[Ananthang]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Guys, Should I be watching Don starring Sivakartikeyan? The last movie Doctor was a disaster in terms of choice.

Any good Kannada movies available on streaming?

I watched yesterday, very old subject and a 1 time watch and better if you know the language. You can watch it for SJ Surya.

But I liked Dr as it is a light subject and a different Sk.

[PrideRed]

Watched Jana Gana Mana. Had high hopes, but left me disappointed . I love Prithvi's movies but this lacked the magic. Did not understand what was the need to use kannada/Tamil in malyalam movie. What's worse, where is ramanagar- bangarpet and good part of movie was shot at Mangalore. A Tamil speaking MLA becoming CM of Karnataka? Ending felt like a botch job. While stroyline was good and as usual superb acting, missed the finishing touches. When you try to make a realistic movie, these finer details do matter, this is not a larger than life movie whose purpose is just entertainment and logic just doesnot matter. Also Prithvi's role was too aggressive for a court setting.

[chinkara]

Watched "The Eken" - Bengali / Hoichoi.

Although they have retained Anirban Chakraborty as Eken (probably they didn't dare change given the popularity of the web series) - they have changed the characters of Bapi and Pramatha - both much weaker actors than the web series in my view (esp the guy playing Pramatha). Otherwise the director is the same and stays close to the story, so a decent watch.

For those who do not speak Bengali, it is decent whodunnit but it might be difficult to understand some parts as one key feature of the stories is the mangling of Bengali proverbs to completely twist the meaning. Subtitles cannot do justice to that.

3.5/5

Originally Posted by ghodlur

What was supposed to be a Thriller turned out to be a comedy which wasnt even enjoyable.
Rating: 1/5

I took it as a spoof and it was ok. Timepass. 2/5

[Thebat]

Movie- 777 Charlie
Rating- 5/5

A fantastic movie, it was a refreshing watch after the recent slew of action movies. A must watch for any animal lover. Charlie's acting is mind blowing not in a single scene does it look forced. The BGM and cinematography are superb. Rakshit Shetty is good as usual, living the role of dharma to the fullest.

Overall a very good movie to be enjoyed with your loved ones.

[benbsb29]

CBI 5 -The Brain (Malayalam) Netflix



This one quietly slipped into the OTT platforms, ie on Netflix. As a movie i had been really looking forward to, watched it as soon as we could.

IMHO, the movie in itself was a tad underwhelming, maybe weighed down by my own expectations. Mammooty was awesome, bringing in all the mannerisms and charisma that is distinctive to Sethuram Iyer. Mukesh and Sai Kumar brought back the familiarity of the characters, quite notably giving Sai Kumar the tone of Sukumaran. Jagathy's cameo was a heart touching moment, and a nice touch. The evergreen background music bring goosebumps every time I hear it. I suppose this is where it stops.

The storyline in itself was too far fetched, and somehow didn't have the same magic I expected it to bring. Interestingly, another Malayalam movie i watched over the weekend had a similar theme, so that stole the thunder.

Definitely worth a watch for CBI series fans, else it's just another movie for general timepass.

Rating: 3/5.

[naveen.raju]

Innale Vare - Malayalam



This was a decent watch. Got a bit slow midway but picked up towards the end.
The actors did a good job but as BHPian Rocky pointed out, Antony was bad.

Rating - 3.5/5 (Available on SonyLiv)


Twenty One Grams - Malayalam



Tried "Anjaam Pathira" sort of a movie but failed. It was interesting but then had the some old formula. Somehow doesn't engage the viewer like other suspense thrillers.

Rating - 2/5 (Available on Hotstar)


CBI 5 - The Brain - Malayalam



This was the most awaited movie ever since they announced this title along with few others but was terribly disappointed. The story wasn't exciting or thrilling enough. The climax really looked silly and felt like "The CBI took the case for this"?

Mammotty as usual was brilliant. He just looked like how he was in CBI 4. But all others were pretty bad in my opinion. Although Sai Kumar did well, he wasn't perfect and sort of mocked himself specially during his intro. Also, the CBI branding was everywhere (sort of a promotion), even the movie title itself got the CBI watermark and the CBI branded waist coat like FBI, what was the need for that?. Was good to see Jagathy in this and his small role was filled in nicely.

An okish one time watch but let down by a weak story and terrible supporting cast. I would rate this as the worst among the five movies in the series.

Rating - 2/5 (Available on Netflix)

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Innale Vare - Malayalam

Twenty One Grams - Malayalam

CBI 5 - The Brain - Malayalam

I see we've been completing the same homework over the weekend.
I just didnt get the energy to pen down reviews for the other two movies.

Between, am sure you too noticed the common theme/s in 21 Grams and CBI5.

[Ithaca]

Visithiran on Prime

A frame by frame faithful Tamil remake of the Malayalam movie Joseph.

I saw the original a few days back and saw this one too and if you have seen the original, you will not miss much. The Telugu remake has also been released and a Hindi remake in the works starring Sunny Deol.

No wonder everyone is cashing on the original because the story is pretty interesting. Do watch the original instead of the remakes unless one is more comfortable with the language in the remakes.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Between, am sure you too noticed the common theme/s in 21 Grams and CBI5.

Oh yes. Noticed that instantly.

SN Swamy had pointed out that CBI will be something that nobody tried and the ending would be a game changer in the thriller genre. Maybe it was different when he penned down the script 5 years back but now we have seen the same "theme" in couple of movies.

[mohansrides]

Originally Posted by hamster

Vikram - 4/5.

Overall - Full Paisa Vasool for audience and the makers of the movie

Fully agree sir. Super padam.

I am not a Kamal fanboy. I like his work. But I am more objective. I have always maintained that after some masterpieces (Nayagan, Apoorva Sahodarargal, Michael Madan Kamarajan, Devar Magan, Mahanadi, etc.) Kamal hasn’t done anything that is watchable. Panchatantram was good, and so was Pammal K Sammandam. Even Vettaiayadi Vilayaadu was good. But films like Dasavatharam and Hey Ram were very self-indulgent and hardly watchable. Viswaroopam was thorough nonsense in my opinion.

But this movie breaks that streak. After literally decades, a Kamal movie worth watching. In fact worth repeat watching.

The laudable aspects are many. Writing is quite good. All the threads of connectivity from the original film and from other stories in recent Tamil films are quite well written.

More than anything it is a super achievement for Kamal to play his age and still come off as an authentic action hero. That is no small feat.

In fact I think Viswaroopam flopped because he tried too hard to portray himself as a younger man.

Here he makes no such attempts. He is old. No question. And yet he is deadly. That is a brilliant balancing act to pull off.

I was expecting that they would use anti-aging technology to make him look younger. Also he himself could have gone all method and lost weight and become younger looking. He usually does stuff like that.

Thankfully here they did not do any of that. They just stuck to basics.

The story is simple. No major complications. It is old school. Bad guy. Good guy. No nuances at all.

After that it is all superb execution of that very simple plot.

Faasil and Sethu are quite watchable. That is the other difference. Kamal has grown to the point where he allows other actors to shine equally, if not better than him.

Sethupathy introduction scene was spectacular.

I really enjoyed the detail of throwbacks; using weapons from his time in the field as the young Vikram.

For the first time in decades we get to see the actor we all grew up admiring for his true skill - that of portraying characters that no one would believe the original actor to be.

Excellent watch.

[Gannu_1]

Man, I’m just half way into CBI 5. What a borefest!

I really liked the one I watched as a kid with Kalabhavan Mani as the serial killer (CBI 3 I think). This one just has way too many characters and uninteresting sub-plots. The trio (Iyer, Chacko and Vikram) were the best. Will wrap it up today.

I loved 21 Grams though.

[dragonfire]

CBI 5 - waste of time

Nothing about this movie is good. The basic plot is okay, but they have overwritten it and added too many characters and subplots into it. If they had trimmed all the flab and get it under 2 hours, it would have been at least watchable.

All the actors overact, especially Renji. Soubin does not fit into his role, although a tad better than some of the roles that he has been accepting these days. Mammootty is too old and acts very unnatural. He tries hard to enact some of the mannerisms of the character unsuccessfully. They rope in Jagathy for that cameo, and it feels nice to see him on the screen, but that reel sticks out like a sore thumb.

If I may be blunt, none of the movies in the series, other than first one, are good. 2 was watchable, 3 was crap and 4 was downright atrocious. The writer has the habit of springing up some inconsequential character as the culprit at the very end of the movie. It worked for a while but it got boring after a couple.

This time, at least he tried something different, but could not create a movie that will satisfy the audience of the 21st century. K Madhu and SN Swamy should call it a day and spend the rest of their years watching their old blockbusters at home.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

CBI 5 - waste of time

If I may be blunt, none of the movies in the series, other than first one, are good. 2 was watchable, 3 was crap and 4 was downright atrocious. The writer has the habit of springing up some inconsequential character as the culprit at the very end of the movie. It worked for a while but it got boring after a couple.

If you keep apart the Seturama Iyer fascination , what you said is very true and I think most people will agree. The only reasons why they were able to milk the franchise is Mammootty's potrayal of Seturama Iyer, the iconic BGM and to some extent the interplay with Mukesh and Jagathy. As investigative thrillers they mostly fall short. Especially part 3 and 4.

I felt Mammootty did a fairly good job in CBI5, but rest of the cast was atrocious. Not attempting to demean Pisharody's acting skills, but he is too nice and funny to pull off a CBI officer role.

The other thread on social media was how poor Seturama Iyer, being such a senior CBI officer still only gets cases that end up with infidelity and extra marital stuff.

Everything said and done, if he does a CBI6, I am sure all Malayalees will still watch it.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Man, I’m just half way into CBI 5. What a borefest!

I really liked the one I watched as a kid with Kalabhavan Mani as the serial killer (CBI 3 I think). This one just has way too many characters and uninteresting sub-plots. The trio (Iyer, Chacko and Vikram) were the best. Will wrap it up today.

I loved 21 Grams though.

21 Grams has its moments, but the story was kinda stupid, IMHO.

For me, the CBI movie which i can still recall scenes has to be the original, Oru CBI Diary Kurippu. "Dummy to dummy", "Chacko, note the point".. they just remain so fresh!

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

If you keep apart the Seturama Iyer fascination , what you said is very true and I think most people will agree. The only reasons why they were able to milk the franchise is Mammootty's potrayal of Seturama Iyer, the iconic BGM and to some extent the interplay with Mukesh and Jagathy. As investigative thrillers they mostly fall short. Especially part 3 and 4.

I felt Mammootty did a fairly good job in CBI5, but rest of the cast was atrocious. Not attempting to demean Pisharody's acting skills, but he is too nice and funny to pull off a CBI officer role.

The other thread on social media was how poor Seturama Iyer, being such a senior CBI officer still only gets cases that end up with infidelity and extra marital stuff.

Everything said and done, if he does a CBI6, I am sure all Malayalees will still watch it.

Totally agree! You have to give credit where due. Mammootty looks and acts the part with ease - not forgetting the number of years since the first movie came out. Even Bruce Willis cannot play the same role as the original in a Die Hard series.

As you rightly summarised, the reasons i will not hesitate to watch even a 6th part, should it come out:
1.) Mammootty as Sethuram Iyer - Iconic!
2.) The BGM - I use this even in my daily life when i am trying to hype up something
3.) Mukesh and Jagathy - Chacko and Vikram are timeless in their own way.

Maybe I am just a fanboy.

[naveen.raju]

No Way Out - Malayalam



Good that the movie as short else it would have been a disaster. But the movie itself was a disaster. Nothing new but the usual stuff.

But wouldn't recommend it. It's a drag!

Rating - 1/5 (Available on Manorama Max)

Ayngaran - Tamil



Started well, then all of a sudden it was a disaster. Except for GVP, all others were amateurish. Surprised how they didn't retake certain scenes (some scenes were very bad - acting wise).
Second half takes the story to another incident which was similar to an old malayalam survival drama. Now I appreciate how well the Malayalam movie was (acting wise and the tension it builds).

Don't even think of watching this.

Rating - 0/5 (Available on Aha if anyone is brave enough )