Movie Review: Kerala Cafe - Some are good, some ok and some just avoidable.

As you might know by now, "Kerala Cafe" is a collection of 10 different stories by 10 different directors. So given that each director has a very limited time to tell the story and make his/her impact felt - what story will they tell or what type of stories will they choose ?

Well, it is just a common fact that something that touches our heart remains in our head for a longer time. And what else touches us more than tragic or painful stories. Comedy - yes, at first you will enjoy but eventually you will forget it. But a tragic or painful story that disturbes your mind - stays there longer.

Simply said most of these stories are tragic or painful ones. So how good are these stories ? Well, some of them are really good, some are ok and some just avoidable.Here is a listing/rating of all these stories.

You can observe that even in my selection of stories(which I did based on the impact it made on me) - the ones that came to the top are the ones that are most painful or tragic.

------- Good Ones ---------

1. Bridge - Relationship b/w a mother and her child is the strongest bond in this world and this story wonderfully depicts how a poor man is forced to get rid of his mother as simple as a father getting rid of a cute kitten that his son got from the street. Salimkumar has done a very commendable job.

2. Puram Kazchakal - Oh, so subtle yet so disturbing. A poor man is so worried abt reaching his home on time and blames driver/fellow passengers for stopping by unnecessarily even if that means to allow some college students to take some snaps of the waterfall. The final scene where his home is surrounded by people - death has happended - just hits you on the head - just like other passengers on the bus. The emotions that he would have gone through that entire journey, his anxiety to reach home - you would just stay shocked. Kudos to the director Laljose. This will leave a mark on you.

3. Happy Journey - Ok, this was enjoyable. Jagathy has done well. One of the very few stories where actor is the winner.

4. Aviraamam - Good story directed well.

----- Ok, watchable -------

5. Makal - Well, a touching but predictable story told in a normal way. Story will touch you - not the narration.

6. Nostalgia - Nostalgia of a Gulf Malayalee. Dileep overacted ? I felt so.

7. Island Express - Touching story, could have been told in a better way.

--- Avoidable ----

8. Off Season - Well, supposed to be comic and you will enjoy Suraj Venjarammood initially. But in retrospect this movie doesn't merit much attention.

9. Lalitam Hiranmayam - A married man having an extra marital relationship. Nothing much to tell.

10. Mrutunjayam - Oh, my god. This is horror. There were screams in the theatre - I suppose from kids only or even grown ups ? And to tell you the truth, I too had to blink my eyes more often :-) - I'm not that courageous to take in such extreme scenes and that too, I stay alone. :-) But anyway, this is an incomplete story.

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Overall, I will give a rating of 3 out of 5 and if I'm given a chance to watch it once again, I would watch very selectively and not all. And by the way, no way these stories are inter related as I was also made to believe before seeing it. The only common point is characters from most of these stories get to wait the train at a railway canteen named, yes, you guessed it - "Kerala Cafe" :-)

Lalettan - My favourite actor.

Well, I'm an ardent Mohanlal fan and I like almost all Lalettan movies except a few recent ones. I'm a bit worried about the type of movies that he gets to do in the recent past. But no taking away from the fact that he remains my favourite and will remain so for the years to come.

With his movies, he has created such a lasting impression in my heart that it is impossible for any one else to replace him. When my younger sister was a child, she used to cry whenever there were scenes involving any fights and during her childhood days she used to say Lalettan is the one she is going to marry in the future. I presume, that was just a common thought shared by most girls those days. He was so cute, innocent and always with a smile that brings so much joy to you. I laughed seeing movies like Kilukkam, Nadodikkattu, Yodha... and he brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart with movies like Kireedam, Kamaladalam, Bharatham, Thalavattam and ofcourse Unnikale Oru Kadhaparayam.

It was not only myself or my sister who used to like him, but my whole family. Going to movies was very rare in those days but if at all my father take us to a movie it would surely be a lalettan movie. Memories are still fresh in my mind going to the theatre for movies like Manichitrathazhu and Thenmavin Kompath.

Only Doordarshan was there in those days and every onam they used to telecast Lalettan singing one song - "Pookacha Manja kacha..." They used to telecast it over and over every year and I used to happily watch it. :-)

Having so much love for him made me pain when I had to see some of his movies in the recent past - Thandavam, Onnaman, Chathurangam etc. I watched the movie "Hariharan pilla happiyanu" in the theatre and was stunned to see my favourite actor accepting a role like that. I was so shaken seeing that movie that I decided to be very choosy before going for any new movie of the actor whom I love the most. So painful but still there was no other way. I hope this is just a temporary phase and Lalettan comes back strongly with good movies where he get to be original and natural.

Before concluding, let me just list down a few Lalettan movies from my memory that are close to my heart. I like these movies so very much and would love to watch it irrespective of how many times I have already seen it.

1. T.P Balagopalan M A
2. Thalavattam
3. Gandhi Nagar Second Street
4. Varavelpu
5. Chitram
6. Kilukkam
7. Kireedam
8. Unnikale Oru Kadha parayam
9. Manichitrathazhu
10. Devasuram
11. His Highness Abdulla
12. Thenmavin Kompath
13. Aram Thampuran
14. Yodha
15. Pavitram
16. Midhunam
17. Minnaram
18. Bharatam
19. Nadodikkattu
20. Aye Auto
21. Vellanakalude nadu
22. Kalippattam
23. Vandanam
24. Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam
25. Mukunthetta Sumitra Vilikkunnu

Movie Review: Watching "Twilight" is a delight !!!

Let me first put forward some interesting facts. Twilight is a movie that got released world wide one year ago !!! It is available as DVDs or in net. It just happened that in India it released only last week. Surprised !!!

Now the movie is based on a a very popular book written by Stephenie Meyer. Hence it is similar to other films like the Harry potter / Lord of the Rings series. The next story in the series is - "New Moon" - and is going to be released pretty soon. This time it will get released in India at the same time. Ok, so how abt going for a movie that is one year old ?

That said, this movie is a pleasure to watch. The story is about a vampire loving an innocent girl and how he protects her from difficulties - mainly other vampires. He lives on drinking blood but restricts himself from drinking human blood. How can a vampire love a human ? How can he
control his thirst for blood ? How she feels about her lover who have to be feared at all times ? The movie beautifully depicts all this.

Twilight is pure love nothing else. The actors have done exceedingly well and this is a gripping love story - story of unconditional love. I really loved this movie. Simply said - Watching "Twilight" was a delight. Now, I'm eagerly waiting for the next film in the series - "New Moon".

I don't know whether you will like this movie or not. But to me it was worth every penny spent. My rating would be a 4 out of 5.

Childhood days - learning music.

I didn't learn music and it's not that I didn't get a chance to learn it. Here are couple of options that I had as a child to pick up music and to learn more about it.

In my school, (probably in most schools those days) there was a period dedicated for music once every week. But the problem was that it was meant mainly for girls. Teacher will come, take attendance and will tell that boys can skip the class if they like. Given an option like that what will we do - we all will run out of the class room. Hence it developed the impression that learning music is meant mainly for the girls. :-)

But there is always a second chance and I too had that. There was a music teacher who used to come to my house. My elder brother had the inborn talent for singing and my mother will put me also along with him to learn singing. But here also things didn't work out that well. The teacher used to come during evenings and mostly on Saturdays/Sundays. Those were the days, I will go out to play cricket with my friends and relatives and by the time I come back - all my voice would be gone !!! So when I try to sing, my voice would be so feeble that nobody could tell whether I'm doing an "arohanam" or "avarohanam". Repeating this multiple times ensured that my music learning is going to have a premature end. :-) Finally, one day the master said that it would be better for him as well as myself if I stopped trying it and without a second thought I latched on to that offer. :-)

But eventhough things were like this, during that I days I had the impression that I can sing well !!! There was a movie song - "Kalippattamayi kanmani" - that caught my fancy and I used to sing it whenever someone asked me to sing - thinking that my voice is so good and they are all enjoying it. But later only I realized that it was not particularly my voice that was being enjoyed but it was just the way I sung. :-)

Looking back, yes, I do feel that I should have tried a little bit more or atleast the music teacher should have :-) But again, I believe music is divine and you need to have an inborn talent for it. Only very few people are blessed with the gift of singing and I was not one of them.

Also, I'm happy that though I'm not a good singer, atleast I have the interest to listen to good songs and appreciate them. I like to listen to all types of songs - be it classical, devotional, film songs, albums, poems and I enjoy listening to them.

It feels nice to revisit those good old days and to jolt it down here. Also I'm just learning to take myself lightly and to see the funny side of things and that made me write this blog. Signing off for now....