Movie Reviews

 Overwhelming. It best describes the final chapter that culminates Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 21 iconic films into one. And that also describes the experience of watching your favourite superheroes come together for a singular goal, for one last time. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo ensure that the humongous build-up and the avalanche of expectations do not get the better of them. They deliver a largely wholesome product that is full of moments laced with action, emotion, comedy and drama. Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely take you along, even if you haven’t been following the franchise. They do an incredible job with the screenplay to balance emotions with visual spectacle. So if you’re not a fan yet, chances are, you might become one after watching this instalment. While the screen time for each character is not equal, their significance in the story is. And there are enough surprises in store, as far as their fates are concerned. ‘Endgame’ delivers quite wel...

“It’s not over,” posts Pallavi Raveendran on her social media page after getting into the cockpit while trying hard to survive the scars as a result of a series of unfortunate events in her life. There is a gleam of hope in her eyes every time life pushes her into an abyss. Through Pallavi, Parvathy too tells us nothing can curb her passion towards her craft.  Since the age of 14, Pallavi has been dreaming of becoming a pilot. One day, when life was going smooth, she gets admission to an aviation academy. The catch is that her decisions in life are now mostly dependent upon her boyfriend Govind (Asif Ali)’s mood and his tantrums. Despite Govind’s indirect disapproval, she joins the course.  She finds it difficult to strike a balance between her passion and love. Her life and dreams come under trial when Govind takes revenge on her by attacking her with acid. In the flash of a second, that too soon after bagging her licence to fly, she becomes an acid attack victim. The...

  After his two-year-long break from Malayalam, during which he earned a name for himself in other industries, Dulquer Salmaan is back. Right from the outset, it was clear that he was keen to try something new in his comeback movie, ‘Oru Yamandan Premakadha’. And here's how it has fared. The film is about a handful of 'katta’ friends who have been together since childhood. Lallu (Dulquer Salmaan) is the king of this group of 'low class’ youngsters, if you look at them through his dad's eyes. The good-looking fellow has received umpteen proposals from girls since childhood but as he says, he hasn't felt the spark yet. His family decides to get him married off, as his IT professional younger brother wants to get hitched. But, where to find this girl? First things first. It’s a film primarily for Dulquer fans. His character, Lallu, is a wayward youth who is a daily wage painter, surrounded by comedy characters played by Soubin Shahir (Vicky), Vishnu Unnikrishnan...

             Hellboy (David Harbour) is raised by his adoptive father Professor Broom (Ian McShane) to work alongside humans in the Bureau for Paranormal Research (BRPD) – an organisation that protects people from otherworldly forces who threaten the planet. Hellboy’s supernatural abilities are put to the test when the Blood Queen (Milla Jovovich) is raised from the undead, in a bid to take revenge on humans who tried to destroy her ages ago. Neil Marshall’s reboot of Guillermo Del Toro’s two films based on this comic-book universe aims to set itself apart with a distinctly gory, and expletive-laden tone. Marshall understands how to stage large scale action set pieces, and there are a couple of sequences that are disturbing, yet hilarious. But there’s little else of note.  Milla Jovovich as the villain is bad, and not in a cheesy yet enjoyable manner. She struggles to convey the required sense of menace; her dialogue delivery fluctuates bet...

When it comes to whodunits, casting is crucial because the moment you have a well-known actor, the audience starts to focus on their actions specifically in order to outguess the revelation. Vellai Pookal makes some smart choices to neutralise this challenge. One of these is obviously the casting of Vivekh, an actor who is known more as a comedian, as its protagonist – retired cop Rudhran. Despite seeming a bit awkward in certain scenes, the actor pulls it off thanks to his persistence. Rudhran has come to the US to live with his son, Ajay (Dev), with whom he hasn’t been on good terms for the past three years. We quickly surmise why. Ajay’s wife, Alice (Paige Henderson) is an American. Rudhran doesn’t even make an effort to be cordial with her. Even as he gets accustomed to a life that one character likens to “kambi illadha jail”, he befriends Bharathidasan (Charlie, the film’s comic sidekick), another retired person living with his daughter Ramya (Pooja Devariya). Incident...

                   In Mehandi Circus, romance is in the air. Somewhat literally. For, the hero and heroine fall in love to the sounds of Ilaiyaraaja songs and Yeh Raatein Yeh Mausam from Dilli Ka Thug. The guy is Jeeva (debutant Madhampatti Rangaraj, not-so-expressive), who has a music cassette shop in Poompaarai, Kodaikanal. The girl, Mehandi (Shweta Tripathi, impressive in her Tamil debut) is a performer in a circus that has come to the place. Mehandi’s father (Sunny Charles), who also runs the circus, is wary of encouraging this relationship, for Jeeva’s father, Rajangam (Marimuthu) calls the shots in the village. Rajangam is also casteist, so much that he will not even let a worker enter his living room to talk over the phone to his mother, who is critical! While the framing device, involving Mehandi’s teenage daughter, Nisha (Pooja), who comes in search of Jeeva, of Mehandi Circus, is set in 2010, much of the film happens ...

Given that we are now into the fourth film of the Muni aka Kanchana franchise, we know what we are signing up for. And Kanchana-3 gives us that – a man who gets scared easily, his bumbling but good-hearted family, a ghost that loves to spook them, tantrics, a sentimental backstory, and revenge. But this formula has become somewhat stale by now. Horror comedy has been the film’s calling card, and despite being over the top and loud, these scenes were amusing in the previous films. This time, they feel repetitive (we get not one but five instances of the same jump scare scenario, indicating a lack of imagination) and even more infantile (the actors seem to realise this and simply cash in their cheques). And for a film whose primary target audience includes children, its objectification of the three female leads is condemnable. Almost every character, including the girls’ parents keep referring to them as “figurunga”. And every scene involving them has a character asking them t...

Some films bring about expectations of big laughs and hilarious goof-ups just with the names on the banner. Nadirsha's name on the directors cap is one such.  After Amar Akbar Anthony and Kattappanayile Ritwik Roshan, this is Nadirsha's attempt at a hattrick at the box office. And with names like Biju Menon, Asif Ali, Baiju Santosh, Sreenivasan, Dharmajan Bolgatty, Jaffer Idukki, and the likes, a success could have been all the more expected. But, as the adage goes, 'story is always the king'. Three men, all named Shaji, come into each other's life to bring either calm or chaos. Shaji, a goonda from Kozhikode, takes on a political quotation and as things unfurl the other two Shajis' are pulled into the spiral caused by the goonda. The camera for Mera Naam Shaji cranked by Vinod Illampally really lifts the story. Baiju Santhosh makes a sound comeback as the taxi driver Shaji. His Trivandrum slang makes his character believable . Music by Jake's Bejoy ...

  Sai Pallavi, who plays Nitya, portrays an autistic royal heir who is now in a mental asylum with a difference. Atul Kulkarni, who is the doctor here, has unconventional treatment methods. But while the other five patients roam free, Nitya is literally under lock and key; that is till Fahadh Faasil, who is there as the government-appointed Dr M K Nair, arrives there.  He is immediately at loggerheads with Atul Kulkarni and the thrills begin. As a thriller, the movie lives up its name. There are endless edge of seat, heart in mouth moments, which almost leave you wondering if you saw some things for real or just imagined them. Fahadh’s character has a tender spot for Nitya, but this is not ‘Ulladakkam’, ‘Thalavattam’ territory, the beloved 1980 and 90 movies set in mental asylums. There is always something more than that meet the eye and debut director Vivek plays it to the hilt with the creepy elements – but this is not a horror film – almost till you are ready to scre...

Nine years after 'Pokkiri raja' Vysakh pairs up with Mammootty for Madhuraraja with Mammootty reprising his role as the titular character. Udayakrishna, the commercial-hit maker, spins this story catering to Mammootty fans waiting to see him in a larger-than-life avatar. And Madhuraraja is everything that they were waiting for. Pambinthuruth needs their hero Madhuraraja, when liquor baron Nadeshan makes their hometown island his venue of crime. Though Chinna raja (Jai) is sent to contain a skirmish in the island things spiral our of his control and Madhuraraja needs to come to save the day. The film starts with promise. Though Mammootty, as Madhuraraja, takes a while to show up on screen, when does he does so with quite a splendor. Salim Kumar as novelist Ezhuthachan Alias Manoharan is reminiscent of the old Salim Kumar who cracked us up with his wise repartee. A Salim Kumar who had been missing for quite a while. The much touted Sunny Leone comes in as the main dancer t...

  “Wrestling is like soap opera in Spandex.” This and many such quirky lines are a part of this film’s narrative based on a die-hard wrestler family from Norwich, England. The film opens and ends with wrestling, but you don’t have to be a fan to enjoy it. That’s because director Stephen Merchant never lets the sport take over the film’s emotional fabric.  Bound by strong performances, ‘Fighting with my Family’ is full of endearing moments between a family that eats together, fights together and lives together. Leading the pack is the film’s protagonist Florence Pugh, who plays the feisty Paige. Whether it’s the hardcore wrestling scenes or the emotional exchanges with her sibling, Pugh doesn’t miss a beat. She looks strong and vulnerable at the same time. Ditto for Jack Lowden, who lives the character of Zak with all honesty, reflecting his internal conflict and pain. But it is Vince Vaughn’s understated portrayal of coach Hutch Morgan that shines the brightest. Even ...

From its opening frames, ‘Shazam!’ sets out to address the origin tale pitfalls inherent to the superhero genre. It quickly establishes a comical, yet sensitive tonality which allows the audience to get on-board with an otherwise outlandish premise. Director David F. Sandberg captures the imagination, enthusiasm, and pure glee of a little kid playing with his/ her toys. He maintains an irreverent and exuberant approach throughout. But that sentiment wouldn’t translate if it wasn’t conveyed so well by the cast. Under Sandberg’s direction, they give their characters the right amount of self-awareness without veering too far into camp. This is especially applicable to Zachary Levi, whose playfulness as the title character never gets old. He’s able to portray a sincere, yet immature adolescent trying to take on the big, bad world and yet, doesn’t know his own limits as a superhero. It also becomes obvious that Billy Batson (Asher Angel) isn’t familiar with how a powered individual ...

Love, heartbreak and cricket is the premise around which Shiva Nirvana builds his latest love story  Majili . He builds his characters slowly around this, but for the large part of the film, there's a lot of heartbreak and less love, while cricket is simply shown as an aside — most of it is exaggerated and flawed. Strangely enough, for a love story like  Majili , there are a lot of action sequences. It seems people in Vizag, where the film is based, are willing to beat each other up at the drop of a hat. And there's seldom any closure to all the violence. It all seemed part of a mythical 'magic formula' that the director was trying to find. And yet, despite all of this,  Majili  keeps you interested and entertained for most part of it. The film revolves around Poorna (Naga Chaitanya), a failed cricketer, who becomes an alcoholic and borrows money from his wife Sravani (Samantha) to get his daily booze fix. He's a nuisance to his neighbourhood and a constant s...

Set against the backdrop of a slum in Chennai, the movie is about the relationships between a few slum dwellers and how some anti-social elements create unrest in their lives. The slum is dominated by a five-member gang, headed by MG Rajendran (Parthiban), a do-gooder and a hardcore fan of MGR. The people there look up to him and he has the final say in everything. Rocket (GV Prakash), the son of Rajendran’s aide (MS Baskar), with a devil-may-care attitude, is in love with Kamala (Palak Lalwani), another girl from the slum. When the couple dreams of a life together, Mary (Poonam Bajwa), a new resident to the slum, changes their lives. Meanwhile, a series of untoward incidents disrupt the peaceful lives in the slum. GV Prakash is okay as the care-free guy, but appears a little unconvincing when the character turns into a revenge-seeking son. For the umpteenth time, MS Baskar shines in his role and Parthiban pulls off his character effortlessly. Palak Lalwani is decent as the sl...