A lone guy swarmed around by a bevy of beauties in a college.... Wow! What a nice imagination the malayalam script writers Rafi & Mecartin had, to conceive the last year's biggest malayalam hit "Chocolate", starring Prithviraj, Roma, Samvruta Sunil and Ramya Nambeeshan. The first half of the movie was a laugh riot replete with gags and pun, whereas the second half slips to a "typical love story" meets "Khushi" style but fortunately returns to the familiar comedy terrain once again in the climax. Hunk Prithviraj is sooooo HOT amidst the pretty lasses and among the female leads Roma easily beats the competition with her snooty expressions. Amply supported by Jayasurya and Salim Kumar, "Chocolate" is clearly miles ahead of the recent craps dished out in Malluwood. Given a chance either to watch in DVD or some TV channels, I seriously suggest - "DON'T MISS THIS MOVIE". A novel concept and well etched performances outweigh the sluggish paced post interval, which means the movie deserves a viewing. The Hindi remake (named "College Campus")is already on the way, if you delay you might even end up watching its Tamil / Telugu versions. This Chocolate is really chuweeeet.

Some movies deserve a viewing but their promos fail to excite the viewers. Either they carry a shoody production value or far ahead of their times. In Hindi I would say some movies like "Aar Ya Paar, Lamhe, Tum Bin" and in Tamil certain movies like "Vidukathai", which are liked by the people who had seen it, but very few had seen them. Recently I caught up with "Aar Ya Paar (1997)" a Jackie Shroff starrer directed by Ketan Mehta, who made "Mangal Pandey" after a gap of 7 years from this movie. The reason why I watched "Aar Ya Paar" could have been a wrong one ("Hulle Hulle song is my favourite erotic song"), but I loved the movie. It was a thriller replete with infidelity, treachery, greed and sex.

Shubhayatra - Long back I saw this old Malayalam movie starring Jayram & Parvathi on a late night in Asianet, just for only one reason - Kamal. It was directed by my favourite director Kamal. Midway in the movie I slept because I was too tired that day. Since then 'Shubayatra' was haunting me, until I found it on the catalogue of Moserbaer Home Video. I bought it pronto and watched the rest of the movie a couple of days ago. It was a sweet and simple movie of two Malayalees played by Jayram & Parvathy, falling in love amidst the bustling life of Mumbai. They get married in a rushed ceremony, but Jayram and Parvathy live in their bachelor accomdation & ladies hostel respectively due to lack of home. Their struggle to set up a home was touching but told in a lighter vein. Especially when they land in a brothel case when trying to have sex in a lodge & get a friend's house to "spend" a night but they forget the lock code, so end up in the platform that night, we laugh at them but feel sorry for them at the same time. Now real life couple Jayaram & Parvathy were cute in their roles. A well made film from Kamal. If possible catch up in Moserbaer Home DVD, costing just Rs. 34/-.

தாரே ஜமீன் பர்... (தரையில் நட்சத்திரங்கள்) - காதலும், கட்டிலும், குத்தாட்டமும் தான் வாழ்வின் ஜீவாதார பிரச்சினை, அதை தவிர்த்து வேறு எதுவும் மனித வாழ்வில் இல்லை என்று 'படம்' காட்டும் தமிழ் பட இயக்குனர்களை எல்லாம் ஒன்றாக கட்டுப்போட்டு இந்த படத்தை பார்க்கவைக்க வேண்டும். - இது தான் நான் 'தாரே ஜமீன் பர்' பார்த்து முடித்தவுடன் தோன்றியது. அதுவும் நடிகர் ஆமீர் கான் முதன்முதலாக இயக்கிய படம். புதுமுக இயக்குனர் என்ற சாயலே தெரியாமல் அனுபவ இயக்குனர் போல, தேர்ந்த, sensitive-ஆன இயக்கத்தை கொடுத்து, தைரியமாக இதனை சொந்தப் படமாக எடுத்து இருக்கும் ஆமீர் கானுக்கு வாழ்த்துக்கள். நம் வாழ்வின் முக்கியமான பருவமான குழந்தை பருவத்தையும், குழந்தைகளையும் சுற்றி வருமாறு அமைந்த படங்கள் மிக மிக குறைவு. அந்த வகையில் ஆமீர் கானின் 'தாரே ஜமீன் பர்.'-ஐ முக்கியமான படமாக கருதவேண்டிய அவசியம்.

{mosimage}நேற்று இரவு DVD-யில் ஸ்ரீதரின் 'நெஞ்சம் மறப்பதில்லை' பார்த்தேன். Definitely a film ahead of its times. முதல் பாதியில் நிறைய காட்சிகளில் வசனங்களே இல்லாமல் முழுவதுமாக visuals-களிலேயே ஓட்டியிருப்பார். குறிப்பாக கதாநாயகன் கல்யாண்குமார் பாழடைந்த பங்களாவுக்கு போகும் காட்சிகளிலும், பூர்வஜென்மத்து நினைவுகள் திரும்பும் கட்டத்திலும். உண்மையிலேயே மிகவும் திகிலாக இருந்தது. Credit Titles-களில் வரும் அந்த Instrumental score காலத்துக்கும் நிற்ககூடியது. எம். என். நம்பியார் 109 வயது கிழவனாகவும் மிரட்டியிருக்கிறார். No wonder nobody else is so menacing like him as a villain. தேவிகாவுக்கு வேலையே இல்லை. The show belongs to Kalyan Kumar and MN Nambiar. 'நெஞ்சம் மறப்பதில்லை' பாடல் மிகவும் haunting, 'அழகுக்கும் தமிழுக்கும்..' பாடல் இனிமையான துள்ளல். சவுக்கு தோப்பு காட்சிகளிலும், பூர்வஜென்மத்து க்ளைமேக்ஸில் துரத்தல் காட்சிகளும் தொழிநுட்பம் பெரிதாக வளராத அந்த நாட்களிலேயே இன்றைய (2008) தரத்துக்கு எடுத்து இருக்கிறார். ஸ்ரீதர் என்ற கலைஞனின் முழு Technical வீச்சையும் இந்த படத்தில் பார்க்கலாம். Infact தமிழில் முதல் முதலாக இயக்குனரின் படங்கள் என்று அறியப்பட்டவை ஸ்ரீதரின் படங்கள் தானாம். அதுவரை சிவாஜி படம், எம்.ஜி.ஆர் படம் என்று அறியப்பட்ட படங்களுக்கு நடுவே 'ஸ்ரீதர் படங்கள்' என்று தான் முதன் முதலாக இயக்குனருக்கு முழு credit கிடைத்ததாம். Moserbaer DVD-யில் ரூ. 34/- க்கு கிடைக்கிறது. இது வரை இந்த படத்தை பார்க்கவில்லை என்றால் தயவு செய்து பாருங்கள்.

Karu. Pazhaniappan is somebody whom I think could be my mentor in marriage life. I consider his 'Parthiban Kanavu' a bible for all who start their marriage life with a cynicism. After a disastrous 'Sivappathikaram', Karu. Pazhaniappan returns to his familiar terrain - the marital life of a girl with dreams of being in a big family. In 'Pirivom Santhippom', Karu. Pazhaniappan dissects the concept of 'thani kudithanam' (nuclear family) and puts the life of a newly weds under a microscopic scanner. Karu. Pazhaniappan manages to demystify the so called privacy and space a nuclear family (thani kudiththanam) offers. Also he breaks the prototype of a 'realistic' movie by making PS, a reality far from regular grisly output. "Pirivom Santhippom" is colourful yet honest, earnest and at the same time tugs the chords of your emotional strings.

{mosimage}SShit!!! Sometimes I take much time to catch up with some good movies. Today I came early and chose to watch 'Chak De! India' much long time after gettings its DVD. Man! It is really a cult classic that opened up a genre of sports films in Bollywood. Sharukh Khan at his best non SRK performance. Nice that he stepped down letting the girls take the spotlight. Among the girls I liked Preethi Sabarwal, Komal Chautava, Balbir Kaur and Vidya Sharma (all screen names). If the girls getting a standing ovation from their opponent team had my hair raising, the scene where Komal passes the ball to Preethi in the finals match really made my day. I had tears of joy in my eyes, whistled and clapped during that scene. The team building scenes were so warming that no wonder Bal Thackrey sent all his staffs to watch Chak De! India for getting that message. Again no matter who did the SRK's role, this movie would have stayed afloat on its own merits. After seeing this, 'Goal' is definitely a cliched scrap.

{mosimage}I accidentally happened to pick up the DVD of Hindi All time classic - Hrishikesh Mukherjee's "Abhimaan" (Self Respect) recently. I had seen this movie in DD-1 many years back when I was too young but couldn't remember much of it now. When I saw it recently I was just swept away by its old world charm. I fell in love with Jaya Bhadhuri, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and its timeless songs, not necessarily in that order. End of the movie I was reminded of another movie that came years later - Akele Hum Akele Tum (AHAT), which also shared few similarities like successful female protagonsits, marital conflict set and most of all deriving their plot form Hollywood. (Abhimaan = A Star is born, AHAT = Kramer vs Kramer) While Abhimaan has managed to live eternally as classic, AHAT was relegated to dark corner as an unsuccessful remake, sincere performance of Aamir Khan and another flop of Manisha Koirala.

{mosimage}For me it took many many 'starts' to sit through once the critically acclaimed 'Johnny Gaddar'. The initial reactions varied between the wide gamuts like 'Not so interesting...' to 'What is going on..?' to 'Wow..', when I completed the first viewing. This Sriram Raghavan's tribute to retro cinema through musical score and looks stands far from the assembly line Bollywood crowd. Sriram shows his dexterity in weaving a taut screenplay and extracting restrained simmering performances right from rank newcomer Neil Mukesh to seasoned Vinay Pathak to veteran Dharmendra. The title itself reveals that 'Johnny is the traitor', then what is left to the audience? As an audience we know who orchestrated the crime but how it unravels to the onscreen characters makes JG a gripping viewing. He educates the viewers the difference between a suspense and a whodunit thriller. Critics drew lot of reference right from Vijay Anand to RK Narayan to James Hardley Chase. I didn't grew up on Hindi / Hollywood movies so couldn't understand most of them, yet I had a blast watching it again... Don't give it a miss!!!

{mosimage}Well... another visit to Satyam for a Hindi movie within 5 days of previous visit happened thanks to my cousin who wanted to see 'GOAL'. Set in urban locale of London, this sports movie derives inspiration and similarities from Lagaan, Chak De India which also fall on the same genre. I would say that this is the John Abraham's best performance till date. His body language was very apt for a professional football player whereas Arshad Warsi completes the near perfect casting. Bipasha's role itself is a misfit then where does the question of her performance arise? Infact film would have been better without her. The last 30 minutes were fantastic and I enjoyed the football game on screen. Vivek Agnihotri must be applauded for keeping the masala to minimum & being loyal to the script, whereas the camera work, football choreography as well as background score are mindblowing. The movie manages to keep you glued to the seat despite you draw parallels to Lagaan, Chak De India in some scenes. A watchable attempt on screen, courtesy Bollywood.

{mosimage}Thanks a lot Prabhu, if not you I wouldn't have watched Om Shanti Om in theatre. I agree with a lot of other viewers that it is a trash, but how can a trash loom so large even though it was much hyped? OSO is unapologetically entertaining without any pretext of making it believeable. Farah Khan knows that audiences will never believe a reincarnation story even if it is tried to be authentic. So she unleashes the demon to entertain the audiences with grand visuals, lavishly mounted sets, huge orchestrated music scores, 31 stars pitching a friendly appearance. Everybody except SRK does their roles well and he hams and fumbles throughout the movie. Deepika Padukone is THE NEXT BIG THING of Bollywood and sparkles as Shanti. Young Arjun Rampal is really smashing while Shreyas is amazing as usual. I loved 'Dhom Dhana..' song cos I got to hear typical 'North Indian' sond after a long time. A pucca time pass entertainer if you leave your brains back at home. Paisa vasool..!