Monday, October 26, 2009

wHy i diDnT njOi PR-tHe MallU mAgnUm OPus!!

Wherever i went, i saw ppl raining praises on the mallus swantham magnum opus "pazhassi raja"..The film is good, no doubt, but not to a scale many are hyping it into...There are a lot of positives, at least dozen more than the negatives i intend to jot down.. but for me the few minuses are glaringly uncomfortable to be taken lightly and so I bravely take the other view, the view of the quintessential ignoramus, faceless, normal, moronic, front bencher of the movie hall near you...


The list that made me an Anti PR!!


OVVs ghosts kept hovering near me!!
Somewhere at the middle of the film, rushes of "Oru vadakkan veeragatha!!" kept knocking ma mind and sadly PR on aesthetics and content was nowhere near that timeless classic!!


The tale of edachena kunkan!!
Heard (means not sure) that MT had planned a script on Edachena kunkan at first, (the role played by sarathkumar) and went a lot ahead with it...But somewhere in the middle he traced back and finished a script on pazhassi raja instead..Why this turn??? Was it market pressures or the dedicated devotion of a cultural icon to preach the glory days of a generation to the uninformed malayalee masses?
Any which ways from a cinematic POV, edachena kunkan wud have been clear winner..We cud have seen whole lot of legendary MTisms in the framing of such a hitherto unknown bravado!!


A NRK Moovie??!!:
The film never quite looks a malayalam film. Something of a NRK!! May be am sounding highly archaic. I didn’t feel any malayali thanima in the movie.It never seemed rooted to the famed malayalam way of filmmaking. Malayalam way of film making?!.. For me its films lyk OVV, padmarajans masterpieces etc!!


A Bourgeois capitalist film!!
The opulence. The hard earned money of a lakh of investors of sree gokulam chit funds kept flying high at every shot, every scene in the movie...Did the movie needed so much money??? I doubt and the sad part is even with all this extravagant rupee pumping, the film never reached the grandeur of films like a Vaishali or a OVV...For the liberal commie lyk me, it looked nothing more than a a bourgeois capitalist film!!


Music by illayaraja, u must be kiddin!!
Less said the better...Thoroughly lackluster considering the tunes are by the maestro Isaignani illayaraja...The songs don’t go well with the film.. I remember 3 songs in the movie (there are more I believe) and each one doesn’t add any element of value!! The anthem"Aadiushassandhya Poothathivide" sounds similar to a song in Rajeev Anchals "GURU"!! Incidentally both are said to be done in collaboration with the famed Hungarian Symphony Orchestra!!


The big old nayakan!!
Mamooka looks old and downplays the role to an unbearable extent...he looks highly vulnerable and passive at many places...Donno PR was this way!! Certainly didn’t enjoy!!!


Makkom!!
Makkom (kaniKa) in the first half hour lived as if she was some sort of a damsel in Indra Sabha...the shots looked fully dedicated to reveal the infinite no. curves in her body!!! Can ladies of that era been so freewheeling and loose as it’s proclaimed in those scenes?? Or is it that am having evil eyes??


Jagathi+Jagatheesh!!
Very very ordinary!! Still wondering why are they in the moovie in the way they are!!


And to top it all the moovie goin experience!!
I emptied 450rs (150*3) to sit in the 3rd row (of a 20row something screen) with two of my closest bugger friends for the Saturday evening show...The screen was so big and so near that once by the time I travelled from Sarathkumar’s one chest peak to the other, the frame changed...The whole movie going experience was pathetic!!


The highly obvious Plusses!!


Sharathkumar(top of the list; hoooge body)+manok k jayan+devan+lalu alex+padmapriya!!


Resul pookutty+ R shetty+ Tech Team!!


Resolve and intent of the crew to make the Biggest of all Malayalam films till date.


P.S.
Breaking News: PR not in indian panorama @ IFFI!!
wats the surprise here!!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

true tht the film didnt live upto the hype of MT, mammookka, illayaraja or for the matter, ny of the artists except manoj k jayan, sarath kumar and padmapriya who had been portrayed well. pazhashiraja seemed too uneasy to handle the loss of thalakkal chandu aka manoj k jayan, aggravated by the heroics of kunkan, who infact walks away with the viewers' heart. the songs, thou dint impress me at first, does make me hymn once in a while, as its been advertised everynow and then. with all prayers tht a 32 crore endeavor like this wins in all fronts in south indian film industry, the movie cud ve done away with a lot of the rope tricks, which were used in fights scenes, tht made my ribs tickle than gimme the adrenaline rush if tht was the purpose intended. evn i dint enjoy the film except for a curvy kaniha and the kunkan factor.

Vishwamithran said...

thankuu jypee..a vry xpected comment!!i always wonder how come, we both land into the same opinion abt almost everythin v discuss!!!
an abt the moovie!!yup the fight scenes were a bit overdone but i heard that our time old kalari had exponents who cud do all these high jumps verically in the most easiest of ways!!so may be its okk!!but Pazhayamveedan chandhu (suman) with a triple figure weight doing effortlessly those "g" defying acrobatics, was enf to even make me a bit breathless!!

kochuthresiamma p .j said...

thanks. was looking out for something like this. saw so much rave reviews in twitter that i wanted to hear the other side.

yes. that tendency to compare with VVG will b there. that's y i was put off b y the PR trailer.

heard pookutty is upset by the lack of fine tuning in kerala theatres that make a cacophony of his sound engineering.

anyway, now i cn go for the movie with low expectations.

thanks

Vishwamithran said...

thanxx KPJ for visiting and takin my other view seriously!!do speak ur thoughts here after watchin the moovie!!am desperately in search of ppl with the other view :D!!

Pookuttys "sound works" are real good..if a film gets released in 125 centers in kerala, with a majority of them bein B and C class theatres,imperfections on the quality is obvious..the big release was just to garner more initial turnover..unfortunately pookutty sud hav known tat art takes a back seat when moolah becomes all the more important!!

Gayathri Mohan said...

gud to read this blog....nw i can go 4 a gud fight wid the "so cald mamooka fans", 'wid solid proof'....gud dat i dint watch d movie...hehehe..
lalettan rocks!!!!!{keepin angel john outta mind ;)}

Gayathri Mohan said...

keenly waiting 4 'brownie spl' blog!!!

archana said...

makkom is not shown to be freewheeling about..she is shown to be devoted... as for clothes...ulathu alle idaan patollu!

frOm ThE dOG oF sMall ThInGs!!:)