Go visit this City of God.

Tweet

Movie - City of God (Malayalam)

Director - Lijo Jose Pellissery

Producer - Anil Matthew

Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Babu Janardhanan

Cast - Prithviraj, Indrajith, Rima Kallingal, Shwetha Menon, Rohini, Parvathy, Rajeev Govinda Pillai, Anil Murali, Jagadish and others.

Cinematography - Sujith Vasudev

Music & Background Score - Prashant Pillai

Editor - Manoj

Art Director - Salu K George

Soung - Renganaath Ravee

Stunts - Different Dany

Release Date - 23rd April 2011

Lijo Jose Pellissery made an impressive debut last year through the technically captivating Nayakan, starring Indrajith and people hoping for at least 'some' kind of a change in Malayalam Cinema, noticed a lot of promise in him. His second movie got a bigger budget and bigger stars, but he still stayed away from the mainstream Malayalam cinema cliche and made a film that showed his substance as a director and a good storyteller. Like this year's pathbreaking movie Traffic, this one also has multiple narrative which overlaps each other and goes back and forth through events unfolding in each narrative. The name of the Brazilian crime classic by Fernando Meirelles has been used for this movie, and I must say that they havent done much damage to name of the classic. And they might have kept it as a tribute to Brazilian Cinema, which has influenced the kind of storytelling adapted in this movie - especially the style of Alejandro Innaritu in his cult film Amores Perros where a road accident kicks off three different stories of different people meeting at the same point during an accident. (For those who havent seen Amores Perros, refer Aayitha Ezhuthu/Yuva which also adapted this screenplay technique)

The movie has three parallel storylines - A business tycoon (Rajeev Govinda Pillai) who wants to get back with his once girlfriend, filmstar Suryaprabha (Rima Kallingal) much to her displeasure and his friend Jyothilal (Prithviraj), a henchman who will do anything for his boss. A construction site worker Swarnavelu (Indrajith) and his world in a slum occupied by Tamil immigrants in Kochi and his love for Marathagam (Parvathi), a fellow worker. The third track features a shrewd widow Viji (Shwetha Menon) who would go to any lengths to avenge her husband's murder. The stories and characters cris-cross each other in Kochi, which is referred to as the City of God by the movie's title. 

Nayakan showed that Lijo Jose Pellissery had promise and that he'll deliver much better stuff if given a good screenplay. And Babu Janardhanan, who already gave us the very interesting non-linear screenplay of Thalappavu 3 years back, has done just that. Lijo has treated the engaging screenplay with precision and finesse making it into a completley riveting and gripping experience for most parts. There is not one scene where you lose interest in the movie. The characterizations are nothing like what we see in usual Malayalam films. Nobody in this movie is fully black or white. Each and every character has a fair share of grey to him/her. And one interesting thing is that the ladies are given as much or even more screen space and situations to perform than the lead actors, which is quite unusual. Lijo has dared to move away from the much-abused path of regular commercial cinema and has made a product that deserves an intelligent audience to appreciate. The cyclical narrative keeps the audience hooked on to the film and it is interesting how each narrative ties up to each other and culminate together in the climax. Out of the three, it is Prithviraj & Rima Kallingal's track which is the most interesting. Indrajith's Tamil track provides the entertainment quotient in the movie and Shwetha Menon's revenge plot, which is in a way related to Prithviraj's plot also works well. The constant shifting of perspectives in the narrative requires close attention to be fathomed correctly. The film presents Kochi as the city of dreams, the city of crime and the city of hope and maybe thats why the title - City of God. 

As for the performances, the ladies walk away with the top honours. Rima Kallingal is brilliant as the actress who is going through a turmoil in her personal life. This young actress shows a different side to her and proves that she has immense potential and can deliver amazing performances if challenged. Her dialogue delivery was criticized in some of the other reviews, but I felt it was just right for her character. She emotes naturally and gives a mature performance which would put many of those so-called top heroines in Malayalam to shame. Rima is matched in every way by Parvathy Menon, the VJ turned Filmfare award winning actress (Notebook, Flash, Poo) playing the Tamil girl Marathagam. She brings in a certain raw appeal which makes her vulnerable as well as aggressive at the same time. Watch out for her awesome chemistry with Indrajith. We need to see more of this actress in Malayalam. Shwetha Menon is also great as the scheming femme fatale out to get revenge for her husband's death. Rohini does away with all her poise and plays a slum-dweller with utmost conviction. But the scene at the bar where after she gets drunk, could have been better. 

Among the men, its Prithviraj who shines. The actor gives a kickass performance after a really long time in a role that fits him to the T. His dialogue delivery, looks and brooding personality makes a huge impact in his role of a henchman which he does with ease, without going overboard at any point. He goes on to prove that he is always good in roles with negative shades. And its appreciable that he took out time to act in an experimental movie like this during his busy schedule. Watch out for him in the stunt sequences and the scenes involving him and Rima Kallingal. And of course, there is Prithvi's elder brother Indrajith playing a Tamilian with as much authenticity as we can imagine. He is a delight to watch on screen. Though he reminds us of Surya in Pithamagan or Madhavan in Aayitha Ezhuthu at some instances, thats not a bad thing at all. Lijo has made sure that his first hero gets to shine in scenes tailor made for him, in their second movie together as well. Model-turned-actor Rajeev Govinda Pillai, making his debut as the business tycoon Sony Vadayattil, looks great and has a good screen presence. But when it comes to portraying villainy towards the end of the movie, his face turns wooden and cannot bring out the needed emotions, hence lessening the impact of those scenes.. Anil Murali was very good as a real estate-cum-quotation agent. This would perhaps be Jagadish's best performance in the past 10 or 12 years. He has underplayed so well compared to the overacting he has been doing in every single movie for the past 10 years. Kishore Sathya who played Mehboob, Rima's husband was excellent. And the other bald guy (a Sathyan Anthikkad regular, forgot his name) who plays Sony's partner Babychan was also very good. The rest of the supporting cast also did a great job, except for Nandu who went overboard in every single scene that featured him. 

One major irritating factor in the movie was the hand-held camerawork. Sujith Vasudev has taken some great shots which help a great deal in moving the story forward. But him and Lijo, along with fight choreographer Different Dany has shot some really irritating shots for the innovatively choreographed stunt sequences. The camera is never still and keeps moving here and there, zooming in and out and with lots of action happening within the shot. This gives almost 90% of the audience an eyesore. And it happens with every single action sequence in the movie and there are quite a lot of them. Even the innovatively conceived single-shot fight sequence featuring Prithviraj at a movie set doesnt make the required impact because of such irritating camerawork. But other than the fight sequences and few other instances, the cinematography works very well. Manoj's editing is perfect and he does not go for editing gimmicks unlike many of our famed editors who cut action films. The narrative flows seamlessly keeping you engaged throughout. Renganath Ravee's sound design was also excellent. 

And then we come to the next most interesting aspect of the movie - the music, by Prashant Pillai. The film has a great soundtrack which offers a wide variety of songs, that too in 3 different languages - Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. While the haunting duet 'Nee Akaleyano' is the best among the lot, the lovely Tamil song 'Kaalangal' is beautiful as well. There's dappankoothu in the form of the racy 'Annan' and a melancholic Hindi song 'Betaabi'. The film shoot song 'Prayam' is also a good number. (Unfortunately, parts of the 2 Tamil songs were chopped off in the print I watched). The background score sets the right mood for the entire film, right from the titles to the end credits. (I loved the use of Kamal Haasan's 'Kaadhal Vandiduchu' in a certain comic portion involving Indrajith). 

On the whole, City of God is a gripping thriller told amusingly through a multiple narrative format, with great performances, great music and fab technical support. Lijo Jose Pellissery proves that he surely is a man of promise. Watch out for Rima Kallingal, Prithviraj, Indrajith & Parvathy. The film got released after a lot of financial issues and has not been marketed properly. So as lovers of good Malayalam Cinema, it is our duty to go watch such films in theaters, and encourage them, so that more makers dare to make such movies. Otherwise, we would just keep getting those mundane masala movies or multistarrers which make no sense, but still make a lot of money. 

Bottomline - A visit to this City of God is worth every penny spent. Go watch!! 

Urumi is fantastic.

Tweet

Movie - Urumi (Malayalam)

Director - Santosh Sivan

Producers - Santosh Sivan, Shaji Nadeshan, Prithviraj Sukumaran

Story, Screenplay, Dialogues - Shanker Ramakrishnan

Cast - Prithviraj, Prabhu Deva, Jagathy Sreekumar, Amole Gupte, Genelia, Nithya Menen, Vidya Balan, Arya, Ankur Sharma, Robin Pratt, Alexx O'Neill, Shaji Nadeshan

Director of Photography - Santosh Sivan ISC

Additional Cinematography - Anjali Shukla, Alphonse Roy

Music & Background Score - Deepak Dev

Editing - Sreekar Prasad

Action - Anal Arasu

Art Direction - Sunil Babu

Costumes - Eka Lakhani

Make Up - Ranjith Ambady

Release Date - 31st March 2011

Not so long ago, a maverick filmmaker named Quentin Tarantino made a kickass movie called Ingourious Basterds with his own fantasized version of German History, where historical characters became part of a zany fictional story. Famed cinematographer-director Santosh Sivan & first time writer Shanker Ramakrishnan have attempted something similar in Urumi, where historical characters become part of a fantasy tale about revenge, redemption and freedom, told in the form of a ballad. If QT's Basterds told the story of a bunch of people who set out to kill Adolf Hitler, Urumi tells the story of one man and his best friend who had just one goal - the death of the famed explorer Vasco Da Gama. And as promised, Urumi is a fantastic visual experience mounted on an epic scale with an intriguing screenplay. 

The movie begins with a narration on Vasco Da Gama by Malayalam Cinema's own KPAC Lalitha, lending it the fairy tale nature which Santosh Sivan always tries to capture through his films. We see the young & aimless Krishnadas (Prithviraj) & Tarzan (Prabhu Deva) taken back to Kerala from Goa to negotiate a deal to sell KD's ancestral property to an international mining company. But before they seal the deal, they are captured by tribals who occupy the land and their head (Arya) narrates the story of their land, which spans back a few centuries. Cut to sometime during 1500 AD - Chirakkal Kothuvaal (Arya again) dies a brave death fighting against Vasco Da Gama during his second visit to Kerala. And this ignites a fire for revenge inside his son Kelu Nayanar (Prithviraj again) to kill Vasco Da Gama. He grows up with his Muslim friend Vavvali (Prabhu Deva, again) to become a fierce warrior. In the process of getting towards his goal, he gets into an alliance with Chirakkal Thampuraan (Amole Gupte) despite the presence of the scheming Chenicheri Kurup (Jagathy Sreekumar) and also meets the fiery warrior princess Arackal Ayesha (Genelia) who later joins forces with him. Whether Kelu will get his revenge or not becomes the crux of the film. 

Urumi is perhaps Santosh Sivan's finest film as a director (The Terrorist & Halo being his two other great films) and the film has his stamp all over it. When India's most celebrated cinematographer directs a movie, he is bound to tell his story through some striking images, which is exactly what Mr.Sivan has done in this movie. Unlike his previous work as a cinematographer - Raavanan, which received a lot of flak for being just a showcase for some magical visuals, Urumi unravels almost completely through the mindblowing images that Santosh Sivan has captured in his camera. Shanker's script gives ample space for Mr.Sivan to play around with his visuals which he has clearly enjoyed doing. The movie is told in the form of a ballad where history, mythology and fantasy blend seamlessly with each other. From building a mirror between present day happenings and ancient history to recreating a period seen never before in our cinema with virgin lands almost permanently covered in mist, Santosh Sivan & his writer Shanker have done a mindblowing job. And unlike the usual coconut trees, backwaters and Athirappilli waterfalls, Santosh Sivan has showcased a different kind of greenery, a different kind of Kerala in the film. And there couldnt be a better setting for the movie. 

Prithviraj is restrained as Kelu Nayanar and does remarkably well. But one misses the fire of revenge in his eyes and body language at many instances which makes his character a little weak at times. And when it comes to the initial comic portions as Krishnadas, he overdoes it a little as usual. The actor has a beefed up look (inspired by Salman Khan's Veer) which didnt create the required impact on the posters, but works very well in the film. His dialogue delivery was very good and needs special mention. Prabhu Deva completely overshadows Prithviraj by stealing the show from him in every frame they appear together (there are hardly any scenes where they are not together). Prabhu Deva brings in the comic, fun element of the film and the audience establishes an emotional connect with his character rather than the protagonist played by Prithviraj. Its a delight to see Prabhu Deva acting after a long time and that giving such a fabulous performance. He scores in every department - be it comedy, romance, dance or action.  Jagathy Sreekumar is the other scene-stealer in the movie. The legendary actor plays an effeminate minister Chenichery Kuruppu with utmost perfection. We Malayalis havent had the opportunity to see the actor in such a role earlier and he stuns us with his performance in it. Genelia is in complete contrast to the cute bubbly girl we've seen in so many movies as she plays a fiery warrior princess. She does unbelievably well in the action sequences which deserves a whole lot of appreciation for her effort and dedication. But otherwise, her performance wasnt very great. Her chemistry with Prithviraj was also very cold and didnt create any impact. Her lip sync was completely out of place as well. 

Amole Gupte is brilliant as the flamboyant king and the actor never lets us know that its a non-Malayali actor playing the role. The dubbing artiste Hareendranath also requires a special mention for doing an awesome job. The irresistible Nithya Menen plays the romantic interest of Prabhu Deva (or  should it be the other way round) and even though she is not that important in the main plot, she does extremely well in the flirtatious scenes with Prabhu Deva and the wonderful song. Arya in an extended cameo is great. Prithviraj's dubbing for him was a little unsettling initially, but then we get used to it. Vidya Balan plays the mystic character Maakkam who clears a dilemma in the mind of Kelu and features in a raunchy song as well. She does fine, but the costumes she wore in the song looked totally out of place in a film like this. She has dubbed by herself and her Malayalam was actually quite good. Ankur Sharma as the good for nothing prince Bhanu Vikraman was partly good, partly bad. That he is completely unfamiliar with the language, reflects in his acting and affects it too. Alexx O'Neil (earlier seen in Madhrasappattinam) is very good as Estavio Da Gama and Robin Pratt is equally effective as the explorer Vasco Da Gama. The co-producer of the movie Shaji Nadeshan plays the part of a dedicated soldier and has a good screen presence. The rest of the supporting cast is also very effective. Tabu's appearance in a song doesnt work all that much. 

Shanker Ramakrishnan's highly researched screenplay where history blends seamlessly with fantasy is definitely brilliant for a first time writer. He lives up to the promise he gave through his short film Island Express in the Kerala Cafe anthology. He creates a perfect mirror to what happened centuries ago through the present day events, although the good and evil have taken different forms now. He slightly loses his grip during the few romantic interludes between Prithviraj & Genelia which slows down the pace of the movie. But otherwise he grabs the audience by their throat and holds their attention till the last frame of the movie. Each character has a distinct and unique characterization and many of them have different sides to their personalities which we havent seen quite often with characters in our Malayalam Cinema. The story goes a full circle and builds up to an effective, satisfying closure with a ray of hope. The mirroring of characters from the past and the present was a great touch too. The language spoken in the movie is slightly difficult to follow, especially the significant historical details and terminologies used during that period. (I actually got a complete picture only on the second viewing, which I enjoyed even better than my first one). The dialogues are kickass to say the least. Coming from Ranjith's school of filmmaking, it is no surprise that Shanker can write really kickass dialogues. Its also a reminder that punch dialogues need not be high voltage lines which rhyme. And without resorting to that, Shanker has packed a powerful punch in so many of his dialogue. A slight MT influence creeps in here and there in the dialogue (maybe because only he has written good dialogues in this genre of films so far in Malayalam), but thats not a bad thing at all. All in all, a tremendous effort from Ranjith's protege Shanker Ramakrishnan which deserves an ovation. 

The cinematography of the film is lyrical to say the least. Each image is poetry in motion and contributes so much to the telling of the story, rather than staying just awesome visuals arranged to make a story. In addition to the director & DOP Santosh Sivan, last year's National Award winner Anjali Shukla (Kutty Srank) and Alphonse Roy (Aamir) have also worked for the film.  The virgin locations and perpetually misty atmosphere creates a completely new world different from anything we've seen on screen so far. Be it the use of different animals to enhance the frames or the slow motions shots or the extreme close ups, everything looks so bloody good. The CGI and DI are also done very effectively, especially during the fight sequence in the second half shot in a dawn effect. The only place where the visuals are jarring was the 'Aaro Nee Aaro' song which looked totally out of context in a movie like this. And the way it was shot, with extreme slow motion, looked more like it was an Amal Neerad song rather than a Santosh Sivan song. The climactic battle also could've gone easy on the slow motion, but it works even otherwise. 

Deepak Dev's music is nothing short of epic. He has realized the scale of the movie and delivered what it exactly needs. A grand score with some great songs ranging in different genres. 'Aarane Aarane' and 'Chimmi Chimmi' are the hot favourites of the season. The tribal songs 'Appa Nammude' and 'Thelu Thele' are sublimely beautiful. The beautiful 'Aaro Nee Aaro' and the sensuous 'Chalanam Chalanam' have disappointing visualizations. The theme music score is out of this world and is one of the best compositions Deepak Dev has come up with. The background score, despite the slight AR Rahman influence is brilliant, to say the least. It completely enhances the feel of the scenes and takes them to another level. One can surely say Urumi is Deepak Dev's career best work. Sreekar Prasad's editing is perfect as the movie has a seamless flow throughout. Sunil Babu's tremendous efforts at recreating the atmosphere of the bygone era has paid off richly. Ranjith Ambady's make up and Eka Lakhani's costumes are authentic as well as imaginative. Anal Arasu's action choreography is stunning. Sound Design by Rajakrishnan is pure brilliance. 

On the whole, Urumi is a complete audio visual experience which is definitely something new and rare for the Malayali audience. And all this is done within a completely entertaining format, making it one of the finest entertainers in recent times as well. Fabulous performances, stunning cinematography, great music and sound design, spectacular action and a fine screenplay transport you completely into a different world, and by the end of it all, gives us a reality check that the situations are not that different even now. Though there are a few glitches, they are not as big to hamper the great experience the movie provides on the whole. Urumi is also the kind of film which grows on you slowly and with each re-watch. Had it been a little tighter, it could've featured amongst our all time classics. Shanker Ramakrishnan proves to us that there's still some hope left in this industry. Kudos to Prithviraj, Shaji Nadeshan and Santosh Sivan for venturing into this mammoth production and coming out trumps and thereby bringing cheer to our industry. Here's wishing all the very best to August Cinema for their future endeavours. Watch, if you havent already. 

P.S. - Watch at a very good screen with extremely good projection and sound systems to enjoy the movie completely. Sridhar's poor screen and sound did impact my first viewing and I could enjoy the movie in all its glory only on a second viewing at Q Cinemas.

Bottomline - A fantastic experience which Malayalis shouldnt be missing at any cost.