[jomyboy]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Kishkindha Kaandam (Malayalam)

Streaming: Disney Plus Hotstar
Rating: 4/5

A psychological mystery thriller, just gripping storytelling till the end, justifying its commercial success.

Very slow burn, got so bored at one point that I forwarded to the last 15 minutes for the final reveal, which was as anticipated.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Vivekanandan Viralanu - Malayalam
What the hell was this? That too from director Kamal. Tries to portray a social subject but was cringe loaded.
Rating - 1/5 (Amazon Prime)

Seeing Shine Tom (who i cannot tolerate at all!) as the lead role, I had ignored watching this one when it came out on OTT, however i still decided to give it a try. Less than 5 minutes in, I was over and out.

Save yourselves the trouble and stay away from this one.

[ghodlur]

Phullwanti (Marathi)

Streaming: Amazon Prime

Since this was a period film, I did not have much expectations but the movie turned out to be far far better than I had imagined. The movie is a visual treat not on the standards of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's opus sets but for a Marathi movie it sets a benchmark. I wish the audio would have been equally catchy. Prajakta Mali of Maharashtrachi hasya Jatra fame plays the titular role to the best. Although her dance moves weren't anything noteworthy but her acting was. Gashmeer Mahajani also plays his part well, the movie is ably supported by all actors. Special mention to Snehal Tarde who is also the director of the movie for her emotional acting. The movie ideally needs to be seen on the big screen. My thumbs up for the movie, recommend it.

Rating: 4/5

Bagheera (Kannada)

Streaming: Netflix

Off late one of the better kannada movie I have seen but the film is lenghty (2 hrs 20 mins) could have been easily 30 mins less. This is the first vigilante/Super hero movie I think in the kannada film legacy. Here Batman + Black panther combo is seen in the form of Sri Murli who does a brilliant work. Rukmini Vasant has limited screen spaces but shines with her acting. Prakash Raj, Pramod Shetty, Achyuth Kumar and Rangayana Raghu performed well in the roles respectively. I am surprised the movie is already on OTT as it could have done much better on big screens. Will recommend for a one time watch.

Rating: 4/5

Martin (Kannada)

Streaming: Amazon Prime

Snoozefest. Avoid at all costs. Switched off within 15 mins.

Rating: 0/5

[balenoed_]

Sookshma Darshini - M - 3.5/5

A nicely crafted story line with some loop holes here and there that needs to be ignored. Intriguing thriller with suspense until the end and a bit unique in terms of a combination of drama/humour/thriller/dark.

Basil nailed it and another film where he proves himself. Another highlight is a good come back of Nazriya.

Conceiving such story and the unorthodox casting is something that needs to be appreciated too. Especially approaching this type of subject from a drama/humorous angle.

Good watch and OTT will be Ok too, but spoilers can kill the fun if not watched in fresh.

[Asish_VK]

Kishkindha Kandam - Hotstar - Mystery Drama / Thriller - 4.5/5



Superb movie. If you are a fan of slow burn mystery thrillers (drama), you will love this. Nicely written story with terrific performances by Vijayaraghavan and Asif Ali. This movie is at par with many Korean mystery dramas out there.

[rajeevsulu]

Kishkindha kandam

I really liked the movie. I like Asif ali. Vijayaraghavan was amazing. Good watch.

Cheers

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Sookshma Darshini - M - 3.5/5

.

Was a good one. Your description was apt. Especially the casting for this. I normally read reviews, but this one should go without knowing anything.

[jkrishnakj]

Loved 'Kishkindha Kandam'. I guess that movie was deliberately made slow, since the layers kept building over many many scenes. It all comes together ofcourse, towards the end. Absolutely loved it.

I also managed to catch 'Vettaiyan'. It had a good start and was good till such time the movie took to the sentiment of the TN masses about exams and coaching centres (Byju/NEET?). Got so bored and finished by fast forwarding over to the end.

[subraiyr]

I saw Vettayan over the weekend. Leaves a lot to be desired. As a Rajani movie it was forgetful

In most of Rajani's movies, the character gets built over the first 60 minutes. In this case, there was no character-building. Who is Athithya and why is he such a powerful encounter specialist?. I was relating it to Nana Patekar in Aaj Tak Chappan where he was an encounter specialist and the way his character was built was great

Fahad - What an amazing actor, who was relegated to a comedy track. The director must be blamed here for his lack of foresight. The character of Fahad could have been built very well. Unfortunately, a few one-liners, forcing him to eat Horlicks and play around with electronics were sufficient enough for the director

Amitabh - Less said better. I remember Arakshan where he towered over the educational mafia and herein, he was again relegated to a sidekick

Manju Warrier - She needn't have been there in the movie. No role for her except for a so called dance and that's all.

The movie could have been made tighter, with deeper layers but unfortunately, even Rajani could not carry out the movie all by himself. High time he chooses smart directors who can extract the best from him. The last movie of note for me would have been Kabali

Rating: 1/5

[DigitalOne]

Meiyazhagan | Tamil | Netflix | 3.5/5

A simple, yet well-narrated story of a person Arulmozhi(played by Arvind Swamy) going back to his native village, near Thanjavur, after a couple of decades. He sees his old house, other haunts and meets up with old relatives especially one smooth talking and enthusiastic relative, played brilliantly by Karthi, who he doesn't seem to recall at all.

The pace of the movie is languid, yet the small encounters and the subtle humour keeps the movie going. The plot keeps referring to earlier family disputes which forced Arulmozhi's family to leave their house and the village and move to Chennai but thankfully doesn't delve deeply into that nor are there any dramatic dialogues.

The movie runtime on Netflix is 2hr:38 mins whereas the theatrical release version was 2hr:58 mins (as per wikipedia or IMDB). Probably, the makers have edited the movie responding to criticism that it is too slow. At this shorter runtime, it is just perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahp840_aCoI&t=1s

[akhil_007]

Mortein- Kannada- Amazon Prime- Some Indian Intelligence guy and some pakistani fellows

Rating 0/5

Hard to wrap your head around the story with screenplay being all over the place. What's with the BGM overshadowing all the dialogues!!

-All actors have done a good job at ensuring there is no link between them and the story
-Way better than Blast Mohan's movie in Jailer Movie
-Overall, a good movie to AVOID!!

[RaghuVis]

Originally Posted by balenoed_

Sookshma Darshini - M - 3.5/5

A nicely crafted story line with some loop holes here and there that needs to be ignored. Intriguing thriller with suspense until the end and a bit unique in terms of a combination of drama/humour/thriller/dark.

Good watch and OTT will be Ok too, but spoilers can kill the fun if not watched in fresh.

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Was a good one. Your description was apt. Especially the casting for this. I normally read reviews, but this one should go without knowing anything.

We watched it yesterday and loved it, considering we had no idea about the story. Good thrillers are far and few in any film industry, and it is always fun to watch them in theatres. I would urge folks to watch it on the big screen.

2024 has been a fabulous year for Malayalam Film Industry. Here are some of the Critically Acclaimed / Successful movies that can be watched in the holiday season by those who haven't.

1. Aatam -- Amazon Prime
2. Premalu -- Hotstar
3. Bramayugam -- Sony Liv
4. Manjummel Boys -- Hotstar
5. Aadujeevitham -- Netflix
6. Aavesham -- Amazon Prime
7. Varshangalkku Shesham -- Sony Liv
8. Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil -- Hotstar
9. Ullozhukku -- Amazon Prime
10. A.R.M -- Hotstar
11. Kishkindha Kaandam -- Hotstar
12. Sookshmadarshini -- In Theatres now

12 Big movies, and only one of them is on Netflix. Clearly, Netflix is losing out on regional content.

[somspaple]

Originally Posted by ghodlur

Bagheera (Kannada)

Streaming: Netflix

Off late one of the better kannada movie I have seen but the film is lenghty (2 hrs 20 mins) could have been easily 30 mins less. This is the first vigilante/Super hero movie I think in the kannada film legacy. Here Batman + Black panther combo is seen in the form of Sri Murli who does a brilliant work. Rukmini Vasant has limited screen spaces but shines with her acting. Prakash Raj, Pramod Shetty, Achyuth Kumar and Rangayana Raghu performed well in the roles respectively. I am surprised the movie is already on OTT as it could have done much better on big screens. Will recommend for a one time watch.

Rating: 4/5

This is a surprisingly good effort and largely without any glaring issues. Probably would have been a much bigger hit if it were made in a bigger market.

I faced some audio issue during the climax fight - all I could hear mostly was train noise. Much of other fight noise and dialogues were very muted. Not sure it was an issue at my end - I tried switching off sound bar, change 5.1 mode to normal etc - but didn't help.

Originally Posted by akhil_007

Mortein- Kannada- Amazon Prime- Some Indian Intelligence guy and some pakistani fellows

Rating 0/5

...AVOID!!

Pretty apt name - this is exactly what I said when missus asked for feedback!

[Asish_VK]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

We watched it yesterday and loved it, considering we had no idea about the story. Good thrillers are far and few in any film industry, and it is always fun to watch them in theatres. I would urge folks to watch it on the big screen.

2024 has been a fabulous year for Malayalam Film Industry. Here are some of the Critically Acclaimed / Successful movies that can be watched in the holiday season by those who haven't.

1. Aatam -- Amazon Prime
2. Premalu -- Hotstar
3. Bramayugam -- Sony Liv
4. Manjummel Boys -- Hotstar
5. Aadujeevitham -- Netflix
6. Aavesham -- Amazon Prime
7. Varshangalkku Shesham -- Sony Liv
8. Guruvayoor Ambalanadayil -- Hotstar
9. Ullozhukku -- Amazon Prime
10. A.R.M -- Hotstar
11. Kishkindha Kaandam -- Hotstar
12. Sookshmadarshini -- In Theatres now

12 Big movies, and only one of them is on Netflix. Clearly, Netflix is losing out on regional content.

Adding few more including many underrated gems

1. Thalavan - Sony Live
2. Golam - Prime
3. Gaganachari - Prime
4. Abraham Osler - Hotstar
5. Vishesham - Prime
6. Anweshippin Kandethum - Netflix
7. Bharathanaatyam - Aha
8. Gumasthan - Prime
9. Turbo - Sony Live

[balenoed_]

Originally Posted by subraiyr

Fahad - What an amazing actor, who was relegated to a comedy track. The director must be blamed here for his lack of foresight. The character of Fahad could have been built very well. Unfortunately, a few one-liners, forcing him to eat Horlicks and play around with electronics were sufficient enough for the director

Sir he is just a cameo appearance in that film, otherwise he is a frontline actor in Malayalam films where he is being used to his full potential.

And these movies are made for commercial success, least bothered for any awards. So you need to take it that way. Unfortunately, we have reached a point where, to cast and afford stalwarts like Rajanikanth, the movie needs to be commercially viable.