Pullimaan

Medium : Malayalam
Starring : Kalabhavan Mani, Ponvannan, Nedumudi Venu, Meera Nandan, Sharanya
Director : Anil.K.Nair
Music : Sharreth

Days before, I saw a big hording containing publicity stills of a new Kalabhavan Mani movie in which it was written that 'a film directed by Lal Jose's student'. The name of the particular movie was a pleasant one, 'Pullimaan'. The star cast didn't attracted me except for a couple of faces like Ponvannan who did movies like 'Paruthiveeran', 'Anjathey', 'Ayan' etc and Rajendran, former assistant of stunt master Thyagarajan, the bald headed guy who came in the villain role in 'Naan Kadavul'. Rajaratnam, who did movies like 'Chinthamani Kolacase', 'Sound Of Boot', 'Samastha Keralam P.O' etc is the cinematographer. This musical subject has got Sharreth as the composer. On the second day of it's release, with less than 10% of the theater attendance, I watched it. The name of the new director is Anil.K.Nair.

Kunjunni (Kalabhavan Mani) is an orphan who is loved by every one in the village. He is the sole singer of the native, who lives in the river side. Kaalan (Ponvannan) is a bad guy in the locality. Kunjunni is attracted by a girl (Meera Nandan) who belongs to the street singers [nadodikal] group. When Kaalan got interested in the girl, Kunjunni begged him by saying that she is his lover and the former had leave her. In the middle, a fight between a local group (Mahendran and Sreejith Ravi) and Kaalan is shown a couple of times and the latter won the game in every sessions. When the villagers decided to arrange marriage of Kunjunni with the girl, it was opposed by the girl's father; later when Kaalan beats the father, he gave a positive signal. One day a family (Sivaji Guruvayur and Sharanya), reaches the village claiming that Kunjunni is their son. They tells the reason behind the missing of their son in his childhood. Anyway, Kunjunni stayed back in the village, with the blessings of his parents.

Pointing out a few from the majority of negatives happened. The director should answer the relevance of showing the opening scene in which the villain committing the murder in a rainy night. All the babies in the village crying and waiting to sleep by hearing a song from Kunjunni, is a childish and unprofessional situation (the whole scene has got the crying sound of babies as the bg sound). It looks like the director want to repeat such a situation from old tamil hits like 'Vaidehi Kaathirunthaal' and 'Chinna Thambi'. The lullaby song placed there, 'thanthaanalelo paattu...' that repeats 2-3 times in the film is a below average one. The situations in the tea shop and the river side where the locals (Sudheesh, Kochu Preman, Geedha Salaam, Mukundan, T.S.Raju, Manikandan etc) discussing issues and cracking jocks is not an attractive sight. The placement of a song for which the drama and gramolsavam situations comes and the whole villagers dancing is good enough to elaborate the film length only. Where does the bg music came for the heroine and her sisters to dance in front of the crowd to sell their products, will be an unanswered question. The reason for the hero's mother to identify the song is not known, her affection or familiarity with the particular song is not shown in the flashback. The lengthy fight between the villain and some other persons and that too in the absence of hero, is an unacceptable thing. The situation at night in which the villagers becomes sentimental due to the problem happened in hero's marriage, leading to the song by the old man, is a horrible one. In the beginning song, voice of Vineeth Sreenivasan doesn't suits Kalabhavan Mani (thanx to A.R.Rahman for introducing such a trend!) and the dubbing of Anandavalli for Sharanya's flashback scenes are not suited well. Like this, the list is endless...

'Mallippo mallippoo...' song is the only good one in the list. Bg score by Sharreth is ok. Gimmicks shown in some of the visuals has been done well by Priyadarshan and K.V.Aanand in 'Thenmaavin Kombath', years before.

It is a fact that other than 'Vasanthiyum Laksmiyum Pinne Njaanum', 'Karumaadikkuttan' and 'Ben Johnson', Kalabhavan Mani does not have any other hero oriented films as hits, in the last 10-12 years. I read some where, Mani saying that the lack of good publicity and promotions as the reason for the failure of his projects. An extra amount spend to promote "horrible" movies like 'Pullimaan' should not be happened at any cost, the distributors knows it well...

I wonder, how a senseless and stupid movie like 'Pullimaan', got around 40 theaters to release. Instead of banning the release of other language movies, the film-fraternity should seriously think about this. The debutant director Anil.K.Nair has complemented his "guru" Lal Jose a lot, by making such a 'product'...!!!


Rating : 1.5 / 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

Oru Black & White Kudumbam

Medium : Malayalam
Staring : Kalabhavan Mani, Jayasurya, Bhama, Vinaya Prasad, Suraj Venjarammood
Director : Shaiju Anthikkad
Music : Alex Paul, Kannan

Shaiju-Shaji, the director-duo had splitted after doing their debutant project 'Shakespeare MA Malayalam'. Now Shaiju Anthikkad had independently given the project 'Oru Black & White Kudumbam'. The star cast including Kalabhavan Mani, Jayasurya, Bhama, Vinaya Prasad or the discussion of a different theme like the ego of a blackish father where his wife and son happened to be whites, didn't attracted me.


It is a fact that even in the festival season, the malayalam cine field is dull; but the experienced producer distributor M.Mani, who happend to be the producer (57th film) of the film is the main reason that gave me interest in watchig the movie. The last film given the same producer with K.Madhu-SN Swamy and Jayaram, 'Rahasya Police' didn't do well.


The promotional stills of the film with Kalabhavan Mani highlighted in black and white tone clearly gives us an idea of the story. As expected the film starts with the uneasiness and restlessness shown by the hero's father even at the younger days of the hero. When the hero grows up, he does his own business even after the father blocks him. As cheated by the villain, they lose their money and reached the city to pay the debts. There the hero got the job as a GM of the private company owned by the heroine, where as his father got the driver's job in the same company without revealing their identity. After few days mother reached the same place and stays as a servant. A love track is also developed and in the end after few confusions, they are all happy.


The director himself had written the story and the debutant Pradeep Kavintara had written the script. it seems like they had watched maximum such films where confusions and comedy situations plays a peek role. As the title suggests, there is no such serious situations created, where the hero gets angry. Only thing is that there are some passing comments here and there on the blackish skin tone. Some of the situations happening in the house reminds us of the films like 'Melepparambil Aanveedu', 'Mattuppetti Machan' etc. The main characters including the villain assembles in the same house in the end cannot be taken as an accidental coincidence. Even if the theme is different, there is nothing new in the film, the creators had copied the situations from many films happened before. The situation where hero buys an elephant, the scene where hero's father explains about his son's attitude etc are not created convincingly. Songs comes in unusual situations.


Jibu Jacob handles the camera. Music director Alex Paul might have created "kuppi..." song expecting it to be the talk of the town. But the singer, choreographer and the artists didn't worked hard for a good result.

There are no big factors that can promote an average film like 'Oru Black & White Kudumbam'

Rating : 5 / 10

Modhi Vilayadu

Medium : Tamil

Starring : Vinay, Kajal Agarwal, Kalabhavan Mani, Cochin Haneefa

Director : Saran

Music : Colonial Cousins, Steven Devassy

Director Saran who gave variety subjects like 'Amarkkalam', 'Parthen Rasithen', 'Gemini', 'Vasoolraja MBBS', 'Attahasam', 'JJ' etc has come up with his newproject 'Modhi Vilayadu'. He has got Vinay ('Unnale Unnale', 'Jayam Konden' fame) as the hero and the heroine is Kajal Agarwal ('Pazhani' fame). KalabhavanMani, who got a break in tamil through the same director's film, 'Gemini', has done a vital role. Music is handled by Collonial Cousins (Hariharan and Lesle Lewis) who were so far notable in the non filmi music field.

The opening scene of the film itself is rich, since it is the introduction of the hero's father character, who is an international multi millionaire. The proposed sequences gave me a shocking uneasiness, since the character done by Kalabhavan Mani is shown landing in his house (looks like an IT park) in a helicopter. This is the area where the image of the actor plays a negative role.

Hero (Vinay) looks after the wide business maintained by his father. He has got an assistant (Yuva), who always accompanies him by a bulk of body guards. He met the heroine on the way through a car mishap caused due to her carelessness. She is being asked by the hero to pay the price by doing his household jobs (such an agreement is a foolishness, but the director can use it as the reason for them to love each other).

The father had got some serious opponents in the business who tries to destroy them. A professional killer is being arranged. By mistake, he shoots the hero's companion.This incident change the life style of the hero. Now the suspense is revealed that the person who is dead, is the real son of the business tycoon. This caused a break up in the relation of the hero and the rich man. What all benefits that were provided to the hero were withdrawn and he is being targeted also. How he overcomes all these hurdles and takes revenge on the rich man is where ''Modhi Vilayadu' ends.

The film has got a good story line. But the execution failed in many areas. The way in which the heroine is shown working in the hero's house, looks amateur. The revenge episode is told too fastly and hence it is not convincing. The comedy scenes featuring Mayil Sami and Cochin Haneef are also not upto the mark. It is good to hear that the hero Vinay has dubbed in his own voice, but it lacks stability. Kalabhavan Mani in such a heavy character is a miscasting. The songs by the debutant music duo are very below average only. I don't know why music director Bharadwaj was opted out from Saran's favorite list this time. Anyway, debutant Steven Devassy ('Hariharan Pillai Happiyanu' fame), who gave a peppy background score had tried his best to maintain the tempo. Cinematography by Karun is good.

'Modhi Vilayadu' is such a project which should have been made in a better way since the base story line is good.

Rating : 5.5 / 10