Ranam- Detroit Crossing

Ranam- Detroit Crossing- Movie Review

“Second chances are sometimes too costly”

A life trapped in endless crimes, a faraway mirage for a better life and the yearning for redemption, Ranam- The Detroit crossing, revolves around this plot.  Ranam is a movie which is technically rich with strong performances and personally to me, an improvement in the superstar/gangster genre movies in Malayalam. Upcoming directors can certainly learn a thing or two from Ranam, about how to make a decent dark gangster movie with brilliant cinematography (Jigme Tenzing is perfection in human form) along with the editing which makes Ranam, comparable to mafia dramas of the West.

Ranam as a movie relies on the strong performances of the central characters played by Prithviraj as Aadhi, a runaway driver and member of an outsider gangster group in Detroit struggling to maintain their relevance, led by Damodar Ratnam played by Rahman.  

It is a pleasure to watch the evolution of Prithviraj as an actor and even as a person throughout these years. He plays Aadhi, the central character who will remind us of all those stages in life where we have been in a situation so painful that it kind of saturates you and makes you settle down in the same pit again and again. Still rarely when there is a hope of redemption, you are helpless but to yearn for it, knowing the hefty price you might have to pay.

A haunting past, a present he never wished for, a future he is not sure of and only one vague chance at making everything better, stuck in this uncertainty, Aadhi is the character that I rooted for throughout the movie played by Prithvi with such masterful restraint.  He makes you feel the pain, confusion, guilt and the fearless decisiveness at the face of ultimate destiny and effortlessly delivers another wonderful performance after the heart-wrenching portrayal of Joshua in Koode.

Rahman, who has already established his craft has played the cold-hearted leader of the gang with perfection. Damodar is composed, cunning and downright cruel when it comes to maintenance of his legacy as a gangster in Detroit where things are slowly going out of his power. With a soft corner only towards his brother Selvam played by Ashwin Kumar, I cannot imagine someone doing the role better than him. Ashwin transforms completely into the mannerisms of a gangster brat so well that he is one of the most authentic supporting casts in the film.

Isha Talwar as Seema justifies her role well except for some forced dialogue delivery spots which fell flat. Although, it was a relief to see her in a different role, as a woman with so many complications, in a land and household foreign to her, struggling to get used to the negligence. She is the typical portrayal of the damsel in distress for the hero of the film to rescue, in all the cliched situations one could imagine. Thankfully Nirmal managed to make even this familiar plotline a bit different in his own unique ways.

Rest of the cast, Nandu as Bhaskar (a close relative of Aadhi), Giju John (as Ahmed Siddique), Shivajith Padmanabhan (as Rajan Kuriakose), Celine Joseph (as Deepika), plays their part well enough. It is them, their situations, their hopeless efforts to survive the plights as immigrants trapped in the present Detroit is what adds to the complexities of the story of Ranam. Nandu’s dialogue, “People think only UAE has immigrants struggling to earn for the better lives of their family back in the homeland” strikes the chords and makes one think of how easy it is for us to believe the imaginary world of a foreign land.

Gripping background music and feel good soundtracks by Jakes Bejoy is another strength of the movie; there is more to look forward to from this budding composer. Ranam is not the best in the gangster thriller genre and certainly has popular clichés, but director Nirmal Sahadev has his own way of storytelling and has thoughtfully crafted the plot and the characters, to keep one engaged. The clever narration by Prithviraj which gives the audience insights into the history of Detroit and the plight of the people in the current scenarios and even into the characters’ background worked well except for certain spots where it felt a bit like the audience were being spoon-fed.

Amidst all its familiar plotlines, Ranam is raw and stand out from all the similar genre of movies I have seen in Malayalam. In short if one must make a gangster movie with a superstar in it, then this is the way how it should be done.

P.S. Picture Courtesy- IMDb, Youtube

Manmarziyaan

Manmarziyaan - Movie Review

The eternal chaos called love, is what Manmarziyaan tries to encapsulate.  The confused state of mind when in love, the thin lines of right or wrong which frequently gets blurred, and the fragility of life decisions we often take, Anurag Kashyap has managed to portray the catastrophic events in lives of people in love, beautifully.

After a while, Anurag managed to impress me within last two weeks, as an actor in the Tamil film, Imaikkaa Nodigal (check out the blog for Imaikkaa Nodigal’s review) with his effortless acting and now as a director with Manmarziyaan, by portraying the complexities of the feeling called love, successfully. When an about to be thirty me, wanted to dismiss the film as unrealistic, my 20 plus heart who went through catastrophic life events due to the same destructive, yet enriching feeling called love, vouched for the film as the justifiable portrayal of souls messed up in real life.

Manmarziyaan is a mess (quite literally towards the end :P) but is a refreshing take on love and relationships. The concept is conventional of a love triangle but the portrayals of characters and their treatment is original and relatable. It is tempting at various junctures to pass off the movie as too mature to be realistic especially Abhishek’s Character, but as much as we might hate to admit, this is a reality too.

The story revolves around Rumi (Taapsee Pannu) and Vicky (Vicky Kaushal), the rebels without a cause in love and Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan), the too good to be true yet the sweetest and mature character of the plot. Rumi and Vicky’s love is real and unapologetic and showcases every reality of the generation’s love life, sex, immaturity, commitment issues and shattering life’s reality check-ins.

Writer Kanika Dhillon has layered each character and developed the plot so well and a bit too much in detail that the whole movie portrays an in-depth exploration of love and the mistakes we commit in love. 

The central casting of the three major characters are brilliant, to say the least. Taapsee as Rumi, the unapologetic, fierce and sometimes unreasonable small-town girl, is one of my favorite performances of her career. Vicky aka Sandhu ka ladka, as the typical Punjabi Munda with no actual control over his life, is played brilliantly by Vicky Kaushal. I am so looking forward to more of his talent ahead. 

Last but not the least is, Abhishek Bachchan as Robbie, the perfect marriage suitor coming into the plot because of an accidentally arranged, marriage proposal, caused out of rage. He plays the good guy with such clever restraint that it will make you want to scream for him. 

He, at least for me is the kind of men that we really need, who is subtle, sensitive yet knows what he really wants and stands to fight for it, without any hulla about it.  

All the three characters of the plot are not someone you can feel sorry for neither are they likable at first, but they are so real, complicated and portrays elements from all our of real lives that you cannot hate them either.

Music by Amit Trivedi is fresh and a perfect fit to the storyline, though I felt the background score did try to spoon-feed emotions a bit at few plots. The soundtracks will stay with you even after the movie, Daryaa and Sachi Mohabath is already on loop in my playlist.

You will see Anurag’s elements from previous movies, especially DevD, strewed in here and there, which were more or less repetitive. At the same time, there is the beauty of giving even the supporting characters moments that last like, Vicky’s father giving a reality check to Vicky about his life choices or Rumi’s grandfather trying to converse to Rumi through eyes, that if she was ok are sweet points that stayed with me. 

The climax scene between Rumi and Robbie having a long exchange of dialogue over a walk back home was a delight to watch and to be honest a much-needed break for the pace of the movie which went messier in the second half as the emotions get into more complexities.

After Dev D, Manmarziyaan is one realistic love story which came out of Bollywood after a long time, without its typical sanitizations of emotions and characters. To put it short, as Ananya Bhattacharya from India Today posted, “Manmarziyaan gives women their DevD”.

P.S.: Picture Courtesy- FilmiBeat, IMDb, Hindustaan, Youtube

Imaikkaa Nodigal

Imaikkaa Nodigal- Movie Review

Love. Loss. Ego

Every act in this world is a consequence of love, loss or ego, is what I could absorb from Imaikkaa Nodigal, which seems like quite a food for thought. What could have been a standard and shorter suspense thriller, Imaikkaa Nogidal is unfortunately dragged with a cliché and clearly irritating subplot. But before we dive into what went wrong, this film certainly deserves to be called a decent thriller with strong performances.  While Atharvaa, tested my patience with his mostly blunt acting, Anurag Kashyap and Nayanthara, made me go wow with their killer performances.

Nayanthara, in her second innings, have been cautiously selecting roles which provide her quite a larger platform to perform and justifiably excels in the same too. She is a stylish, strong and talented CBI officer Anjali Vikramadithyan, as usual with a storm behind the calm waters. I was happy to see her completely switching between emotions, something which was kind of missing in her previous roles; there were shades of sadness lurking behind all her emotions on screen. Or was it just me who felt so, not Sure.

Tamil Cinema or films in general I guess are finally coming to terms with the idea that not all negative characters need to look negative. Even the cutest or normal of the individuals can be the villain in a story. Anurag Kashyap, as Rudra aka ACP Martin Roy, excels beyond expectations and years after Aravind Swamy, I finally found one villain I could adore. He performs his role of a psychotic villain with so much ease and conviction that it makes you go crazy at points, this man is immensely talented. 

Stylish as hell, with deadly eyes and robust voice (thanks to director Magizh Thirumeni who dubbed for Anurag), coupled with Hiphop Tamizha's intimidating background score, Rudra is sure to send chills down your spine.

Vijay Sethupathi aka Vikramadithyan, as well established was a clever marketing addition to the plot and does what he is best at. Small portion filled with statement lines, good laughs and an emotional message for his daughter, he was as always, a pleasure to watch on screen.  

The chemistry between Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi was cute just like in “Naanum Rowdy Thaan”. After Vikram Vedha, I have been hearing quiet cold reviews of his performances in movies that came after and hope that the intensity of talent this man possesses, never go wasted.

The daughter of Nayanthara, played by Manasvi Kottachi, deserves a mention too but unfortunately, in my senses, not a positive one. While at few junctures the scenes were cute but mostly I was helpless but to think why we need to portray the children of strong women as so outspoken at a very young age?? 

And no, the kid isn’t talking something sensible, in the lengthiest screen space given to her, she is made to hurl abuses at others.   Maybe it's just me who generally cannot understand how people enjoy when kids irrespective of gender is made to talk and act in a way like adults; can we not let them be kids? Amidst all this, Manasvi is a little bundle of cuteness especially towards the end when Nayanthara shares a subtle yet sweet moment with her.

Coming to my major trouble with the movie; the subplot involving actor Atharvaa and his love life was simply not relevant to the major storyline or rather could have given a clean thriller slot for the movie if that portion was omitted. 

Annoyingly filled with overacting from Atharvaa and his love interest played by actress Raashi Khanna making her debut in Tamil (another trophy fair queen actress for Kollywood- honestly, I have nothing against fair actors but Kollywood’s obsession with fairness but no talent is simply unbearable over years), the subplot brings in every cliché part of a common Kollywood romcom (a hardly noticeable love song, ultimately irritating breakup song and some age-old love troubles). 

Don’t be surprised if you see the pair dancing to the same steps and backdrops of some recent famous Bollywood songs or them enacting cliched scenes from previous Tamil romcoms with no genuine emotions. Halfway into the movie, you will be desperately wondering why director Ajay Gnanamuthu, after his successful horror outing Demonte Colony, chose to focus on so many clichés to build up the commercial aspects for the plot rather than trying to deliver the story crispier and better as it already was.

While the soundtracks by Hiphop Tamizha was hardly noticeable except for one song, just like in his previous movie “Meesaya Murukku”, his background score is worth a mention as it adds a lot of value to the thrill in the screenplay. However, he could take a lesson or two in how to use silence effectively to make a few scenes better.

The action sequences are decent, some are completely illogical but have been cleverly shot in a compelling manner to pass of the issues. Overall, ignoring intricate logical details, make-believe scenes in the sub-plots and predictability, Imaikkaa Nodigal is an engaging thriller with stellar performances.

P.S. Picture Courtesy Indiaglitz and Youtube