Movie Reviews

STREET LIGHTS STORY: One day, at the crack of dawn, a burglary takes place in Kochi. James, the crime branch police officer, played by Mammootty, sets off to solve the case. He encounters several people in his quest to catch the thief. STREET LIGHTS REVIEW: The film kicks off from a burglary scene that shows a daring escape by a group of thieves under well-lit street lights. If you are wondering why the film is titled 'Street Lights', the answer is that the street lights are not always well-lit, while some may be bright, others are not; just like characters in the movie, some of whom provide light and some spread darkness. The film revolves around the robbery committed by besties Sachi (Hareesh Perummana) and Raju (Dharmajan Bolgatty) along with their new team member Murugan (Stunt Silva) from the house of a wealthy jewellery owner of the city, Simon (Joy Mathew). Mammootty fans are sure to go into raptures as he makes an entry in kakhi pants and colour shirt, riding a ...

AADHI STORY: A young Aadhitya Mohan aspires to be a musician and is chasing the dream with his family's support. He gets an opportunity to perform in a club in Bengaluru and little did he know that the fateful night had a lot more of 'adventure' in store for him. AADHI REVIEW: In one of the scenes of Aadhi, Pranav Mohanlal's character, a struggling musician, says, "Talent is not enough, you need to be lucky too, to get good opportunities." While his character might not have been very fortunate, Pranav definitely has reasons to smile as he gets a launch pad that banks the maximum on the skills that make him stand out. Elaborately lining up his talent in music, parkour, gymnastics and more, Aadhi is tailor-made for him and even has an ounce of his dad, both acting and music-wise, to top it all. It's a dream package, to begin with. A sweet, innocent yet determined Aadhitya Mohan aka Aadhi (Pranav) wants to make it big as a musician in movies and he i...

BHAAGAMATHIE STORY: Accused of murdering her husband, IAS officer Chanchala (Anushka Shetty), is taken to a haunted house called Bhaaghamathie Bungalow, where police and CBI officials interrogate her to dig up dirt on a politician she had worked under. As she's left alone in the haunted house, spirits take control of her and IAS Chanchala transforms into an unrecognisable person. How this impacts her and everyone around her forms the crux of the story. BHAAGAMATHIE REVIEW: There's always a thin line between being scary and being loud. Horror films are always difficult to make because you cannot really tell if you're scaring the audience or boring them. Director G Ashok's flirts with this thin line on more than one occasion in his ambitious venture 'Bhaagamathie'. The much-awaited film, which has Anushka Shetty in the lead, has been touted as a horror-thriller and the filmmaker infuses generous doses of special effects, spooky background score and a typical...

STORY A 40th birthday celebration of a successful ad-executive turns into a nightmare which he may or may not recover from. REVIEW For a man celebrating his 40th birthday, Rajiv Kaul (Sanjay Suri) has all a person would want in life at that age. He has a beautiful wife Ritu (Zenia Starr), two sweet kids and his business is booming as well. As his birthday party is in full swing, an attractive woman named Sandy (Norah Fatehi) catches his fancy and there is a visible chemistry between the two. With Sandy deciding to stick around after the party, things seem to heat up between them. The question is whether or not Rajiv will stray. And if he does, will the price he has to pay for his transgressions be worth the punishment meted out to him? For his debut film, Samir Soni has chosen a rather tough subject. More on the lines of Anurag Kashyap's No Smoking or even an episode of Black Mirror, this is an open ended mystery where the entire payoff lies in the story. Then again, a...

Padmaavat movie director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Padmaavat movie rating: 2.5 stars All those agitating over how Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat would trample all over Rajput pride, you may rest easy: the director didn’t need a memo from the Karni Sena and all the other self-styled ‘armies’ on keeping it ‘sanskaari’ — his entire film is a relentlessly opulent, magnificently-mounted paean to Rajput ‘aan baan shaan’. And, whichever way you slice and dice it, and Bhansali is a master at grandstanding, to the pernicious practice of ‘sati’. Here’s how it goes, just in case you are one of those rare people who haven’t been breathlessly following the film’s troubles: the Rajput king Ratan Singh (Kapoor) is the hero, the Muslim invader Alauddin Khilji ( Singh) is the villain, and the object of their mutual adoration is the utterly gorgeous Padmavati, who will always and forever be a good Indian girl, and later, wife. When we see her first, she is fleet of foot and clear of eye, a joyo...

Padmaavat movie director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali Padmaavat movie rating: 2.5 stars All those agitating over how Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat would trample all over Rajput pride, you may rest easy: the director didn’t need a memo from the Karni Sena and all the other self-styled ‘armies’ on keeping it ‘sanskaari’ — his entire film is a relentlessly opulent, magnificently-mounted paean to Rajput ‘aan baan shaan’. And, whichever way you slice and dice it, and Bhansali is a master at grandstanding, to the pernicious practice of ‘sati’. Here’s how it goes, just in case you are one of those rare people who haven’t been breathlessly following the film’s troubles: the Rajput king Ratan Singh (Kapoor) is the hero, the Muslim invader Alauddin Khilji ( Singh) is the villain, and the object of their mutual adoration is the utterly gorgeous Padmavati, who will always and forever be a good Indian girl, and later, wife. When we see her first, she is fleet of foot and clear of eye, a joyo...

 Dileesh Pothan's Malayalam film Maheshinte Pathikaram, which has now been remade as Nimir, was about a man and his thirst for revenge, and if that plot makes you imagine a tense thriller, you would be far off the mark. For, it was a low-key feel-good tale about a man and his revenge. On the other hand, there is hardly anything to feel good about Nimir, which comes across as a rather flavourless, uninvolving tale. The warning signs go off right in the very beginning, when the film begins with a song whose focus is not its lead character or the place (as in the original), but a village belle who vanishes once the song ends. We are introduced to Selvam, who runs a photo studio in a small-town, and the people in his life — his seemingly absent-minded father (Mahendran), Sadha (MS Bhaskar), the shopkeeper next-door and a friend-cum-father-figure, Vigadakavi (Karunakaran), Sadha's employee, the local politician (Aruldoss) and Valli (Parvatii Nair), Selvam's girlfriend....

CARBON STORY: Siby is unmindful of his duties towards his family, but is in the pursuit of making some easy money via various fraudulent means. To escape one of the troubles he courted, he goes on an assignment to an old palace in a forest-ridden Cheenkannippara, which has a never-before effect on him. CARBON REVIEW: It's not always that life's moments of truth or hints of destiny reveal themselves clean and clear. But when they do, how do we know we are reacting right and carving out a sensible path there on, braving our fears and dilemmas? Though an adventure thriller that keeps us on the edge of our seats, Carbon also prods your thoughts, through the protagonist's journey, about these larger questions of purposes, revelations and perseverance. Naive, yet not enough to miss an opportunity to grab quick bucks, Siby is chasing one thing after the other, without much luck. "A tiger will sometimes have to try hard for about 10 times before landing a prey - I...

STORY: Three small-time thieves survive with pick pocketing and minor thefts when they come to know about a tiger wreaking havoc in a village called Kurudimalakaavu and a price money being announced for anyone who can hunt it down. Posing as hunters, they start living there with the villagers. The actual motive is to get the price money and also the temple's idol which is priceless. But subsequent events change their lives entirely. REVIEW: Shikari Shambu is another family entertainer from director Sugeet-Kunchacko Boban combo that revolves around three small-time fraudsters, Peelipose aka Peeli, Achu and Shaji (Kunchacko Boban, Vishnu Unnikrishnan and Harish Kanaran). They overhear a conversation between a priest and his assistant and learn about a tiger unleashing terror in a village called Kurudimalakaavu and the region's MLA (Manianpilla Raju) looking for a hunter. Kunchacko and his friends were already in trouble where they were and sensing an opportunity, move ...

KAALAKAANDI STORY: Unfolding through a course of a night in Mumbai, Kaalakaandi showcases three parallel tracks — a man who discovers he has terminal illness decides to let go of his principles and live a little; a woman involved in a hit-and-run seeks redemption and two goons must decide if they can trust each other. KAALAKAANDI REVIEW: After writing an unconventional comedy (Delhi Belly), Akshat Verma's Kaalakaandi, set in Mumbai, is partially fascinating. It revolves around people who must do the right things, wrong things and wonder if what they did was right. If you are a fan of the Coen brothers and fancy their brand of dark humour, it's refreshing to see Indian filmmakers attempting the genre as it's vastly scarce back home. The soul touching and yet amusingly absurd track featuring the inimitable Saif Ali Khan in Kaalakaandi is a testament to that achievement. When a quintessential good guy (Saif) discovers he has cancer, he regrets wasting his whole lif...

1921 STORY: When Ayush (Karan Kundra) arrives in England to learn music, he is shocked and scared when the manor he is living in becomes haunted by spirits. To exorcise them, he seeks the help of Rose (Zareen Khan), a woman who can see and speak with them. 1921 REVIEW: What different could Vikram Bhatt do in the fourth instalment of his period horror franchise, you wonder? Well, he has a female exorcist this time, but her talents are suspect. Why? Because in one scene, when Rose says that she can see spirits ever since she was a kid and can talk to them and even helps them, you want to believe her. But the fact that she nearly jumps out of her skin whenever she sees even a little shadow of the ghosts makes you suspect her abilities as an exorcist. But you play along because her neighbouring manor, where a strapping young pianist from India strums the piano like a pro is in danger. The Wadia manor where he is living is haunted by ghosts who run around giggling like little girl...

Director : K. S. Ravikumar Producer : C. Kalyan Music Director : Chirantan Bhatt Cinematographer : C. Ram Prasad Editor : Praveen Antony Yet another film which has released during this lucrative Sankranthi season is Balakrishna’s Jai Simha. Directed by K S Ravi Kumar, this film has Nayanthara as the female lead. Let’s see how the film turns out to be. Story:- Narasimha(Balakrishna) along with his just-born son moves to Kumbakonam and starts working as a driver. There, he comes across a corrupt cop and keeps fighting with him time and again. During one of the key problems involving the cop, Narasimha suddenly finds out that the cop’s wife is none other than his ex-girlfriend Gauri(Nayanthara). Who is this Narasimha? Why did he come to Kumbakonam? What is his backstory with Gauri? To know the answers, you need to watch the film on the big screen. Plus Points:- Balakrishna is the biggest asset of the film. He is seen in two different roles and has given a tremend...

Story: Uttam Das(Suriya) is a young man whose dreams of becoming a CBI officer are shattered by some corrupted officials. Upset with this, he himself forms his own gang and starts riding the businesses of big shots as a fake CBI officer. To nab Uttam, a special cop(Karthick) is appointed by the government. The rest of the story is as to how Uttam Das manages to dodge the CBI officials and comes out successfully. Plus Points : Suriya, who is already a proved actor has given an impressive performance in his role of a fake CBI officer. His dialogue delivery and mannerisms during crunch scenes look decent. Keerthy Suresh looks cute and did the best in her limited screen presence. Yesteryear heroine, Ramya Krishna gives a natural performance and is a perfect support to Suriya. Actor Karthik is good as a tough CBI officer. A few social issues related to corruption have been showcased in an interesting manner. Comedian RJ Balaji evokes few laughs here and there. The entire cre...