[Movie] Vikramadityan...

Watched Vikramadityan few days ago with friends. We had been quite eager to watch the movie [us gals wanted to watch it for a whole different reason, it featured Dulquer Salman and well, for the boy I guess it was a new mallu movie that promised to be good]. Tickets were booked [at Inox, Chandra Metro Mall, Virugambakkam] and we were quite excited as we headed to the theater [ yes , the prospect of seeing Dulquer on screen once again was enough to have our adrenaline rushing]... 

Directed by Lal Jose

Produced by Lal Jose & Mohan Nambiar

Written by Iqbal Kuttipuram

Starring         Dulquer Salmaan, Namitha Pramod, Unni Mukundan

Music by         Bijibal

The movie is all about three people, two guys and a girl- all of who grew up together, were the best of friends and yet life took them in different directions... The two guys - one cop one crook, the girl head over heels in love with the crook but the cop has offered to give her a life/a future. The movie opens with Vikraman asking the Deepika to marry him. But she is pining for Adithyan and shoots out one last email. The day after there is a bit of commotion in town and she see Adhityan beating up a bunch of guys. Dressed in Sabarimalai attire [ black veshti and shirt] he carries nothing but a backpack and bunks with his friends [does not go home]. The entire movie plays out like a flashback... The plot unfolds with police constable Vasudev Shenoy (Anoop menon) talking to Lakshmi (Lena) who he loves about how his mother is against their marriage and will hopefully change her mind soon. But, before that can happen she meets conman Kunjunni (Santhosh Keezhattoor), who pretends to be a cop. Shenoy then marries a girl of his family's choice (Charmila) and gets on with life. Soon after both the couples are blessed with baby boys[ on the same day, minutes apart]. Shenoy names his son Vikraman (Unni Mukundan) and Kunjunni's son is called Adithyan (Dulquer Salmaan).

As the boys grow up, one day Kunjunni gets caught for robbing a jewellery store and is dragged out on the street by Shenoy. Adithyan is disappointed that his father who he looked up to turned out to be a crook and subsequently, the father committs suicide. The boys become teenagers and even though they are close friends, there is enemity between them,a  constant comparison and battle of who is better. Both the boys train to be cops, but Shenoy plays a mean game and convinces Lakshmi to keep Adithyan out of the game and that he had indeed tried to smuggle some narcotics [ which was actually done by a friend of his].. He gets angry at his mom and leaves home to return after years. His mother longs for the day when he will return and forgive her. 

Time flies, there are little battles between the boys, but it is Deepika's father who is a doctor who helps Adityan gain focus in life and change for the better. As the movie unfolds slowly, we watch the boys tussle, emotions run amock and typical family drama all over.... As the movie reaches the climax, it is time forVikraman to take charge as SI on the very day his father retires. There are top officials coming to congratulate them and one among them is the sub collector [ hold on to your seats... nivin pauly is the cutie pie].. Adithyan and his mother also come in a car to congratulate them. While Adithyan tries to have a word with Shenoy, he is kicked out and that is when we all learn the truth behind "what was Adithyan upto during the years he went missing" and that is the beauty of the movie... No,I shall not spoil it for you...

Review: I quite liked the movie, just wish it had been tad crisper... 

[Movie] Bangalore Days- Malayalam

Movie: Bangalore Days
Language: Malayalam
Director: Anjali menon
Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Fahadh Faasil, Parvathy menon....
Rating: 6/5

The colors as morning breaks come shining through a glass painting.... you have three best buddies.... An RJ who is always chirpy and positive on air every single day...A girl tries a ciggie, takes a puff for the first time just before her marriage because she is tensed about the whole shindig.... And then there are these good looking actors strutting about on the big screen.. Am sure this has got you feeling high enough.. So how can a movie with all these flavours be anything but amazing?! Well, that is Bangalore Days for you.

Das (Fahaad) prefers his little private space, Ajju (Dulquer) is a rebel, Kuttan (Nivin who doubles as a narrator) is  quite shy, Divya (Nazriya) is a simple fickle minded girl while Sarah(Parvathy) is quite independent with an attitude to boot. So, what is it they all have in common? Well, there are strings that connect them all beautifully. 
 

We have  Divya who learns about Das’s past which has her reaching out to help him... On the other hand we have Sarah who slowly but surely is attracted to Ajju, but her mom just kicks him to the curb with a few sharp questions.  And then you have Kuttan who realises his girlfriend is not too serious about their relationship, all he does is walks away. Each of these form such beautiful moments in the movie!

Sprinkle in some phenomenal music, choreography and editing, and you have a movie that has you engaged every single minute. None of the actors do over the top drama or have you tearing your hair out..  The nuances of relationships, human beings, personalities and life has been showcased so perfectly by Director Anjali menon.. Just pray this movie doesnt catch the eye of a director from another state and they get the urge to remake it... 

The wedding song...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4Mev_vRAc

{music} Agam - Classical & Rock meet

Oct 5th was the date

Karamaj arangam was the venue

What was happening? AGAM was coming to perform for a charity cause!

We were excited

I was going to be attending a concert after ages, the last one being Bryan Adams in Blore!! 

Agam is a Bangalore-based band who are into Contemporary Carnatic with a dash of rock blended into their performances. Formed in the year 2003, the band is made up of 

• Harish Sivaramakrishnan (MAIN vocals & violin), 
• Ganesh Ram Nagarajan (drums & vocals), 
• Swamy Seetharaman (keyboards, also the lyricist), 
• Praveen Kumar (lead guitar),
• Vignesh Lakshminarayanan (bass guitar & vocals), 
• Sivakumar Nagarajan (ethnic percussions), 
• Jagadish Natarajan (rhythm guitar). The only change in the band has been that Jagadish’s replaced Suraj Satheesh as the rhythm guitarist last year.

The very 1st time I heard these guys was on Coke studio and then came Madras Market performance. Subsequently I did listen to quite a few of their pieces thanks to YouTube and then went ahead and purchased their album - The Inner Self awakens.. From thereon, there has been no turning back! Infact, I also fell in love with their version of Aromale and Dil se re as well.. 

[image courtesy: google]

Ok, now that you know who Agam is, let us get back to the concert.. On Saturday, friends came over picked me up around 6pm and we reached the venue at 6.10 pm. The place looked pretty deserted, we had a small doubt if the concert was indeed happening that particular evening. There were no banners, no posters, nothing. It was complete silence. I was back in Kamaraj Arangam after nearly 15yrs!! 

Walked into the hall, collected our tickets and waited around for the hall to open. In the background, we could hear the band doing sound checks and last minute practice. We were happy listening to them from the distance. And then, around 6.30, the doors opened and we found seats, making sure the cameras were not in our path. 

[Image courtesy: youtube]

Soon people started filing in, but it wasn't as much as we expected. We were quite upset and sad to see the hall sparsely full, but then we decided to focus on the band and enjoy the music. The show started around 7.45 and it was absolutely mind blowing.

The instruments came to life and then Harish started singing, and that was it...What a voice he had and then for another song he also played the violin... Let us not forget the amazing guys on guitar and drums and the piano. We were lost to the world. We enjoyed every piece, every second of the evening. We were happily singing away, clapping and grooving to the beats..  

[Image Courtesy: www.thehindu.com ]

The band took a break from their songs and belted out Aromale which got the crowd going, and then came Dil Se which was again a big hit with the crowd. They also sang a new composition and few that is found on their soundcloud stream. 

As they say, all good things come to an end.. The show went on till about 9.30 when they closed with Rudra... We dint want the night to end.. Sigh!  Wait, we were not done! After the performances were done and most of the crowd left, we made a beeline for the stage, spoke to all the band members and heard about their upcoming shows, their work life and much more................... 

If you love these guys, and want to watch them live, make sure to mark Oct 18th in your calendar and be there at Havana, Raintree... And follow them on facebook to know more!! 

You can learn more about them from

Wikipedia

Website

Facebook 

Youtube

Event page for 18th Oct

[Movie] Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

Last weekend I watched yet another Malayalam movie, this time a movie with a long title, but one that had a beautiful meaning. It was Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi [English: Blue Skies, Green Waters, Red Earth]

Directed and co-produced by Sameer Thahir

Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Sunny Wayne, Surja Bala Hijam,Ena Saha, Dhritiman Chatterjee,Joy Mathew,Pearle Maaney, Paloma Monappa and Avantika to name a few. But the main stars are Dulquer and Sunny 

Over the past few months, I must have seen close to 10 Malayalam movies and I have discovered they are quite good. Especially since I began understanding the language, I looked forward to watching more of these flicks. Sunday morning 10am show at PVR was what was on the agenda. I reached the theater around 9.45, grabbed a sandwich & cold coffee at CCD and got ready to watch the movie. 

The story is losely based on 2 college guys who head out on a road trip on their bikes. Destination: unkown. Along the journey, Kasi [Dulquer] decides to head over to Nagaland in search of the girl of his dreams, and Sunny joins him on the mission. At every stage, they meet interesting people, come across challenges, are helped by random strangers, leave with lessons learnt from people of small villages, and there is a spark every now and then with the girl in the town they camp in. There is quite a bit of drama, a tinge of humour and a lot of life's valuable lessons in this movie. It basically goes to show that everybody we meet has something to teach us. All we need is an open mind to absorb these points.. 

The one thing that captured my heart in this movie was the cinematography by Gireesh Gangadharan. SImply outstanding. Even though the movie feels long, he kept me glued in with the sights and sounds captured so beautifully. I have never seen our country look so gorgeous and it left me wanting to travel and explore all these places. From the beaches of Puri, to the hills of the North East, the wide highway in the middle of nowhere flanked by red mountains, the visual were breath taking to say the least.  How can i forget the scene where a group of riders help them and take them with the group to Puri. Oh what a sight. Men on bikes- heart stopping !! :D 

The songs and background score was lovely. It blended perfectly with the rhythm of the movie. The songs that stood out were Doore Doore and Thaazhvaaram. The Manipuri actress is so delicate, while Gauri from the small village near Calcutta comes across strong willed, and the surfer chick in Puri the caring one.  But the one who stole the show has to be Dulquer-  He moves between the various roles with ease and grace, be it the playful college kid, the SFI activist protesting against commercialization  the son , the uncle who dotes on his niece and above all, the confused youngster  in search of his goal... 

Overall rating: 4.75/5 [had it been half hour shorter, would have been crisper]  

[Movie] Chennaiyil Oru Naal

Director:  Shaheed Kader
Production: Listin Stephen, Raadhika Sarathkumar
Cast: Sarath Kumar, Cheran, Prakash Raj, Jayaprakash, Prasanna, Malika, Radhika, Lakshmy Menon, Parvathy
Avg user rating: 4/5

So, a few weeks ago a friend called and asked if i wanted to do a movie. Scouted around the Sathyam site and found tickets for Chennaiyil Oru Naal. It looked like an interesting movie, had quite a star cast. Only when we reached the theater did I discover it was a remake of a Malayalam movie called Traffic which is based on a true story [ one that took place right here in Chennai back in 2008]. As the movie began, I got engrossed and by the end was quite floored. Subsequently I got home, dug up the internet, read about the incident and must say quite impressed with the people who came together to help a little girl get a new lease on life.

So, what is the movie about? Well, it is all about saving a life and tough decisions that need to be taken.

The Chennai city police commissioner [Sarath Kumar], has to make this operation a success. It is his duty to ensure the heart makes the journey from Chennai Global hospital to CMC in Vellore. The police constable Sathyamoorthy [Cheran] volunteers to drive the car carrying the heart to redeem his lost reputation, and takes on the challenge to cover the distance of 170 kilometres in 90 minutes to save the life of a young girl who is the daughter of a superstar Gautham Krishna (Prakash Raj) and Radhika. All of this takes place on a single day, Sep 16th!

How it all begins is two friends, Ajmal and Karthik (Sachin) are on their bike heading towards Karthik's office where he is all set for his 1st interview with the superstar, Gautham Krishna  for the television channel. But on the way, he meets with an accident and is the twist in the tale.His body is gone, his brain is gone, he is on a machine and so the doctors suggest they pull the plug on him so they can use his heart on the little girl who needs it all the way across in Vellore.

To add to the drama, there is the story of Dr Robin [Prasanna], his wife and friend that kind of distracts us from the main story. but thankfully, that is only for a few minutes and the movie gets back on track. The final stretch of the drive through the small town was the highlight of the movie for me.How the entire town comes together, clears the path so the car can go with no hiccups, the cameo role by Surya who encourages people to help the mission succeed and the final note from Surya about organ donation was a tad over the top, but what the heck, it adds to the jazz of the movie... 

Quite an inspiring movie, offbeat, no song and dance, quite real. Do watch if you want to see one where so many people come together for a purpose.