Tag Archives: Dulquer Salmaan

Karwaan Movie Review: Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana

Death is a concept that has left itself open to many interpretations and reactions. To some, it’s the unshackling of the chains of responsibility. To some, it is merely a journey into the unknown. Some react to it by unleashing a torrent of grief, some pragmatically and some take their own time to process the loss.

Akarsh Khurana’s second directorial effort after the stoner comedy High-Jack attempts to give us a glimpse into the lives of 3 individuals, all dealing with their own definitions of loss, but the question is, does it translate into a satisfactory cinematic experience?Continue reading “Karwaan Movie Review: Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana”

Bejoy Nambiar teams up with Dulquer Salmaan for ‘Solo’

The corporate entitty ‘Refex Group’ is entering into movie production in the name of ‘Refex Entertainment’headed by Mr.Anil Jain in collaboration with ‘ Getaway films’ , through the movie ‘Solo’, starring Dulquer Salmaan and directed by Bejoy Nambiar. This is a bilingual made in Tamil and Malayalam. On occasion of hero Dulquer Salmaan’s birthday, a team introduction press meet was held in Chennai yesterday. Ace director Mani Ratnam and cinematographer Rajiv Menon took part in the gathering.

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Jomonte Suvishengal Movie Review: Return of the Prodigal Son

A little into Sathyan Anthikkad’s latest Malayalam film Jomonte Suvishengal we see a funny situation where an elderly pair is travelling by car, with the wife sitting in front next to the driver’s seat, while the husband is sitting at the back. Before you wonder what’s wrong, we see the car stopping to meet someone as the husband of the lady goes about surreptitiously taking a bribe from the person outside, handing over some legal document duly signed in return. That’s when we realize that lady is the mayor of the city (Thrissur), but she is more like a rubber stamp authority as the position has been reserved for women. It is in fact the husband (Innocent) who is actually running the show. The scene is handled humorously as Sathyan Anthikkad is usually known for, yet it conveys a reality that’s applicable not just to Kerala but across the country as well. It is for moments like these that one usually appreciates Sathyan Anthikkad and his films.Continue reading “Jomonte Suvishengal Movie Review: Return of the Prodigal Son”

The Best of Indian Cinema in 2016: A Perspective

Let me begin by honestly admitting that 2016 was a lukewarm year for Indian Cinema, at least that would be something that I firmly believe in. Be it Bollywood/Hindi cinema or any of the regional language film industries, things were largely subdued for a major part of the year. Be it businesswise or with respect to the quality of output, 2016 definitely seemed to lag behind 2015, forget going anywhere beyond that for a comparison. It’s not that the year was totally beyond redemption, there were some positives as well, but they were not sufficient enough to completely lift up the spirit of Indian cinema overall. Let’s begin by taking a look at Bollywood to start with. 2016 saw only 2 big blockbusters, Sultan and Dangal, none of the other successful films were runaway hits as such. So while Salman Khan and Aamir Khan delivered big time with Sultan and Dangal respectively, SRK came up with Fan which met with a mixed response, while gaining back some traction with one of the better Hindi films of the year, Dear Zindagi.Continue reading “The Best of Indian Cinema in 2016: A Perspective”

The Best of Malayalam Cinema in 2016: A Perspective

2016 has turned out to be a slightly low key year for Malayalam Cinema overall, with strangely a decrease in the output, both in terms of quantity and quality. Talking of the number of releases there has been a sharp decline in terms of both straight as well as dubbed releases. From 153 releases overall last year (140 straight and 13 dubbed), 2016 saw the release count drop to 122 overall (118 straight releases and 4 dubbed films). And sadly the culmination of the year has ended on a really sad note for the industry, a pity considering the kind of promising films which were lined up for release in the Christmas-New Year festive season.  What started off as a tussle between the producers and distributors/exhibitors over revenue sharing and was expected to get resolved well before the Christmas weekend has extended into a huge deadlock of sorts. As a result all the major festival releases continue to wait for a release and will now in all certainty turn out to be the first few releases of 2017.Continue reading “The Best of Malayalam Cinema in 2016: A Perspective”

Missing Roots in Bollywood

As I was watching the trailer of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, what struck me was yet again it is a Karan Johar film which is not rooted anywhere. It is not rooted locally or in the cultural milieu that we are familiar with.I may be wrong about the movie and will reserve my opinion till the film hits the theatres but what struck me was the thought that why most of our films are not rooted anywhere.

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Kammatipaadam Movie Review: A Crime Saga from the Underbelly of Kochi

In today’s fast paced world we see tall skyscrapers housing residential or office complexes all around us. Gone are the days when this was a phenomenon restricted to the Metro cities alone, now it has even percolated down to all the State capitals & even further down. But have we ever bothered to know how these original cities once looked like? How the sites housing these large buildings once appeared to be as? A lot of these places were probably agricultural lands, wastelands or perhaps even slum dwellings where the poor lived, only to make way over course of time to these concrete jungles. Kochi or Cochin is one of those rapidly developing cities, a city that is becoming more and more cosmopolitan by the day. You hear people often say “Kochi ippol pazhaya Kochi alla” (Kochi now isn’t the same old Kochi like before) and perhaps Rajeev Ravi has kept all this in the back of his mind as he conceived his latest film Kammatipaadam, a tale that spans across three decades, taking us virtually into the underbelly of Kochi.Continue reading “Kammatipaadam Movie Review: A Crime Saga from the Underbelly of Kochi”

Kali Movie Review: Keep Your Rage in Check

While I generally do not lose my cool all that easily and claim to have a relatively high level of patience, there are rare occasions when on hitting the threshold level I have gone on to really get upset and vent out my anger. Looking back in time I wouldn’t say I am proud of those instances, especially those where unpleasantness set in. In fact a few years ago I actually ended up getting into a tight situation, something that could have easily been avoided. After that I have tried to be a lot more careful especially when I am outdoors. I’m sure if you look around it is always easy to spot people with a clear short fuse, you can find such people arguing with other motorists on a busy road, or screaming and abusing someone over his/her mobile or even appearing to fight or quarrel with their own family or friends. Stress is certainly one major reason for people to get provoked easily these days, thanks to the busy lifestyle that we are leading and the kind of pressure that we face, both in our professional and personal lives.Continue reading “Kali Movie Review: Keep Your Rage in Check”

The Kerala State Film Awards 2016: Complete List of Winners

Unlike last year when there was a lot of drama over the Kerala State Film Awards, this time around the awards have been announced well on time. Earlier today in Thiruvananthapuram the awards were announced by the minister for cinema Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan. Martin Prakatt’s Charlie turned out to be the major  winner at the Kerala State Film Awards bestowed by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

The jury for the awards this time was headed by veteran filmmaker Mohan and the rest of the jury members included George Kithu, AL Vijay, Sulakshana, Sharath, B R Prasad, Venugopal, Premchand, Dr Soman, and CR Rajmohan.

Here’s the list of award winners:

Charlie Poster 3Best Film: Ozhivu Divasathe Kali  (Sanalkumar Sashidharan)

Best Second Story: Ameoba

Best Director: Martin Prakkat (Charlie)

Best Actor: Dulquer Salmaan (Charlie)

Best Actress: Parvathy (Ennu Ninte Moideen)

Best Character Actor: Prem Prakash (Nirnayakam)

Best Character Actress: Anjali PV  (Ben)

Best Child Artiste (male): Gaurav G Menon (Ben)

Best Child Artiste (female): Janaki Menon (Malgudi Days)

Best Cinematogrpaher: Jomon T John (Charlie, Ennu Ninte Moideen, Nee-Na)

Best Scriptwriter: Unni R , Martin Prakkat (Charlie)

Best Script Adaptation: Velutha Rathrikal

Collage-Kerala State Film Award Winners 2016Best Lyrics – Rafeeq Ahamed (Ennu Ninte Moideen)

Best Music Director: Ramesh Narayanan (Edavapathy, Ennu Ninte Moideen)

Best Background Score: BijiBal (Pathemari , Nee-Na)

Best Singer (Male): Jayachandran (Jilebi, Ennum Epozum, Ennu Ninte Moideen)

Best Singer (female): Madhusri Narayanan (Edavapathy)

Best Editor: Manoj (Ivide)

Ennu Ninte Moideen Poster 5Best Art Director: Jayashree (Charlie)

Best Live Sound: Sundeep, Jijimon (Ozhivu Divasathe Kali)

Best Makeup Man: Rajesh Nermara (Nirnayakam)

Best Dubbing Artiste: Sarath (Edavapathy)

Best Dubbing Artiste (female): Angel Shijoy (Haram)

Best Debut Director: Sreebala K Menon (Love 24×7)

Best Chldren’s Movie: Malayattom  (Homas Devasia)

Special Jury Award: Jayasurya, (Lukka Chuppi, Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam)