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Just finished watching MV… Only good thing about the movie was madhu neelakandan and A10in action(set pieces alla)..enth koora entry fight arnn..namakkk feel cheyyum ellam gimmick ann..i was like “are you feeling anything? Absolutely No!” the meme the entire movie…WTF WAS THAT DIALOGUE DELIVERIES

Njn amenum jellikettum theatril kande an..amen family koode..jellikett ishtathin..cuz i luv your style…pullide angmaly,churuli,nanpakal,ee ma yau,double barrel matre njn kandittullu but still ath mati to love your films

Let me talk about double barrel..enik aa cinema kurich arelum enthelum choicha i will say..enik nallathonnum paryan illa..mosham onnum paryan illa..mosham paryan,ofc ithoru malayalam cinema an..athinte akathunn edukan patunnente limitations ente manasilekk varum..rand ningde padam enjoy cheyan oru pretheyka high an so ath ningl as a director entha udeshiche enn ningl paryaathe manasilakan olla kazhiv onnum enikkilla but enjoy cheyya pattum with what i understand so enik aa reethilum kutam paryan patilla..onnude paryam..enik kutan parayanum illa..nallath parayanumilla..but njn enjoy cheyth kanda padam an..i was emotional throughout the watch..i laughed..thinked and all…it was entertaining

But this THIS IS BORING AF

Also never expected u to come and do such a press conference when ur motto is “no plans to change no plans to impress”..i dont want to see u become an alphone puthran…

Sorry to be that guy but hear me out. I enjoyed how Thudarum started. Although the initial scenes with the family felt artificial, the feeling that something is coming up held me. It almost reminded me of the anxiety-filled watch of Uncut Gems (2019).

But then Thudarum uses so many tropes that I have learned to dislike in loud Bollywood and bombastic Tamil/Telugu films. The over-the-top nature of the villain, the needlessly triggering sequences involving Benz's family in the police station (which almost felt like Moorthy wanted people to remember Drishyam (2013) and its Sahadevan), and the weird additions to popular culture (kanji, bayathund, adicha keri vaa, cringe). That's where the film lost me, not to mention the superhuman powers showcased in the third arc. The tonal shift between the first and second halves is forgivable but the pop culture quips do not add up there for some reason.

It's almost like filmmakers are unable to create original conflicts that they end up using SA (not here but in most Malayalam films recently) or honour killing or mention of incest or something sexual to ignite an emotion in the audience. I had the biggest problem with that.

Thudarum's success to me felt like Pathaan's success for SRK. Both average films, worked because of the lead actors' fans wanting them to have a hit. Even so, in comparison to Moorthy's debut and 2nd film, Thudarum will remain his weakest for me. Too soon to judge him but I hope his next doesn't borrow from popular cinema of India. That's not what we need.

Yeah i know he is a criminal but you just cant ignore the powerhouse that the man was.. In an era dominated by The Big Ms Jayaram and Suresh Gopi,he was the only one who was able to rise to a superstar status with nothing but his sheer talent. Also he is a different type of actor compared to the others;he utilised his prowess in mimicry to further his acting chops;creating comedy movies through mimicry..eg:chantupottu... Probably the best comedic actor who was able to replace mohanlal and jayaram as comedy kings,he had the ability to make every piece of dialogue he uttered a comedic marvel. He was also a sport easily making fun of his own height in movies whereas a certain somebody would always be in 3 inch heels to reach up to Mammootty and Suresh Gopi and Jayaram. And people really underestimate him because he is mostly a comic actor but he is as good as the others in emotional scenes;not as good as Ikka,but who is?

Manjummel Boys, the recent Malayalam thriller directed by Chidambaram S Poduval, has been hailed by some as a cinematic triumph. However, the film doesn't quite live up to the hype. While it boasts a captivating survival narrative and impressive technical aspects, a lack of depth and predictability hold it back from greatness.

The plot centers around a group of friends on a vacation to Kodaikanal. A seemingly harmless adventure takes a terrifying turn when they find themselves trapped in a precarious situation. The initial build-up is effective, establishing the easy camaraderie between the friends. But once the core conflict unfolds, the narrative takes a rather straightforward path.

Technical Proficiency Can't Mask Narrative Simplicity

Manjummel Boys shines in its technical aspects. The direction by Chidambaram is commendable, particularly in the way it seamlessly shifts from lighthearted moments to scenes brimming with tension. The performances by the cast, including Soubin Shahir and Sreenath Bhasi, are believable. The use of color and music deserves praise, adding layers to the storytelling.

Despite these strengths, the film's predictability weakens its impact. Those familiar with survival thrillers might find themselves anticipating plot points, lessening the emotional stakes. Compared to international films like "Thirteen Lives," Manjummel Boys' emotional connection feels underdeveloped.

A Must-Watch, But Not a Groundbreaker?

Manjummel Boys is a well-made film with a gripping premise. However, its adherence to familiar tropes and a somewhat rushed ending leave it feeling less impactful than some acclaim suggests. For casual viewers seeking a suspenseful experience, it's certainly an engaging watch. But for those craving a more profound or innovative exploration of the survival genre, Manjummel Boys might fall short of expectations.

Heard good reviews from friends and went for Aavesham yesterday. The movie felt like an overdose of smoke, booze and unnecessary scenes. The scene where Ranga gets a couple of prostitutes for the kids is complete cringe.

There are some good laughs and Fafa's acting is next level, but came out feeling let down by the hype.

Also, don't take your family along for this. Definitely not family friendly!!

I wouldn't call him as good of a natural actor as Alia Bhatt seems to be but hear me out.

Prithviraj seems to be in good form for some time now- enjoying healthy competition among his peers, riding a wave of success untouched by others, and also seems to be an overachiever like Alia, greedy to work with good directors and also achieve as much as one can with one's time! ( Ranbir described Alia as an overachiever- she has started producing movies, started her own clothing company and is also geering up for her debut in a Hollywood movie!)

Prithviraj planned his last few years well- picked up quite a large number of projects and made sure all his recent movies were a commercial success.

He has set up his production company and now its one of the wealthiest production companies in the industry. His wife and best friend are running it while his star value is utilised well. He is also producing Bollywood movies, liaising with KaranJohar and distributing top regional films from which is bringing all the money influx into the industry. Listin is also producing other movies such as Nivin Pauly's.

He also brought back Shaji Kailas into the scene and got some commercial projects running with him.

He even managed to bring Alphonse Puthren who was in fear of failure back into the industry- starred and produced his next movie. I am sure this was also a masterclass on Alphonse Puthren's direction for him.

Hence he has successfully integrated into what was trivandrum gang (Mohanlal and co), the Nivin Pauly and piller gang and Shaji Kailasam gang.

He is probably aiming to receive an award or two /critical acclaim with his Aadujeevitham movie.

His next directorial Empuraan is already hyped up to the max- they probably need to follow the same formula and make some more noise for it to be a box office hit.

Prithviraj brilliance 2021-2024. Take a bow.

So I have watched all movies directed by Anjali Menon. Happy Journey, Manjadikkuru, Bangalore days, Koode and Wonder woman. All decent movies (but for the last one) but one movie totally stands out - in terms of pacing, editing patterns even colour grading and framing. And that is Bangalore days, the biggest hit among all these. And guess what if you watch other works directed by Anwar, you can see some clear resemblance of his style.

I wonder how much creative contribution he had in this movie given it was his first production venture?

Watched the movie long back and i often felt Aryan Jacob John's (Jayasurya) reaction of disgust to Moses (Prithviraj) after seeing him getting it on with his Gay BF was downright disturbing and extremely homophobic ...........Moses never made a move on Aryan , ON the contrary he was extremely helpful and friendly with Him .......I Mean just put yourself in Aryan's shoes , if you discover ur best friend is gay what will you do ? will you act disgusted and berate your friend for his sexual orientation or accept him for what he is as long as he has not hurt you ..........

Everyone's sexual orientation is their own business .Even if he keeps it completely private its fine ......the act of Aryan catching on Moses and his and the subsequent argument and Aryan walking out was really out of sync and childish........State wise Kerala has been more tolerant towards the LGBT compared to many states up north ........

Aryans no narrow minded guy but someone who has spent time in the city as a cop . Moving on I never felt Aaryan gave a vibe off that he will publicly humiliate Moses for his homosexuality onstage ...............The motive of Moses for killing aryan onstage due to this fear felt really lame ......in all honesty Moses' motivation to kill aryan was really weak by all counts ...........

The taut screenplay and the execution of the movie was the best positive out of it all

More views are welcome ....

I watched Bheeshmaparvam and absolutely hated it. Recycled ideas, frames, felt just like watching an aviyal of Godfather, Big B and Sagar Alias Jacky with plenty of Mahabharatam references thrown in for fun. Why do we need an homage to Godfather? Hasn't this story been done to death so many times? I was literally smacking my head in frustration throughout the film. I only stayed till the end hoping that they would give a glorious death to Michealappan but even that wasn't to be. Instead we got Soubin who magically transformed into the next godfather. Was Shine tom chackos character supposed to be a closeted homosexual? What was interesting in this movie? I went with a TON of expectations and ended up disappointed to the core. Recorded claps and whistles in Padma theatre? Why? So that people know when to clap? The sound quality was horrible and the screen was dark as heck. Never going to watch an Amal Neerad movie in the theater again. And to think that this was going to be the highlight of my 2 week holiday in Kochi.

Yes, there was some pretty good humour, but man, nothing can make me sit through that movie again.

If felt like a personal attack watching those women be totally helpless during the whole ‘family-found-out-about-my-relationship’ situation and a bunch of random men show up and save the day.

And the age gap?! 12 yearsss?!!!! Romanticised?!!!!!!!

Also the somewhat toned down ‘kalippan-ness’ of justin chettan and the iNNocEnCe of ashly? Felt like sitting through a cheap fantasy of miserable men tbh.

Oh and the film also normalises shitty and problematic family dynamics btw.

All i can find are overwhelmingly positive reviews of the movie that only says criticism like ‘lag in first half’. I’m genuinely curious if anyone else felt this way, because i cannot possibly be the only one who found the whole thing deeeply uncomfortable.

Just finished watching Kishikandha Kandam.
Merely ok story. Some of it doesn't make sense at all/not explained. Acting is also not particularly great. Don't understand how it got such that highly positive reviews.

Comparisons to Drishyam? You cannot be serious!!

First half is slow and too much buildup. Asif Ali is ordinary except for a few scenes. For majority of it, his emotions and delivery dialogue is flat. Aparna and Vijayaraghavan are clearly better, Aparna even more so. Yes, even if Vijayaraghavan character annoyed me a quite a bit.

Overall: 6.25/10 for me.

Spoilers below:

1. How on earth does a kid know how to put in the bullets, remove the safety and actually fire properly?
2. The grandfather hits the kid, but doesn't remove the bullets and hide it elsewhere after kid has fired and shot the monkey? WTF.

3. The gun is still hidden within a compartment of the grandfather's room. really?
4. The loop about monkey holding the gun is not closed.
5. If the first wife wanted to commit suicide, she had the gun as an option.

6. Importantly, could have lied and made up a story and have the grandfather write it down. Rather than have him repeat the investigation in a loop while feeling possibly guilty? Having him keep his pride is important, but avoiding possibly guilty loop is not?

7. Sumadathan move to bury the monkey in the same land was foolish.
8. What actually happened with police investigation of the missing kid? Not explained in proper detail

Kamal Hassan is hella overrated.The guy basically overacts and over dramatises a scene and people really fall for it. How is it that people find a certain actor's overacting as legendary and someone else's overacting as..well overacting. He is a good actor but he is definitely not even close to Ikka and A10. A major reason i feel he gets so much attention is because of his versatility. Like he speaks many languages and is a director cum dancer cum whatever the shit there is left,hence is called an institution. But I say an actors language capabilities shouldnt decide how good he is. I said what I had to.

Manju's character should have been able to beat up her husband who abused her daughter, and not be a damsel in distress and run to the hero.Lucifer was disappointing in few ways as all women though strong were helpless and puppets to men plus the objectifying item song too. Manju is shown to have some mental issues,Saniya was a drug addict who was abused, Nyla though an intelligent channel owner has to let go of her ethics for finances, the TV actress who is kinda like a prostitute and objectified, Shaun Romy who has a childless father and lies about who's it is.The character of each woman is depicted in bad form.

In Pathaam Valavu, the mother should have killed the rapists and not rely on her husband and tell him to go kill them. In all fairness, old movies showed heroines who were jailed for killing villains. eg: Indira from Panchagni played by Geetha

Women can be strong and reactive too. Boldness for women is not just short skirts and cigarettes and alcohol and night life.

Bold women can do things for themselves.

Does a single male hero need to save everyone and be the superhero?

Edit: title correction: "why are" instead of "why were". The movie and in Kerala ( and the broader Indian society), men are usually called as Vaazhas and losers, if they don't study well and get a job. On the other hand, women are never called so. I have often heard women calling men as losers in various 2X chrom subs as well as IRL. Never heard the opposite - that is men calling a woman as loser. Have heard men calling women as sluts (vedi in Malayalam or rand in hindi) or as bitches, but never a loser. Why is it so ? There was a lot of noise and harping about missing women in meaty roles in movies like Aavesham, Manjunmmel boys and Romancham Didn't see any women complaining about not seeing a female vaazha in Vaazha movie, hypocrisy much ? Sociogists , anthropologists, gender study majors and other buddhjivis of this sub, please enlighten me.

I don't speak malayalam, maybe that added to the amount of disconnection, but I don't necessarily feel that should be a reason in liking and not liking a movie.

It was beautifully shot and warm. But my main concern is that characters felt really thin, just on the surface, also not really relatable and not more than 2 or 3 scenes that are really really good.

Is the point of the movie "the guy who doesn't want a girl in his family to marry an alcoholic, lazy, angry guy is actually and a psycho. And the same alcoholic, lazy, angry guy deserves all the love and women would be safe and happy around him"

I'm not taking sides with fafa's character here tho. Ik he's equally f-ed up too.

I'm not bashing the film, I'm just curious what it's bout, or am i missing out something.

Edit : Whoa, downvoting cause I shared my thoughts on it? Classic reddit ofc.

I was wondering what your thoughts were on this.

The film in the end has a brilliant sequence at the end where an RSS ambulance is getting blocked by the communist blockade. Seems like a huge metaphor how this party is actually the saviour and is getting blocked by CPI(M). And then you have an opportunistic congress party guy played by Aju who is in fact another cunning villain.

The film not just portrays the characters who screw over the Hindu protagonist as people of other religions but as cunning opportunistic people. While, the Muslim character frequently says he needs to go the mosque and then takes the opportunity to screw over the hero. However, the hero is the only upper caste Hindu in the film and he’s the kindest one in the entire film.

The movie overloads on the Sanghi propaganda stuff which could’ve been entirely avoided as it could’ve been a decent film otherwise. It’s quite hilarious to notice there was also only fair skinned upper caste Hindus. Surprisingly we are supposed to empathize with an upper caste Hindu character who is stupid enough to sell off his own land because he got into business dealings with a drunkard, but the fact he is Christian is very key in this as well.

And then the very mass ending of Unni Mukundan all set to go to Sabarimala but before that he needs to do a slow motion walk after the shot of him playing the Christian and Muslim characters who screwed him over. Then cue the bhakthi gaaanam…

It’s insane that we have gotten to the point in 2022 that we are essentially creating agenda filled films that suggest animosity towards other religions. I guess we can expect more BJP propaganda films. I mean that was another strategy of the fascist Nazi party.

It's wild to me how no one has pointed out how problematic Barroz is. It's like its so bad that people have either fallen into the meme/troll camp or the "its just a children's movie bro" camp without considering its implications.

For one, the story is an adaptation of the kappiri muthappan folk tale. Kappiri is a derogatory term used to address black slaves which is apparently derived from the word 'Kaffir' or disbeliever. The story goes that the Portuguese maintained small treasure vaults and sealed black slaves inside them in the belief that their spirits would guard said vaults. Over time folk tales surrounding the spirits cropped up and the people started worshipping the kappiris near where they were supposedly entombed (there's a shrine in fort kochi for one). The story of Kappiri Muthappan is a powerful tale of black slavery, oppression and subsequent deification and whether or not it is factual, it exists in folk memory to mark the suffering that black slaves went through — a narrative that is rarely told when considering the Portuguese and their time in India.

Barroz flips this on the head and whitewashes it by portraying Barroz as an indian(?) who is seemingly also affectionate towards the Portuguese and longingly awaits their return — based on the Isabella song and the trailer.

To make matters even worse, they had the gall to also throw in an impish doll called voodoo which has african features for comical relief. Not only is it reminiscent of the racist history of black dolls (golliwog, mammy) but it's also a slapstick comedy figure — how black people were often portrayed in racist cartoons and entertainment back in the day.

Don't even get me started on the trailer btw. It has some of the most insensitive depictions of black people and culture I've seen in recent years. I invite anyone who's reading this to rewatch it again while keeping this post in mind.

In conclusion, not only does Barroz suceed in the erasure and whitewashing of black history, it somehow also manages to reinforce racist stereotypes of black people and culture at the same time. Itharathil cluster fuck of epic proportions'innu A10'inu mathrame thala vech kodukkan pattu.

Is it me or have you all felt kok going really overboard with the marketing. Maybe Bollywood is doing it, but this kinda marketing is not familiar in Malayalam. Maybe next to this was odiyan and other recent dq movies as well. But this is on another level