Movie Reviews

   Penguin Movie Review:  In the opening scene of Penguin, a kid walks towards a statue in the woods even as his pet cautions him with his barks. As he nears the imposing statue, a person wearing a Charlie Chaplin mask steps from behind it, and in one swift move, slashes the kid. The murderer then picks up the body and walks into a lake, and for a few seconds all that we see is the striking visual of a yellow umbrella submerging into a grey lake. With this frightful stretch, director Eashvar Karthic sets the mood of his film quite effectively. We are then introduced to Rhythm (Keerthy Suresh), a pregnant woman, still carrying the guilt of letting down her son, Ajay, who has been missing for six years. The incident has reshaped her life, destroying her marriage to Raghu (Linga), but also leading her to her present husband Gautham (Madhampatty Rangaraj). Everyone, including the police, believes the boy to be dead, but Rhythm will not hear anything of it. On a whim, and agai...

  Story:  Speech-impaired Sujatha is in love with a Sufi saint but her father gets her married off to an NRI. The story unfolds as she and her husband return to attend Sufi’s last rites a decade later. Review:  Over the years, Mollywood has had several films revolving around the love and heartbreak that couples go through when they belong to two different religions. But Sufiyum Sujatayum is an exception in that regard, as director Naranipuzha Shanavas has steered clear of any melodrama and presented this love story like a flowing stream full of emotions and rooh (soul). The movie revolves around the speech-impaired kathak dancer Sujata (Aditi Rao Hydari) and shows two phases of her life – when she falls in love with a Sufi saint (Dev Mohan) and 10 years later when she returns with her husband Rajeev (Jayasurya) for Sufi’s last rites. Deftly packed in the film, which is just over two hours, is a simple love story of a mute girl and a Sufi saint and how their lives are inte...

  From the trailer of C U Soon that dropped less than a week before its release, it was clear that the movie belonged to the genre of screen-based films, such as Searching and Unfriended, whose story unfolds almost entirely through digital screens. Considering the restrictions imposed during the pandemic, the concept makes practical sense. What Take Off filmmaker Mahesh Narayanan has done is use that experimental concept of technology to tell a hard-hitting socially relevant story inspired by shocking real-life incidents such as trafficking and invasion of privacy, set in two countries and told mainly through three characters who keep you glued to the screens. The first 20 minutes are pacy and introduce UAE-based Jimmy Kurian (Roshan Mathew) and Anumol Sebastian (Darshana Rajendran) who meet on a dating app and quickly shift their conversations to video calls. Jimmy proposes to Anu on one such call, that also has his mother as part of it. Their first in-person meet-up is when Jimmy...

Ashokan (Gregory) starts his day by dreaming of his better half and a happy married life. However, in reality, he is a disappointed village office employee with an unlucky horoscope and inferior thoughts about his short stature. Everyone in his age bracket, including his best friend, is married except for him. Like every bachelor who has crossed ‘the marital age’, Ashokan too is hounded by questions from his villagers and relatives including his cousin Ajayan (Sunny Wayne) who never misses a chance to tease him. Apart from his loving parents, Ashokan is supported by his friends Ratheesh (Krishna Sankar) and Shaiju (Shine Tom Chacko) who stand by him through thick and thin. Maniyarayile Ashokan has a lot of twists and turns and the movie actually speaks about several beliefs including horoscopes and rituals related to weddings. Ashokan reminds one of Thalathil Dineshan from Vadakkunokkiyanthram who has severe inferiority complexes about his physique. However, the movie has a totally dif...

  Story:  After being neck-deep in debt, Josemon, who does all kinds of jobs to take care of his family, is forced to sell his Bullet motorcycle, which he treasures the most. However, just before the sale he is tasked with showing an American tourist, Katherine Stevens, around India on his bike for a payment. The ride transforms both their lives. Review:  In one of the scenes in Kilometers and Kilometers where the film’s protagonists Josemon (Tovino Thomas) and Katherine Stevens (India Jarvis) are at a clinic, Josemon tells her that he chose the particular medical facility because there aren’t medicines or plasters in the government hospital. “No medicines in a government hospital?” exclaims the US tourist Katherine, before coming to the conclusion, “Oh, that’s why all your ministers come to the US for treatment.” In another scene, Katherine and Josemon are stuck in traffic as fans pour milk over a massive hoarding of a superstar, while a small boy begs for money. Katheri...

  The abusive male himself might be unseen, but the fear he spreads is in plain sight in “The Invisible Man,”  Leigh Whannell ’s sophisticated sci-fi-horror that dares to turn a woman’s often silenced trauma from a toxic relationship into something unbearably tangible. Charged by a constant psychological dread that surpasses the ache of any visible bruise, Whannell’s ingenious genre entry amplifies the pain of its central character Cecilia Kass ( Elisabeth Moss ) at every turn, making sure that her visceral scars sting like our own. Sometimes, to an excruciating degree. It's not an easy feat to accomplish. Partly because Whannell’s playground has its boundaries set within a pre-existing property that ought to be handled with care— James Whale ’s circa 1933 pre-code classic, adapted from H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel—that is, if we learned anything from various lackluster studio remakes of recent years. But mostly because we are in the era of #MeToo, with the once-protected monsters o...

  While cinematic thoughts regarding Valentine’s Day naturally drift towards straightforward love stories and romantic comedies, the holiday has long proven to be a fertile period for releasing horror movies as well. When the 1931 version of “Dracula” came out, for example, it debuted on Valentine’s Day and was initially promoted as a bizarre romance. Decades later, “Silence of the Lambs” famously hit theaters on that day as well. And there have even been horror films based specifically around the holiday itself, such as the underrated 1981 Canucksploitation classic “My Bloody Valentine,” its not-without-merit 2009 3D remake, and the forgettable 2001  Denise Richards  joint “Valentine.”  Therefore, I suppose it makes perfect sense for a horror item like “Fantasy Island” to appear on Valentine’s Day in the hopes of making a few bucks off of couples looking for something to do. Alas, they would be far better staying at home with a pan of macaroni and cheese than enduri...

  Story:  Two elf brothers embark on an adventurous journey to bring their dead father back to life just for a day through magic. How far will they succeed? Review:  Ian (Tom Holland) and Barley Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) are the two teenage elves living with their mother Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in New Mushroomton. It’s a fantasy world where technology has replaced magic in the lives of its unique and mythical inhabitants. While Ian is socially awkward and low on confidence, his elder brother is loud and imposing with his love for magic and the old world charm. Just before Ian’s sixteenth birthday, the boys receive a wizard staff from their dead father that can bring him back for 24 hours. This sets them off on an emotional yet exciting and adventurous journey that is full of magic and madness. Director Dan Scanlon starts slow by giving us a peek into the now ordinary lives of these extraordinary creatures. But once the adventure begins, there’s barely a dull moment. Ev...

  Danny Movie Review:  Danny is what you might get when you have vague notions of what a murder mystery is but no clue of scriptwriting. The film is a masterclass in bad writing. Things happen in this film just because the director wills them to happen. There is no organic development of the scenes. Take the scene in which Kunthavai (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), a newly promoted cop, is being thanked by the mother of a man who has been arrested on charges of murdered his young wife. The scene happens in Kunthavai’s house, in the day, and the camera pans inside to show us her sister Mathi proudly smiling. And the very next moment, we see the two sisters somewhere outside, at night, and a duo on a bike attacking them. This hop-skip-jump approach to scenes is not just disorienting (purely unintended, though), but also lays bare the paucity of imagination. What we get in Danny are plot points instead of storytelling. Scene 1: Introduce the dog. Scene 2: Introduce the dog handler. Scene...