Kalyanaraman is full on timepass

Writing about a movie that was released 5 years ago is nothing big deal. Kalyanaraman (Malayalam) was a movie which I was looking forward to watch considering the number of people who told me that the movie was pure, unadulterated fun. Finally I caught up with the movie during its umpteenth telecast on Surya TV on a lazy Friday Morning. Considering it was a Friday Morning, there were not many ads in between, but the movie had been cut to fit the schedule so as not to disturb the flow of serials that start playing from 12 Noon on Weekdays. Here is what I have to say on the abridged version of Kalyanaraman which I caught up with recently. Kalyanaraman is the story of Ramankutty (Dileep in his usual self) who is a popular cook cum marriage contractor. He along with his brother (Lal in his elements) runs the catering service with a whole lot of assistants (Salim Kumar and Innocent making the most of the screentime allotted to them) Ramankutty is hired for the wedding of a mute girl (Jothirmayee) which gets cancelled at the last moment. The kind hearted Ramankutty and his brother ask their third brother (Boban Allumoodan) to get married to the girl and thus, the two families unite to share a warm relationship with each other. Ramankutty is drawn towards the sister of the bride (an over enthusiastic and irritating Navya Nair) but there comes a problem in the form of her upmarket dancer cousin (Kunchacko Boban, wasted). Does Raman unite with his lady love? If yes, how? These questions are answered during the latter part of the movie. In terms of content or presentation, there is nothing new about Kalyanaraman. The scriptwriter Benny P Nayaramablam and the director Shafi tread a tried and tested formula path to come up with a pedestrian film which is saved thanks to the many gags in the dialogues. Dileep, Innocent and Salim Kumar are in full form exhibiting perfect comic timing. The only glitch is that the dialogues sometimes slip to plain double innuendos. Technically too, the movie is nothing extraordinary. Camera, Editing and Sound are all of normal quality and the sets are sometimes too trying on one's eyes. Alex Paul's music is very ordinary too. This is a movie that relies entirely on its actors comic timing and its funny dialogues to pull off and is very competent in these two departments. Kalyanaraman is enjoyable if your choice of entertainment is to have a hearty laugh sans logic.

Slick and Stylish Johnny Gaddar

Heist movies have not been a big draw at the Bollywood BO window, neither have many been made nor all that were made been successful. The only successful Bollywood heist movie that comes to my mind is "Johnny Mera Naam"- that unforgettable Dev Anand- Hema Malini starrer that had everything working in its favor. It is precisely from JMN and James Hardley Chase that Sriram Raghavan has been inspired to come up with the very skillfully made "Johnny Gaddar". Seshadri (a perfectly cast Dharmendra), Shardul (a very impressive Zakir Hussain), Prakash (the extremely dependable Vinay Pathak), Shiva (a very passable Daya Shetty) and Vikram (Neil Nithin Mukesh scoring a perfect 10 on his debut) work together and all that they are interested in is making some quick money. Seshadri's friend Inspector Kalyan (Govind Namdeo, very effective) approaches them with an offer to make a quick fortune of 2.5 crores in 4 days. The gang accepts it and starts working on it. But one of its members plays a double cross and what follows is a series of escapades and murders. Johnny Gaddar is not definitely a whodunnit since the identity of the double crosser is revealed in the first reels of the film itself. It is more about how he is going to save himself from being caught and this is what the uniqueness of the film is. Sriram Raghavan drafts an excellent script with crisp dialogues and also extracts credible performances from an ensemble cast. The editing, camera, sound and art are all first rate and ably support Raghavan in carrying the movie forward. Shankar- Ehsaan- Loy trio's music stands out though the songs play only in the background. The title track and "Bhool jaaye pyaar mein" featuring Hard Kaur deserve special mention. The background score enhances the effect of the movie thoroughly. Sriram Raghavan more than proves that "Ek Hasina Thi' was not a flash in the pan. His movies might be dark and brooding but they definitely are slick and stylish. With the multiplex crowd accepting movies that are unconventional and well made, the going should get easier for talented directors like Sriram Raghavan in the near future. Go watch Johnny Gaddar- efforts like these need to be appreciated!

Jab We Met: A Rollicking Rom- Com

At a time when the entire town is abuzz about Kareena abandoning Shahid for Saif comes "Jab We Met"- Imtiaz "Socha Na Tha" Ali's second venture starring the not-so-successful screen pair of the now separated Shahid- Kareena. It was not with great expectations that I stepped into the theatre to watch this flick. Shahid and Kareena had earlier teamed up for Fida, 36 China Town and Chup Chup Ke- movies which had nothing working in their favor. I did have some confidence in Imtiaz Ali but considering the expertise of Shahid- Kareena in selecting the worst of films to appear on screen together, I was quite sure that JWM was going to be anything but joy. But, I literally had to eat my thoughts- thanks to Imtiaz Ali for having come up with a romantic comedy like nothing we have seen before. Let me tell you what makes JWM so special. Well, it is the story of Aditya (a surprisingly subtle Shahid Kapur), the son of a successful industrialist. Aditya has nothing working in his favor- his father is dead, his mother has left him to lead a new life with her second husband, his business is on the rocks and his girlfriend has walked out on him. Disappointed with his existence, he wanders along aimlessly across Mumbai finally to end up in a train. It is in the train that he meets Geet (a delicously saucy and over the top Kareena Kapoor)- the Sikhni from Bhatinda who can just not stop talking. Geet is not really bothered as to what kind of mindset Aditya is in. She just goes on and on and on and irritated, Aditya gets down at a station. Thinking that Aditya is missing the train, Geet leaves the train and finally ends up missing it. Geet demands of Aditya to accompany her till Bhatinda and what follows is an ultimate joy ride across the picturesque locales of North India- not only for the lead pair but also for the audience. Aditya and Geet understand each other. The free spirited Geet motivates Aditya to give life another try. Adi even ends up falling in love with Geet only to discover that all she is interested in is to run away and get married to her boyfriend in Manali. Aditya plays the perfect friend by uniting Geet with her lover, heads back to Mumbai and successfully resurrects his failing business taking cues from the spontaniety and free spiritedness of Geet. 9 months later, Geet's family gets in touch with Adi to know the whereabouts of Geet. That is when Adi discovers that Geet has not contacted her family for the past 9 months and that, she is largely missing. Adi sets out on a search for Geet with many questions in his mind- Where is Geet? What happened to her? Is she happy with her boyfriend? Can Geet ever be his? To find out the answers of these questions, please watch the movie yourself. And mind it, it is just not about getting these questions answered. It is about having a gala time at the movie for the 2 hour 10 minutes running time of JWM. The uniqueness of JWM is definitely its dialogues. The story is very ordinary and predictable but definitely not the situations and the dialogues. Imtiaz Ali successfully stays away from getting inspired from any of the road romances that have been made in the past and lends a certain warmth and originality to the script that is very rarely seen these days. The humor that runs throughout the film as an undercurrent is very much every day life kind and the dialogues are tongue- in- cheek. As a director, Imtiaz succeeds in bringing the best out of his lead pair. Shahid and Kareena are just not good individually, they also share a sparkling on screen chemistry that has not been seen in their past films together. The beautiful mountains of Himachal and the lush green fields of Punjab have been shot picturesquely by Nataraja Subramanian. Preetham has a ball scoring the music for this movie and the songs have been very well shot. If your idea of a good movie is having pure, unadulterated fun for 2 hours, Jab We Met is definitely for you!