Doctor Strange successfully delivers what it intends to be – a popcorn entertainment. Given the recent influx of films in this genre, Doctor Strange becomes the most complex & visually stunning film as of yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The visuals are sure to blow one’s mind off & that alone warrants a viewing.
Coming-of-age films in Malayalam are a dime a dozen but the technically brilliant ‘Aanandam’ scores in the telling the journey of a group of friends over the course of an ‘Industrial Visit’ trip and not just focusing on one person or a pair. Perhaps, avoiding a few clichéd situations, driven mostly by philosophical dialogues, might have helped in raising the level a bit more.
Kodi is surely not one of the usual movies for it has a script that pits the lead lady on equal terms as the protagonist while featuring good music and sporting a well-knit screenplay that works for most of the time – just enough to keep it flying past the pitfalls!
Though Kaashmora garnered immense hype due to its historical or mythological references, it fails miserably to sustain the hype and falls well short of glory. Despite boasting of a glitterati cast, an immensely talented music director and some strong visual effects, it shines only in bits and pieces and falters overall as it fails to gather the impetus to keep the movie-watchers glued to their seats.
A potential issue of contention that plagues the dependent family members commonly seen in India, is dealt with in a fine manner by the director who also dons the lead role, but the over dramatized and exaggerated situations featured are mostly unreal leading to a pretty rash and hasty ending that was not so convincing as it ought to be!
‘Remo’ has a ton of technical expertise working in its favour to give it a posh look on the outside, but underneath all that gloss a lot of repulsive content is being propagated such as demeaning women at the expense of an immoral lead character with malicious intent – now that’s a pretentious cover up of a fiasco at the core!
Confident performances from much of the cast accompanied by peppy background scores is just not enough to make up for the shoddy treatment provided to the subject. A lacklustre screenplay means that the movie fails to grow the much needed wings as it comes crashing down!
The third quarter of 2016 saw quite a few critically acclaimed performances pitted against just the one blockbuster candidate - Superstar Rajni's Kabali which despite being a brilliant attempt that deserved more recognition, failed to live up to the misleading pre-release hype and set a sobre tone for the rest of the quarter that largely served quantity over quality! Notable disappointments included biggies Thodari and Irumugan while the low-key releases like Andavan Kattalai and Kutrame Dhandanai hogging the limelight. Joker turned up the heat big time and proved to be the ultimate dark horse that had a unanimous positive response in stark contrast to many other movies that led to polarizing opinions among both critics and the general public. Now lets walk through those deserving movies that made it to our top-picks
While Over A Chai had the viewer at a distance throughout (not the relatability but the actual proximity to the characters on screen) 'Andha Naal Nyabagam' is highly claustrophobic especially after the Rajagopalan character enters the life of Karthik.
Aandavan Kattalai is one of those rare films that will appeal equally to the two categories of audience – the critics and the masses. While it may be for different reasons, it is that fine balance that our filmmakers strive to achieve and Manikandan seems to have mastered it. A Must Watch on all counts!
