Change Your Image
alexmariansebo
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Njan Steve Lopez (2014)
Rajiv Ravi shot life on camera again. Njan Steve Lopez is Realistic, Political and Brilliant.
Rajiv Ravi shot "life" on camera again. Njan Steve Lopez aka I'm Steve Lopez is the second film of cinematographer turned director Rajiv Ravi. Annayum Rasoolum was his debut movie and it was an excellent piece of art.
Here, Njan Steve Lopez is about a college student who witnesses a violent gang attack and his curiosity behind the encounter. Njan Steve Lopez is not at all complex, but the movie demands an in depth analysis. This movie can be interpreted simultaneously as politically and psychologically. The political take is so clear that the system, which is made to serve and save the people is actually involved in all the violent activities. The hidden relationship between the criminal gangs and the police is described subtly. Steve is a common man, he's not rebel or an activist. But a crime which happened in front of him in the daylight really disturbed him. Steve and Hari are the byproducts of the system.
The psychological take also, is so interesting. Steve is a person who's having a mental trauma (we can see some abnormalities in his behavior). When he witnesses Hari attacking a guy, he tried to protest and as a result he got a slap from Hari. This made Steve angrier and he tried to seek revenge on Hari. He followed Hari and caught by him, and then the visuals deceived us. Actually, Hari is not attacked by the rival gang. It was Steve who attacked Hari (remember Hari scolding Steve when he's lying with half life). Steve's conscious don't know about this. It was his subconscious which made him attack Hari and covered it up with a fake rival gang. Steve's father, the DySP knows this and we can assume he betrayed Hari to the rival gang and it ended up in Hari's death. When Steve asks about Hari to his father, he's trying to hide all from Steve because the truth can cause a mental breakdown in Steve. This theory strengthened when Hari's gang member attacks Steve in the climax.
Director Rajiv Ravi chose capital city, Trivandrum as the background of this movie. And we know, Trivandrum is the right choice. Pappu's photography was brilliant, especially the chase scene. Njan Steve Lopez had good soundtrack and songs. The cast including Alancier, James Elia, Sujith Shankar, Farhaan Faasil and Ahaana performed well. Alancier and Sujith Shankar deserves more appreciation. So, Njan Steve Lopez is another classic from Rajiv Ravi. Kudos to the team.
Iyobinte Pusthakam (2014)
Biblical, Historical and visually stunning
I haven't considered the name "Amal Neerad" as trustworthy. Also didn't tried to watch his movies first day. The names which made me buy an fdfs ticket of this magnum opus were, Fahadh Faasil & Jayasurya. Yeah, I said "magnum opus". Iyobinte Pusthakam is the career best of cinematographer/director Amal Neerad till date.
I had seen the manhunts from Genesis to Revelations in this movie. Job is a person who can be seen in the Bible. He's wealthy, righteous and was a person who don't hurt anyone, even an ant. But here, Job from Iyobinte Pusthakam is an antonym of Job from the Bible. They'll take the opposite poles when it comes to the characteristics.
And Ivan is the representative of Kane from Bible. Isn't he? Up above at heaven, there's Lasar who's sitting next to god. Down below at earth, Lasar is on the right side of power and money. Dimitri is definitely not Pothifer, but we can relate his wife Rahel to Pothifer's wife. And Aloshy is having the characteristics of Abel and Joseph (from the old testament) at the same time.
The names of Job's 3 sons are taken from the Russian classic novel, "The Brothers Karamazov". Iyobinte Pusthakam is a visual treat from Amal Neerad. I'll name it as the 'visually stunning movie of the year'. Fahadh Faasil performed well as usual and did a great job in action sequences. Jayasurya also made his role memorable. Another actor who should be praised for his performance is Jinu Joseph, who played Ivan. As I said before, cinematography is excellent. Neha Nair and Yakzan Garry Pereira produced good music. But as a period story, Iyobinte Pusthakam lacks the honesty. Amal Neerad preferred style over history.
Malayalam industry is producing wonders using limited budget. If someone ask me 'Bahubali or Iyobinte Pusthakam', I'll prefer Iyobinte Pusthakam.
So guys, Iyobinte Pusthakam is a must watch.
Haram (2015)
Underrated as hell!
Haram is a socially relevant drama which released during the time when the people started to prefer feel good films over serious movies. And the feel good movie trend doesn't passed yet in the Malayalam industry.
Haram deals with the emotions of the impatiently living modern youth who're trying to conclude their lives very fast. This movie depicts the life of a corporate employee, who's possessed with his ideologies. Balu and Isha works together. Isha's broken relationship with a Kannadiga and a suicide attempt lead to a love affair between her and Balu. They ended up in marriage after so many years of relationship.
Balu really helped Isha to forget her bitter past and eventually she became a bold lady instead of an emotionally weak girl. But Isha's attitude towards Balu's political ideologies led their marriage into a bitter one. And the movie discussed about the emotions of Balu as well as Isha when they are separated.
The climax is evolving from the subplot of Ameena. Other than that, the subplot doesn't really helped the movie. Director Vinod Sukumaran used a light brown color theme in order to represent the human bondage seriously.
Vinod Sukumaran observed so many minute elements from the society and used it in his movie. There was a Syamaprasad touch in the visual treatment as the director Vinod Sukumaran was the editor of so many Syamaprasad movies. We can expect a number of good movies from this director.
End Note: You'll need some patience and a serious approach towards movies, in order to enjoy this movie.
Charlie (2015)
Charlie's second half is seriously missing the Unni R factor.
Unni R is one of the best writers in Malayalam. His literary works are so intense and deep. We've also seen him writing dialogue for movies like Big B and Chaappa Kurish.
Munnariyippu and now, Charlie are his screenplay works. Munnariyippu, directed by veteran cinematographer/director Venu was a classic which discussed about ones thoughts about personal freedom.
Here, Charlie's first half can be praised for it's presentation. The director didn't disclosed so much about Charlie in the first half. The audience can only know about him from a third person perspective. That really made me curious to know more about the character Charlie. But from the end of the first half, when Charlie showing up himself the film is taking a genre shift. Actually, it wasn't a genre shift. The director really lost the control over the character or the director avoided the writer. Martin Prakkat tried to use the stardom of Dulquer Salmaan by making "mass".
So, Charlie is all about an excellent first half and an average second half.
An interesting thing the writer tried to do is relating Charlie to Jesus Christ. We can't see the past of Charlie before his 30th year. And when he give the notice about his death in the newspaper, he's 33 yrs old. It is also the age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified. And the relationship between Jesus and Mariam Magdalene also depicted in this movie (remember the character Queen Mary?).
But I felt the characterization of Tessa was little bit clichéd. Charlie could have been an excellent piece of art if the director gave some freedom to the writer.
Maheshinte Prathikaaram (2016)
A perfect movie experience
"Maheshinte Prathikaaram", what else could fit for a revenge drama other than this title? Maheshinte Prathikaaram is a portrait of Mahesh and everything related to Mahesh. A place playing a prominent role in a movie is something rare. And only few directors tried to do so, like Rajiv Ravi did in "Annayum Rasoolum" and " Njan Steve Lopez". Here, director Dhileesh Pothan also presented "Idukki" as a main Character.
The primary aim of Maheshinte Prathikaaram is to make people laugh. Comedy is the main ingredient here. But, sometimes it is romantic. Sometimes very thrilling. The makers didn't used anything artificial to make us laugh, all the comedies were very realistic and situational. I felt a freshness in the presentation of this film. All the technical departments raced in the same pace. Shyju Khalid's photography, Bijibal's music and Saiju Sreedharan's editing, all these acted with mutual understanding and mutual respect. 100 marks for these departments.
I have no more words to praise the performance of the cast. Fahadh Faasil played the lead character Mahesh with such an ease. No doubt he's the best actor among the youngsters in the industry. He's an actor with tremendous potential. The Soubin - Alancier combo just made the theater hall crazy. Anusree also did a great job. All the actors in this film just rocked.
Maheshinte Prathikaaram is the best Malayalam movie released this year so far.