Movie Review 2014

COusins - You have a 10+Cr budget, full freedom to make a movie where logic can take the backseat and an audience expecting just an average timepass entertainer. Still in-spite of all these favourable factors, if someone comes up with a movie that bores and irritates you to the core with hardly 4-5 scenes worth laughing across the length of the movie, it is such a colossal shame. A "must-avoid" movie at all cost !!!

PK - Rajkumar Hirani and team comes up with a bold,meaningful and significant plot and makes an awesomely enticing, thought provoking and gripping movie out of it. The film scores in the fact that it rarely ventures into a preachy mode despite the nature of the subject and keeps its entertainment quotient intact throughout. Aamir Khan is brilliant in what could easily be termed as the best role of his career and is ably supported by Anushka Sharma and the rest of the supporting cast. A must watch!!!!

Seconds - A well shot and quite gripping movie that does hold your interest till the end. The director and his team deserves credit for coming up with this 'worth a watch' thriller and are aided well by the actors who are top class in the their respective roles. But still it doesn't let you leave the theaters with great satisfaction and the main reason should be the culmination sequences which doesn't surprise or excite you as a thriller ought to and has its share of loose ends 

Kaviya Thalaivan - Even terming it as 'stellar' would be an understatement to describe the performances of Sidharth and Prithviraj in the movie. Both of them play their respective roles to utmost perfection leaving the audience with an impossible task of choosing the best between them  The above mentioned factor and the entire scenes involving both are the factors that keeps you glued to the screen irrespective of the fact that the movie is not entertaining or as gripping/intense as a retro-classic would demand 

100 Degree Celsius - A pretty watchable opening half is ruined by a poor, amateuirish, silly and stupid second half presentation. A total waste of time one would say !!!!!

Angels - By no means the perfect film and one which would give u a set of reasons to dislike it due to its theme  But it's a movie that deserves utmost credit for presenting a crime thriller effectively in a never before seen format for the audience and for not deviating from the main plot for not even a minute. The interesting story and the efficient screenplay coupled with the suspense element makes it well worth a watch. The actors complement the movie quite well and it's quite a satisfying feeling to leave the theatre after watching a decent movie from one of the most naturally talented actors amongst the young crop  And the biggest highlight got to be the fact that Joy Mathew famous for his cliche and lazy acting doesn't bore you a bit:)

Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu - How long can these guys, Sibi-Udayan, continue torturing the audience like these rehashing the same story lines and themes again n again... Pathetic!!!!

Lal Bahadur and Shastri - Too many cooks spoil the broth they say!!!! Similarly too many coincidences, cinematic liberties and feel good factors ends up spoiling the movie :)

Ormayundo Ee Mugham - The poor casting of Vineeth Sreenivsan as the hero is the main problem with this '50 First Dates' inspired movie which ends up being 'just about watchable'. The faults just doesn't end there but it still would have been pardonable to a certain extent if the movie had a hero who could emote on screen properly and the fag end of the second half was devoid of the over-melodramatic romantic portions. The movie boasts of some good songs, some decent funny sequences and a real good performance from the heroine and the side kicks, but none of these might be enough for the movie to make a mark at the ticket window !!!

Iyobinte Pusthakam - The movie, which in all probability would end up being labelled a 'flop' ,gives you some of the best cinematography and visual delights you could ever hope for in a movie. The first half of the movie is quite brilliant,intense and gripping with some superb dialogues and sequences complementing the well developed plot. The second half though loses its steam with the focus being more on the gore violence, revenge and the action scenes and is sure to end up having very few takers. Still overall the movie is well worth a watch and offers the feel of the vintage Hollywood classic movies that you would have come across Fahad Fazil is brilliant as the main character with Lal,Vinayakan and Chemban Vinod being equally good.But the scene stealer here is definitely Jayasuriya who delivers a truly memorable performance that is sure to stay with you forever

Varsham - A one man show all the way by a tremendously brilliant Mammotty that should finally see him breaking his flop parade and making us wish he'd only do these kind of meaningful roles in future:) Even though there is nothing great about the movie with respect to either the plot or the script, it's still a movie that has it's heart at the right place and is tailor made for the family audience. In-spite of its set of cliches and over-melodramatic sequences, the movie is still a decent one time watch and a lot of it should be attributed to the performance of the entire cast. Ranjith Shankar's direction though has his signature style making us leave the halls thinking he could have done better than the decent job he'd done :) :)

Njangade Veettile Athithikal - This physco drama movie with a poor plot, illogical sequences and an inconsistent presentation is a let-down. The movie does have its moments and the decent acting from the cast headed by Priyamani, Jayaram and Shajon saves the film from being a complete disaster. But one is left to leave the theatre feeling damn disappointed at the choice of subject and the steep decline in standards from the 'once great' director Sibi Malayil !

Kathi - Vijay tries out something different from his usual nonsense no-brainers and the result is a quite awesome watch which would surely rank as one of the best of his career. The couple of things that basically stands out compared to his recent outings are the fact that he acts quite superbly and finally does a movie which has a solid plot. Though the initial parts lag a bit and the theme is in a way preachy, Murugadoss deserves full credit for using Vijay's star power to full effect and etching out the main theme superbly with a set of real touching scenes that rarely goes overboard. Special credit to Anirudh as well for the terrific BGM and the good songs

Homely Meals - It's by no means a perfect or a flawless movie. But it's still a movie that deserves the tags 'Brilliant' & 'Exceptional' for its unique plot, engaging presentation and its amazingly funny hilarious sequences. Anoop Kannan grabs the opportunity to prove that Jawan of Vellimala was just a mistake from his kitty and Vipin Atlee deserves a big round of applause for coming up with this amazing story line and script Equal credit goes to the entire set of actors, especially the entire set of newcomers, who are apt choices and quite brilliant with their performances. It's a movie that is well worth your time and deserves a great round of appreciation for its guts to try and present something new and unique

Ithihasa - Is a simple entertainer that is well worth your time  The newbie director and team explores the rarely tried out fantasy genre in Malayalam and presents its superbly well with loads of style and humour laced into the plot  This is a great change and relief from the cheap fantasy films offered to us by Vinayan and those which were shot during the 70's/80's with Nasir at the helm  

Shine Tom Chacko and Anusree are terrific as the lead pair ( especially considering the fact that it could have gone haywire) and is well supported by the rest of the cast  Overall a sweet little surprise that would have you leaving the theatres with a smile considering the poor pre-release hype 

Tamar Padaar - We're served a bunch of bad movies every year with its set of cliches,poor plots and repetitive story-lines. Tamar Padaar is very different from all these with the fact that it is a unique and rare breed of cinema that sets a new benchmark for a poorly made film !!!! You'd rarely get a chance to see such a 'pathetically' made film that takes 1 hr 45 min just to introduce the 3 main characters and then takes the next one hour to try and come up with a non-existent,unidentifiable and a never-heard kind of story line. One would need to be under the influence of the strangest brand of drugs to even think of making this 'rare-gem' kind of a movie.

The movie does have its moments with some genuinely funny dialogues/sequences in between and decent performances from the entire cast. But in a movie that is so pathetic as a whole, these positives just about help it to evade the top spot for the worst movie experience held by the superstar movies this year 

Happy Ending - It's pretty engaging watch. But the major problem is that  it's a rehash of rom-coms Saif has already been part of and hence ends up being predictable to the core :)

Vellimoonga - The awesomely entertaining yet simple feel-good movie that is well worth a watch  It's an out n out time-pass flick (of course with its set of cliches!!!) which boasts of some genuinely funny humour sequences & dialogues which is well woven into the simple plot  Biju Menon and Aju Varghese absolutely rock in their roles and is well supported by the rest of the cast headed by Tini Tom 

The movie is a prime example of a flick that comes through with the least hype and surpasses your expectations by all counts 

Money Ratnam - Is an absolutely hopeless damp squib that is a total waste of your time and 'money'. The movie is quite a boring watch from start to end with the occasional humorous sequences and some decent acting from Fahad providing the only relief. One can't help but feel irritated by too much of the cinematic liberties, too many sidetracks and above all the Vijay style acrobatic stunt sequences from Fahad !!!!

Njan - Renjith (though occasionally disappoints us with duds like 'Rock n Roll' & 'Kadal Kadannoru Mathukutty') has build a huge fan base for himself for his serious, meaningful movies which are commercially viable as well. But with this flick he ventures into the Adoor Gopalakrishnan/Shaji N Karun mode of 'purely made for the film festival circuit' movie making style with the result being a rather tedious and disappointing movie watching experience for the viewers.

With the mindset of watching an offbeat/award movie though,one should ideally like the first half and enjoy the movie till around the mid of the second half. The movie though loses the plot completely from then on and goes into a downward spiral culminating in a long-drawn and disappointing climax. The biggest positive though ought to be the career best performances from Dulqar Salman and Renji Panicker with some awesome,brilliant & able support from the rest of the cast.

Angry Babies -  Quite a cheap film by all counts. Still kind of watchable due to some good comic scenes in between and a decent end to the movie :)

Ek Villan - Is a terrific film with the USP of the movie being the tremendous music score and the awesome performances by the lead heroes... Though the initial twenty minutes is bit of a more mainly due to Shraddha Kapoor, the movie soon gets into the groove and then never let its quality drop till the end... Some awesome dialogues and the different plot aides the movie in a great way and offers you a good watch that is genuinely worth your time :)

Saptamashree Thaskara - Should surely and deservedly be the winner of Onam 2014  The movie is a good entertainer and presented superbly with lots of genuinely funny sequences/dialogues. It's aided a great deal by the performances from the entire cast with the great difference being the fact that the side kicks(Chemban Vinod, Lijo Jose Pallisery,Sudheer Karama & Neeraj Madhav) score a great deal with their portrayals and have more screen time than the main heroes 

Still somewhere down the line one feels that it fails to deliver as a whole, the tremendous potential it had shown in the first half. This could be attributed to the lot of unanswered questions towards the end and the overdose of cinematic liberties throughout the second half 

Rajadhiraja - The movie is an absolute torture with the makers showing no mercy to the poor movie watching public!!!!
It's quite evident that Mammootty has completely lost the plot when it comes to his choice of scripts and movies over the past couple of years. But one seriously wonders why he should choose this 'Baasha' Reloaded version wherein he tries to do action like the young Tamil superstars.It's high time somebody reminds the superstars that we no longer need commercial potboilers from them and would be more than happy to see them in only meaningful roles even if its just once in an year 

Peruchazhi - It's warned at the start of the movie to keep your brains at home and enjoy the movie as an illogical fare!!! Even taking this warning (or rather request) into account, Peruchazhi turns out to be a pretty cheap movie that relies a bit too much on the love moviegoers have for Mohanlal and his iconic characters/dialogues. And to go along with that, this movie with a poor plot has a lot of unwanted sequences including the songs and the action scene.
On the positive side though, the movie is not too close to the 'big disasters' which we have been used to seeing from the superstars recently. It does entertain you with its movie spoofs,tickle your funny bone at a few instances and has some good/interesting dialogues and sequences.The real enjoying factor though is an absolutely in-form Mohanlal who is at his vintage best and its set of supporting characters who does full justice to their roles.

Munnariyipu - Should qualify as one of the toughest reviews I would have had to write so far  The 'commercial/entertainment' fan inside me who farms out an instantaneous opinion on watching the movie would say that a interesting/decently paced first half is ruined by a slow/uneventful and lagging second half with a disappointing climax !!! But the 'serious movie loving/looking for something different' part of me would term it as an absolute classic which is etched out with utmost efficiency with a plot that is so common yet unique and requires you to use your thinking brains 

Mammooty and Aparna Gopinath are terrific in their role portrayals aided well by the supporting cast .The movie boasts of some superb and thought provoking dialogues which would need some careful thinking to understand that it's so integral to the main plot 

 Anjaan - The movie is too long and has some poor songs popping out un-necessarily during the second half. Still it's Surya's most watchable movie of recent times with Surya in fine form supported ably by Vidyut Jamwal. The main advantage of the movie is that the plot is a simple and predictable revenge drama and doesn't torture you with illogical and over the top stuff like in the case with a '7AM Arivu','Maatran' or a 'Singham 2'...

Apothecary - Haven't heard these many good reviews post the first 2 shows for a movie this year  Wellllll !!! A realistic theme, few good dialogues and great performances from Jayasuriya,Suresh Gopi and Indrans are the only positives I could take post seeing the movie  Though always expected to be slow, this movie from the director of the brilliant 'Melvilasam' is a complete letdown with its set of repetitive sequences and undermined by its poor presentation as a whole especially the long overdrawn climax 

Jigarthanda - The makers of 'Pizza' delivers yet another tasty fare that is exceptional,brilliant,offers you loads of entertainment and boasts of outstanding performances from the lead cast  I might learn later that the movie is inspired or even a copy - But for the moment i'll revel in the feeling that I've watched a movie that is truly awesome,'one of its kind' and offers you one of the best movie watching experience you could ever wish for 

Queen - A truly rocking and amazing movie that deserves every accolades that has come its way :) The presentation style,build up of the plot and the songs are magnificent and the director and team deserves all credit for experimenting with a 'unique' theme. Kangana Ranaut is brilliant in the title role and is ably supported by the equally efficent supporting cast. A magnificent piece of cinema :) :)

Avatharam - How long can Joshiy continue in this field with these sort of 'Avatharams' which follows the same pattern as any of his movies. The movie is a damn boring and torturous watch.

Vikramadityan - A movie overflowing with cliched and predictable scenes and having a story-line as old & outdated as one could think of  Still its quite a 'harmless' watch which could be credited to the neat presentation by Lal Jose, the occasional humorous sequences,some pretty good performances from the lead cast headed by Dulqar and Anoop Menon and a decent performance to be credited to Unni Mukundan 

Manglish - How could one tolerate a movie that has a poor plot, pathetic direction , unbearable comedy sequences and above all a hero character who has absolutely no interest in what he's doing and just going through the motions.... 

Hi I'm Tony - Malayalam's recognized 'Psycho' Lal Sr takes company of 'upcoming Psycho' Lal Jr to present us this exceptionally bad 'Psycho thriller' that's sure to leave the audience running around searching for a 'Psychiatrist'.

Koothara - Not sure if it's a mere coincidence that the movie as a whole stays loyal to its title  The first half of the movie though is quite good with its set of entertaining sequences,fun-filled moments and some very interesting song lyrics  The second half though fully justifies its title and goes on a downward spiral the moment Mohanlal enters the fray  I would recommend the movie as a "must-watch" to experience the worst ever character written for Mohanlal and above all the worst ever climax for a Lal movie  

P.S : For the guys who were "lucky" enough to watch the last scene of Mr.Fraud - That "climax sequence" of this movie is much more memorable 

Bangalore Days - A genre-defining & genuine youthful film that is devoid of cliches and an absolute treat to watch!!!! The first half of the movie is quite entertaining with loads of fun filled dialogues and sequences. The second half moves into a more serious territory being a tad slow, but there is hardly a minute ( to be frank even a second) you would feel bored. Such is the top notch performances from the entire lead cast that you would have a tough time choosing the best performer  But the star of the movie ought to be director/script writer Anjali Menon who etches out a gem of a film with one of the simplest stories of recent times and sets a bench mark on making an effective multi-star film with equal importance & significance to each character 


How Old Are You - Roshan Andrews and Sanjai-Bobby creates a masterful and memorable feel-good movie that has a simple yet impactful plot, is filled with real life characters/incidents and is absolutely entertaining :) Manju Warrier is spectacular as the central character reminding us what we have been misssing for the past 14 years :)Kunchako Boban is awesome and underplays his part tremendously well and the teriffic performances from the support cast headed by Vinay Fort adds gloss to the proceedings. It would require an absolute classic to topple this movie from the summit of the hit charts this year :) 

Mr Fraud - As expected is quite terrible !!! It starts off with one of the worst MohanLal introduction scenes of recent times and never quite improves from that level  The whole of movie meanders between boring and uneventful without even offering a continuous 10 minute stretch that makes for an interesting watch  An illogical plot, poor dialogues and pathetic direction ruins the movie and the audience is forced to find consolation and laugh their heart out with the final makeover look from Lal which offers the movie's only genuine unintentional comedy :) 

Beware Of Dogs - An entertainer in its own rights and genre where logic has no place and you are just required to go along with the flow.. The movie has some genuine comedy scenes and dialogues which would make you feel not too disappointed at having watched this movie :)

2 States - A pretty decent 'one-time' watch with the apt & able casting being the major contributor to the movie's overall quality:)

God's Own Country - fades away disastrously in the second half post a pretty impressive first half. The movie is let down by some real amateurish direction and too many coincidences which is too much to digest in-spite of all the cinematic liberties you could afford to consider 

Mosayile KuthiraMeenukal - is a terrific and pleasant surprise!!! Though the movie is generally slow paced, it does entertain you quite a lot with its good plot, some real good dialogues,its picturesque locations, amazing camera work and some high quality background music. Sunny Wayne does pretty well in the role (with the tough slang)handed to him along with the rest of the supporting cast. But its Asif Ali who steals the show with a stellar performance that is bound to leave you impressed!!

Law Point - Is quite an engaging,interesting and a decent one-time watch which is devoid of a cliched approach and follows a quite un-conventional route especially towards the climax sequences!!! The script is quite interesting and the movie is presented in a decently paced manner with the cast headed by Kunchako Boban and Namitha Pramod being in top notch form :)The director deserves credit for taking up this gutsy approach which could quite well end up with more brickbats than bouquets since this movie is clearly not everyone's cup of tea:)

Onnum Mindathe - A platform for Sugeeth to certify that he's an 'ordinary' and 'one film wonder' director ! An exhibition for Meera Jasmine to showcase her poor acting and dubbing skills! And a great stage for Manoj K Jayan to show that he too can overact poorly when presented with a poor character !

Gangster - A 'must-watch' to remind yourselves how treacherous,tiresome and torturous a movie watching experience can be!!!! Kudos to Ashiq Abu and team for this most 'stupid' and 'idiotic' presentation of an equally pathetic script. 

7 th Day - Is a pretty good and watchable thriller with shades of brilliance and its set of minor flaws .The movie is directed superbly, has some awesome dialogues and boasts of a pretty good plot. Prithviraj is in top form with his performance/dialogue delivery and is supported well by the rest of the cast. Still it misses the 'exceptional' factor one could associate with Mumbai Police and the 'excellent' tag one could associate with Memories 

Ringmaster - 60 p.c of the movie is the usual over the top & boring crap that you could associate with any Dileep movie. But the rest 40 p.c somehow makes this the most watchable Dileep movie of recent times with its occasional funny moments, some genuine comedy sequences, bearable performances from Dileep/Suraj and a good show by Rafi(as an actor)/Kalabhavan Shajon.

Praise The Lord - You should be out of your mind to make a movie out of this poor plot :) And the director and team proves just that with this one hell of a movie that is totally boring, has absolutely horrible performances from the cast and is not even worth a five min watch...

Salaam Kashmir - We don't expect anything good out a Joshiy movie these days... But Salaam Kashmir seriously makes us wonder why he should downgrade to such a pathetic level, giving us a feel of the VM Vinu(family sentiments) and Vinayan(war movie) style of movie making :) 
The film offers us some genuine unintentional comedy though :) 

Pakida - Offers a quite boring movie watching experience which is easily avoidable...

Highway - 'Over-hyped' is what i would say after hearing people raving about the movie :) Still its a pretty good one time watch with a different plot and some good performances to go along with some amazing music and outstanding locales :)

Om Santhi Oshana : OSO is an out-n-out entertainer with a simple story and a good narration style. The movie scores in the fact that it is devoid of any major dull or dragging moments and offers you some genuinely awesome funny scenes  Its a Nazriya show all the way and she does quite a good job at it. Nivin Pauly is quite good in the restrained role and is supported well by the rest of the cast lead by Renji Panicker (an escape from the usual Lalu Alex father cliche scenes)  Kudos to the debut director and his team for this extremely satisfying movie experience well worth your time !!!!!

London Bridge - A pretty pathetic and poor attempt which is just about watchable for the initial one hour.... The more the film progresses, the more u hate it and wanna let it finish fast :) 

1983 : A simple but superb film that is dedicated to every Indian's passion(cricket) and their God (Sachin)... It boasts of a 'realistic-fiction' theme everyone could relate to and the debutante director deserves credit for the presenting it exceptionally well on screen with a genuine dose of good humour and some great feel-good moments. Nivin Pauly does a terrific job in one of the best roles he would ever get and is supported excellently by the rest of the cast.cast. Gopi Sunder deserves credit for the superb songs and the perfect BGM  Its a highly recommended watch and is well on its way to become first genuine hit of 2014 !!!!!

Mannar Mathai Speaking 2 - Seriously no idea why these stupid guys venture out making meaningless sequels trying to take advantage of the popularity of the prequel version... The movie is patheticaly made with not even a single scene offering a genuine laugh and is a yawn fest at its best... Mukesh & Saikumar are way past their prime for such kind of roles and i seriously hope some sense prevails before casting them in such roles!!!!!

Jilla - Confused whether to term it a 'disaster' or consider it as a 'mere disappointment' !!!!!