[ghodlur]

Hridayam (malayalam)

Streaming: Hotstar

I seem to be catching up with 2022 movies but till now it seems to be going good. A mushy romantic movie starring Pranav Mohanlal (son on Lalletan), Darshana and Kalyani (Looking damn cute). The movie related a lot for the college life and scenes, the ragging, the competition participation (including the last year binging.. ). The locales were superb and the train scenes quite nicely captured. The emotional angle for the movie was Okayish. The only drawback was the long 3 hrs, it could have been quite less for sure. The song "Darshana" is already in the playlist. Somehow the mish mash of Tamil in Malayalam movie doesn't look good. I read that Karan Johar has taken the rights for the movie, god save Mollywood. A one time viewing is recommended for the BGM and the songs.

Rating: 3.5/5

[jkrishnakj]

Ela Veezha Poonchira (Malayalam, Netflix)

This will be a slow one. I loved watching it. I’m not sure if it’s ‘Dark’ genre.

Basically, it revolves around two police guys in a remote wireless repeater station in the hills. What happens when they know that a woman was killed and her body parts are strewn around in different parts of the hills is the story.

Ill give it a 3.5/5

[binand]

Originally Posted by robincsamuel

Purusha Pretham/The Male Ghost (Malayalam)

Small correction: The name "Purusha Pretham" means "dead body of a male" in the context of the movie. The word "pretham" (പ്രേതം) in Malayalam can mean either "ghost" or "dead body".

(I'm about 2/3rd into the movie and am liking it so far).

[rx100]

Originally Posted by binand

Small correctionur: The name "Purusha Pretham" means "dead body of a male" in the context of the movie. The word "pretham" (പ്രേതം) in Malayalam can mean either "ghost" or "dead body".

(I'm about 2/3rd into the movie and am liking it so far).

Yes, that’s true. But not sure why the movie crew itself promoting it as Male Ghost in English everywhere. May be to identify as a horror movie, although it is not.

On the movie: Watched with zero expectation and enjoyed it. Wonderful performance from almost everyone especially Prasanth and Jagadeesh. Whole movie is a bit lengthy and could have cut down a few minutes.

[Geo_Ipe]

Ela Veezha Poonchira - Malayalam, Prime

Beautiful thriller! Soubin & Sudhi Koppa have performed exceptionally well. Cinematography is awesome too. A crime thriller with twists & turns in the right places. Definitely recommended.

Rating - 4/5

[vibbs]

Romancham (Malayalam)

A bit of a mixed bag. It's funny in places and some good performances. Many parts did gross me out a bit. In the end felt a bit drawn out and inconclusive but there will be a second part. So..

One time watch

Malikapuram

A late watch this one but was surprisingly good to watch.

[naveen.raju]

Romancham



A good movie coupled with good acting (especially considering that all are new), BGM and realistic setting (Bachelor pod). Expected a lot more since it's still in theaters and minting money. The base theme/storyline is not new.

Having said that, am looking forward to the second part.

But I found "Adi Kapyare Kootamani" a tad better .

Rating - 4.5/5 (Definite one time watch). Available on Hotstar.

Maheshum Maruthiyum - The film is so bad that I dont want to waste time uploading the poster here . Stopped after 20 mins.

[narayans80]

Viduthalai - Part 1

Trigger warning: Movie is A-rated and thoroughly deserves one. It is drama. It is a slow burner. It is explicit. It is uncomfortable. Those who want a popcorn muncher should look elsewhere. And please don't take your kids

This movie will take your places you don't want to be. Vetrimaaran has certainly surpassed Bala in this movie, you get the drift. Vijay Sethupathi although appears on the poster, has little to do in this part. It is the relatively unknown faces that really shine. It works very well, since we do not have a stereotype on them.

If you are prepared for the trigger warnings and have the mindset to watch slow burners. I would highly recommend watching.

[Geo_Ipe]

Viduthalai Part 1 - Tamil, theatres


One of the best regional language movies I've watched in the recent past! Soori was given one shot at stardom and he has grabbed it with all he could. Style of narration is beautiful. Vetrimaran has you at the edge of your seat throughout. The story does touch a lot of strings differently, so be prepared. May not be apt for children.

Must watch!

Rating - 5/5

[StarrySky]

Ponniyin Selvan - Part 2 (Tamil):

Surprised to find no reviews of this one yet!

At the outset, I will say that I liked Part-2 better than Part-1.

I think what helps Part-2 is that Part-1 established all the main characters. In some ways, Part-1 felt very filmy in the sense that most, if not all, main characters were given their own song sequence etc.

With all that out of the way, Part-2 gets right down to business from the first shot. The downside is that if you have not watched Part-1, you will be totally lost

As in Part-1, the performances from the cast is a positive. However, some characters from the first movie are little more than glorified extras in this movie. I can only imagine that some of their scenes did not make it to the final cut. The movie is 3h long, but I did not feel bored and didn't feel any lag anywhere.

Technical aspects are again good. The battle scene towards the end is short and has been executed well. The songs are used more as part of background score, and in general I think the music elevates the movie. This is a welcome change from Part-1, where while I liked the songs themselves, their placement in the movie seemed to slow it down.

The other grouse that I had about Part-1 was it did not deliver any highs for me. In Part-2, there are at least a couple of scenes, especially involving Vikram that I would like to revisit.

If you have watched Part-1, I think you will enjoy Part-2.

Note: I haven't read the books, so I don't know if the makers have deviated from it in any way.

[sridhu]

Ponniyin Selyan - 2:

It is not Ponniyin Selvan!

It is good as a movie. But if you have read the books this is a completely different story with the same character names.

It was not boring by any stretch of the imagination. Songs are meh but th BGM is good.

A lot of action sequences but the entire dramatic tension in the books is lost because of the actors involved, their relative star value and because of the need to tell an coherent story in 2 parts.

While characters are better established, their arcs and motivations do not make any sense. Athithya Karikalan is an important but minor character in the book. Arunmozhi Varman /ponnoyin Selvan is the hero in the book; here he has about the same stature as AK in the books.

Did not regret watching the movie. But it is not the movie the books deserved.

Two things particularly irked me: the Tamil diction of most characters and the interminably long 'Mills & Boons scene' when Athithya Karikalan dies. "Just kill him already" was my thought!

2.5/5

[KPR]

Ponniyin Selvan - 2.

First of all the music of PS2 is far superior to my ears than PS1. But filming of PS1 songs were superior to eyes.
There is a digression from actual story line which Maniratnam himself has mentioned, as the movie has to get released and run safely. Who knows now in India people may protest over release itself!
Aishwarya owns the PS2 movie and I respect that and she has every right to do so with her character of lifetime.
I would rate this movie as 4/5. Once again I reiterate that even if all directors join hands to make this movie nobody can do justice to what Maniratnam has done. Such is that novel. ARR deserve all awards for songs of PS2.

[naveen.raju]

In short - All these can be avoided

Pakalum Paathiravum



Started off well, but you will get the general plot of the movie. Guru seems to be carrying the same style across all his latest movies (might be because of the way he talks), Kunchacko was ordinary, Rajisha and her dad stood out in the movie. The person who dubbed for her mom was totally not suited for this person. Sounded a lot younger.

Rating - 2/5 (Zee5)

Corona Papers



As expected, this was adapted from another movie. This 2.5 hour movie looked like a 4 hour movie. Since 95% of Priyadarshan's movies (especially in 80's/90's) are adapted from other movies and he did a great job, I was expecting something along those lines but was super bad. The casting was super horrible (except for Siddique) and I dont understand why the judge from Nna Thaan Case Kodu was simply wasted in this one.

Rating - 1/5 (Hotstar)

Enthada Saji



Thanks for being the reason for a good Sunday afternoon sleep .

Available on Prime.

[ghodlur]

2 movies over the weekend

Gurudev Hoysala (kannada)

Watched it for my current fav star Dhananjay. The movie picks up an untouched topic of honor killing and I feel it does justice to it. Dhananjay excelled in the role and aptly supported by Achyuta Kumar and Amrutha Iyengar. The film drags in some scenes but overall watchable. The revelation in the movie was acting of Navin Shankar who has a great future.

Rating: 3.5/5

Vidhuthalai (Tamil)

The movie was recommended in the forum hence watched it. Lots of gory scenes and unnecessary nudity, not to be watched with children for sure. Soori was amazing in his acting and so was Sethupathi (although not much, we can get to see that in Part 2). The film has been shot is some beautiful locales, was it TN?

Rating: 4/5

[poised2drive]

Ponniyan Selvan II

After a long time, I enjoyed Maniratnam's & A.R.Rahman's work in totality( PS-1 was more of a setup for the sequel and hence, does not feel complete) . And I felt the vintage Rahman while listening to the PS II songs, especially Aganaga , Veera Raja Veera, Chinnanjiru & the PS Anthem.

The narration of PS II is completely in contrast to PS I for obvious reasons and picks up speed from the opening scene. The story runs at almost perfect pace ( at times, it can be seen as haste, but that must be due to the lengthy novel story) and pulls the audience till the end. The performances are brilliant especially that of Vikram, Aishwarya Rai & Prakash Raj ( and all others have done exceedingly well ).

As stated earlier, it is hard to visualize Ponniyan Selvan on cinema screen unless it is divided into 4to 6 parts ( or make it a series like GoT) to bring out the essence and Manirathnam did a great job with all the limitations.

I would rate it 5/5 (being an avid lover of History and watching the rise of Raja Raja Chola, the Great with aplenty Goosebump moments made it a 5 star)