[WindRide]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

New age Malayalam movie makers have gone full woke and is dishing out one feminist movie after another.

Ini Utharam continues the trend of mallu superwomen.

Started out slightly interesting before descending into sheer meh towards the end. Woke-ism in mal movies is getting tiresome now.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Mukundan Unni Associates-Hotstar- Vineet Srinivasan

A movie on ambulance chasers that is far from reality. Case of Star kids redefining nepotism and results turning out to be depressing.

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by poloman

Malayalam audiences are not matured enough for or satirical or spoofy comedies like Gold. I really liked the movie. There was a similar movie by Lijo P some time back called "Double Barrel" starring Prithviraj.

Upendra had made a movie called A which had the tagline "Kaddayavaagi Buddhivantharige Maathra (Only for Smart People)". My friend told me that it didn't have that tagline initially but when the movie failed to attract audiences he added that tagline in the posters and the movie went on to become a super-hit.

I watched Gold and it felt like a comedy skit that comes on TV. But it wasn't as bad as everyone says. It seems everybody was expecting another Premam.

Double Barrel on the other hand can be described in one word - "irritating". I couldn't get past the initial 30 minutes where every other character irritates you with the laila-majnu monologue

Originally Posted by Asish_VK

Mukundan Unni Associates (Malayalam) - Disney Hotstar - 5/5

Never a dull moment. It was Vineeth's show all the away. Even his voice-overs had a charm like no other.

Originally Posted by WindRide

A movie on ambulance chasers that is far from reality.

It seems it is inspired from NightCrawler (2014) where it is TV journalists instead of ambulance chasers.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by vb-san

Gold in my opinion was a watchable OTT movie. The template was more of Neram, which was fresh 10 years back, but in the current times, the chaos at times looked forced / caricature-ish. Still did not feel as a cringe-fest like Monster.


.

I agree. It was basically a 'throw logic to the wind' movie which manages to do okay without being cringy.

Very watchable in my opinion. Just take it as an Alphonse Puthran and friends outing. Something like Om Shanti Om but cringe dialed down to a great extent.

The fact that Prithviraj did not have much scope to act helps a great deal I think

[StepUP!]

Ved (Marathi)
Watched it today. Overall it is an entertaining movie. Nothing exceptional but not bad too.
All actors do justice to their roles. Genelia looks stunning. She is not fluent in her Marathi dialogue delivery. But acted well. Script has some really good dialogues.
Background music and songs are ok. Well done Ritesh as a director!

My rating 3.5/5

[KA18]

Originally Posted by dragonfire

Upendra had made a movie called A which had the tagline "Kaddayavaagi Buddhivantharige Maathra (Only for Smart People)". My friend told me that it didn't have that tagline initially but when the movie failed to attract audiences he added that tagline in the posters and the movie went on to become a super-hit.

As far as I know, it was the tagline for a movie named 'Upendra' and not 'A'

[Asish_VK]

Originally Posted by vibbs

The fact that Prithviraj did not have much scope to act helps a great deal I think

Oh man, this splits me up even though I like Prithviraj as movie star (not actor).

[vb-saan]

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey - 4.5/5.0
Great performances, and immaculate attention to detail- be it in the language/slang, or the cultural milieu of the location – just brilliant.

Saudi Vellakka – 3.5/5.0
Another good movie, but these kind of movies work really well when the slowness of the proceedings go unnoticeable. Here it felt a bit too slow at times. But a good watchable effort.

Kooman – 3.0/5.0
A brilliant first half, and a usual thriller-template second-half. Outstanding performances by Asif Ali and Jaffer Idukki.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Mukundan Unni Associates-Hotstar- Vineet Srinivasan

Good one indeed! No intention to preach or bringing up the idea of the usual Karma-catching-up. And the background score really elevated the movie. Watch-out for the music around one key scene in the movie (not mentioning to avoid any kind of spoiler elements).

Originally Posted by vibbs

The fact that Prithviraj did not have much scope to act helps a great deal I think

I think Kaapa will be out on Netflix in a couple of weeks. You will surely get a chance to see some real acting

Originally Posted by poloman

Malayalam audiences are not matured enough for or satirical or spoofy comedies like Gold. I really liked the movie. There was a similar movie by Lijo P some time back called "Double Barrel" starring Prithviraj. This was also panned by Critics, but I found that really good.

Interesting observation. From my limited exposure, I have not seen many industries where experimental or off-beat movies get critical accolades and commercial success like the way it happens in Malayalam. Some experiments do crash, but success stories are more for a well-made movie, irrespective of big names or starcast. There was a movie that came as a direct OTT-release on Disney Hotstar – Kanakam Kamini Kalaham. Not liked by many, but I felt it was a great attempt. I always felt that technical aspects of a movie should compliment the movie and the narrative rather than becoming a stand-out aspect. I mentioned about the use of BGM in Mukundan Unni Associates. Or the cinematography in movies like Kooman, or Enna thaan case kodu – extremely efficient without making the presence of camera felt. In case of Gold, I felt Puthren overdid the editing bit so much that (as Vibbs rightly pointed out), even Prithviraj’s acting skills got submerged in those cuts

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by vb-san

I think Kaapa will be out on Netflix in a couple of weeks. You will surely get a chance to see some real acting

It will be out on Netflx on Jan 19th.

Some recent watches:


Jaya Jaya Jaya Hai (Hotstar): 4/5
Suberb acting and screenplay. It is a simple feel good comedy movie, very well taken without the usual ending associated with feel good movies.

Saudi Vellaka (Sony Liv): 4/5.
A socially relevant theme with a good message that shows the inefficiency in our Judicial system. The old woman has acted very well and steals the show.

Gold (Prime): 1/5
I had to finish it in multiple sittings. As others have pointed out, so many talented artists wasted. So many artists (mostly friends of director) just placed for the sake of it. Dance without any context with Subin walking around. Director was trying to innovate and stand out; but failed miserably.

Shafeekinte Santhosam (Manorama Max): 1/5
Another feel good movie attempt that is a disaster. I could not stand it after the first 30 minutes and gave up.

Padma (Manorama Max): 1/5
Twists and turns without any logic. Avoid.

Ini Utharam (Zee 5): 2/5
Movie started well, but lost plot in the second half. Complex flashbacks without any logic could not save the attempt to fit in the current super woman trend of malayalam movies.

[dmplog]

Vaalvi (Marathi वाळवी ) : 5/5
Watched over the weekend. A dark comedy that is a total entertainer. Directed by Paresh Mokashi - an ace Director well known for his earlier films Harishchandrachi Factory (2009) and Elizabeth Ekadashi (2014) has assembled a wonderful cast that keeps you rivetted to the seats. Acting by all cast is right on spot. Running time of 1h 46m that's devoid of any song and dance is a must watch !

[Gannu_1]

Guys who're subscribed to Manorama Max, do you see an option to resume the content from where you left off?

I am using a FireTV stick and got a subscription to Manorama Max recently. But this has a big pain now! And fast forwarding is not very intuitive unlike Prime Video or Netflix.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Guys who're subscribed to Manorama Max, do you see an option to resume the content from where you left off?

I subscribe through Amazon Prime on my Google TV; the controls/UX work exactly as it does for the rest of the content in the Prime Video app. Only difference is that X-Ray does not seem to work for this sort of through-subscription.

[benbsb29]

Mukundan Unni Associates - Malayalam



Enter the age of dark comedy. This movie makes no attempts to give the impression of life being one of fairy tale endings. Human beings are mostly grey. For the determined, success is the only thing that matters, leaving no stone unturned to get there.

Vineeth Sreenivasan as the main protagonist truly brought out the thoughts people harbor in their heads, but don't speak out. Great performances from Sooraj and the others as well, all doing their part.

At times the movie shifts onto distressing topics, but there is a reality about them. Some situations do go overboard, but to me it focusses on the main topic ie how various people in positions allude to loot and line each other's pockets.

I really enjoyed this one, although it may not be to everyone's liking.

Rating : 4/5

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Guys who're subscribed to Manorama Max, do you see an option to resume the content from where you left off?

I am using a FireTV stick and got a subscription to Manorama Max recently. But this has a big pain now! And fast forwarding is not very intuitive unlike Prime Video or Netflix.

I am also using a Fire TV stick. The subscription to Manorama Max is through Prime. The resuming of content works as it is with others. It also syncs with the other Fire TV stick that I have. The performance is not as good as Netflix/ Prime.

The worst performance I experience is with Hotstar. It lags, keeps going back to the home screen and resume from the beginning when I go back. Seems to be very finicky about the bandwidth available. Tried everything including clearing Cache, reinstalling hotstar, resetting firetv to factory settings etc.

[tchsvy]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

Ved (Marathi)
Watched it today. Overall it is an entertaining movie. Nothing exceptional but not bad too.
All actors do justice to their roles. Genelia looks stunning. She is not fluent in her Marathi dialogue delivery. But acted well. Script has some really good dialogues.
Background music and songs are ok. Well done Ritesh as a director!

My rating 3.5/5

I believe this is based on a Telugu movie called 'Majili' in which Naga Chaitanya and Samantha played the lead roles.

[naveen.raju]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Guys who're subscribed to Manorama Max, do you see an option to resume the content from where you left off?

I am using a FireTV stick and got a subscription to Manorama Max recently. But this has a big pain now! And fast forwarding is not very intuitive unlike Prime Video or Netflix.

I don't see any issues. I directly took Manorama Max subscription and use Fire stick to watch it. Resumes content without any issues.
Try updating the app/fires stick.
Have issues with Hotstar - sometimes it's got a mind of it's own.