Aaj ki raat...

I think I have written enough about topics that are more thought provoking than movies, but I am itching to get back to the topic that I am most comfortable writing about. The night of 24 February 2008 which movie fans the world over is looking forward to- it is the night of the Academy awards in the US. While the stars are going to fight it out over the copper statuette, here I am more worried about the bollywood oscars- the Filmfare awards which are also going to be distributed on the same night at Mumbai. My votes are for Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor for Chak De India and Jab We Met respectively- two performances straight from the heart. I am really looking forward to the telecast of the award functions and want to savor everything right from the red carpet to the distribution of the last award. All the best to all nominees in both Hollywood and Bollywood and here is looking forward to the star studded night...

Unsolicited SMS- Bane of the Mobile Phone

Mobile Phones have unquestionably made lives easier for us, so much so that, it is difficult to even think about how we used to survive before the mid- 90's when mobiles were something unheard of. Easier connectivity, 24/7 access to your near and dear, the facility of SMS- there are multifarious advantages that mobile phones offer. However, with the advent of mobile phones, we have come across quite a few banes as well, a prominent one among them being unsolicited phone calls and messages. In the middle of a busy day when one's mind is pre occupied with a hundred matters that need to be attended to, one's mobile phone may ring a couple of times and stop. It might show a message from an unknown number that will be pure crap. Or you may come across that anonymous caller who has all of a sudden taken an active interest in you. I am writing all this because right now I am in the middle of something like this. For the past couple of months, I have been receiving messages from an acquaintance of mine commenting on everything that is happening in my life. The fun is that the person referred to here is not completely anonymous. In fact, the person is an acquaintance, someone to whom my relationship has not extended beyond the customary "hi" and "bye". But, 2 months ago, out of the blue I started receiving messages wishing me, congratulating me, consoling me, supporting me and encouraging me on the various stuff that is happening with me. I was literally taken aback and have been thinking ever since what could have caused this sudden interest for me in that person. I have not been able to find an answer myself. I have been ignoring the messages till now eventhough at times they have been quite yuck- inducing and enraging. I really hope this menace ends soon because I know for a fact that if I start reacting to matters like this, there would be no stopping me. I have always seen, admired and encouraged the benefits of mobile phone, but thanks to experiences like this, I have been getting a taste of the flip side as well. But, for the sake of the other person, I really hope this ends otherwise I would have to exhibit the flip side of myself- something which I myself truly despise...

Changes and Challenges at work

This really is an exciting phase for me at work- what with my project likely to go live in a month's time and I have an ardous task of living upto my client's expectations which are sky high. The entire team is working very hard and earnestly to reach the client's unfathomable expectations, no doubt and there is a positive energy that is being driven down by the management to ensure that nothing goes wrong in the whole process. While I am keeping my fingers crossed on that aspect, there are also some other changes happening at work which I am really looking forward to. Consequent to a job related advertisement, we have had a few good candidates approaching us for positions and out of those interviewed, some have been selected and given the offer. From this week onwards, we are expecting a few more qualified, professional hands to join our team in the office. We definitely do have a great team of professionally qualified accountants working together and as a team, we have been doing some great work, gelling well with each other and supporting and co- operating with each other during times of need. With a few more guys joining the team, it is time to welcome new blood to the organization. A new set of people always bring new blood to the organization and the team as well as some new thoughts and ideas. There is bound to be some fruitful and really useful discussions and brain storming sessions and it definitely is going to challenging for the new entrants as well as the seasoned team members. It has been a while since I have been part of some really worthwhile discussions and with the new blood getting into the team soon, I am hoping to put on my thinking cap very soon. Yes, the very thought is exciting and I am really looking forward to the changes in office and the challenges that they are likely to bring with them...Wish me luck :-)

Rude and Ruthless Roadies

MTV Roadies is on to its 5th season (I am not sure about the season #, it for me is as confusing as the number of versions of the Tally accounting software). I have never had the patience to sit through even a single episode of this mindless mayhem till date, but today I tried my best to sit through 15 minutes of this idiotic show and I got frusturated to an extent I have never felt before. To start with, I still have not understood the concept behing what is being shown on screen. A group of half naked boys and girls who swear at each other at the drop of a hat and indulge in all sorts of team games where what exactly they do is bitching and bickering about everyone else behind their backs (of course, on camera). The members are put into teams of 2 while taking part in an activity and there is no effort made by either of the team members to understand and co- operate with the other which makes things easy for both the team members if the team fails. They can easily blame the other. If on the contrary the team wins the game, there is a big battle in claiming the lion's share of the credit. This is one show which makes fun of this whole concept of team building, team work and team achievement. Being a team player who has to lead a team of a little more than 50, it really is a matter of big concern for me. The television channel as well as the participants are for easy tasks- trust me, it really is VERY VERY DIFFICULT getting heterogenous people to work together in teams to achieve team goals. While every day is a struggle for people like me in taking a team together at work, the gen next in India is watching shows like Roadies which kinda drill the concept of "I AM THE BEST" into them. There is no denying the fact that self confidence is a pre requisite to success, but at the same time, let me make it very clear that overconfidence kills. Certain jobs can be done only single handedly but most of the jobs require a team effort and it really matters how good a team player one is to determine whether or not his/ her team will make it to the top. In a fast growing country like India where the youth can make a big difference, the channel that is most watched by the urban youth is propogating a very incorrect mantra through shows like Roadies. In their own language it is- Love only yourself, f*** the team that you are part of. This is totally, completely wrong and if the country's youth is planning to move ahead based on the learnings that MTV Roadies is putting forward, there is no doubt that life for them is going to end up in a big mess. I have still not been able to find out a single thing that is good about the show. Reality shows should be rooted in reality and what is expected of them is to give its participants a couple of messages which they can carry with them and apply in their real lives. I feel very sorry to say- MTV Roadies is a complete disaster whichever way you look at it, but unfortunately for us, it is highly popular. God save India!

Maradu Vedikettu!

Vedikettu or bursting of crackers has always been a very fascinating part of temple festivals in Kerala. Vedikettu along with elephants have become the most sought after thing in temple festivals very recently. While on a personal front, I am not all that much in favor of vedikettu, there is no denying the fact that watching the big flower pots explode and listening to the koottavedi does give us a kind of rare pleasure. With the kind of population that we have in and around Ernakulam district and the number of temples springing up and rising to fame day after day, vedikettu had become kinda daily ritual for residents of the district. Maradu, Nadakkavu and Pallipparambu Kavu vedikettu were the most famous and the most sought after among these. While it remains the fact that these were exciting, there were quite a few people who had expressed concern over the potential casualties such vedikettu could throw up. The reasons were that there is a huge crowd that gathers during such festivities, the lack of adequate space to indulge in such activities and the potential danger that a misfired cracker can cause. While apprehensions were on, there was still no stopping the vedikettu. But the apprehensions did come true on the fateful night of 21 February 2008, when a fire cracker did not explode. Instead it landed right in the middle of the crowd and exploded in the midst causing the immediate death of 2 and rendering 25- 30 other onlookers seriously injured. The venue was Maradu kottarathil Bhagavathi Temple where the utsavam was on in full swing. There was a huge crowd that had gathered promptly filling up the couple of acres of ground space around the temple. The mishap took place and apparently there was a lot of confusion and commotion around. The temple premises were so badly filled up with people and vehicles that the injured could not even be taken to hospital in time thanks to the traffic all around. The lives lost is definitely a big blow to the family members of the victims but there is no denying the fact that the mishap has drawn the attention of the people that matter to this whole business of vedikettu in temples that defy all known measures of security. The District Collector immediately ordered cancellation of further vedikettu in the temple and the issue is now under inquiry. It is highly likely that all vedikettu in temples would be banned by the court soon. It might come as a rude shock to the fans of the cracker bursting game but I would still say it would only make sense if this ritual is banned considering the safety of the lakhs of devotees who throng the temple premises during festivals. Probably the whole incident was divine intervention itself- the deity herself might have felt that she should intervene to protect the lives of lakhs and lakhs of her worshippers. You may never know...

Slave trade in Cricket!!!

While the hardcore fans of cricket might disagree with me, I strongly feel that the game of cricket is really overexposed these days. You have one tournament or the other going in some part of the world on a daily basis and the poor cricketers are not even getting ample time to take rest after gruelling matches scheduled one after the other. The sad part is that no one is bothered- the players, the cricket boards and the channels make money and for fans of the game, it is cricket unplugged 24/7. As if all those international tournaments were not enough, the new idea of IPL and ICL have also recently come up. I personally do not have anything against the game or the players but the whole stuff about the auctionining of cricketeers and the various leagues bidding for them was a bit too much for me. Look at the kind of astronomical prices at which the players have been procured by the leagues with the Indian ODI captain hogging the limelight for having the highest bid money on his name. The whole episode took me to the days of slave- trade about which I had read in the past. All the slaves being made to stand in a line and the auctioneer explaining what the slaves were good at and what were their outstanding talents and features. I can really visualise the cricketers standing in a line in front of the bidders like Vijay Mallya, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Mukesh Ambani, Ness Wadia and the rest of them and bidding for getting their favorite players in their league team... Already the world of cricket is tainted enough thanks to the involvement of everyone and everything from bookies to the underworld and the players are pooh- poohed by all and sundry for the astronomical sums of money that they earn from product endorsements. Things have reached a stage where the players themselves are more interested in hogging the limelight than playing a good game so that they can earn enough money in the shortest possible period and make their lives secure. (The comments from the India U- 19 cricket team members bear testimony to this). It is at this juncture that we are planning the league teams with this kind of money. Cricket is definitely moving very close to the situation where the players and the cricket boards have started thinking that they have overgrown the sport itself. This is definitely bad news for genuine fans of the sport, but lets wait and watch where exactly the sport is going to land up after all this fanfare about the star studded league teams...

"Divide and Rule" in today's world

All those who are interested in history and who have a fairly good idea of Indian History will clearly understand what "Divide and Rule" means. It was the strategy that was successfully employed by the British in conquering India. India in the medieval era was nothing but a group of small kingdoms who were always fighting with each other for expanding their territories. The British, being the smart cookies, they were, understood the topography and demographics of the country very well and started attaching themselves with each of those small rulers. They forced the guys to wage a war against each other and created such a confusion that finally the petty kings had no other go, but to surrender to the British. Anyways, it has been 60 years since India gained independence from the British and all of you might be wondering why I am going back to "Divide and Rule" now. I do have my reasons. I feel this is the ploy that is currently being used by our political leaders to expand their vote bank. How else would you describe all those hullabaloo that was created by Raj Thackeray's statements in Maharashtra about Mumbai? Look at the audacity with which he has declared that Mumbai belongs to Maharashtrians and no one else needs to bother. This is the height of stupidity and intolerance. How can a political leader make such a statement and that too about a cosmopolitan city like Mumbai! More than half of its population is from other parts of the country and definitely no one would agree if Raj says that the rest of India has not done anything for Mumbai. It is not out of nothing that Mumbai sprang and rose to the status of the biggest city in India. People from all parts of the country have come and settled down in the city and have contributed a great deal for the development of the city as well. Raj might have hogged a lot of limelight and his fanatic sena of sainiks would have created havoc in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, but this is definitely not what is being expected of a political leader in a country like India, especially at such a stage of buoyancy and growth of the country. Raj needs to be corrected and all support to him and his party need to be withdrawn. My opinion is that he should be asked to apologize to the public for the statements he made for there is not even an iota of truth in whatever he has said. With the kind of anarchy that is prevalent in Karnataka these days, I really hope someone from Bangalore does not start treading Raj's footsteps...

Something Different...

I have always been a self confessed movie buff, but looking at my last few posts, I feel there has been an overdose of movies on my blog. Hence, today I have decided that I am going to not write about movies, but about other stuff in life as well. I am trying to post some good, intelligent stuff today. (I strongly believe that I am intelligent and capable of posting such stuff too, I hope others too believe so!) So, readers, fasten your seat belts, it is going to be Sreeram's intelligence unplugged on the blog, at least on all posts created today... Njoy :-)

Death: The ultimate truth

You might be wondering why death is coming in every post that I am writing today. It is not without a reason- today I lost my maternal grandfather to death. He has been ailing for the past 1.5 years and has been a total wreck for quite sometime. He was 91, had lost interest in life and all of us were expecting the inevitable anytime from now. In spite of all that, when the inevitable happens, it just pushes the ones who are alive to a situation of nothingness. The moment you hear something like this, you just withdraw into yourself and lose complete sense of what is happening around you, at least for some time. I still remember that fateful 8 August 2005 when I received a message on my mobile that said- Father sinking. Start immediately. I was back in office in Kuwait after a longer than usual lunch with 10 of my colleagues. There was a lot of merry making over the lunch table and when I got back, this is what I get. I smelt something fishy and immediately called up home only to understand that my father had left all of us. It came in as such a shock that I felt I was losing my physical balance and that I would collapse sometime soon. I somehow managed to convey the news to my Manager and when I returned to my senses half an hour later, I was at my apartment with a couple of friends who had come down to help me with my packing. I had a long flight to take from Kuwait to Kochi via Abudhabi and honestly I do not remember anything from that fateful flight. I was totally in my own world, my mind completely oblivious to whatever was happening around me. I was back to my senses only after I landed home and saw my father resting peacefully in the Ice box that was brought down from the hospital. I can clearly understand what my mother would have gone through this afternoon when this news was conveyed to her post lunch at around the same time. She was dropped home by a couple of her colleagues and she was able to collect herself in much less time than I was able to. Probably, it is the age and the wordly- wisdom that one acquires over years. I completely agree with the fact that there is no point thinking aimlessly over a close one's death. Death for we all know is the ultimate truth and the only thing true about life! Whatever it be, it is not easy digesting the loss of someone really close to you, but you do not have a choice coz as the say- Life has to move on!!!

Bharat Gopi: A Tribute

The death of Bharat Gopi has come as a big blow to the Malayalam Film Industry. It is not regularly that we come across actors of Gopi's calibre. His ouevre of films clearly exhibit his talent and range as an actor. The 80 odd characters that he has portrayed in his 33 year old eventful career are entirely different from each other and endearing, enchanting and entertaining at the same time. It is for no reason that he is widely regarded as the last word in method acting. Be it the the village simpleton in Kodiyettam which won him a National Award, tabalist Ayyappan in Yavanika, the lecherous husband who has an eye on his sister in law in Palangal, the retired judge in Sandhya Mayangum Neram, the deaf and mute painter in Ormakkayi, the helpless husband- father in Ente Mamattikuttiyammaikku, the cartoonish Panchayath President in Panchavadippalam, the retired army man who is in for the time of his life in Aarorumariyathe, the Professor who takes a liking for the next door teenage girl in Kattathe Kilikkoodu, the stone hearted family man in Adaminte Variyellu, the retired teacher in Rasathanthram or the musician in Nivedhyam- all of them entirely different from each other but remaining immensely unforgettable at the same time. Gopi's association with veteran directors like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Bharathan, Mohan, Fazil, K G George and K P Kumaran has given Malayalam cinema some of its best characters. He is one of those rare actors who changes his body language everytime to suit the character that he is portraying. The kind of energy the actor puts into his performance needs to be seen to be believed. It, therefore, was indeed a big blow for Malayalam Cinema when Gopi was partially paralysed in the early 90's. The actor withdrew into his own shell and due to the support and constant encouragement from his friends and colleagues like Bharathan, Mammootty, Nedumudi Venu and Oduvil Unnikrishnan the actor returned to the limelight with Paadheyam, a movie which he produced. In spite of not being in the pink of his health, it was difficult for the actor in Gopi to stay completely away from cinema and he took on as many characters as he could portray. Gopi also ventured into direction with Ulsavapittennu, widely considered as one of Mohanlal's best performances. His second directorial venture, Yamanam won him a national award and he also directed Ente Hrudayathinte Udama which unfortunately went unnoticed. Gopi also wrote a book on acting for which he was honored by the state award jury. Gopi has left behind him a wide variety of performances from which any aspiring actor can learn all about acting. His characters will definitely remain immortal and will be seen and heard for many more years to come. With Gopi passing away, curtains fall down on the illustrious career of the best actor Malayalam Cinema has ever seen. Jagathy Sreekumar had once opined that apart from him there are just 5 actors in Malayalam Cinema- Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Bharath Gopi, Oduvil Unnikrishnan and Mohanlal. We have already lost 2 of those 5 actors. Let us hope the almightly showers his blessings on the others in the list and thereby on Malayalam Cinema so that the viewers get to see many more inspired performances in future as well!

Thoughts from today and Hopes for the future...

• The Hartal called by UDF to protest against the general price rise and the Motor Bandh that was called by the Union of Motor workers on Sunday, 17 February: 2 consecutive strikes and two whole days of loss of productivity. Is anyone bothered about the kind of time, money and resources that are being wasted in the name of Hartals/ strikes? Kerala, no doubt, is on its way to become "Devil's own country" thanks to the kind of support these Hartals/ strikes get from the general public. Let's hope things get better soon!
• The Kottayam conference of the Communist Party that more than made it clear about the many factions that are at work within the party. No communist ministry in the past has exhibited such bad governance. The V S Achuthanandan led ministry should be the last Communist ministry in the state. Not even a single department has functioned properly under this governance and never before has opposition within the ruling party hogged so much of media attention. God save Kerala!
• India's victory over Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth Series today: Dhoni's boys have done it again but not before making the whole nation e. Easy win is something that does not come easy to Indian cricket team. An innings that should have ended positively in 45 overs was stretched out unnecessarily to the 49th over. Yuvraj is back in the reckoning and Dhoni provided the team adequate support to win the game. It initally looked like one of those matches where the batsmen all for failing the team, but for a change, India has done it again. Hope the winning streak continues!!

Ride this Cycle and enjoy...

Vineeth Sreenivasan and Vinu Mohan star in "Cycle" directed by Johny Antony and penned by James Albert. Cycle is the story of two youth- Roy (Vineeth) who is a cashier in a finance company run by Kousthuban (Jagathy Sreekumar) and Sanju (Vinu)- a salesman at a home appliances store and an aspiring cricketer. Roy has a soft corner for Annie (Bhama) who works for a travel agency and Meenakshi (Sandhya), daughter of the rick Kousthubhan tries to woo Sanju. Roy has a family consisting of his mother (Sobha Mohan), a good for nothing uncle (Salim Kumar, wasted) and 2 sisters waiting to be married off. Sanju's father (T G Ravi) is a taxi driver who has sacrificed all his savings on his son's cricketing career which is yet to take off. Annie has to take care of her bed ridden father (Murali) and make enough money to educate her brother, Sunny (Arun), an engineering student. In between all these sorrows, Roy and Sanju land across some money on New Year's eve and decide to celebrate the New Year at a Bar with Sunny. Sunny lands up in police custody for having possessed drugs and Roy and Sanju are left with no other option but to rob Kousthubhan's finance company to arrange enough money to release Sunny and to put an end to all their problems. The rest of the film deals with whether or not they are successful in their attempt. Cycle has a very simple story line, but its effect is enhanced by an intelligent script by James Albert. No time is wasted on unnecessary scenes and dialogues. The film moves at a brisk pace and in a couple of scenes, the characters of the protagonists are very well established. The viewer is grabbed by his collar to the world of these happy go lucky lads who land in trouble due to their over ambitiousness. James Albert deserves a pat on his shoulders on having come up with such a marvellous script. It is not a classic like "Classmates" but will definitely find favor among the audience. Vineeth Sreenivasan makes a confident debut as actor and succeeds in obtaining a place in the heart of the audience. Vinu Mohan is a complete natural and has a promising future ahead of him. Sandhya has nothing much to do and Bhama impresses in her brief role. Arun is a star to watch out for in future. Veterans Jagathy, Murali, Saikumar, T G Ravi and Kochin Haneef are in their elements. Photography by Shaji is good and Renjan Abraham's crisp editing add to the film's value. Other technical departments perform a good job as well. However, Mejo Joseph disappoints in the Music department. Anil Panachooran's lyrics lack life, Mejo's music is jarring and the singers (Vineeth, Karthik, Sreenivas, Chitra) fail to add their touch to the songs as well. Barring the music, everything works in the favor of Cycle. It should not be difficult for the movie to ride straight into the audience's hearts!

Roudhram: All sound, no substance

Marikkar Films’ “Roudhram” written and directed by Renji Panicker is yet another police flick featuring Mammootty playing a cop for the 26th time in his career. It is not really different from the 25 roles that he had played in the past though. Roudhram is an extension of the earlier cop sagas penned by Panicker like Commissioner and Bharath Chandran IPS. The premise for Roudhram is the murder of a ganja cultivator (a theatrical Subair). The Chief Minister of the state (an inspired Janardhanan) hands over the case directly to Assistant Commissioner of Police, Narendran aka Nari (Mammootty). Every person who is tracked as having something to do with the deceased is killed and how Nari finally manages to nab the murderers is what the rest of the film is about. The problem with Roudhram is that it never really concentrates on investigating the murder. Instead the script is filled up with situations and characters that allow its protagonist to shout and show off. Thus, we have characters moving in and out of the narrative as per the whims and fancies of Narendran in true Renji Panikker style. There is so much of dialogue baazi in the movie that half way through the movie you feel like giving clues to Narendran to identify the criminals so that you can run out of the theatre. Time is also wasted in taking the narrative through the personal life of Narendran that constitutes his wife and school going son. Roudhram lacks the finesse that one normally expects from a murder mystery, it also does not have that edge of the seat situations that is extremely important for a cop drama. Roudhram thus fails being either an engaging murder mystery or an interesting cop story. The fault is with Renji Panikker’s direction. His script is okay but he simply cannot put the scenes together. He gets little help from his editor as well on this count. Sanjeev Shankar’s camerawork is good. The film has no songs and not much scope for background music either. Out of the mammoth starcast, Rajan P Dev, Lalu Alex, Sphatikam George and Sonia stand out. Vijayaraghavan plays a weakly written character while Saikumar overacts to his heart’s content. Newcomer Manju fails to make an impact. The strength of the movie definitely is Mammootty who carries the entire film on his broad shoulders. The actor is getting better with time and manages the rise above the script time and again to ensure a power packed performance. To sum up, Roudhram, in spite of all its shortcomings, will be a winning preposition for its producers thanks to Mammootty’s presence and performance as well as lack of competition from other movies released around the same time.

Bad News from Blessy- Dileep- Meera!

“Calcutta News” produced by Thambi Antony for Kayal films and scripted and directed by Blessy stars Dileep and Meera Jasmine in the lead. The film had hogged a lot of limelight while in the making for reasons like the uniqueness of the subject being handled, for entirely being shot in Calcutta, the huge amount of money that was spent on the movie and also for Meera’s supposedly award winning performance. However, anyone who watches the movie after hearing all this is in for a rude shock for there is nothing unique or special about Calcutta News. Here is why I feel so: Calcutta News focuses on Krishnapriya (Meera Jasmine), an orphaned girl who gets married to Hari (Indrajith) at a community wedding and is brought to Calcutta. Hari supplies girls for flesh trade in Calcutta and when Krishna refuses to oblige, he beats her up and walks out of the house. Hari is later found murdered and Ajith Thomas (Dileep), a news reporter with Calcutta News identifies him since Hari and Krishna had accidentally been captured by his camera earlier while canning Durga Pooja celebrations in Calcutta. Ajith finds out Krishna being locked up in her house and decides to support and protect her. How he saves Krishna from the flesh trade mafia is what the rest of the story is about. While I completely agree that the film has been built on an interesting premise, it is the treatment of the film that makes it a loser. Blessy, the scriptwriter, looks confused as to how to take his narrative forward. He wants to show everything that happens in Calcutta in one movie and concentrates more on canning all prime locations in Calcutta than on taking his story forward. Blessy also spends a lot of time in explaining the background of his characters and puts in too many situations to tell his viewers that Ajith and Krishna are going to fall in love. What could have subtly been conveyed in a couple of shots is instead dragged forward for half an hour and a couple of songs have also been unnecessarily pushed into the narrative. By the time Blessy realizes his folly, the film completes 70% of its running time and thus, we have a highly irritating climax thus comes up all of a sudden jolting the viewers. The sequences showing black magic and Krishna’s mental disturbances could have been avoided since they do not add anything significant to the narrative. The characters of Innocent, Bindu Panicker, Vimala Raman, Bindiya and Manasa do not add value to the story or the script. If there is something that stands out in the movie, it is S Kumar’s camera. He shoots Calcutta and its locales like no one else has had in the past. His lighting style is innovative and he fills the movie up with a lot of good looking shots. Art Direction is good. The film could have easily been trimmed down by 30 minutes. The songs set to tune by Debjyothi Mishra are very ordinary. Meera Jasmine tries unsuccessfully to infuse life into Krishnapriya. This is easily the actor’s worst performance yet. Dileep struggles to look convincing as Ajith Thomas. The actor plays his part earnestly but his character fails him miserably. To sum up, Blessy needs to concentrate on his scripts before he starts out making a movie. He had set a high standard for himself with his debut vehicle “Kaazcha”. He has not been able to reach even 50% of what he achieved with Kaazcha in any of his three subsequent films.

Varalaaru is avoidable

I really am not interested in wasting my time and energy posting a review on “Varalaaru”, but I just don’t want one more person to grab a DVD of this good for nothing movie attracted to names like Ajith, Asin, A R Rahman and K S Ravikumar. To put it briefly, Varalaaru has Ultimate Star Ajith Kumar playing a triple role- as an effeminate dancer- father and his 2 sons- one who lives with his father and is a happy go lucky lad and the other living with his mentally deranged mother full of hatred for his father. What happens when the villainous son crosses the path of the dutiful son and how the father reacts to the whole episode is what the rest of the story is about. The story and its treatment is straight out of a 70’s Manmohan Desai flick, the only difference is that Manmohan Desai’s movies can be enjoyed even these days, but K S Ravikumar’s Varalaaru cannot, thanks to its shoddy direction and lackluster script. None of the characters are able to make an impact. Ajith struggles to look convincing as the effeminate dancer but fails miserably in his attempts. His double roles as the two sons leave a lot to be desired. Asin is wasted in the role of Ajith’s lady love. Kanihaa tries her best to make good use of the first big role of her career. Veterans Sujatha and Rajalakshmi do not get enough opportunity to make an impact. Technically too, the movie remains mediocre. Photography is pedestrian, Art Direction is tacky, sound quality is poor and the editor seems to have gone on a vacation. The weakest link in the movie is A R Rahman’s music. Not even a single number stays in your mind and the background score is equally weak. For some strange reason, K S Ravikumar has flooded the first half of the movie with a lot of inanity and double meaning language. Wonder what went wrong with the filmmaker who is widely respected for making commercial entertainers which the entire family can sit and watch together. If Ultimate Star Ajith Kumar keeps acting in films like “Varalaaru- History of the Godfather”, a day will not be far away when he will ultimately go down in history as a forgettable actor! I would not recommend Varalaaru to even hard core Ajith Kumar fans!!!