Veettilekulla Vazhi (The Way Home) Movie Review: An interesting journey with road blocks

That Prithviraj, the most popular Malayalam actor currently in the younger brigade is trying hard to fill the shoes of Mammootty & Mohanlal is very clear from the kind of work he has been doing off late. He has been trying to maintain a delicate balance between the more popular or “mass appeal” movies likeThanthonni, Pokiri Raja or Anwar and the more artistic and serious films likePunyam Aham, Thalappavu, Manjadikuru, Thirakkatha etc. At the same time he has continued to have releases in Tamil cinema with movies like Ninaithale Inikkum and Raavanan of late. He even marked his entry into Telugu Cinema this year with Police Police. With Punyam Aham not really turning out the way it could have been I had almost thought Prithviraj has gone back to focusing more on the popular films & that’s when I got an opportunity to watch his unreleased film ‘Veettilekulla Vazhi’ at this years edition of Mumbai Film Festival ( MAMI 2010 ).

Dr. Biju the director of Veettilekulla Vazhi (The Way Home- VV from hereon) is a homeopath physician turned filmmaker & has made interesting films like Saira and Raman earlier. Considering his earlier works and the kind of actors Dr.Biju had worked with earlier it was quite a surprise to me as to how he managed to draft Prithvi into the film. I did get my answer after watching the film. This film was the opening film in the Indian Frames section at MAMI and thus most of the team members associated with the film turned up for the premiere of the film including Dr. Biju & Prithviraj. As I watched the film a lot of questions popped up in my head about the film, some of which got answered before the film ended and some which still remain unanswered. To start with there is one point I’d like to stress about VV. For those who think this is just another Malayalam film, let me clarify that this is a true Pan Indian film.

VV starts with a doctor (Prithviraj) in Delhi attending to a critically ill patient Rashida ( Lakshmipriya ). Knowing that the doctor is also a malayalee and for some other unexplained reason of comfort, Rashida confides to the doctor that she is a member of a suicide squad of the notorious ‘Indian Jihadi’ group. She also tells him that she has a 5 year old son and wants the doctor to trace her son who is somewhere holed up in Kerala and unite him with his father. The father is revealed to be none other than Abdul Zuban Tariq, the dreaded leader of Indian Jehadi. After making the request to the doctor, Rashida dies and now the doctor faces an emotional turmoil and is not sure what he needs to do. We then find out that the doctor has had a haunting past behind him. He lost his wife and five year old son in a bomb blast in Delhi a few years ago and is yet to come to terms with the loss.

Prithvi and Master Govardhan during the shoot

After some initial hesitation the doctor finally decides to fulfill the last wish of Rashida and thus lands up in Kerala and finds the boy under the care of a teacher (Dhanya Mary Varghese). Then the doctor and the boy begin the long and difficult journey to meet the father of the boy, Abdul Zuban Tariq. From thereon it becomes a road movie as the doctor and the boy traverse across states and across various places like Jodhpur, Pushkar, Ladakh etc. All through this journey there is a silent bond established between the boy & the doctor. They also meet a lot of interesting people during the journey and also have to risk their lives as their lives get entwined with the terrorist network. So the story has a lot of soul-searching, conveys a lot of emotions and all along becomes a journey of all sorts.

In terms of the story telling Dr.Biju does a fair job as you are taken into the journey with the doctor and the boy. Some of the characters are also well depicted in the movie and that’s also something that Dr.Biju can be appreciated for.M.J.Radhakrishnan’s camera work does ample justice to the brilliant locales of Kerala, Rajasthan & Ladakh.Ramesh Narayanan’s use of the BG score is effective as well. Talking about the performances Prithviraj does reasonable justice to the role of the doctor and fairly underplays the character. Master Govardhan as the boy in search of his father is very natural and effective. Indrajith impresses in a small cameo as Razzak the friend and comrade of Abdul Zuban Tariq. Now let me clarify as to why I said VV is a pan-Indian film at the very beginning.

First and foremost the film scores by taking us through various locations in India like Delhi, Kerala, Jaipur, Ladakh etc and staying true to the surroundings. The characters are natural and look and speak the way they ought to do. Unlike a lot of films these days where authenticity goes for a toss VV addresses it fairly well. Also the movie isn’t a full fledged Malayalam movie in terms of the language spoken in the film. Nearly 25-30 % of the dialogues are in Hindi and there is a lot of Tamil as well. Considering all this I’d say that in terms of wanting to show the film as a Pan-Indian film, the team has been reasonably successful. But there are certain situations where you laugh & feel why they were needed. Also considering it’s not an out & out commercial film, Dr.Biju could have done well to avoid the kind of spoon feeding that’s visible in certain sequences (since the movie is yet to release it doesn’t make sense to discuss scenes in detail).

It’s also commendable to see Prithviraj taking on the responsibility of sub-titling of the film as well. That in a way indicates the kind of importance he has assigned to this project. At times you also feel that the movie is trying to shock you just for effect and that’s something I don’t really feel was required. When I look back now & reflect over the film I do realize that there’s some depth that is associated with the journey shown in the film. It’s just that the depth takes its own sweet time to reveal itself to you. Is it great cinema in the end? Definitely not, but is it an attempt to be relished and remembered- yes indeed.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/veettilekulla-vazhi-the-way-home-movie-review-an-interesting-journey-with-roadblocks/

Trailer

Arjunan Saakshi Movie Review: For the ‘Arjunan’ in all of us

Writer- Director Ranjith Shankar’s debut film – Passenger (2009) was one of the better films to emerge from Malayalam Cinema in that year. While the movie did have popular actors, what set the movie apart was the fact that the movie told the story from a common man’s point of view. The protagonist played by the wonderful Sreenivasan is someone whom we all come across in our daily life. Fuelled on by the response to Passenger, Ranjith went on to announce his next film,Arjunan Saakshi (AS from hereon) towards the end of 2009. Initially meant to be shot & completed in the summer of 2010, the film’s schedule kept getting postponed for various reasons and finally the film began in the later half of 2010 and got completed in quick time. Released on the 28th of January 2011, this was a film I was looking forward to. Not only was I keen to see if Ranjith was able to prove that Passenger was not a fluke, I was also keen to see how the leading man, Prithviraj was being portrayed in the film.

Let me go on to first talk about the film. AS begins with a letter written by an unknown person named Arjunan, reaching the hands of Anjali Menon (Ann Augustine) at the office of Matrubhoomi (a leading Malayalam newspaper and media house). In his letter Arjunan claims to have witnessed the murder of Feroze Moopan (Mukesh) the erstwhile collector of Cochin. This news creates a flutter in the media circles and everyone now wants to know the real identity of Arjunan. This is when Roy Mathew (Prithviraj) enters the scene. Roy is an architect who being an NRK (non resident Keralite), has decided to take up an assignment in Cochin so that he could experience the feeling of living in his home state for a while. Due to circumstances Roy gets mistaken as the unknown Arjunan and from thereon life becomes extremely tough for him.

So be it the Police or the media who is keen to know if he is the real Arjunan or some unknown people who keep harassing him and want him to leave Cochin, Roy is constantly under vigil. At one particular point Roy is determined and all set to announce that he is not Arjunan as people mistake him to be. But then comes the twist in the tale as Roy decides to face the situation head on. What happens from thereon? Who’s Arjunan and how is Roy linked to the Moopan murder? The rest of the movie is about all these. To start with I must admit that, AS has an interesting premise to begin with. All of us know that the common man can at times be witness to some extremely important events, sometimes unknowingly even being part of history.

But does the common man have the courage to come out in the open and narrate his part of the story? This is something that we need to dwell upon and the movie certainly makes us think on those lines. Also the background story (Cochin Metrorail project) is something that people can connect to. Today with malls, multiplexes and many new landmarks coming up in Cochin, the questions raised in the movie regarding development at what cost are very much valid. It’s also creditworthy indeed to note that the protagonist, Roy plays a common man and not a super hero (considering Prithviraj’s recent films – The Thriller, Anwar, Pokiri Raja have seen him trying to play larger than life characters), which is heartening of course. Another pleasant surprise is that while Roy and Anjali’s characters spend a lot of time together in the film, there is no forced attempt at building up a romantic track between them. Ajayan Vincent’s camerawork is quite effective and the car chase sequence in the 1st half was stunning to say the least. Having said all this AS is not a film without its issues. For me the biggest concern about the film lies in the writing. When the 1st half ends on a thrilling note and sets up the pace considerably, what was needed was an equally racy 2nd half, which kept up the tempo. Instead what unfolds is leisurely and routine indeed. Seeing Roy unravel the murder case of Moopan so effortlessly makes you wonder why the Police and allied forces couldn’t tackle it if it was so easy. And seeingBiju Menon, Suresh Krishna, Anand etc play the typical villains makes things only all the more dull. Both Biju Menon and Suresh Krishna are superb actors but their roles do not provide anything to challenge their limits.

When the film ended I was trying to wonder as to why the 2nd half disappoints after a promising 1st half and probably felt that somewhere along the way Ranjith might have decided that he needs to please the hard-core Prithvi fans as well. One can understand my point on seeing the film. While only Ranjith can say if my intuition is right or wrong, one thing is sure that in the process of trying to balance a realistic, common man’s tale with that of some heroism thrown in, the end result doesn’t come out all that impressive. Talking of performances Ann Augustine in her limited scope shows that her debut film Elsamma Enna Aankutty wasn’t any flash in the pan. Prithvi is effective especially in the 1st half of the film. The film has a whole host of supporting actors like Nedumudi Venu,Mukesh,Jagathy Sreekumar, Salim Kumar, Suraj Venjaramoodu etc but it is Jagathy and Mukesh who actually stand out over here. Mukesh’s role reminds us that there is more to him than just comedy and its good to see Ranjith utilising Jagathy Sreekumar effectively in both Passenger and now AS.

So all said and done the movie certainly does have an interesting premise and seeks out to once again speak from the common man’s viewpoint. It’s just that this time around the message somehow doesn’t come across all that effective.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/arjunan-saakshi-movie-review-for-the-arjunan-in-all-of-us/