Uncategorized – Page 9 – gopakumarpurushothaman

Bhaagi 2: I Chose Not To Run This Time.

So I just got back from watching my first Tiger Shroff movie. Hollywood has superhero franchises and Bollywood has Bollywood movies with Bollywood heroes. Bhaagi 2’s trailer looked good, reminded me of one of those Hollywood action movies from the 90s, and seeing Tiger in action in the trailer had me thinking that the much touted Rambo remake would be something to look forward to. And there were glimpses of Manoj Bajpai and Randeep Hooda too, in the trailer. What else then can a fickle mind do but book tickets, and that’s exactly what I did.

The movie begins with the kidnapping of a child in Goa. The child’s mom happens to be Tiger’s ex girlfriend, the bad guys chose the wrong kid indeed. There, thats the plot of the movie if I may call it that. Tiger is a commando stationed at the Kashmir border and still prefers to keep actual photographs of his ex in his trunk. This is one smart soldier who knows that privacy is a myth when it comes to smarphones or maybe he’s just being resourceful for the days when his phone runs out of battery. After a display of his mean skills as a soldier with a heart and mind of his own, he sets out to meet his troubled ex girlfriend in Goa. He is a one-man army, as proudly advertised by his superior officer who also doubles up as a therapist with a shoulder to cry on later when Tiger runs out of villains to beat up.

Tiger starts off the investigation into the kidnapping by kicking and punching a bunch of policemen inside their police station, which ultimately turns out to be a sneaky plan by Tiger to show off his sculpted body during third degree, which he confesses is just warm up as far his gym hardened body is concerned. The action sequences which lured me into the movie hall took the longest time to pop up and I guess Tiger was frustrated too when I saw him kicking dead bad guys up screaming “Tum Mar Nahi Sakte”. Obviously he had’nt kicked and punched them to his heart’s content. His climactic showdown is set in a gangster hideout deep in Goan jungles. The economic slowdown has hit the Mafia too it seems when you see that they have gone for outsouricing, the henchmen are all Asians and the few Russian gangsters are saved for the final punches. The greatest twist in the film is that it’s not the soldier who is suffering from PTSD, its the soldier’s ex gf. In fact the ex’s current husband has to explain the acronym to Tiger. Mind bending role-reversing stuff that you get to see only in Bollywood.

The hidden gems in Bhaagi 2 are Manoj Bajpai and Randeep Hooda,reminded me of Om Puri’s turn as a cop in Gupt but that’s another time and another director entierly. They hold the movie together until Tiger does his thing in the climax. Manoj Bajpai doesn’t get to stretch his acting muscles as much as we would’ve liked him to but he still owns every scene he is in. Randeep Hooda on the other hand matches Tiger’s acrobatics with his swag. If it were not for the lines and roles of Hooda and Bajpai I would’ve turned into a Bhaagi myself, out of the exit. Hooda just waltzes through the role here and his exchanges with Bosco, the unseen cop are hilarious. In fact I feel they should make a whole movie based on the Hooda cop character. Those are the scenes where you actually feel the presence of writers in a movie that otherwise looked and talked like one filmed by stunt coordinators entirely.

Bits, Bytes, Blips…

ഞാനിതു എഴുതുന്നത് ഗൂഗിൾ ട്രാൻസ്ലിറ്ററേഷൻ ടൂൾ ഉപയോഗിച്ചാണ്,എന്റെ ഫോണിലെ qwerty ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് കീബോർഡിലാണ് ഞാൻ ഓരോ വാക്കും ടൈപ്പ് ചെയുന്നത്.ഇതൊരു വെബ് അപ്ലിക്കേഷൻ ആയത് കൊണ്ട് ഞാൻ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയുന്ന ഓരോ ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് വാക്കും ഓരോ അക്ഷരവും ഓരോ വള്ളിയും പുള്ളിയും എവിടെയോ ഇരിക്കുന്ന ഒരു സെർവർ ആണ് മലയാളത്തിലേക്ക് രൂപാന്തരപ്പെടുത്തുന്നത്.ഒരു തര്ജിമയെക്കാളും സങ്കീർണമായ ഒരു പ്രക്രിയ ആണിത് കാരണം വാക്കിന്റെ അർഥം അല്ല ഫൊണെറ്റിക് സമാനത ആണ് അൽഗോരിതം ഇവിടെ ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത്.അൽഗോരിതം തത്ക്കാലം അവിടെ നിക്കട്ടെ.കീപാഡിൽ ഞാൻ അക്ഷരത്തിൽ തൊടുമ്പോൾ എന്റെ ഫോണിന്റെ ടച്ച് സ്ക്രീനിലെ രണ്ടു പാളികൾ തമ്മിൽ മുട്ടി ഒരു സർക്യൂട്ട് പൂർണമായി ഒരു പ്‌ളസ് ഉണ്ടാവുന്നു.കീബോഡിലെ മെട്രിക്സ് പൾസിന്റെ പൊസിഷന്റെ വോൾട്ടേജിനു അനുപാതമായി ഒരു ചിഹ്നം ഉണ്ടാക്കുന്നു.ഇവിടെ ഞാൻ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയുന്ന ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് വാക്കിന്റെ ഫൊണെറ്റിക് മാപ്പിംഗ് ആണ് ഗൂഗിൾ സെർവറിൽ നടക്കുന്നത് . ഞാൻ ടൈപ്പ് ചെയ്‌ത വാക്കിനെ ആദ്യം കീബോഡ് മാട്രിക്സ് ഒരു പൾസ് ആക്കുന്നു എന്നിട്ടു അതിനെ പ്രോസസ്സ് ചെയ്‌തു കോഡ് ചെയുന്നു അതിനെ ഒരു പാക്കറ്റ് ആക്കി സെർവറിന്റെ അഡ്രസിലേക്കു അയക്കുന്നു ആ പാക്കറ്റിനെ എന്റെ ഫോൺ ഒരു ഡിജിറ്റൽ സിഗ്‌നൽ ആക്കി മാറ്റുന്നു എന്നിട്ടു അതിനെ മോഡുലേറ്റ ചെയുന്നു.ആ മോഡുലേറ്റഡ് സിഗ്നലിനെ എന്റെ ഫോണിന്റെ വൈഫൈ പ്രോസസ്സർ ഒരു എലെക്ട്രിക്കൽ സിഗ്നലിൽ നിന്നും ഒരു വയര്ലെസ്സ് സിഗ്നൽ ആയി മാറ്റുന്നു.വൈഫൈ റൗട്ടറിന്റെ ആന്റിന പിടിച്ചെടുക്കുന്ന ഈ സിഗ്നലിനെ വീണ്ടും ഡിമോഡുലേറ്റ് ചെയ്‌തു ഡിജിറ്റൽ സിഗ്‌നൽ ആക്കി വൈ ഫൈ റൗട്ടറിന്റെ ഈഥർനെററ്റ് പോർട്ടിലേക്ക് ഒരു ഫ്രെയിം ആയി വിടുന്നു.ആ ഫ്രെയിം ഒരു എലെക്ട്രിക്കൽ പൾസ്‌ ആയി കേബിൾ വഴി എന്റെ സർവീസ് പ്രൊവൈഡർ ബോക്സിൽ എത്തുന്നു.ഫ്രെയിം വീണ്ടും ബോക്സിന്റെ അപ്ലിങ്ക് പോർട്ട് വഴി പ്രൊവൈഡർടെ അക്സസ്സ് സംവിധാനത്തിൽ എത്തുന്നു. ഫ്രെയിം അവിടുന്ന് വീണ്ടും ആക്സസ് സംവിധാനത്തിന്റെ അപ്ലിങ്ക് വഴി പ്രൊവൈഡർ റൗട്ടറിന്റെ ഗേറ്റ് വെയിൽ എത്തുന്നു.അവിടുന്ന് ഗൂഗിൾ സെർവറിന്റെ അഡ്രസ്സ് പരതുന്ന ഫ്രെയിം പ്രൊവൈഡറുടെ ബോർഡെർ റൂട്ടറിൽ എത്തുന്നു .അവിടുന്ന് പാക്കറ്റ് ഗൂഗിൾ സെർവറിലേക്ക് അയക്കപ്പെടുന്നു.ട്രാന്സ്ലിറ്ററേഷൻ അപ്ലിക്കേഷൻ സെർവറിൽ എത്തിയ പാക്കറ്റിന്റെ ഉള്ളിലെ കോഡിന് അനുപാതമായ മലയാളം വാക്ക് അൽഗോരിതം കണ്ടത്തെത്തുന്നു .അത് ആ ചിഹ്നത്തോട് കൂടി പുതിയ ഒരു പാക്കറ്റ് ഫോണിലേക്കു തിരിച്ചു അയക്കുന്നു ഇതേ പ്രക്രിയയിലൂടെ .ഇതെല്ലം മൈക്രോസെക്കന്റുകൾക്കുള്ളിൽ നടക്കുന്നു .ഇനി പറ ഞാൻ മതം ആണോ ജാതിയാണോ രാഷ്ട്രീയമാണോ എഴുതി പിടിപ്പിക്കേണ്ടത് ?

Black Panther: A Cynic Goes To The Movies.

For the longest time, i was divided about Black Panther and hence this outdated post.In this age where we desperately seek political correctness in every gesture of ours in the public sphere, more out of a need to avoid scrutiny and instant blacklash-thanks to the keypad-happy social media hawks- rather than out of actual commitment to a cause, the cynic in me of course sat up with cocked ears when the cash registers at Marvel started to ring again thanks to T’Challa and his solo outing.DC did cash in on feminism to save their sinking ship a while back.Now, its unfair to compare Marvel’s dream run with DC’s sputtering starts and stops but just dont tell me that the executives at Marvel never considered the moolah a movie like Black Panther could rake in, for obvious reasons.Yeah it’s true that Black Panther’s been around for a while and cinematically as well as socially this is the best of times for Panther to hit the screens, too.In the same breath, when a movie like Detroit sinks without trace and when Get Out wins best screenplay at the Oscars over Three Billboards at Ebbing, Missouri, to me at least it’s a bit like Trump restoring American economy by asking Apple to shut its plants in China.Enough with allegories and bushes to beat around,let’s get down to brass tacks.

Black Panther has it’s moments but to me personally, as a superhero movie, more specifically an MCU movie it ranks behind many other movies that came before it in terms of sheer entertainment value.You can’t deny the fact that it is the most talked about Marvel movie ever because of the theme and the politics it brings to the screen and ultimately to the minds and hearts of the audience.It showcases African culture with an elegance and a level of sophistication never seen before in Hollywood.Wakanda, the hidden kingdom is the African Utopia and analogy to what Africa could have been if not for the Scramble for Africa by the colonial powers.One would be tempted to call it an exaggeration but might want to reconsider given the fact Birr, the currency of Ethiopia ,an African country that was never colonised by the imperial powers trades at 27 odd US Dollars in forex.Black Panther by design was destined for box office success as a Marvel movie with its predominantly black cast and an African American director and if i may, the targeted audience.Tell me that never came up in a boardroom discussion.That’s again the cynic in me i guess and my intention is not to undermine the efforts the writers and the director here.The only other movie that comes to my mind where I had a hard time choosing whom to root for between the hero and villain was Infernal Affairs which was later remade into The Departed.Michael B.Jordan elevates his character to immortality when he chooses death over bondage like his ancestors and Chadwick Boseman can only look on, literally.

What worked for me more than what i saw on the screen is what i heard,Kendrick’ Lamar’s All The Stars with SZA to be specific.The song has a video that’s as much a visual treat as the movie.The soundtrack of the film is outstanding and has an all star lineup, pun unintended.I wouldntve written what i did if it wasn’t for the music.No Marvel movie experience is fulfilling unless you sit throuh the end titles patiently for the post credits scene.Here you are in for a suprise of sorts when you see Bucky Barnes walking out of a Wakandan huts amidst calls of White Wolf by a bunch of Wakandan Kids.Honestly i dont expect Marvel to come up with another Black Panther solo film for many reasons and if it does happen and generates the kind of rave this one does, I just might admit that the world has changed for good.

Captain : The Review.

Biopics are a risky business and demands extreme diligence from the makers, especially the writer and the director.Its an even narrower line to walk when tragedy is involved and the person on whom the movie is based has passed after an equally successful and troubled life.A movie in this genre that hasn’t been plagued by some sort of controversy or been a source of disgruntlement for the kith and kin of the individual who’s the subject, is a rare occurence.This is where Prajesh Sen stands tall as a debutant director who has pulled off the impossible with a film that’s flawless in terms of conception and execution.Sen’s greatest sucess as the writer of the film too here, is that he has told the tale of V.P.Sathyan,former captain and defender par excellence of the Indian Football Team, with the greatest of respect for his memories as a player, son, husband and father.Sen has ensured that the dignity of the man is preserved even when his least proudest of moments were portrayed on screen.The film stays true to its tagline and indeed tells the tale of an unsung hero.

Jayasuriya delivers the performance of his lifetime in the role of V.P.Sathyan.He has always been an actor who takes great pain and goes to great lengths to transform himself into the characters he plays.Those efforts have paid off indeed this time around and more importantly it’s one of his most restrained and measured performances as an actor, if you ask me.Anu Sithara perfectly complements Jayasuriya in the role of Anitha Sathyan which has been sensitively written by Sen.Siddiuqe is not around for long in terms of screen time but leaves his indelible mark as always in his role of a very unique character who essentially represents the football lovers of Kerala.In an equally compelling role, Renji Panikker reaffirms that he is here to stay as a character actor.Janardhanan who used to play characters inspired by E.K Nayanar in Shaji Kailas films of yesteryear gets to play K.Karunakaran, the Leader here.Prajesh Sen is not without a subtle sense of humor you get to know when Janardhanan thanks Guruvayoorappan while watching Sathyan lead Kerala Police to win in the Santosh Trophy finals. Gopi Sundar’s music elevates the film to a different level entirely and is an integral part of the storytelling here.

The movie follows a non linear style of storytelling and tells the tale of the of V.P Sathyan from his days as a kid who played in his backyards to being the captain of the Indian Football Team.He was a player who literally gave his life to the game and stuggled to accept and handle the fact when the game was done with him.Sen has also highlighted the unfair discrmination the game faced in the country from the public compared to the frenzy and fanfare that Cricket kicked up.The movie also brings to light the lack of a support system, especially pschological, for the players and people in the game which is essential for rehabiliation, mental and physical in moments of crisis.Sen’s masterstoke as a director here to me was the climax where he chose to end the film not around his death but with a dramtised version of the defining moment in V.P Sathyan’s career, his legendary goal against South Korea.Captain is not just the best biopic ever in Malayalam cinema ,its one of the best biopics to hit the screens in Indian Cinema I’d say where sport themed films happen once in a blue moon.A fitting tribute to the Sathyan’s legend and life.

Hey Jude :The Review.

A Shyamaprasad film that didn’t drag you into the depths of desolation and gloom along with it used to be a rare phenomenon until he supposedly went commercial with Ritu close to a decade back, yet it was far removed from the usual fare that you came across in Malayalam cinema though the veil of melancholy that almost always hangs over Shyamaprasad’s themes was absent in it.He explored the dark recesses of the human mind and the complexities of human relationships in Ore Kadal, Akale and Elektra and in the meantime he surprisingly chose to expose the lighter side of his creative mind to the audience with a short in the anthology Kerala Cafe.He went down that lane again in English and Arike but it’s with Hey Jude that he has truly picked off from where he left off in Off-Season i can’t but help feel.Or maybe it’s the common backdrop of the ocean and the beach that’s giving me those vibes.

This is Nivin Pauly’s third outing with Shyamaprasad who has not had frequent collaborators in the past and it looks like its third time lucky for Nivin.Set in Goa, Hey Jude is a breezy feel-good film considering what Shyamaprasad could’ve instinctively done otherwise with the story of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome and a woman with bipolar disorder and the credit i think goes here to the scriptwriting duo.Shyamaprasad’s deviations from his favorite themes have always been when he associated with other writers.Interestingly Nirmal Sahadev who was Chief Associate in Ivide has co-written the script for Hey Jude with George Kannat and he’s also set to make his directorial debut with another story set in the U.S, Ranam which has Prithviraj playing the lead.

Nivin was at the receiving end of some unfair criticism in Ivide where he shared screen space with Prithviraj but he has silenced his detractors in Hey Jude with his inspired portrayal of the troubled charachter.Siddique excels yet again as Nivin’s father in a role that’s not too different from that of Lal’s in Njandukalude Nattil Oru Idavela.Coincidentally that film too dealt with a medical condition in a lighter vein though Hey Jude is more of a romantic comedy, which for some reason reminds of Adam Sandler’s Punch Drunk Love.Vijay Menon,whom the Malayalam film industry had reduced to the in-house psycho-drug addict over the years gets liberated here with a full length role thats almost tailor made to suit his on screen persona.Trisha gets to play a next door girl character that’s quite the opposite of the one that earned a cult status among the audience a while back, that of Jessie from Gautam Menon’s VTV.

Though the script is not without a few holes,with Shyamaprasad’s trademark unhurried approach and his skill as a director with a level of sophistication that’s not exactly at home in Malayalam cinema, Hey Jude makes for a pretty good weekend watch to unwind yourself with.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri : The Review.

A movie like Three Billbaords Outside Ebbing, Missouri happens once in a lifetime for not just the actors in it and the people behind the camera, but also the audience.This is cinema in its purest of forms and it reiterates the fact that cinema is a universal language and that the human condition is the same everywhere, irrespective of color,creed or race.A British-Irish filmmaker has made a film with a prominent American cast about a story set in the American midwest that resonates with a global audience, inspired by some real life billboards that he came across during his journeys in the American south.How’s that for a reality check in the age of fake news,post truths and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.DC doesn’t make the cut even in such passing references, sorry.

I’m not sure who my favorite character is, that’s to say actor, in this film.Frances McDormand of course owns every scene shes’s in and almost steals the show from her peers here.She plays a grieving mother to a murdered daughter and her anger knows no limits.She’s at war with the whole world to a point that you are tempted to stop rooting for the character despite her predicament midway, but then she wins you back again with a display of emotions that reminds you that you would feel no different if you were in her shoes.She is spiteful to the core in one scene and the most vulnerable in the next and when you read that the role was written with McDormand in mind, you are the least surprised, considering the results.

Woody Harrelson plays a character whose strength and vulnerability tears you apart and you are forced to empathize with him even in his weakest moments.Harrelson excels in this role and brings a warmth to the character who emotionally anchors the film not just for the viewers but for the other characters too, in this story about ordinary people driven to despair by situations they have absolutely no control over.

Giving Harrelson and McDormand a run for their money is Sam Rockwell who makes it impossible for you to hate the angry cop character that he plays,even in his meanest of turns.In a scene where the director and the cinematographer show off their skills with a long take, Rockwell lets his body do the acting.In another scene he’s seen performing with a totally bandaged face.He gets to face off with McDormand more than once and those scenes are the stuff of cinematic legends I’d say.

Martin McDonagh is angry and one cant but help feel that there’s a bit of him in the three leading characters of the film.His writing demanded the most talented of actors to deliver total justice to it on screen and he couldn’t have asked for a better line up than the current cast to do that for him.I can almost imagine the sheer joy he must’ve experienced watching his vision of the film come to life through these stellar performers.From Peter Dinklage to Abbie Cornish to Caleb Landry to John Hawkes to Lucas Hedges,everyone leaves their mark on the screen for whatever little time they’re on.The fact that billboards with a direct reference to the ones in this movie have been used in more than one protest across the globe since its release is testimony enough to the kind of impact this magnificent piece of cinema has had on its audience.The charachters and the story stays with you and haunts you long after you leave the hall.

The 15:17 to Paris: The Review

There are documentaries, there are docu-dramas and then there’s The 15:17 to Paris.Clint Eastwood has based his latest on the foiled terrorist attack on board a Paris bound train back in 2015.The epitome of American heroism that Eastwood has been in the prime of his career and still is, his compulsion to search for and make movies about the real life American heroes is understandable and he succeeded in that in American Sniper and Scully but the way he has gone about it here leaves me a deer caught in headlights as a viewer.You could call it an expirement, but Ram Gopal Varma has been expirementing too, for over a decade, allow me to remind you.

The movie is essentially a re-enactment of the whole incident and the three Americans who saved the day and averted tragedy play themselves.There is no plot here.There’s no drama.There’s no real purpose either you start thinking midway but then, I am not an American.Eastwood takes the longest time to introduce the main protagonists, featuring incidents right from their childhoods to the events leading up to the backpacking trip across Europe.Nothing really happens here.It’s just about as mundane as the days in the lives of any of us in fact, if that’s any consoloation.It also serves as a travelogue of sorts for people intending to take a trip across Europe.Amsterdam is not a place to be missed, Eastwoos asserts.The intention of the film is not to explore the horrific reality that terrorism is and Eastwood shields the viewer from being emotionally affected by the incident to an extent that even the BGM has little impact on you in the closing moments.You’re comfortably numb, if i may.

The message that Eastwood has tried to deliver here is that every individual has an obligation to respond, in a situation of crisis.In that sense the two passengers who took on the armed gunman initially, one of them getting shot in the process, are no lesser heroes but that tale is not being told here.Eastwood is so done with drama here that he actually uses original footage of Hollande’s speech felicitiating the three Amercians towards the end.The tragedy of my viewing experience is that after sitting through the excruciatingly dull proceedings in the build up to the final confrontation with the terrorist, my phone rang and i had to walk out of the hall and by the time i got back the action was almost over.The movie is based on a book co-authored by the three Americans and if i had the time and patience i would find it and read it, which i don’t anymore, just to check if Eastwood and his scriptwriter are to be blamed here.

Den of Thieves : The Review

To say that Den of Thieves is an extended tribute by Christian Gudegast to Michael Mann’s Heat would be an understatement.Except for the heist elements that reminded me of Logan Lucky and the bits of humor, its almost an uncredited remake of the Mann classic.From sweeping shots of night time LA to armed robbers to gunfights to the personal lives of the cops and thieves to the climactic on-foot-chase, the film has Heat written all over it, but of course Gerard Butler is no Pacino and Pablo Schrieber is no De Niro.That’s not taking anything away from these talented actors either.Butler and Schrieber bring a menacing physicality to their roles too, which works well with the director’s vision of present day crime and criminals in LA, that this movie is.

Gudegast who has graduated from writer to director with Den of Thieves has subtly tried to make a political statement too i felt, with the stress on subtly.The criminals are military veterans and Gerard Butler’s cop character at one point looks a picture of Schrieber’s Merrimen from his days in the Marine Corps and asks rhetorically, What happened to you? It’s an obvious reference to the PTSD crisis that the American war machine has spawned on the homefront and the writer here has used it in the background to justify the acts of the men on the wrong side of the law here, to an extent.Its also one reason why the cops treat them a different animal from the other criminals in the bank robbery capital of the world, to quote the movie itself.Michael Mann’s bank robber in contrast was a suave professional who stuck to his code and earned his antagonist’s respect for just that.

The criminals here too are not without honor and would choose to go down fighting rather than pay for their crimes behind bars.They show restraint when provoked, especially in the company of women and family.They lookout for eachother and even turn up in a gang at one instance just to intimidate the boy who’s taking one of their pal’s daughter out.In a casting coup of sorts, you get to see 50-Cent play a doting father and a hard as nails robber and he manages to smile on screen more than once.The cops on the other hand seen are cheating, getting divorced and, shopping for cheap jackets which is less of an intended testimony of their honesty and more of a justification for the expensive “looking” wardrobe they possess in the movie, i felt. In fact maybe its a bit of both.

This film might not connect with the audience on levels like Heat did or the characters might not stay with them for long but still makes for a decent action thriller to watch on a lazy weekend thanks to Butler and Schrieber.

Streetlights : The Review

Streetlights has its flaws but but you still end up liking it for its unforced charm.The only purpose of casting Mammootty in this film was to save it from a fate akin to that of say, the many Asif Ali new wave thrillers that have hit the screens in the recent past.A name as big as his brings the attention of the global Malayali audience to a film that wouldve otherwise ended up in the obilivion that the post-DVD-torrent world is, a forgotten link on an illegal streaming site.As the star’s own production house was backing the movie, you had this inkling that it wouldn’t be just another dud in his cap, which it seems, he has been all too keen to collect, of late.

Though the whole premise of the film is eerily similar to that of Puthanpanam, what saves Streetlights is some genuine writing that tries to bring in some novelty in scenes and situations that are cliched to an extent.The writer has put some time and effort into all the characters and that keeps the movie afloat, I feel.But it has to be said that the writer couldn’t resist the tempations to indulge in toilet humor, literally.The string of coincidences that drives the narrative does seem outlandish, towards the end especially but the pace of the proceedings on screen and the performances of the supporting cast comes to the rescue of the film here.Dharmajan stands out here and has delivered in a role that’s well etched and far removed from the fumbling sidekick roles we have seen him often in.He is a revelation, almost.Hareesh Perumanna on the other hand has been asked to talk his talk and still makes a decent job of it, as he has done in the numerous films he has been part of in the past couple of years.The one part of the film that i disliked to the core are the scenes set in primary school, where kids have been asked to behave like college students by the makers.This is something that we have seen in quite a few Malayalam movies recently and it is neither cute nor funny by any stretch of imagination.

Mammootty the actor or Mammootyy the star doesnt stand to gain much from this movie but you do get to see glimpses of both in flashes, if you care to look closely.One scene stands out particularly, where the Police officer played by Mammootty, out looking for a con-man in Fort Kochi which in the Malayalam Cinematic Universe is the hub of all things bad about Kochi, a den of criminals so to speak, confronts a bunch of local goons.The director shows extreme restraint here and instead of asking Mammootty to swing from a rope and make the baddies fly out into outer space, with utter disrespect for the memories of Isaac Newton – which until recently was something that you saw only in Tamil and Telugu movies – Shamdat Sainudeen in this pretty decent transformation from a cinematographer to a director, shows that an actor of Mammootty’s calibre can deliver as much impact as a punch or a highflying kick by just saying the right words with the right intensity.It was almost the vintage Mammooty from Avanazhi and Inspector Balram, for a moment there.And yeah the director does save some rope swinging action sequences for the climax.Get over Pulimurugan already, people !

The Commuter : Being Liam Neeson

Liam Neeson’s career took an unprecedented turn with Taken when he turned into an unlikely action star overnight, thanks to Luc Besson and Pierre Morel. Taken spawned a slew of films with Neeson beating unbeatable odds, which included two unimpressive Taken sequels. Jaume Collet-Serra picked up from where Besson and Co. left off to deliver the better movies of this lot of Neeson actioners. Serra reminds me of a kid who just got his hands on his favorite action figure and can’t stop playing with it, only here its a live action figure of an actor in his sixties. The director has put Neeson in the middle of every difficult situation imaginable and has forced him to kick and kill his way out like only Neeson can.

Neeson was forced to give up his identity along with his wife in Unknown. Then he had to find a killer on board a flight and save the flight and the passengers on it while he was at it in Non-Stop. Serra then asked Neeson to Run All Night to save his son from the Mob. He wasn’t done I guess, now that he has put Neeson on a commuter train in a race against to time to find a mysterious passenger with his family held at gunpoint. The next Serra-Neeson film in all likelihood would be set on a ship, and the one after that in outer space. Ive always been a sucker for arithmetic progressions.

The Commuter has nothing new to offer in terms of plot and felt like an ensemble of homages to thrillers and action movies ranging from Strangers on a Train to Nick of Time to Unstoppable to name a few, atleast to me. Its one of those movies where an ordinary guy is pushed into an extraordinary situation by the bad guys and he tries to figure his way out,only in this case its not just any ordinary guy, its Liam Neeson and he has a “very particular set of skills” at his disposal, conveniently , being an ex-cop. Though ridden with cliches, The Commuter still makes for an entertaining watch and the credit goes to the director and the writer here. Liam Neeson can still throw a hard one. Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Sam Neil appear in roles that little more than cameos. And I should add that i watched the movie in 4D and I admit that I enjoyed it to the core, the train crash scene was a bone crunching experience, almost.