Ayalum Njanum Thammil Review

The Neil Vincent Review of 'Ayalum Njanum Thammil': 4/5 Stars 

Every once in a while, there will happen a movie that touches you very deeply. You relate to its characters and feel a bond with them; and leave your seat with moist eyes. Lal Jose's "Ayalum Njanum Thammil" is one such movie. I don't think anyone doubts Lal Jose's genius but this is by far his best movie. What I loved most about this movie was its sincerity and the respect the makers had for the intelligence audience! No over the top drama or madness. ANT is proof that there exists sensible cinema which also pays commercial dividends.

The movie is a coming of age tale of Dr.Ravi Tharakan. It begins in the present day and keeps switching between his past and the present. Narian, Samvritha and Siddharth as his college mates aide in generating peals of laughter as they tell the story of doctors and medical education in Kerala. Kalabhavan Mani's is a policeman who highly intrigued me. It explained the very simple reason why doctors are bestowed with so much respect. . Remya Nanbeesam and Rima Kallingal are quite apt for their roles along with Salim Kumar (who happens to be one of my favorite actors)

Pratap Pothen and Prithviraj are stellar in this movie. Pratap Pothen is an outright genius of an actor. His performance as Dr. Samuel mentoring Dr.Ravi Tharakan (Prithviraj Sukamaran) was stand out and their chemistry would bring tears to your eyes.

Jomon T John is a cinema prodigy and this movie is further proof of that. He shows you some incredible sights of Munnar that will make "Swiss flying directors" rethink on their shooting locations. The music of the pen of Ouseppachan and Sarath and soothing and will continue to haunt way after you have left the cinema.

I honestly think I'm not worthy to review this movie, because it could well be one of the best Malayalam movies made to date but then again I'm a critic and an aspiring actor; aren't I?

Now go watch this movie and you will not unlike it on Facebook or otherwise!

The King and the Commissioner Review

“The King and the Commissioner”: 1.5/5 Stars



"It’s all about the commercial quotient. So why not cash on that? “This was Renji Panicker’s statement before the project began. How true! This could be the laziest film of the year with such poor homework done. I don’t just mean logical fillers but just BAD scripting. This entire movie is based on the two characters. Its more like the story of Joseph Alex with Bharath Chandran thrown in to assist him.

Mamooty is indeed Joseph Alex, IAS. He’s panache and suave with crisp dialogues and prolific dialogue delivery playing the role to perfection as usual. ‘Mammuka’ looks young and so dashing and yet sophisticated and in control.

Suresh Gopi lost 30 pounds to get into the skin of Bharath Chandran IPS and he’s a thorough treat to watch. I don’t think he shares great chemistry with ‘Mamooty’ but every strand of hair on my body stood up and saluted when he said: ‘Ormaya undo e mugham?’

I was also thinking in real life if ‘Mammuka’ and ‘Suresh Gopi’ could mug all those dialogues they should have applied for and written IAS. The number of trees cut for the paper on which those dialogues were written could easily have been a forest in Palakkad.

Janardanan as Minister GK was so effortless, possibly the only sensibly etched supporting character in the movie. Saikumar brought so much of sense to such a senseless role. I can’t stand meaningless demigod super villains whose sole motive is money. And Mohan Aghase was an awesome Prime Minister who did actually make me smile. Jayan Chertala was bad to say the least. He seemed lost and in a hurry to finish his lines. I did not know what was worse, his acting or his makeup. Janardanan, Saikumar and Mohan Aghashe did a job worth my ticket price. Their acting made me realize that there are no small roles, only small actors.
Alas I have finished telling you everything good about this movie. Now if we had a few bullets of that which were fired all across the screen then you could use three for the cinematographers! Bharani K. Dharan, Sharavanan & Shaji Kumar handled the camera and it looks like the whole of what they shot was stuffed onto the screen. The entire movie is not shot straight but from such hard to view angles and they change so fast that your mind cannot even process them. It makes me wonder what did Samjath do while editing this movie. I got lost many times when scenes that had no relation just followed each other.


Murphy’s Law is so adept for this movie. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong! Let’s begin with the great Shaji Kailas. Since 2001, Shaji Kalias has done 19 movies of which 16 were colossal flops. In that regard this is a huge improvement. Comparatively. Renji Panikar needs lessons in GK, Current Affairs and also technology.

TKATC portrays India as a devolving anarchy. The villains are so typecast with money being the sole criterion for anything they do. That again is the fault of poor scripting with such shallow meaningless characters. Moreso, the film is unnecessarily long at 3 hours and 10 minutes and I’m not a fan of constant senseless killings.

Please watch TKATC with your friends; and before you walk into the theatre for TKATC please carry two dictionaries (English & Malayalam). The amount of dialogues the villains and the heroes speak would require the use of dictionaries; and with your friends around, searching becomes easier.

I felt numb after the movie and so did all those around me. Dear Mr.Shaji Kailas & Mr.Renji Panikar, please treat the ‘malayee audience’ with respect, don’t write out garbage just for the money. Create something worth watching.

'Casanova' Review: 2/5 Stars

India today has only 5 actors capable of doing this movie. From the opening shot to the climax, the whole of 'Casanova' rests on the mighty shoulders of Mohanlal. He has indeed done a great job as expected but for a few scenes.

'Casonava' is an absolute treat to the 'Mohanlal fan'; it has simply stunning visuals reminding you of all the action games you played from NFS to Max Payne. And this probability is the best part of the movie: the cars, the women and the soothing locales of Dubai.

Now coming to the cracks: If you want to get munchies during the interval; don't!, you will feel very tempted to walkout. You would need to glue yourself to the seat to watch beyond a disastrous first half. The scripting is completely devoid of logic and makes you weep with the level of senselessness especially when girls world over croon over a flower seller. Its completely shallow and the characters so poorly scripted.

Another outrageous factor is the 'flash-back' that happens without any coherence. The entire movies' humor is provided by Riyaz Khan's English as an INTERPOL agent. Actually, the entire movie has BAD English and what adds to the misery is the acting of the newbies. The acting is horrendous and they shoot do 'dhoom' in an uncool way. I almost cried when Mohanlal did the 'Matrix' stunt when the villian threw plates at him. If you are not a Mohanlal fan, this one scene will provide your annual quota of Mohanlal jokes.

Laxmi Rai does provide eye candy and Roma looks lost in the movie but Shriya has managed to do well in a shallow role. Lalu Alex, Shankar, Jagathy Sreekumar have salvaged all they could from the script. Sanjana did a good job for a fresher.

Some stunts are just done for the stunts' sake without any requirement in the script for them. You ask yourself why choppers have to shoot out the entire floor of a building with just 5 people in it. The cops and the cops cars are a joke. It so reminds you of Kerala police ka jeeps.

I hope Jim Ganesh got a fat cheque for his amazing locales, and apart from the title song; the songs are forgettable. The editor deserves all the brickbats he gets, a really bad job.

Casonova is a treat for Mohanlal fans only with fantastic stunts, great visuals, hot cars, girls and our dearest Lalettan. It would be a crime if you are a Mohanlal fan and you did not see this; and it would be a crime to yourself if you're not a fan and you watch it.