[myavu]

Jo & Jo - Amazon Prime 3.5/5




Simple story of everyday sibling rivalry Thoroughly enjoyed.

Cheers!

[Deep Blue]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Did not understand what was the need to use kannada/Tamil in malyalam movie. What's worse, where is ramanagar- bangarpet and good part of movie was shot at Mangalore. A Tamil speaking MLA becoming CM of Karnataka?

Exactly. I too was wondering why was there a need to make hotch potch of kannada and tamil if the college is based in Karnataka. There is a mention of Tulu also in one of the dialogues. Tulu in Ramangara?!.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

There is a mention of Tulu also in one of the dialogues. Tulu in Ramangara?

This XKCD is bang on target:

https://xkcd.com/2623/

[meconi]

Saw 12th Man. Malayalam . Hotstar . Did not go with much expectations but liked the movie. The way the plot unravelled was nice - Mohanlal fans are in for a treat
Rating 3.5/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V81jMFrawAk

[Ithaca]

O2 on Hotstar
Audio in all 4 South Indian languages & subtitles in English.

This is a survival drama. A bus travels from Coimbatore to Cochin (Kochi).
The passengers include a kid suffering from cystic fibrosis who needs to get surgery at Kochi. He needs pure oxygen to breathe and needs his O2 cylinder at all times. His mother.
A corrupt cop who needs to offload ₹8 crores of cocaine to a party that wants it for its purity.
A just released prisoner who was falsely imprisoned.
A father & daughter travelling to Kochi & the girl’s boyfriend who plans to elope with the girl enroute because the father doesn’t want the girl marrying a boy of a different religion.
An ex-MLA who needs to sell his properties to fund his re-election.

There is an accident on the way & the bus takes another route to Kochi only to be buried alive in a landslide. The bus becomes a coffin with limited air & the unfortunate passengers need to survive till they can be rescued. But there is the clueless rescue team that just complicates the weak story line.

To cut the long story short - avoid this movie & do something more interesting with the time saved.

Rated 1/5

[ashvek3141]

Originally Posted by Thebat

Movie- 777 Charlie
Rating- 5/5

A fantastic movie, it was a refreshing watch after the recent slew of action movies. A must watch for any animal lover. Charlie's acting is mind blowing not in a single scene does it look forced. The BGM and cinematography are superb. Rakshit Shetty is good as usual, living the role of dharma to the fullest.

Overall a very good movie to be enjoyed with your loved ones.

Totally agree! Absolutely emotional movie, but a must watch for a dog lover.
As rightly said, Charlie’s acting is beautiful. The music is cherry on top. It really hits you at certain scenes.

Rating: 5/5

[hemanth.anand]

I watched many movie in the last couple of weeks and only yesterday I found some time to pen down a few words about each one of them.

Warning: Excuse me if it becomes a long boring read

4 walls and 2 nighties (Kannada) Amazon Prime
While simply browsing through, this title and Achyut Kumar caught my eye and took a chance and watched this.
It is a story of a middle class government employee with 4 children. Story spans from somewhere in 1970s till present day.
Overall a decent watch. Achyut kumar is at his usual natural best and has done more than justice to his roles from the past till the present.
Dattatreya or Dattanna s he is known is another actor who performs his roles effortlessly.
The story is woven around a medical condition called Sleep paralysis but to be frank the storyline lacks logic and acting from other people is average.

I’d rate this 2.5/5

RRR (Telugu) Zee5
This met my expectations. A Telugu movie directed by Rajamouli with Ramcharan and Ramarao in the lead (that’s why it is named RRR) - I definitely knew that common sense should be kept out of the room.
Extravagant VFX, larger than life characterization, totally illogical unbelievable, idiotic plots. The huge amounts of money spent on the movie is evident especially in the VFX where everything appears almost real.
The story is set in the British era India to evoke some kind of patriotic feeling in the audience. Although it is good to a certain extent, it shows some British individuals as extremely powerful and extremely Barbaric.
Medical fraternity should research more into this movie because NTRs character possesses some amazing medical knowledge where a person who’s about to die in the morning with 100s of physical injuries gets up and is fit to fight 100s of people in the afternoon!!
Alia Bhat has a limited role and she has done alright.

I’ rate this 2/5

Seththuman (Tamil) SonyLiv
I watched this as the music director of this movie is known to me. It is a story set in a small village of Tamilnadu where an old aged lower caste guy does all sorts of work for a landlord so that he can educate his grandson.
It has shown the basic day to day struggles of in a rural environment. I loved the cinematography. The storyline is very basic where the landlord craves for eating Pork. The religious, social and mental restrictions in eating pork is what dictates the course of the story
It reminded me of the Kannada movie Thithi. Not all people might like the detail with which the making of a pork dish is shown but Overall an ok ok movie if you ask me.

I’d rate it 2.5/5

Jana Gana Mana (Malayalam) Netflix
After many positive reviews from my friends watched this movie on Netflix. Wasn’t disappointed but wasn’t wowed by it too.
How a hit-and-run murder case can be turned into something else altogether for political gains is shown well. All the actors have delivered impressive performances.
It is a good mirror of how the Media-trials influences people’s thoughts in our country today.

There was no real reason for the story of a Malayalam movie to be set in an imaginary Big University in the small district of ‘Rama’nagara (of all the places) in Karnataka. IMO, This among many other such small things are subtle jibes at one of the major political parties in the country.
Being a native speaker of Kannada, I was really irritated by the limited Kannada dialogues I heard in the movie. Looked like some Malayalam person who can manage with some Kannada has dubbed. How difficult can it be to get a native speaker for those dialogues?!

I’d rate it 3.5/5

Innale Vare (Malayalam) SonyLiv
I was randomly browsing and seeing Nimisha in the poster, I decided to watch the movie. In the end I loved the movie. A good thriller with a gripping story with hardly any loopholes.
There are a lot of interesting twists in the plot and all have been handled well.
Nimisha was at her usual best and so were Asif and Anthony in their respective roles.

I’d rate this 4/5

Night Drive (Malayalam) Netflix
Based on the recommendation of a known person in my apartment, I watched this. Really enjoyed it in the end. Thriller drama is certainly one of my favorite genres and this was a well-made movie.
The plot is all about how a simple night drive in the car can get complex. The twists and turns in the story is nice but could’ve been better in some places. Especially the character of the good police officer is kind of confusing.
A cop who s ready to fight against the system for a girl, unnecessarily troubles her in the beginning doesn’t really add up. Overall a good family watch.

I’ll rate this 3.5/5

12th Man (Malayalam) Disney Hotstar
Another Malayalam movie, another mystery thriller, my wife asked me why I’m watching only Malayalam movies off late. I told I just find some interesting and watch it and coincidentally most are in Malayalam language.
This one is a thriller with lots of characters and lot of twists and theories. I liked the story because even with so many characters, each character is equally important and everything is interlinked.
Even though the game that starts everything in itself is something far from reality and Mohan lal’s acting felt like over acting to me, it is still a good movie to watch.
The movie which is mostly shot in a resort looks really artificial. I learnt later that it was custom-built for this movie.

I’ll rate it 3/5

Antakshari (Malayalam) SonyLiv
An intense, murder mystery of killings by a pschycopath killer involving a Bullet motorbike. The story spans across some 40 years and has lot of sub stories, some related and some just for distractions.
Lot of the message is conveyed by more of actions and less of words. Many scenes are gory and better to avoid with kids. All the actors have performed very well.
In the beginning there seems to be too many separate stories and too many separate characters that are not linked to each other, but during the final stages all are well linked to each other

I’ll rate it 4/5

Dear Father (Gujrati) Amazon Prime
After watching too many Malayalam movies, I was consciously looking for a movie that is not Malayalam, and found this Gujrati movie interesting.
It is a rare combination of drama, comedy and crime genres put together into one movie.
The movie focuses on the thought process of different generations and for a change has Father-in-law Daughter-in-law fights.
Paresh Rawal in a dual role has performed well and reminded me of his role in Hera Pheri. Manasi Parekh ( I had seen her in some hindi serial before this) has also done well as a modern day middle class daughter-in-law
The performance of the actor doing the advocate son’s character was probably the weak-link. In the aim to drive a message the movie’s story is a little farfetched I felt though.
But on the whole, a good one-time watch.

I’ll rate this a 3/5

Jo and Jo (Malayalam) Amazon Prime
After a series of Drama movies, I felt like watching a comedy movie and selected this while simply rummaging around in the OTT apps.
It is a story of three young boys and the sister of one of the three in a small village in Kerala during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The movie is a good light hearted comedy and all of us in the family liked it when we watched on a Lazy Saturday afternoon

After watching so many Malayalam movies, I had kind of started to understand some conversations without subtitles.
However the language used in this movie is probably with some kind of local slang and also the everyone spoke so fast, that I couldn’t have understood anything without subtitles

I’ll rate this 3.5/5


777 Charlie (Kannada)
After watching so many movies on OTT, finally I went to a theater and watched his latest Rakshit Shetty movie. I have to appreciate the efforts in making this movie.
I can imagine the patience, efforts and struggle that the makers would’ve had to put when the lead character is a dog. And they have pulled out a wonderful movie in the end.
My daughter is a dog lover and she was literally crying the entire second half of the movie. So much so that the people in the row ahead of ours came and consoled her at the end of the movie.

Otherwise when I look at it as a story, there are some really exaggerated bits and some not so important scenes that make the movie too long. It has 3 hours of screen time.
The logical person in me just couldn’t ignore that the lead actress chases the lead actor and the dog from Mysuru to Vijayapura in an electric scooter and then finally runs out of charge in Goa!
Other such scenes mainly for some comical dose wasn’t really necessary but I think that’s why it makes it a complete family entertainer

I’ll rate the movie 4/5

[dragonfire]

Meppadiyaan - engaging

I wasn't intending to watch this, but when another movie refused to play in my TV, I decided to play this instead. It is a taut thriller based on a land deal (or not - more on that later). It is interesting how the writers took an uninteresting premise and made an edge-of-the-seat thriller out of it. There are some slack moments, but the end result is exemplary. All actors across the board play their roles very well. Unni Mukundan felt like a miscast at first, but he soon found the groove and was rocking by the time the movie ended. Also good to see Saiju Kurup back in action after the disastrous Lalitham Sundaram.

Originally Posted by dragonfire

I may also call it a propaganda movie if I am to view it from the other side of the divide.

Meppadiyaan is a nice example of a propaganda movie done right. When the movie was released there was talk among some quarters that it seeks to show some sections in bad light. There was no consensus but it had people talking - and that is what the makers of the film intended I suppose. Unlike Puzhu that I had reviewed above, here the references are very subtle and the seeds of hatred are sowed in our heads without we even realizing. All that culminates into a crescendo where revenge is exacted with the help of the divine.

[jkrishnakj]

I watched RRR, or suffice to say, I attempted to watch and could not go beyond the first 40-45 minutes. I had to abort it.

I caught Jo&Jo. Clean and simple movie. I actually loved it and would rate it 3.5/5

I am half way with 'Innale Vare' and will surely finish tonight. Loving it already.

[vibbs]

12th Man (Malayalam)- Hotstar

Decent one time watch. The pace is good and keeps you entertained specially in the second half.

However, I cannot help but imagine that had they waited till forensics report came, they could have avoided opening up a lot of secrets.

Mohanlal is clearly out of his elements. Plenty of overacting in the first half which is exaggerated by his botoxed face (discussed before in the forum). The rest of the cast is a mixed bag as well. All said and done it is an okay movie if you don't have big expectations.

[Rajeevraj]

Jack and Jill -Malayalam- Prime Video- Manju Warrier

Have not finished watching it yet, but I think I can confidently say it is the worst Malayalam movie in quite a while.

A revenge drama wrapped around AI, Robotics, Humanoid mumbo jumbo. Has a good line up of actors starting with Manju Warrier, Soubin, Kalidas Jayaram, Indrans, Basil, Aju Varghese, but the characterization is so bad that the acting is horrible.

Coming from Santosh Sivan who has directed a few good ones and of course has been the cinematographer for innumerable films, one would expect higher making standards.

Rating: One of those 'it is so bad that it should be seen to believe how bad it is'

Manju Warrier seems to be having a release every other week and most of them are bad. Doing armchair criticizing, but she should definitely be more selective in what she does.

Trivia: Soubin plays the role of a humanoid inside a box chattering away in Malayalam with a kochi slang. Kalidas is the scientist that won a worldwide competition for designing the best humanoid.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Jack and Jill -Malayalam- Prime Video- Manju Warrier

Have not finished watching it yet, but I think I can confidently say it is the worst Malayalam movie in quite a while.

Rating: One of those 'it is so bad that it should be seen to believe how bad it is'

Manju Warrier seems to be having a release every other week and most of them are bad. Doing armchair criticizing, but she should definitely be more selective in what she does.

Manju Warrier has now turned the art of picking the worst movies into a lifeskill. Lalitham Sundaram was equally horrid, with over the top acting.

[vibbs]

Night drive (Malayalam)

I heard some good things about this movie. But in reality I felt it was a very ordinary movie. They could have still redeemed it if they had decided to go against the Heroism and one man show in the end.

While they say the movie is a thriller, it does not have anything to warrant that. The characters are not well drawn out, the plot is quite old and cliched. Acting is okay in parts. What works actually is that the movie is not too long.

[StarrySky]

Priyan Ottathilanu (Malayalam) - Theatre Release

This one is a feel-good movie, about Priyan who is a do-gooder and is always running around solving problems for others, often neglecting his own.

We have seen such characters earlier in movies. One positive here is that the problems faced by the hero are relatable and appear solvable, and there is no emotional athyachar. However, this is also a downside as the odds don't seem high enough for the audience to feel any tension as the movie approaches the climax. Another downside I felt is that although the movie shows the hero is prioritising others' problems over his own big dream, there is almost nothing in the movie that shows him working/struggling towards this dream. So we are left wondering if it's really his big dream or not?

Coming to the performances, Sharaf-u-deen as a solo male lead has done a good job. The two female leads Nyla Usha and Aparna Das have also done well. Special mention for Biju Sopanam who brings some comic relief.

Overall, a watchable movie that manages to entertain, without being preachy as is often the case with do-gooder movies.

[Rajeevraj]

Meri Awas Suno- Malayalam-Hotstar-Jayasurya-Manju Warrier

Jayasurya does a lot of movies within the same template of "He is a regular guy managing life ok- Has a good family-but has some specific issue- struggles a bit- then some trigger happens which causes him to focus on overcoming his problem- All ends happily". Examples are 'Su Su Sudhi, Vellam, Sunny, Captain to some extent'. Most of these are watchable because of Jayasurya's performance.

This also falls into the same template. Jayasurya is an RJ, has a good show, happy family, something happens, gets depressed- enter the motivational speaker in the form of Manju Warrier and all ends well.

Not a bad movie and Jayasurya once again does a great job. Manju Warrier is much much better than the horror that was 'Jack and Jill', but a regular role for her.

Rating 2.5/5