[whitewing]

Ondu Shkaariya Kathe - Kannada (Prime) : 4/5
Shot at a beautiful coastal locale, one of the few movies that tries to flesh out characters and into the mind of the protagonist, in the process at times seemed verbose.
This is a slow burner and initially the story may unfold in a disjointed manner, all come together nicely by the the mid.

[WindRide]

Bro Daddy (malayalam) - any movie that depends on constipation/irregular bowel movements to elicit laughs rings loud warning bells. So if you have lots of time to kill, it wouldn't hurt watching this painfully artificial skin-deep time-pass flick. Just don't go looking for any depth or mental stimulation.

Btw, i wish mohanlal recovers soon from the disastrous botox skin tightening ..the guy can't emote anymore to save his life.

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Bro Daddy (malayalam) - any movie that depends on constipation/irregular bowel movements to elicit laughs rings loud warning bells. So if you have lots of time to kill, it wouldn't hurt watching this painfully artificial skin-deep time-pass flick. Just don't go looking for any depth or mental stimulation.

Btw, i wish mohanlal recovers soon from the disastrous botox skin tightening ..the guy can't emote anymore to save his life.

I also watched it yesterday and quite liked it. Yes, constipation scenes were painful but overall a nice light comedy. 3.5/5

Personally I like this Mohanlal a lot better (this, Drishyam, Lucifer etc. recent movies) than the earlier over-emotive one. Of course I do not speak Malayalam so maybe I do not appreciate the "emotive" scenes. But I find his recent movies a lot more watchable.

[Pequod]

Originally Posted by chinkara

Personally I like this Mohanlal a lot better (this, Drishyam, Lucifer etc. recent movies) than the earlier over-emotive one. Of course I do not speak Malayalam so maybe I do not appreciate the "emotive" scenes. But I find his recent movies a lot more watchable.

Going bit off-topic, but over-emotive??!! Mate, this guy was the master of understated subtlety during his peak in the late 80 - early 90’s period!

Personally no longer a fan of the way he acts now, looks forced and unnatural. But hearing him referred to as over-emotive would still touch a raw nerve for most Malayalis

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by Pequod

Going bit off-topic, but over-emotive??!! Mate, this guy was the master of understated subtlety during his peak in the late 80 - early 90’s period!

Personally no longer a fan of the way he acts now, looks forced and unnatural. But hearing him referred to as over-emotive would still touch a raw nerve for most Malayalis

Late 80s / early 90s is too early for me. But my college roomie was a Mallu, so late 90s and early 00s I have watched a fair bit of Mohanlal. Of course there were classics but in general movies were loud and acting was too. Maybe Mohanlal was more subtle than the rest (I have not watched too many Mallu films), but I like his newer movies more (Lucifer et al) probably due to being more script driven and less acting / emoting driven? Just my view of course, and not knowing the language, sorry if I have touched a raw nerve.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Btw, i wish mohanlal recovers soon from the disastrous botox skin tightening ..the guy can't emote anymore to save his life.

Exact observations about Mohanlal. He tries, but the charisma and subtle change of expression have all gone!

On the movie itself, just watchable in my opinion. Prithviraj has absolutely no chemistry with anyone on screen.

Originally Posted by chinkara

Personally I like this Mohanlal a lot better (this, Drishyam, Lucifer etc. recent movies) than the earlier over-emotive one. Of course I do not speak Malayalam so maybe I do not appreciate the "emotive" scenes. But I find his recent movies a lot more watchable.

Interesting observation. For years we Mallus prided on how Malayalam movies are much down to earth and realistic compared to over the top stuff churned out in other languages. Would be interesting to know which 'older' mohanlal movies would you term as over-emotive. Just for sake of curiosity to understand different perspectives. Nothing against your observation itself.

[WindRide]

Originally Posted by chinkara

Late 80s / early 90s is too early for me. But my college roomie was a Mallu, so late 90s and early 00s I have watched a fair bit of Mohanlal. Of course there were classics but in general movies were loud and acting was too. Maybe Mohanlal was more subtle than the rest (I have not watched too many Mallu films), but I like his newer movies more (Lucifer et al) probably due to being more script driven and less acting / emoting driven? Just my view of course, and not knowing the language, sorry if I have touched a raw nerve.

Do not watch Mohanalal starrers post Devaasuram (1993) and you will be fine.

Originally Posted by vibbs

.... Prithviraj has absolutely no chemistry with anyone on screen...

Prithviraj has chemistry only with himself. He takes self-love to 'vera' level.

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by vibbs

On the movie itself, just watchable in my opinion.

The problem about many such Malayalam movies is, they start with a novel premise/thread and then lose it when they try to develop a credible story out of it. In this case it goes down the drain after the initial (interesting) premise is set. The rest of the story is the usual "misunderstandings" and how they fix it.

Prithviraj has absolutely no chemistry with anyone on screen.

Tell me about it. This is a role which does not demand a lot of acting prowess, yet Prithviraj stumbles here too. Mohanlal with his rubbery face at least tries to fit into the role. Prithviraj is still playing a skit as he used to in the old Prithvi/Jayasuria comedy movies.

Lalu Alex is okay, actually he has had better days than this. And he gets a lot of screen time because the writers try to drag the plot onto him towards the end.

And the scenes involving Soubin is an absolute bag of trash. All the ladies, as usual, plays second fiddle to the males, and even Kalyani with a much meatier role does not impress.

Anyway Prithviraj's second directorial venture is nothing like the first - and that shows some promise.

[binand]

Originally Posted by chinkara

But my college roomie was a Mallu, so late 90s and early 00s I have watched a fair bit of Mohanlal.

I can imagine how Mohanlal's "toxic masculinity" phase post Devasuram and Sphadikam would have appealed to college students of the period.

I count very few movies of his in this timeframe (1995-2005) that dared to be different - Chandralekha, Vismayathumbathu, Oru Yathramozhi, Vanaprastham, Kanmadam and maybe Udayananu Tharam & Thanmathra?

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

The problem about many such Malayalam movies is, they start with a novel premise/thread and then lose it when they try to develop a credible story out of it. In this case it goes down the drain after the initial (interesting) premise is set. The rest of the story is the usual "misunderstandings" and how they fix it.

Yes. Specially when solving the misunderstanding is only a matter of asking the other guy to shut up for a moment and listen.

Originally Posted by WindRide

Do not watch Mohanalal starrers post Devaasuram (1993) and you will be fine.

.

Originally Posted by binand

I can imagine how Mohanlal's "toxic masculinity" phase post Devasuram and Sphadikam would have appealed to college students of the period.

I count very few movies of his in this timeframe (1995-2005) that dared to be different - Chandralekha, Vismayathumbathu, Oru Yathramozhi, Vanaprastham, Kanmadam and maybe Udayananu Tharam & Thanmathra?

The 1995 - 2005 period in general was a disaster for Malayalam film industry. The superstars were playing to the gallery and none had guts or intention to do something different.

But the thing is, when people talk about Mohanlal, it's mainly the pre-devasuram or maybe pre-spadigam era that they talk about. The real decline started I think after spadigam and I think he was at his lowest with movies like praja and what not around 2000s.

Having said that, as an engineering college student in late 90s early 2000s I ve had my share of guilty pleasures from the toxic masculinity of his movies like Narasimham

[Rajeevraj]

Since the topic of the day is Mohanlal. Sharing a couple of articles which I found interesting and agree with. Just when you think he is done and on the way out, he bounces back with a master class performance and/or a massive box office hit. Of course as said above, a majority of his movies since the late nineties have been pretty poor, but the good ones are really great-either from his performance or from the sheer box office success.

https://www.myworldofmovies.in/mohan...dy-to-bow-out/

https://www.myworldofmovies.in/those...anlal-moments/

The above in line with the earlier discussions, are all movies before the late 90's

[chinkara]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Would be interesting to know which 'older' mohanlal movies would you term as over-emotive. Just for sake of curiosity to understand different perspectives. Nothing against your observation itself.

Honestly, I would be hard pressed to name names. I tend to remember movies which are really good or spectacularly bad. While I found very little memorable (e.g. I remember liking films like Kannathil Muthamittal or even the pulp Thiruda Thirudi in Tamil in the same period) very few were complete disasters either (e.g. a Hindi movie called Boom). In fact, in the same period, the standard of Bengali movies was so bad that other language films were a breath of fresh air. Even the toxic masculinity period Mohanlal movies were better than Shotru, Swami kano Ashami, Beder meye Jyosthna, Tumi Kolkatar Roshogolla and other trash that Bengali cinema churned out in that period (except for the oasis that was Rituporno Ghosh).

That said, Narasimham strikes a chord - was it the one where there was some drama about last rites? For others I have to ask my friend...

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by vibbs

Yes. Specially when solving the misunderstanding is only a matter of asking the other guy to shut up for a moment and listen.

Totally agree! 400%!! That too, when the other person involved is your best friend. Had this happened, we'd have no movie to rant/talk about.

Originally Posted by binand

I can imagine how Mohanlal's "toxic masculinity" phase post Devasuram and Sphadikam would have appealed to college students of the period.

I count very few movies of his in this timeframe (1995-2005) that dared to be different - Chandralekha, Vismayathumbathu, Oru Yathramozhi, Vanaprastham, Kanmadam and maybe Udayananu Tharam & Thanmathra?

I agree with all points mentioned here about Mohanlal. The cheerful smile that heralded his fandom, the sorrow on his face that tugged at your heart and the revenge seeking hero of yesteryear.. he had a charm that was hard to miss. Remember how something even as stupid as "Gadha Jam" was made an icon?

Despite all that botox that prevents him from emoting, he still managed to bring out some emotion in that one scene towards the end where he is giving advice to Prithvi... glimpses of the old master at play.

[jkrishnakj]

I managed to watch BroDaddy yesterday. Agree with all comment here.

We watched in one go! Laughed quite a bit. Kind of enjoyed. A one time watch.

[fundagenie]

Watched BroDaddy on first day on OTT itself. And in total agreement to most of the comments above. Would say watchable when there is nothing else to watch. Rate 2.5/5.

I remember watching some foreign language european movies which would be on similar lines... total misunderstanding, but those movies would be like 1hr or so kinda flicks. But in Indian movies, it also needs the emotional family angle to make the movie complete along with unwanted comedy scenes, drama etc and that kinda destroys the actual plot. Same here to an extent.

Wrt Mohanlal, I think every mallu will have to make a point, me included . For me its Kireedom that rocks. Would say Mohanlal really went to a different level with this one, at such a young age. Especially the climax scene. Every time I see this scene on TV with that haunting music, it gives goosebumps.

FundaG