooks of the town, most wanted; their escape scene is too lethargic to be shrugged off.
• As and again, song placement comes as a major hiccup.

That said; a commercial entertainer that should go down well in A, B and C classes!

Verdict : Value for money!

Rating : 3 / 5

Bhaiya Bhaiya

Benny P Nayarambalam is one scriptwriter who has a particular ability to tell stories mixed with quality humour. He has managed to make many films with simple stories to greater hits, mainly due to soaking them in lighter vein. His one latest attempt for this Onam is ‘Bhaiya Bhaiya’ directed by Johny Antony. A movie which tells a relatively fresh story in the backdrop of migrant workers, the movie has plenty of ordinary jokes planted in a relatively fresher narratives.

The movie is told as a monologue by Babumon (kunchakko Boban), who is currently travelling to Bengal with the dead body of a migrant worker. In the driver seat of the ambulance is Babulal Chatterji(Biju Menon) affectionately called ‘Bhaiya’ by Babumon. Since the arrival of Babulal to their home at the age of ten, both of them has grown together just as brothers, taking intense care of each other. Also travelling  with them is Angel(Nisha Agarwal), who is eloping from her house to get married to her childhood friend Babumon. Another Tamil migrant worker Shanthi(Vinuthalal) has alighted  the vehicle so that she can save her money for travelling to her home town near Salem. Adding to them is Soman, a construction worker from Kerala who is taking it as a chance to see Bengal. How they happens to be together in this eventful journey forms the rest of the story.

Though the basic tale by Benny P Nayarambalam is not that elaborate, it has elements that could have worked pretty well. Added to that the return of comedy artists like Suraj Venjaramoodu and  Salimkumar. But apart from the wits that makes you laugh at intervals, the movie doesn’t offer much to carry home. It seems to have been directed in a lighter mode, not taking anything seriously enough. So the Maoists’ in the tale to the ‘planned filmy fights’ in the climax doesn’t make sense and the necessary impact. Had it been treated more wisely, the movie could have got scenes like those in the league of ‘RamjiRao speaking’.The coincidences galore in the climax also doesn’t work well for the movie.

The actors in the fray has not much to do, though Biju Menon impresses with his one liners and carry on his fine chemistry with Kunchakko Boban who is another cakewalk role. Suraj manages to crack some wits but Salim kumar appear totally lacklustre.  Vinutha lal as Shanthi and Nisha agarwal as Angel does their parts as per demand, though they have nothing too demanding to do. Vijayaraghavan and Shammi Thilakan are in their usual roles while Sudheer impresses as the goonda leader.

In the technical sides Vinod Illampilly’s shots are fine and adds to the quality of the  movie while Ranjan Abraham has also evenly paced the narratives. The three songs by Vidyasagar are good of which the first couple are sure to take a place in the hit charts.

If you are in the mindset to watch a fun movie without giving any big thinking or asking for logic, ‘Bhaiya Bhaiya ‘ has some that may fill your time. Evenly paced and filled with comedies, this light hearted film entertains in parts. Had it been directed with a little more care, ‘Bhaiya Bhaya’ could have worked relatively well. As of now it may not be a painful onetime watch.

Rating - 6/10    

Rajadhi Raja

Coming after Rajamanikyam, and Pokkiriraja is another film in the same vein in the title ‘Rajadhiraja’. Presented by debutante Ajai Vasudev, the movie but starts off in a different manner than these prototypes but graduate soon into the similar lines of mass thrillers. Clearly meant to satisfy the fans of Mammootty, the fast-paced flick but goes for over the top action and easy twists and climax to spoil the plot.
 
The movie follows Aiyappan(Jojo), a fraudster who is moving on to a village in the border, to the place of his brother-in-law Sekharankutty,(Mammootty) who works as the manager of a petroleum pump in the highway and also runs a restaurant nearby. Sekharankutty is a decent gentleman who weights his family comprising of wife Radha(Rai Lekshmy) and his only daughter Sreedurga, much more than anything else. He is very particular not to get involved in any skirmishes that happen outside his family. But as an impulsive Aiyappan steps into the restaurant, he also starts to make newer problems to Sekharankutty in an everyday basis. With police and conman at his doorsteps everyday, Sekharankutty is forced to take a new avatar to protect his dear ones from impending danger.
 
A formulaic clichéd film from scriptwriters Uday Krissna- Sibi K Thomas, ‘Rajadhiraja’ inspired from films like ‘Ustad’ and ‘Basha’ is filled with plenty of mass elements, slow motions and star tantrums to satisfy the fans of its lead star. The former half of the movie which takes a different buildup of the lead character is impressive. The flashback scenes are also told with flair with Mammoottty looking younger and stylish in different looks. But the problem with the movie is it’s unrealistic action scenes ,whose lack of believability largely affects the effectiveness of the other  part of the narratives which are canned better. A few years back,(particularly at the time of Pokkiriraja)  Mammootty could have earned applauses with this kind of action with henchman thrown all around and bouncing back to distances, but of late we don’t know whether there will be many takers for  these predictable ‘Telugu’ style action.  Add to that the poor dialogues and punch lines doesn’t work well for the movie. 
 
Ajai Vasudev ably proves that he is a close disciple of director Joshy and Vysakh, sticking to their styles of pacy making , though he is offered not so promising scripts . With plenty of helicam and aerial shots, the movie has a chic look but could have fared better if the entire action scenes and climax was shot more realistically. In the acting side Jojo effectively holds the movie all across with his dumb act and cracks some fine wits .Mammootty is back to his previous action avatars, though he is not having any easy walk through across action stuffs .A couple of sentimental scenes are also handled wisely by the senior star. Nelson as a restaurant staff manages to create a few fine laughter's while Rai Lekshmy , Joy Mathew and Siddhique are clad in their regular roles.
 
In the technical side, Cinematographer Shaji repeats his ‘Pokkiriraja’ style of shot- making, while Mahesh Narayanan’s fine cuts evenly pace the move which is currently at 148 minutes. The three songs in the narratives are rhythmic, though they are pictured in an average manner and the last one comes up in an unwanted time. Gopi Sundar’s BG scores are over the top, but the title music is thrilling.
 
In the final analysis, ‘Rajadhiraja’ doesn’t offer any freshness in narratives. But it can be a fine for an one-time watch, if you are not in theatres with any big expectations.

Rating -6/10    

Villali Veeran

Coming after his recent hits like 'Sringaravelan' and ‘Nadodimannan’ is another 'Villaliveeran' from Janapriyanayakan Dileep. A movie that take inspiration from every Dileep movies of the recent past, ‘Villaliveeran’ but fails to excite even fans of Dileep mostly due to a non-cohesive script and average direction.

'Villaliveeran' features Dileep as Siddharthan or Siddhu who lives running a vegetable shop and also as a money lender. A young man who gives you a feel that he is a happy go lucky lad, Siddhu is taking every chances to make some money to manage with the lives of  a few more families who depend on him. When in financial turmoil, he even comes up as a scandalous ‘paid’ groom taking false identities of non-existing rich men, for a marriage bureau run by Damodharji(Nedumudi Venu), which can pay him a 25000 rupees per visit. He thus get in touch with Narmadha, an ad ad maker whom he has met in some frivolous situations earlier, which had made her misinterpret him as a thief and a goonda. Narmadha’s father but develops high opinion for Siddhu, believing in all snobberies about him to be an immensely rich guy who but follows Lord Buddha’s principles of simplicity. He immediately fix him as his future son-in law and tries to announce it in a public function, where the truth about  Siddhu is revealed. With a weighty past of business rivalry, which resulted in  his father thrown behind bars, Siddhu is actually now in need of much as even his life is in stake.

The problem with the movie is its scripts by Dinesh Pallath that hardly offers anything fresh apart from a few mockeries like the mock drills by state police, which comes in decisive moments of the hero’s life. The movie is filled with characters that lacks life with nothing much to do. The story lines goes unending with a poor second half which introduce a lot of fresher clichéd characters   and unexpected twists, which but hardly excite and add up to your confusions.

Dileep is in his usual role and mannerisms, trying to make comedies in every unwanted situations. His sidekicks Sugunan played by Kalabhavan Shajon is also poorly etched while Sidhique, Mydhili and Seetha manages well with their roles. Namitha Pramod once again excites with her screen presence and free flowing acting styles. The director who comes from mini screen couldn’t rightly handle the scale of a Dileep movie and many of its melodramatic moments just reminds of the television soaps. Sudheesh Shankar’s average direction is supplemented  by the cameraman Anil Nair and editor Jaishankar. Now at two hours and 43 minutes, the movie makes you look at your watch many a times and appear too lengthy. The songs by S A Rajkumar are rhythmic and in Telugu style , but comes up in every unwanted situations. The songs visualisations are also in regular mode .

Coming after the recent ‘Avatharram’ which didn’t make much good for Dileep camp, ‘Vilaali Veeran’ with its present content is sure to follow suit without making no big fortunes for its producer R B Chowdhary. Recommended only for Dileep fans and family audiences, who doesn’t mind seeing once again a regular typical Dileep stuff.

Rating-5.5/10

RAJA NATWARLAL

Mithilesh Kumar Srivastav a.k.a Natwarlal is by far one of the most interesting personalities that has probably lived in India. A person who could sell of the Taj Mahal and the Parliament could have not been an ordinary guy!

While not making a biopic, Kunal Deshmukh pays his own tribute to the legend of con Natwarlal and also Victor Lustig, the man who sold the Eifel Tower! He names his lead characters, played by Emraan Hashmi and Paresh Rawal, after these two real life conmen.

Whether the film is as interesting as these con-icons is another matter altogether. 

In its element Raja Natwarlal is a revenge drama. A conman and his pal steal Rs 80 lakh from a big fish. The pal gets bumped off and the conman decides to avenge. Raja (Emraan Hashmi) lands up in a small town in Himachal Pradesh seeking help from the legendary conman Yogi (Paresh Rawal) who used to operate under the name of 'Victor Singh Khan' before he settled into a retired lifestyle. Together they plot to cripple the big fish Vardha Yadav (Kay Kay) in a typical cheese and mousetrap ploy. They will sell a non-existent cricket team to a cricket fanatic!

The premise is promising and is everything that could be a decent 'masala' entertainer. And yet Raja Natwarlal falls short. With a screenplay that limps, the film is not half as smart as the makers probably intended it to be. It also sorely misses the humour that usually lights up a con film.

The film fails to surprise and delivers exactly what the audience may be expecting to happen. Even the last minute 'big surprise' fails to amuse.

Even bigger a problem is the romantic angle between Emraan Hashmi and Humaina Mallik. The actress fails to impress. Worse, the music on which their love story is suppose to evolve is disastrous. The fable of Emraan Hashmi movies always having fantastic music seems to be dying. Heck, I watched this film at a single screen and did not find people whistle the way they do during romantic scenes in other Emraan Hashmi films! Tragic lack of chemistry!


The highlights of Raja Natwarlal does not happen to be the plan but the performances. It is always a delight watching actors like Paresh Rawal and Kay Kay. The later specifically has hardly got any good roles on the longest time. Mohammad Zeesha Ayyub is wasted! Emraan Hashmi, with his usual cockiness, is good as usual.

Raja Natwarlal could have been a shorter film had it not wasted as much time of the non-happening romance. Probably focusing more on adding finesse to the heist could have taken this film notches higher. This one is just not cool enough a con-film, after you have watched films like Special 26 in the recent past. An attempt to create a 'naya India ka naya Natwarlal' had to be smarter, else it is just demeaning the original icon!

 (2.5 / 5) : Above Average

MARDANNI

Rani Mukerji used expletives in No One Killed Jessica too. But the ones that she uses in Mardaani are of an another level altogether. This is the first time she has played a character like Shivani Shivaji Roy, and I don't remember any other actress playing a similar character in quite some time. Now, that's about all that is 'new' in Mardaani. In all honesty, this Pradeep Sarkar film has nothing in its storyline that you may have not seen earlier. And I am not talking about its distinct inspiration from Taken. 

The film is about Shivani, brave officer from Mumbai Crime Branch. At work she leads from the front and commands respect among colleagues and off work she has a family that includes a husband and a niece. Things change for Shivani when she takes up the case of a missing girl - Pyari - who she treats like a daughter. On trail of kidnappers, Shivani moves from Mumbai to Delhi and not only unearths a massive human trafficking chain but a political nexus.

Delhi and the politico-underworld nexus has been dealt with in many films. Quite a few in this year itself! Mardaani does not do anything extraordinary to stand out, expect having a female police officer as the protagonist. The problem is that Sarkar, director of women-centric dramas such as Parineeta and Laga Chunari Mein Daag, is more accustomed to integrating romance into his story than grit. As he ventures into unknown territory there are multiple things that do not work for his film.

The screenplay moves fast during the first half and also makes an impact. Scenes of kidnapping and exploitation of girls startle. The problems with the screenplay start in the second half when the film becomes more about the heroics of this female inspector than logical progression. Subtlety goes for a toss as Rani turns into Singham. Thankfully with a less jarring background score!

Among things that works is humour, which adds to Rani's character. She cusses, kicks and screams apart from cracking superb one-liners.

Unfortunately, despite some great lines the dialogue writing is rather inconsistent. At times it stays real, at times goes over the board!

As an actress Rani finds challenge and delivers. She exudes the personality she plays. Tahir Bhasin gets a dream character. He plays an English-speaking crook who addresses the protagonist as 'Ma'am' and comes across as menacing. He makes an impact and is scary. Jishnu Sengupta is terribly wasted.

The action is real but heroism looks staged. Lack of realistic grit would probably be a reason why Mardaani never comes across as convincing enough, despite Rani's performance. Mardaani is not half as hard hitting as you would have expected from a film dealing with the subject that Mardaani does. So much in the sphere has been explored in Hindi films and so much more could yet be explored.

Having said that, irrespective of all it's cliches Mardaani serves well towards Rani's career graph. A definite watch if you are a Rani fan, Mardaani is just an above average revenge-action cop flick.

 (2.5 / 5) : Above Average  

ENTERTAINMENT

Salman Khan had very rightly pointed out in his episode of Koffee WIth Karan. Akshay Kumar is probably the only actor in his generation who has shown as much growth. From being labeled as merely an action star to being a convincing part of various genres, he is one actor who indeed has staked rights to his stardom. So much that he is easily the outright choice for a film like Entertainment.

Now that's where the catch is. While Akshay is a delight in his comic avatar, he is getting too old for the characters that he is offered. Despite his perfect expressions and timing, at no point does Akshay quite look like the age he plays, age showing on his face and neckline. Probably this should be sign enough for younger actors to try emulate Akshay. 

Having said that, Entertainment is one of the rare comedies that actually stand for its name.

It is not easy to write comedies. What often seems funny on paper ends up flat on screen. Which is why movies which actually make you laugh throughout are pretty rare. While Entertainment would not make you laugh throughout, it will certainly entertain you enough.

Originally titled Oh My Dog, this one is centered around a dog and humanity. Akshay plays a guy who finds that his actual father is a billionaire. However even before he reaches his father's house to claim his property, the rich man passes away leaving all his fortune to his beloved dog. From there on the film is all about the property. To make things funnier two of the rich man's second cousins are also in fray. And in the tussle the dog leaves them all a better people.

The story has a heart. But more importantly the story is told in a way that impresses the heart.

First time directors Sajid-Farhad have written many of Rohit Shetty's comedies that have done wonderfully at the box office. Comedies like All The Best, Golmaal 3, Ready, Chasme Buddoor are some examples of their work. Needless to say, the two have saved quite an amusing film for their directorial debut.

While the screenplay is average, keeping it simple - in lines with the average Indian movie-goer's expectation - the film plays primarily on dialogues and characters. The humour is not derived from the lead but from the coterie. Actors like Krushna and Johnny Lever excelling in their usual comic spaces. Especial Krushna, considering he gets the most hilarious part - one where he general speech is never complete without attaching names of actors or films. The rest of the characters have their own quirks. So Akshay can't help but compare everyone to something else, Tamannah talks only on melodramatic rythms. Tamannah, Sonu Sood and Prakash Raj play their parts.

Entertainment also very subtle pays a spoofy tribute to many a bollywood film - from Sholay to Karan Arjun. For the filmy Indian this is quite funny.

Sajid-Farhad are also clever enough not to introduce too many songs into the screenplay. Two of the songs are finishes in the opening and end credits, with the film seeing just a couple of songs - a relief.

If you are not looking for much of intelligence, this is one film that should tickle your funny bone enough. A family watch.

 (3 / 5) : Good