Three Killer Movies.

Malayalam movies are getting to be insufferable. The last three I have watched were tiresome, to say the least. Where are the great directors and writers that Malayalam movies are known for? Where are the new Padmarajans, the new Bharatans?

Even the actors are getting to be tiresome. You’ve watched one Fahad Fazil movie, you have seen them all. In every movie that I have seen with him in it, he is playing Fahad Fazil. Not the character. Or maybe the characters are written for him. Either way, they suck. The characters. The directors are trying too hard to make great movies. The writers are trying too hard to write great stories. In doing so, they are missing the point. I miss the era of Mohanlal. Where he would get into the skin of every character. I suspect, with the ease of putting on a jacket. I also think these days every filmmaker wants to make ‘noir films’. I think it has become fashionable to make dark movies. Especially in Malayalam. The problem is they are missing out on the key ingredients that make a good dark story. A clear premise, a well-articulated psychological examination and a finely drawn-out structure. Take a movie like the Argentinian flick ‘Wild Tales’. The premise is very clear and the situations validate the premise. And of course, it has a very interesting cinematic structure.

I just finished watching Joji on Amazon Prime last night. Before I watched it I had read some amazing reviews about it. After watching the film it left me wondering what the reviewers were on when they were reviewing the film. There is though a great take-out that I got after watching the movie. The great acting of the girl who plays Bincy ( Unnimaya Prasad). She was stunning, to say the least. Effortless. She would have got an Oscar for it if she had done something like that for a Hollywood movie. Her acting is very controlled. Very underplayed. No unnecessary inflexions, unlike Mr Fazil. She is just there. In the skin of the character. Fahd does not have the personality to carry every film in his shadow a la Clint Eastwood (Or Mr Bachchan closer home). Fahd exploits his quirkiness in every movie of his. After some time, it can get thoroughly tiring. It was good in Njan Prakashan but pathetic in Irul and Joji.

I watched Ozhivu Divasathe Kali sometime back. Another totally screwed up movie. How does one make such a meaningless movie? What are they trying to say? What’s the message for the world? At first, when I started watching the movie, I was elated. I was really enjoying what I thought was the master craftsmanship of the director. It reminded me of Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror. Long, uninterrupted shots. The camera is in no hurry to go anywhere. Just panning, very slowly as if there is all the time in the world. And the scenes were developing finely. But then somewhere along the way, the writer and the director decide they need an ending worthy of a Quentin Tarantino. So they invent an ending that makes no sense. I don’t mind the dark stuff. But the context has to be right. I think, in this case, the ending was just simply shoved in there. Because that would make a great ending. Great drama. That’s not the way the film should have gone. It had the potential. But then everything came crashing down. I was disappointed, to say the least. Why does every director and writer think they have to do something different? They have to show the world they are creative. Malayalam filmmakers, and I suspect, the audience want to continue to make and view these utterly crappy films. Don’t even get me talking about Irul. It’s the worst movie I have seen in a while. I guess that says it all.