Happy Husbands

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Jayaram, Jayasurya, Indrajith, Bhavana, Samvritha, Rima Kallingal
Director : Saji Surendran
Music : M.Jayachandran

The same team behind 'Ivar Vivahitharaayal', which is one of the few hit films that happened in the last year, Saji Surendran (director), Krishna Poojappura (script writer), Anil Nair (cinematographer), Manoj (editor), M.Jayachandran (music) etc had come up with their new project, 'Happy Husbands' produced by Milan Jaleel. They had got a big star cast this time. Jayaram, Jayasurya, Indrajith, Bhavana, Samvritha, Rima Kallingal, Vandana, Suraj Venjarammood, Salim Kumar etc. The film is presented in a comedy background.

Mukundan (Jayaram) is the managing director of Kerala Today magazine. His wife Krishnendu (Bhavana) is too possessive for her husband and always thinks that his husband might go behind other ladies. On the other side, Mukundan's friend Rahul (Indrajith) is not straight and had got a flirt character also, but his wife (Samvritha) dont know anything and she blindly believes that her husband is a good person. John (Jayasurya) is a neat bachelor who works for Kerala Today and he is loyal to his boss. His marriage is fixed now. One day a girl named Diana (Rima Kallingal), who is a bar dancer, comes to the life of these three guys. When Krishnendu sees Diana along with Mukundan, he tells that she is John's wife and thus starts the hide and seek game, confusions etc.

The story is not a fresh one, 'Happy Husbands' is the remake of tamil film 'Charli Chaplin' (Prabhu, Prabhudeva, Abhirami, Gayathri Raguram) which has been made in hindi as 'No Entry' (Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta). No need to blame the director here for doing a remake, as you are getting an opportunity to watch the product that is popular in other languages and more over they have claimed in the beginning itself as the story is inspired from the tamil film 'Charli Chaplin'.

There is out and out comedy from beginning to end as if like a Priyadarshan style of movie in the 80's. Suraj Venjarammod's role has been added for this story and it is a replica of many of the same kind of characters that we have seen from the olden days itself. In some scenes, he had tried to justify the usage of 'trivandrum slang' also. The performances of Jayaram, Indrajith and Rima Kallingal are notable. A couple of the songs happens in foreign locations. The title song featuring almost all the artists is a style adapted from bollywood. The boldness of the team behind to shot some of the portions in the foreign locations, gave a freshness to the atmosphere.

Anil Nair's cinematography is colorful. Songs by M.Jayachandran goes with the visuals, his bg score is good. Krishna Poojappura, who made the script according to the malayalam atmosphere, had done his job well. Saji Surendran, who made this comedy subject targeting family audiences also, might enter the list of notable directors in the field here after.

'Happy Husbands' is an entertainer. Don't look for the logic and if you have not seen either of its previous versions in hindi or tamil, then you will receive a bulk of laughing situations...


Rating : 7.5 / 10

Pyaar Impossible

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Uday Chopra, Priyanka Chopra, Dino Morea, Anupam Kher
Direction : Jugal Hansraj
Music : Salim-Sulaiman

Mega production - distribution banner, Yash Raj Films had come up with their first project in the new year, 'Pyaar Impossible' having Uday Chopra and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles. Uday is not a big competitor for the front runners among the bollywood stars. But he has been notable through films like 'Mohabbatein' and 'Dhoom' series. Former miss world, Priyanka Chopra, who got a good last year through films like 'Kaminey', 'Whats Your Rashee' etc is also one of the leading artists in the hindi film industry these days. The hero himself had written the script and Jugal Hansraj, who had acted in many films and who is also the director of 'Road Side Romeo' is the director of 'Pyaar Impossible'.


The film begins in the University of California, where Abhay (Uday Chopra) and Alisha (Priyanka Chopra) studied. He likes the girl. He was unable to express the love as he thinks that he is an under-rated guy as far as glamor and fashion is concerned. After his college days, he reached India. During these 7 years, he is still having Alisha in his mind. He has developed a computer operating system these days and the client (Dino Morea) who was willing to buy his software, cheated him and left the country. He reached Singapore in search of the villain. There he meets Alisha. He came to know that she is a divorced mother now and had got a daughter. He reaches her home as the care taker of her daughter. How he wins her love and what happens to the person who had cheated him is shown in the rest portions.


Uday Chopra had got a character that suits his body language. Priyanka Chopra is excellent in the role of Alisha. Her presentation in few occasions resembles a hollwood style also. Though it is a small role, the father's role has also been neatly handled by Anupam Kher. The way in which the hero convincing the heroine regarding the importance of beauty and good looking through a song is shown well. Salim-Sulaiman gave some peppy numbers and a good bg score. Cinematographer Santhosh Thundiyil ('Krish', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'Kaal', 'Palungu' fame) had given some colorful visuals. Director Jugal Hansraj, had tried to exploit the maximum performance from the leading artists in the movie.


The theme of this film had got the flavor of a malayalam film, 'Kilukkampetti' by Shaji Kailas almost 18years ago, where the hero (Jayaram), reaches the house of his lover (Suchitra Krishnamoorthy) as a servant and tries to impress the kid (Baby Shyamili). In some scenes, inspiration of Kamalhassan's film 'Avvai Shanmughi' is also there.


There should have been some difference in costumes and make up for the hero and heroine in a gap of seven years. The hero meets the heroine accidentally in abroad, can be treated as a cinematic coincidence. The revenge episode happens in the climax area only, likewise the college episode happens in the beginning area only, they should have been discussed in more scenes.


'Pyaar Impossible' is not a boring movie; here who have got the charming Priyanka Chopra's performance as the highlight.


Rating : 7 / 10

Black Stallion

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Kalabhavan Mani, Bala, Jayan, Namitha
Direction : Pramod Pappan
Music : Abhishek, Rajesh Mohan (bg score)

Pramod - Pappan, the popular name in the still photography field had entered the movie direction area through the Mammootty film, 'Vajram'. Later they gave films like 'Thaskaraveeran' (Mammootty-Nayanthara) and 'Abraham Lincoln' (Kalabhavan Mani-Rahman). None of those films were big hits and they don't have stability in the scripting side also; since the directors were good camera technicians, they had tried to do experiments on the visual sides (camera and editing area). Their new film, 'Black Stallion' had got Kalabhavan Mani and Bala in lead roles with south indian glamor girl ,Namitha coming to malayalam for the first time.

The film starts with the child hood days of the hero (Kalabhavan Mani) in Tamil Nadu. His father is being killed by the villain police officer (Mahadevan). The son spent his younger days in the jail, has got the ambition to become a criminal police officer. When grown up, he fulfills the ambition by joining police and he has also got a gang to do the criminal activities. Later, the villain is killed. Hero meets the bar dancer (Namitha) and likes to marry her. She doesn't like him,as her father has been killed by his attack and her sister is brutally wounded as a result of that. The heroine escapes to Kerala with her sister. She meets a professional photographer (Bala) and gets into an affair with him. By this time, the hero and his gang reaches there in search of the girl and the suspense regarding the real villain is revealed in the climax.

The presentation of the film in the action background was not at all appealing all the time. The dialogues used in the film is too poor and amateur. You have got many songs here, coming in unwanted situations. None of the songs composed by music director Abhishek are good and more over it is too noisy. The very fast cuts for the introduction song of heroine can create problem for our eyes. Also don't know the reason of casting Mahadevan ('Pithamahan', 'Ee Pattanathil Bhootham' fame) in police officer's role if he is not ready to take off the beard. You can't cheat the audience in this period. The rope techniques used in action scenes by Mafia Sasi, doesn't look professional. There is good suspense in the climax, but it is not neatly worked out and also the end shot in which the hero rejoins with the heroine is childish. The relevance of one of the gang members of the hero, who is keeping laptop all the time is not known. The word "cli-cho", used by the hero usually is not attractive. The placement of 3d animated helicopter in the combination scene of the heroes in the flashback area is an unwanted thing.

The fatty girl Namitha not at all felt sympathetic in her character. She might have been casted to exploit her glamor. The heroism given for Bala doesn't suits him. Ranjith Touchriver had got some hard work to do on the editing side. The operative cameramen along with the directors had done the maximum gimmicks on the visuals. Rajesh Mohan ('Guard' fame) had given a heavy bg score to keep the mood. The failure in the scripting side by Rajesh Raman is evident.


There is not even a single positive thing to highlight in 'Black Stallion'. It felt like watching a C-class masala film from some other language...


Rating : 3.5 / 10

Kandhakkottai

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Nakulan, Poorna, Sampath, Santhanam
Direction : Sakthivel
Music : Dhina

Being introduced as one of the actors in 'Boy', Nakulan (brother of actress Devayani) was having a big gap before acting in a film like 'Kathalil Vizhinthen'. It was a different love story that became popular with the help of the hit song "naakku mukku...", then the actor has done a masala film like 'Maasilamani'. Those two films were talk of the town, as they were distributed by the mini screen giant, Sun Pictures who gave a new style of marketing technique. Now Nakulan's latest film, 'Kandhakkottai' directed by debutant Sakthivel has been released, he he has acted opposite Poorna (malayalee girl Shamna Kasim's new name; she was popular through the reality shows and has acted in films like 'Alibhai', 'Flash' etc).

Here the hero Siva (Nakulan) is a person who hates romance,as a result he is shown acting against the lovers. He justifies this by giving the example of his parents who quarells each other for small matters even after having their love marriage. On the other hand, Pooja (Poorna) reaches the city to help his brother getting married to his lover, who happened to be Siva's sister. Though Siva hate the attitude of Pooja in the beginning, they got into an affair as per circumstances. Now he supports love, but he has to face the rich man Annachi (Sampath), who wished to get his son marry Pooja at her home town. How he managed to get success for his love fighting against the villain is showed in second half area.

In the first half, the director had concentrated more on mixing the love and hate episodes for the hero. The second half area is filled with violence. The heroine coming to the city for conducting a love marriage is unbelievable. The revenge scenes are interesting, but the fights done by Supreme Sundar is not the best. The old age make up of Sampath changes from time to time, the new director should have given more attention to it. More over a bulk of duet dances (choreographed by Asok Raja) might be an over doze as hero and heroine repeats themselves in foreign locations. The songs by Dhina ("manmadha rasa...' fame) also felt ordinary only.

Nakulan has done the role in his usual way. Poorna, who looks like Asin in few angles, has done her best. Santhanam created some laughing scenes. Cinematography by Krishnasamy is ok.


No need to expect much from an ordinary film like 'Kandhakkottai', which has got a mix of songs, fight and comedy sequences...


Rating : 6 / 10

Renigunta

Medium : Tamil
Starring : Johny, Nishanth, Ganeshan, Thamizh, Sandeep, Sanusha
Director : Panneerselvam
Music : Ganesh Raghavendran

After watching around 150 films in 2009, I started my new year journey with a tamil film, 'Renigunta' done by a group of young faces. The trailer of the film created great expectation also. The director of the film, Panneerselvam was an associate to director Linguswamy in films like 'Bheema' and 'Sandaikkozhi'. He has got debutant Sakthi (former associate to Jeeva) as the camera man. But they have got the support of an excellent technician from the South India in the editor's role. He is none other than Anthony, who did big films like 'Sivaji The Boss', 'Gajini', 'Vaaranam Aayiram', 'Vallavan', 'Kaakka Kaakka' etc. New face Johny (s/o producer S.S.Chakravarthy), comes in the hero role, supported by Nishanth, Ganeshan, Thamizh and Sandeep. Sanusha, who acted as Sobhana's daughter in 'Mambazhakkalam', is the heroine. She also did sister role of heroine Thrisha in 'Bheema', that can be the reason for the director to cast her as he who also worked in the same project.

The story of the film is about the youths who involves in criminal activities. The hero Sakthi (Johny) is being jailed for attacking the person who has killed his parents. There, he met the four member gang, who has been kept in custody as murder convicts. They saves him from the brutal punishments of the police. One day, they all escaped from the custody and before leaving the city they took revenge on the criminal who had killed Sakthi's parents. They traveled in a train to Mumbai and when they saw the police, they get down in the middle at a place named Renigunta in Andhra. They met Bhai, whom they know from the jail days itself; he was involved in under world activities. As per his request they committed a murder and was allowed to live there. In the locality, the hero finds the heroine (Sanusha), a dump girl. He gets in love with her. The local villain was interested in the girl. Knowing this the hero quarreled with him. Her elder sister wants Sakthi to take her to a far away place. His friends also agreed this. Before escaping from the city, as per request from Bhai, they were ready for committing another murder, which could be the last one in the city. Whether they were succeeded in it or what happened to those friends and the lovers were shown in 'Renigunta' in the second half areas.

In the middle, the tempo of the film is lost, when the focus was on the love matters. That area had created a lagging here and there. The main attraction is the performance of all the new young faces. Johny had done his part well, like wise the young men who did his friend's roles. The short guy Ganeshan is notable because of his body language and also he has succeeded in creating some comedy sequences. The performance of Sanusha as the dump is not the best. Also the song featuring the heroine's sister and the heroes felt dramatic.

The film had got violence in its ultimate. The scenes in which the parents are killed, the revenge scene of the hero & group, their murder episodes in Andhra and the chasing of the police were all excellent examples. Action director Rajasekhar ('Subramanyapuram' fame) had given some rough and realistic works here. Sakthi's camera work and Anthony's cuts, helped the film a lot with the good support of music director Ganesh Raghavendran, who created the violent mood with his bg score. Panneerselvam, who had made 'Renigunta', inspired from the Mexican film 'City of God', might also enter the list of talented debut directors who reached the industry in the recent period.

'Renigunta' is a film done by many new faces which has got a couple of shocking sequences in the violent background. The film is about a certain section of youths who grows as criminals in the society.

Rating : 6.5 / 10