Tag Archives: Pulimurugan

Mohanlal: From Narendran to Kunjali Marakkar IV, a Journey to be Admired

With all of us being confined to our homes for nearly 2 months or so, all thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak, we have seen our lives getting altered in ways that we had never anticipated and looked forward to. I have been someone who generally preferred the experience of watching movies in cinemas, not getting lured by the abundant content (films, web-series and much more) available on the numerous OTT/digital platforms that we have access to. Every few months I would ponder over trying to embrace the OTT platforms, but kept delaying the inevitable, only for this lockdown to finally bring in the transition in my case. So thus, I have been getting my daily fix of entertainment at home in the last couple of months, watching film after film, series after series. And in this process, I also watched Ranjith’s Drama (2018), a rare Mohanlal film in recent times that I had missed watching in a theatre.Continue reading “Mohanlal: From Narendran to Kunjali Marakkar IV, a Journey to be Admired”

Regional Cinema: What Prevents it from Reaching out to a Wider Audience?

Lijo Jose Pellissery’s recent Malayalam film Angamaly Diaries has become an online favourite over the last couple of weeks or so. Thanks to screenings supported and promoted by filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar, people at 1018mb went on to organize a few screenings of the film in Mumbai. And there are already a couple of screenings lined up later this month. One has seen audiences thronging these screenings, this includes members of the film fraternity as well as media circle, and nearly everyone has only good things to talk about the film. It also helped that Lijo Jose Pellissery himself and a few others from the Angamaly Diaries team have been present for these screenings, indulging in a Q & A with the audience later on.  This is not the first time that something like this is happening. It has happened in the past with Lijo’s own Malayalam film, Amen (2013). Once again it was thanks to a screening arranged by Bejoy Nambiar that people started talking about the film.Continue reading “Regional Cinema: What Prevents it from Reaching out to a Wider Audience?”

Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol Movie Review: It’s never too late to Fall in Love…Again

The men who share a camaraderie in the apartment complex have all gathered for their daily round of drinks on the rooftop (after all the days of the regular bars in Kerala is now history) and Ulahanan (Mohanlal) is pissed off because he realized that the chapter of the lady who was enticing him over the last few days is now a closed one. Irritated and angry at the same time, he forces his neighbour and friend Venukuttan (Anoop Menon) to make him speak with one of his numerous girlfriends over phone right then. Though initially unwilling, Venukuttan does go on to dial someone on his mobile phone eventually and gives the phone to Ulahanan without revealing the name of the lady. Ulahanan goes on to speak to the person over the phone, only to realize that he has been tricked by Venukuttan, as the person on the other end is none other than his wife, Annyamma (Meena). This is just one of various wonderful moments from Jibu Jacob’s Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol, which has finally hit the theatres after a delay due to the film industry strike in Kerala.Continue reading “Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol Movie Review: It’s never too late to Fall in Love…Again”

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”

Pulimurugan Movie Review: The Tiger Roars and Shows Who’s the Boss

Not too long ago many of us had given up on Mohanlal, neither was he drawing crowds to the theatres like he used to do with remarkable ease film after film, nor was he managing to please the critics. However with Drishyam he made everyone shut up, even as the film appealed to audiences far and wide and critics too were moved by what Jeethu Joseph managed to come up with through this film. But somehow his choice of films post Drishyam have not been all that convincing, even his fans have not been completely satisfied to be honest. With no release for around 8 months (post Kanal) one was left wondering what exactly is his game plan but it looks like he knew that he was always there in the hunt. With Vismayam/Manamantha he showed that he is still good with the simple family oriented subjects and with Janatha Garage he managed to wow the Telugu audience as well.  And by the time you read this I’m sure everyone knows that he has now had huge back to back hits in the form of Priyadarshan’s Oppam and of course Vysakh’s Pulimurugan.Continue reading “Pulimurugan Movie Review: The Tiger Roars and Shows Who’s the Boss”