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elathodivelayudhan
Reviews
Drishyam (2013)
A Game of Truth and Lies
'Lalettan proved once again why he is the best actor of this generation. Jeethu Joseph proved he has talent to become the next big director. Drishyam proved family thrillers can also strike gold at the box office.'
Drishyam is one terrific film which I missed in theaters. I watched it for the first time when its TV premier got telecasted. I watched it with a lot of expectations. At the starting it looked like a typical family drama. Was I disappointed at first? I think so!
But only after the first hour, I realised that director was setting up the plot. The slow narration increased pace. The result was an outstanding second half. A surprising climax concludes the film.
Drishyam is about how Georgekutty(Mohanlal) hides a crime committed by his family and protects them from the dark side of law. Of course the first half didn't give single clue about what would be the story. The characters were introduced in the first half. Cable TV Georgekutty,his Rani(Meena),Georgekutty's 2 daughters(Played by Ansiba and Esther.), Constable Sahadevan(Shajon kalabhavan),local tea shop owner, Lal's assistant(neeraj) were the characters who appeared in the opening hour.
The characters were also given interesting character sketches. Georgekutty is a school dropout who is a film lover.He is a loving familyman. But he is called a miser by his wife because he is hesitant to spend money. Rani is a honest housewife who wants to live a luxurious life. Sahadevan, a policeman has hatred towards Georgekutty for some reasons. The daily life of hero is depicted at the first half. At the closing 10 minutes of first half a spoiled youth Varun enters. Certain incidents ends up in the killing of Varun by the hands of hero's elder daughter. Georgekutty is informed about it. The pre-interval scene shows Georgekutty standing near the plot where Varun's dead body is buried by his wife and daughter.
Varun is the son of an IG(Asha Sarath).Our hero is sure his family had landed in deep trouble. He valued his family more than anything. He uses his underrated brain to rescue his family from trouble planning a wonderful escape path. He plays a tricky cat and mouse game with the police and he ended up winning outwitting the police.
Wow the second half has terrific scenes which will stick yourself to the sofaset . Lal changed all the truths to lies and all the lies to truth. The plan of Lalettan was decoded by IG at a point. Win was guaranteed for the police. But the hero had a surprise.
The screenplay,storyline stayed terrific and one of the best. The dialogues were superb especially in the 2nd half.
Mohanlal delivered a perfect performance. Each movements of him had a meaning if you observed.He is the best. Meena ,Ansiba and Esther played their roles very well. Asha Sarath excels in her job. Geeta Prabhakar IG was a perfect role for her. Siddique does a good job too. Special mention to Shajon for his terrific makeover from a comedian to a cruel policeman. His performance deserves a great applause.Rest of the cast also dos good job.
Jeetu Joseph narration style looked very slow at the start. But he was actually setting up scenes which would lead to a mindblowing climax. He has done great job in sketching the mind games. Camera-work was good. Editing was also good. Music was melodious but the BGM was outstanding. It added intensity to the whole drama.
The film is one of the best in Indian cinema. The second half is outstanding. Lalettan had scored 100 out of 100 for his role. The climax sequences stayed out of the world.You will stay happy when you see the hero and his family stay safe at the end even though you may feel sad for a heartbreaken Geeta.
Overall This film is a must watch for all those who wanted an edge of the seat thriller.East or west Lalettan is the best.
Oppam (2016)
Lalettan is back
Malayalees were waiting for a Mohanlal super hit film since Drishyam. Priyadarshaan, who badly wanted a hit film in Malayalam joins hands with Mohanlal for giving rise to Oppam. When this class combo came together expectations were sky high. I have to say they didn't disappoint. Oppam is an entertaining watch for all category of audiences. It is a good crime thriller whose script could have been much better.
The story of the film is about Jayaraman(Mohanlal),a blind man solving the murder mystery of a former judge(Nedumudi Venu). The theme itself is enough to keep us engaged throughout the film.
The movie's trailer promised a perfect thriller. Yes it is a good thriller.But not so perfect. We can excuse it because it was Priyadarshan's first attempt in a crime thriller.I am happy to see this classy director get back in form after forgettable movies such as 'Geethanjali' and 'Aamayum muyalum'. Priyadarshan have tried a new manner of narration. He has really done a good job.
What words should you frame to praise Lalettan's brilliance. His performance is the biggest plus point of the film. He rocked in the role of a blind man. He is the best actor of our generation. Jayaraman is another great character in the career of Mohanlal.
The performance of rest of the cast was also good. Special mention should be given to Baby Meenakshi's good performance.The one who played the role of the villain was a fitting match for Mohanlal. The mind games played by both of them created waves at the theater. The comedy track of Mamukkoya and Chemban Vinod created laugh fest.
The screenplay lacked a strong twist as we would expect. The climax scenes created a thrilling atmosphere. The music of the film was good. 'Minnaminunge... ' and 'Chinnamma...' Songs were very good(but i hated the wedding song). Editing could have been better. Camera-work was also good as the visuals kept the film going. BGM intensified scenes especially climax sequences.
Overall ,Oppam never disappoint anyone.Not the vintage Priyadarsan stuff. But the thrilling sequences and Mohanlal performance keeps the film alive. Wanting more hits from this crazy combo of Lalettan-Priyadarsan. Go for this movie without sky high expectations and enjoy the whole ride. My rating for Oppam- 7.6/10
1 - Nenokkadine (2014)
The best of Indian cinema
I don't know why a film like nenokkadine is not appreciated and termed as a flop in box office?Routine shows like attarintiki daredi earning crores in the box office while one of the best experimentation in Indian film history-1 Nenokkadine flopped! Telugu people have gone mad.
Why do tollywood always need a six song six fight formula to survive? Nenokkadine questions the routine tollywood formula and has succeeded in it.Hats off to Sukumar and Mahesh for giving a Hollywood range to tollywood.
1 nenokkadine is about a rockstar's quest to avenge the death of his parents. But he suffers from a mental disorder which deceives his mind to take hallucinations as reality and reality as hallucination.He has to overcome his mental disorder to succeed in his mission.
Mahesh Babu is just terrific. It is one of the best role in his career.Most of the Telugu heroes try the same scripts to survive in this industry.But mahesh was very bold to accept a script which is never heard off before. The acting of mahesh in the climax sequence is superb. He proved that he is the only 'number one' in tollywood through this film.
The heroine Kriti Sanon did lent good support to hero and her screen pairing with mahesh looked fresh. I can't disclose the name of the villains. All the villains did good job.
But the real hero of this movie is director sukumar who gave a Hollywood range to this film. His direction was excellent. He mixed logic to the movie which most Telugu films lack.One beautiful scene I can never forget from this film is that of mahesh running after his real life son gautham .This scene portrayed hero's search for his past.That is the best scene of this movie in my opinion.The Rubik cube scenes were also good.
The story and screenplay of the film is fresh and daring. Dialogues are well written. Camera and editing done to perfection.Locations very good.Action scenes just more than outstanding or excellent. Coming to music , DSP rocked. The song 'Who are you' is my personal best.
Overall 1 nenokkadine is one of the best of Indian films. Those who blame tollywood for lack of freshness should watch nenokkadine. A benchmark and a textbook for future films to come. I am film lover from Kerala who is not too good in Telugu language. Even I liked this film. This film is one of the strong reasons why I see Mahesh Babu as the next 'one and only number 1' of south India. My mark for 1 nenokkadine: 1000000000000 out of 10
Note:Even though the film is recorded as a flop in telugu ,it went on to become a mega hit in Kerala and overseas market.
Villali Veeran (2014)
Don't watch this movie. It is terribly terrible. Rating 0/10
Dear IMDb,
Please introduce zero rating system. Movies like villaliveeran don't deserve any stars.
Dileep was one of my favorite actors at a time. But I really hate all of his recent films(2 countries and Chandrettan Evideyya are not included in this list). How can an actor who had given evergreen comedy films like Punjabi house , CID Moosa , Ee parakkum Thalika be such a joker. Villaliveeran is the worst movie I watched in theaters. I could have excused this film if it was done by Santosh Pandit. You don't need to have preexisting expectations about Pandit's movie. But we expect something decent from Dileep. But this kind of films could have better be a comedy serial. Villaliveeran don't deserve to be considered as a film.
I watched this movie multiple times. Still I don't know what is the story of this film. Dileep and his sidekicks Shajon and Dharmajan just fools around in the screen by cracking some jokes which don't deserved laughter.Ghost acting by Dileep. Shajon have completely ruined the reputation he got from the super hit movie Drishyam. Namita Pramod character was a complete disaster. She don't know to act.Of course blame the foolish script for this. Senior actors like Siddique, Lalu Alex, Sai Kumar, Nedumudi Venu,Babu Antony were wasted completely. Mythili's character was just added to increase the length of the film and also to include a song. The villains in the film-what were they doing? Sai Kumar had made me laugh as a villain. The costume of Kumar was very funny. Hey this is not a film made on space travel. Riyas Khan showed his routine foolishness. Suresh Krishna did nothing good.
The screenplay was disaster. It fooled around in the first half without any aim. Then suddenly it ended on action mode in second half. The director Sudeesh Shankar should try something other than direction. He would surely shine in anything other than film direction. The mock drill comedy he used to open the film is a failure. Camera job has nothing good. Editor did bad job. But of course he would have won Oscar award if he cut downed the entire film(Censor board could have done it too). Action scenes very bad. Every Dileep film of recent time does have this problem. Comedy scenes rule 95% of the film.Then comes emotional scenes which gets 4% of the film. Then all ends in a fight. 1% of action comes in the very last seconds. Music was forcefully inserted. All the songs were very bad.An infant could have made better soundtrack than this.
You may enjoy this disaster if you are drunk. You may laugh at the comedy. You may have cried in the sentiments. You would have also clapped when hero beats up the villain. But common viewer will run away from the film. This film lacks logic all throughout. Example the title 'Villaliveeran'(Brave Warrior) is not at all an appropriate title for a (so called ) comedy movie .
A guy who sits simply should make it sure that he never watches Villaliveeran. It is terribly terrible film. My ratings - 0/10.
Srimanthudu (2015)
Mahesh is the KING
In this era of routine mass films in Tollywood, Srimanthudu stands out to be an intelligent mixture of family emotions and mass elements. Koratala Siva and Mahesh Babu delivers a beautiful movie with a serious social message.
Honestly it wasn't my favourite film of Mahesh Babu(my favourite has been Athadu for years). But I still give it full marks for its strong story line, direction, performance of the artists,music etc. The title itself is rich in name. Then expect a lot.
Mahesh shows that he is still the number one in the industry. Remember his last two movies flopped(But I don't accept Nenokkadine's failure).Another challenge it faced was chance of clash against Bahubali. The films release was postponed so. But Srimanthudu shows that it has the ability to clash against any big movie.
The storyline is fresh. Ravikant(Jagapati Babu),a billionaire businessman wants his son Harshavardhan(Mahesh Babu) to look after his business. But Harsha who is a noble person wants to do something different in life rather than becoming rich through business. His life takes a turn when he falled in love with Charusheela(Shruti Hassan),a beautiful girl who has the same ideologies of Harssha. Certain incidents results in Harsha adopting the native village of Charu.The rest of the story talks about how Harsha tackled the challenges he faced in the village.The latter part also talks about the connection between Ravikant and the village.
Village adoption is a theme that has never been tried before in Tollywood. Thanks koratala sir for giving a new theme.
Mahesh is at his best . After the portrayal of a rock star suffering from a mental disorder in Nenokkkadine,he gets in the act as a very humble rich guy. His styles are rich. His dialogue delivery is very unique from other Tollywood stars. He does utter some punch dialogues in the movie. But he does not repeat Pandu from Pokiri. He has played an ambitious youth who has colourful dreams to perfection.
Jagapati Babu once again performs very well. His villain role in Legend was a good make over for him. This time he has done father's role to perfection. A shrude, self made,successful businessman character in this film is a really good booster for him.
The complaint of Telugu actresses used only for songs and dances end here. Shruti Hassan has got a role which has equal importanceas that of hero. The bold character she plays is a make over for her. The role have performance value. That makes Shruti's character special.
Rajendra prasad plays a respected man in the village. He also does good job.
The villains -Sampath Raj and Mukesh Rishi were really cruel. Sampath Raj has a good future as the villain.
Dialogues are intelligently used. Punch dialogues of Mahesh were well placed. Cinematography was good. But editing could have been better. Another plus point is that there is no separate comedy track for the film. It would have been unnecessary to have unwanted comedy in the screen play. Situational comedy scenes of Vennela Kishore was just necessary for the script. Lucky that Brahmanandam didn't appeared out of nowhere.
Music of the film by DSP was rocking. My personal favourite was "Jatha Kalise".Rama rama,Jaago,Dimmathirigae songs were also worth hearing. BGM was also good.
Overall Srimanthudu is worth a watch for those who want films as a social issue debating media. Its entertaining and terrific. Mahesh Babu from his days of Prince have now been crowned as the king of Ttollywood.
NOTE: Mahesh Babu had made the story of this film a reality by adopting his father's village Bhuripalem after the films release. Other celebrities also got influenced by this activity and some of the celebrities have adopted remote villages.
Athadu (2005)
my most favorite film
I watched Athadu for the first time when it's Malayalam dubbed version was telecast on TV. I watched the whole film. After the running time,when the movie ended I too became a Mahesh Babu fan.If a single movie can make one crazy about the star then that. Movie must be special one. Yes Athadu is my most favorite film.I believed that Telugu films can't give anything new rather than heroism. But movies like Athadu changes my perspective. This is really a TRIVIKRAM& MAHESH BABU MAGIC. The story line goes like it. Nandu(Mahesh) is an orphan who entered the world of crime at a young age. He went on to become a sharp shooter. He was hired by a politician in order to create a dummy assassination scenario.But things got out of the hands when the politician is murdered really by another mysterious gunshot. The police hunts for Nandu who enters a train to escape. He meets Parthu,a A man returning to his village a after several years. Due to an accident Parthu got killed by the police. Nandu escapes.Nandu takes Paarthhu's identity and travels to Parthu's village. The rest of the story tells about the happenings in Parthu's house. The various questions the viewer may have are answered by trivikram in his own unique way. He has chosen a Hollywood kind of flick which Has all the ingredients for making the viewer involve in it. He has introduced and placed all the characters neatly. A unique kind of music too is included to give more depth to the thriller.The dialogues were mind blowing. More than punch dialogues,intelligent dialogues really touched me a lot. Mahesh Babu- Why did I never know him before? He has portrayed his double role kind of character to extreme perfection. He never over acted in any scene. Trisha character is an innocent village girl.Her chemistry with Mahesh looked very fresh on screen. Nassar played the role of the grandfather in a very natural manner.Prakash Raj played a kind of anti hero in the film. He did a terrific job. There is a very good supporting team for the team. The members of thee joint family really did fine job. The film have a good technical staff. The cinematography was special. The editing was sharp.The BGM was great. The songs were all together good. Well pictured songs. I particularly liked Mahesh's intro song. The fights was choreographed in a different manner. Only thing I disagree about the film is about the comedy track inn 2ndd half.There as no need of it when the film was getting tighter. Athadu is overall a brilliant mixture of commerce with family values. Heart touching dialogues in the climax scenes were really good. The suspense delivered by director was terrific. He mixed logic to the story very well. I don't think that this kind of superb stuff will be repeated in any industries. ATHADU is terrific ATHADU is mind blowing. ATHADU is superb ATHADU is brilliant Anymore words??to describe its brilliancy