Payanam is brilliant!!

Movie - Payanam (Tamil)
Director - Radha Mohan
Producer - Prakash Raj
Cast - Nagarjuna, Prakash Raj, Bharat Reddy, MS Bhaskar, Thalaivasal Vijay, Brahmanandam, Sana Khan, Rishi, Kumaravel, Prithviraj, Poonam Kaur Chaams, Mano Bala & others. 
Background Score - Pravin Mani
Cinematography - KV Guhan
Editor - Kishore
Art Director - Kathir
Story, Screenplay - Radha Mohan
Dialogues - TJ Gnanavel
Release Date - 11th February 2011

Radha Mohan is known for making feel good family entertainers like Azhagiya Theeyae, Mozhi & Abhiyum Naanum. Through his latest film Payanam, he has made an engaging, realistic hijack drama with all commercial elements (romance, comedy, heroism, sentiments) in place, and that too, with a Superstar in the lead. Telugu Superstar Nagarjuna and the Superstar among character actors, Prakash Raj, lead the brilliant cast of the movie. 

A Chennai - New Delhi flight is hijacked by 5 terrorists and while diverting it to Pakistan, they have to land at Tiruppati, Andhra Pradesh due to a technical fault in the flight. They demand the release of the international terrorist Yusuf Khan & Rs. 100 crores to release the hostages in the flight and the Indian Government is given a little less than 2 days to make the decision whether to accept their demands or face the consequences. Led by Vishwanath, Home Secretary (Prakash Raj), the National Security Advisor's team land in Tiruppathi airport to negotiate with the terrorists and soon after the NSG team and Major Raveendran (Nagarjuna) are also summoned to tackle the situation. How Vishwanath & Raveendran go about doing that is what Payanam tells in its 2 Hours 15 Minutes running time.

There are a bunch of interesting characters in the film, most of them being the people who're trapped inside the flight. And the interactions between them takes up majority of the screen time of the film. Each person gives a different emotional side to the movie. While the priest provides faith that there is someone watching over them all, the retired colonel is on the lookout for any solution to the tense situation. The 'Shining Star' chickens out on the sight of a cockroach thereby shattering the image of a terrorist-bashing superhero that his ardent fan seated next to him had. An atheist youth believes in compassion and humanity more than God and the petrified astrologer seated next to him believes that the flight is going through a bad time. A charming but sarcastic doctor and a beautiful young lady strike a chord with each other over a time period. A little Pakistani girl going back to her country after a successful surgery in Chennai finds a friend among one of the terrorists whom she later begins to hate because of their actions. There is even a mimicry artist who entertains the people inside in spite of the tension looming in the air. There is a central minister who is the trump card for the terrorists and an old Brahmin couple who're trying to pacify a young wife who has run away from her husband. A drug addict who believes he can escape from all this and the airhostess who serves her passengers and makes sure of their well being despite being trapped. Even the terrorists have distinct characterizations. On the other side, the bureaucrat and the NSG chief try hard to find a solution for the problem at their office in the airport, stuck in between the growing threats from the terrorists and the indecisiveness of the Indian Government. Each character grows on you as the narrative progresses and by the end of the film, each one of them is a hero/heroine in his/her own respect. 

Among the performances, Prakash Raj takes the cake as the Home Secretary who acts as a mediator between the terrorists and the Indian Government. He handles himself with control throughout the situation despite going through a hell lot of frustration from the people involved on both sides. And his performance in the scene where he explodes with anger after remaining in control for such a long time is simply mindblowing. Nagarjuna making his comeback to Tamil Cinema after a long 15 years is excellent. He is wonderfully restrained and is stripped off of his mass-hero antics which he is famous for in Telugu. His subtle performance packs a solid punch and he shows that you need not go out there and utter silly lines and do unbelievable fights to show that you're a hero (its funny that such a hero is also there in the movie, sitting inside the flight, petrified of the things around him). My respect for him as an actor has grown tremendously after watching this movie. Dr. Bharath Reddy provides the required support to his character as his sub-ordinate Nawaz Khan. Each one of the people trapped inside the flight played their parts perfectly - the best ones being Kumaravel (perhaps Radha Mohan's favourite actor after Prakash Raj), MS Bhaskar, Thalaivasal Vijay, Prithviraj, Chaams, Poonam Kaur & Rishi. The famous Telugu comedian Brahmanandam comes back to Tamil Cinema after his hilarious role in Mozhi and gives us a few great light moments to divert our minds from the tense situation in the second half. The actor who played Yusuf Khan was also very good. 

Radha Mohan addresses a whole lot of issues with cleverly written scenes and dialogues. He showcases the myriad of emotions which the passengers go through trapped in a life or death situation and also the angst of two dedicated officers who wants immediate action, but are tied down by the policies of a diplomatic government which wants to play safe. There are references to the insensitivity of the media who just wants to sensationalize issues for their TRP ratings before thinking about the consequences. Unexpected twists make the narrative more interesting, leading up to a nail biting finale which leaves you completely satisfied. There is a slight inspiration from last year's quirky indie flick Tere Bin Laden and that has been used very effectively to take the narrative forward at a crucial turning point. Radha Mohan has proved that he is an extremely versatile director who can handle sensitive subjects in an entertaining format, no matter what the genre is. There is a slight romance which buds between Rishi & Sana Khan; the hilarious conversations between the star Chandrakanth and his ardent fan who is disappointed seeing the actual avatar of his favourite hero; the friendship between the little Pakistani girl & the young terrorist who still hasnt turned as cold blooded as his colleagues and many more such wonderful moments.

KV Guhan's camerawork captures the emotions of each character in their most minute details. The claustrophobic atmosphere inside the flight has been wonderfully recreated by art director Kathir and cinematographer KV Guhan. Editor Kishore keeps the pace of the movie engaging even when it takes detours to flashbacks and comic scenes. Background score by Pravin Mani has helped a lot to enhance the overall mood and feel of the film. 

Overall, Payanam is an excellently made engaging hijack drama with fantastic performances ranging from the stars Nagarjuna & Prakash Raj to the most minor junior artists and a whole range of emotions that the principal characters go through, thereby making the audience completely involved with them. No songs, dances, punch dialogues and foreign locales, yet a completely satisfying film in the commercial cinema format. Payanam is indeed a must watch.

P.S. - Mr. Major Ravi, please watch this movie to see how a person with no connections to the army or commandos has effectively handled a hijack drama, despite it being his first attempt in such a genre. And how he has inserted other elements of comedy, sentiments, heroism, patriotism, compassion and romance seamlessly into his narrative. Not by including item songs, toilet humour and unwanted scenes like you did in the movie you made on a similar subject. And look how he has used a superstar effectively without giving him mass hero antics, unlike you who had two of India's best actors with you and let them and their fans down terribly. 

Rating - 4/5 

Worst Movies of 2010 - Malayalam

This is an attempt to compile 10 of the worst movies of  2010, from among the ones I had to subject myself to. There have been umpteen number of terrible films which got released this year, but thankfully I managed to stay away from them. So these are the 10 which I felt were the worst among what I've seen. And this is my personal opinion and need not coincide with any one of yours. 

10. In Ghost House Inn

Director - Lal

Producers - Lal, PN Venugopal

Cast - Mukesh, Siddique, Jagadish, Ashokan, Nedumudi Venu, Radhika, Harisree Ashokan

Writer - Lal

Lal made 4 of Malayalam Cinema's favourite characters come back on screen in 2009 with 2 Harihar Nagar and even though it was nowhere close to the original, people enjoyed the antics of the 4 in their middle age. And seeing the success of that one, Lal decided to stretch it into another sequel, which turned out to be In Ghosthouse Inn. Advertised as a horror comedy, this movie killed the spirit of Mahadevan, Govindan Kutty, Appukkuttan and Thomas Kutty. It was full of lewd, lame jokes and absurd sequences and the character of Appukkuttan was made like he was the dumbest person on earth. Harisree Ashokan's toilet scene was a disgrace to anything and everything director Lal had made before this. The twist at the end was the only redeeming factor, but even that was expected considering Lal's fascination for unexpected twists. (Which apparently he continued creating in his next flick Tournament, which I havent seen yet). We hope that the foursome are left alone now in our memories of the 1990 classic - In Harihar Nagar. 

9. Pokkiri Raja

Director - Vysakh

Producer - Tomichan Mulakuppadam

Cast - Mammootty, Prithviraj, Shriya Saran, Siddique, Riaz Khan, Nedumudi Venu, Suraaj Venjarammoodu, Salimkumar

Writers - Udayakrishna & Sibi K Thomas

Pokkiri Raja was a Tamil movie disguised as a Malayalam movie. Following every formula that had been successful in Tamil Cinema in the 80s and early 90s, this film starred the superstar Mammootty with the next generation star Prithviraj for the first time together in a full length feature. The first half of the movie was entirely reserved for Prithviraj to shine and the second half for Mammootty, but Prithviraj played a glorified action hero while Mammootty's character looked like it was created for comic relief with some bad jokes involving bad English and some punch dialogues that even T Rajendar would feel ashamed of delivering. And to top it all, there was a comedy track involving Suraaj Venjarammoodu and Salimkumar which made me cry more than laugh. Except for one scene where Mammootty and Prithviraj tease their real selfs, this movie was a bloody pain to watch. But despite all this, the movie turned out to be Malayalam Cinema's biggest hit in 2010. Such an embarrassment for an industry that was known to produce only quality cinema. Tamilians would be having the last laugh. We used to call them and their cinema 'pandi padams' but now we make more 'pandi padams' than they have ever made. 

8. Alexander The Great

Director - Murali Nagavally

Producer - VBK Menon

Cast - Mohanlal, Bala, Sudha Chandran, Ganesh, Jagadish, Sayikumar

Writer - C Balachandran

A bad copy of the Oscar winning Rain Man, this movie was in the making for a long long time and finally when it got released, even Mohanlal fans had lost interest in it. A film with a caption saying 'He is humorously intelligent' is definitely not attractive. Usually, Mohanlal gives good performances even in bad films. But in this movie, even his performance was pathetic (compared to what he is capable of). And to add more damage, there was Jagadish repeating his Appukkuttan act, and a whole lot of ridiculous scenes and dialogues. And an end which suggests that Mohanlal's character was not autistic at all. Wah Wah!! The audience outrightly rejected this film and it became one of the biggest flops of the year.

The 7th position had a tie, because the two films were equally bad despite having some potential in them to be good movies. 

7. Apoorvaragam

Director - Sibi Malayil

Producer - Siyad Koker

Cast - Nishan, Asif Ali, Nithya Menen, Vinay, Santosh Jogi, Shruti Menon

Writers - GS Anand, Najeem Koya

Apoorvaragam was the classic case of an interesting plot going horribly wrong. Everything from the direction, acting, music and screenplay went haywire, despite having an interesting story to tell. It also tries very hard to be a 'youth' film despite being told from the perspective of a middle-aged filmmaker. Nishan couldnt handle his complex character and made a mess out of the role. Asif Ali and Nithya Menen were mostly in control, but even they went overboard in many scenes. The fourth guy, Vinay was also a major disappointment. And the man who played Nithya's father was the most entertaining thing in the movie with his horrible acting. Vidyasagar's music was also very bad. The only redeeming factor was Ajayan Vincent's great cinematography.  

(Click here for review)

7. The Thriller

Director - B Unnikrishnan

Producer - Sabu Cherian

Cast - Prithviraj, Sampath, Siddique, Lalu Alex, Kathrine, Riaz Khan

Writer - B Unnikrishnan

B Unnikrishnan had already made a bad movie in 2010 called Pramani, which was a rehash of his own Madambi, with Mammootty in it instead of Mohanlal. And 'The Thriller' was again another version of the umpteen number of Suresh Gopi cop flicks, with Prithviraj in it instead of Suresh Gopi. A film which calls itself a thriller should at least be able to cause some sort of thrills in the audience, but this movie was way too bad to do that. A take on the Paul Muthoot murder, this movie had Prithviraj trying very hard to be Suresh Gopi. It had a bad item song, an ugly heroine and a villain whom you can spot during his introduction scene itself (even though its supposed to be a suspense). A terrible experience.

(Click here for review)

6. Karyasthan

Director - Thomson

Producer - Anto Joseph

Cast - Suraaj Venjarammoodu, Dileep, Akhila, Madhu and a host of other actors.

Writers - Udayakrishna & Sibi K Thomas

Karyasthan was again supposed to be a mass masala entertainer written by Udayakrishna & Sibi K Thomas, again a 90s Tamil movie disguised as a Malayalam film. Suraaj Venjarammoodu (with the screen name Vadivelu) had more prominence than the film's hero Dileep, who incidentally completed 100 films with this one. He deserved a much better film for that feat. Crude, unfunny jokes, done to death storyline and some unwanted action and songs. The cast was huge when there was absolutely no necessity, out of which only Madhu left a mark, mostly because the respect he has among the audience. Dileep didnt get to do anything other than beating up goons or dancing uncomfortably in ridiculous songs (with an exception of a great song like Malayalippenne). The success of Karyasthan showed the terrible deterioration of an average Malayali's taste in comedy. 

(Click here for review) 

5. Best of Luck 

Director - MA Nishad

Cast - Kailash, Asif Ali, Rima Kallingal, Archana Kavi, Urvashi, Prabhu, Suraaj, Jagathy, Bheeman Raghu & Mammootty

Writers - MA Nishad, Vinu Kiriyath

Calling this film bad, would be an understatement. The entire cast came up with horrifying performances, except for Asif Ali and Bheeman Raghu who were mildly funny. It was a shame to see such talented artists like Urvashi and Prabhu doing such atrocious stuff on screen. And yea, there was Suraaj Venjarammoodu and his own set of lewd jokes too. A very bad rip off of the Hindi blockbuster All The Best, this film had Mammootty making an extended special appearance and even that didnt help the movie in any way. A big flop from day one. 

(Click here for review)

4. Kandahar

Director - Major Ravi

Producers - Mohanlal, Sunil Nair

Cast - Mohanlal, Amitabh Bachchan, Ganesh Venkatraman, Major Ravi, KPAC Lalitha

Writer - Major Ravi

Kandahar was a massive, massive disappointment. The movie, which was hyped as a take on the Kandahar hijack, and brought together Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan in Malayalam Cinema for the first time, was anything but a commando movie. Director Major Ravi lost the plot and told the story of a wayward youth Ganesh Venkatraman and the entire hijack sequence (which was shot in an extremely funny way) lasted only about 15 minutes. Mohanlal didnt even have a substantial role to play and Amitabh Bachchan's role could have been played by any of those stock character actors we have in Malayalam. The only good things about the movie were the performances by KPAC Lalitha and Anil Murali in the little screen time they got. Major Ravi tried to give a patriotic movie which had lame jokes, item dances and silly commando operations. The audiences are not dumb, major!!

(Click here for review)

3. Vande Mataram

Director - T Aravind

Producer - Henry

Cast - Mammootty, Arjun, Sneha, Nasser, Jagadish

Writer - Henry

Another patriotic movie which had more than 2 item numbers, Vande Mataram was a non-starter from the day it released. It had this absurd plot of a criminal being convinced that some 25 years had passed since he was arrested, when actually it had just been a few days. The film's producer Henry, who was also the writer came up in arms against the film's hero Mammootty creating a controversy when he said Mammootty didnt perform the stunts he was supposed to do. But the controversy died down soon. But yea, it was very weird seeing Arjun doing all the stunts in air, and Mammootty beating up the people who fall down from the air. A terrible movie in all respects, this movie also had a simultaneous release in Tamil which nobody saw. 

2. Drona 2010

Director - Shaji Kailas

Producer - M Mani

Cast - Mammootty, Manoj K Jayan, Kaniha, Navya Nair, Thilakan, Dhanya Mary Varghese, Suraaj Venjarammoodu, Bala, Devan, Lakshmi Sharma

Writer - AK Sajan

Drona 2010 was the heights of absurdity. I havent found a single person who understood what happened in this entire movie. Mammootty in a pointless double role, Manoj K Jayan as an effeminate villain (he was the villain right?) and all were totally crazy. AK Sajan made the audience furious with his illogical writing and Shaji Kailas topped it up with his fascination for weird camera angles, shots and edits. Mammootty's introduction is a zoom out from his mouth when he is eating chicken. Eww!! Why do people do this to the great actor that he is!! And they added 2010 to the name of the movie because they heard that all films in all languages named Drona became flops. Ha Ha!! And did that 2010 stop it from being one of the biggest flops of 2010? NO!!

1. Thanthonni

Director - George Varghese

Producer - Shahul Hameed Marikar

Cast - Prithviraj, Sheela Kaul, Suresh Krishna, Saikumar, Aditya, Suraaj Venjarammoodu & many others without even a single dialogue

Writer - TA Shahid

Epic fail of the year 2010, Thanthonni was a bloody pain to sit through. I was pulling my hair out in frustration initially, but as the movie progressed me and my friends had a good time laughing at the movie and the silliness of it all. Prithviraj so desperately trying to be Mohanlal, Mammootty, Vijay and Rajnikanth all at once, was sad as well as funny at the same time. And so much money was wasted for nothing. The climax had so many different luxury cars and they werent even shot well by the cinematographer. The film looked like it was not directed at all and TA Shahid happily continued writing his favourite story of 'avihitha bandham' and 'jaara santhathi'. And if all this was not enough, there was Suraaj Venjarammoodu also. Prithviraj kept repeating throughout the movie that he was a Thanthonni, as if the audience didnt know that already! And then there was this hilarious scene where Sudheesh says that he will go to jail instead of his boss Prithviraj, which got the maximum response from the audience in the form of hysterical laughter and constant boos. This was an experience I would like to forget.

(Click here for review)

There were apparently many more epic bad movies which got released in 2010, like Black Stallion, Theen Char Sau Bees, Oru Small Family, Senior Mandrake, Valiyangadi, Ringtone, Nallavan, Yakshiyum Njaanum, Nirakkazhcha, Four Friends, Holidays, Kanyakumari Express, Again Kasarkod Kadarbhai and Tournament, and I didnt have the bad fortune to see any of these. Movies like Pramani and Anwar missed being on this list by a whisker since there were even more terrible films than them. And let me tell you all again that this list is not for any kind of controversy and strictly my opinion on these films alone, and not the actors or any of the crew members, except for some of the directors who think they can take the audience for granted.