Monday 21 February 2011

Makeup Man

2011 by Shafi.

A typical Malayalam 'masala' romantic comedy.

Rich girl and man elopes. She is lucky to act in a movie and her husband diguises as her make up man. Unfortunately, she is attracted more towards movie life and there are problems between them and finally all ends in good terms.

It has all the typical Malayalam romantic comedy ingredients.
2 songs
a hero who looks 2 decades older than the heroine
all unnecessary characters, played by great actors who dont have any opportunities for good roles these days
All machoisms of normal Malayaalee husband, who seems to get applause even from the Malayaalee women in the theatre
Some police men, media and television news & a court scene which is out of this world as always
and some laughs here and there
plus
almost 3 hours of length which could have been told in 2 hours

In fact, Sunday was a day for an excellent comparison between Tamil and Malayalam movies. 

Nadunissi Naaygal - Midnight Dogs

2011 by Gautham Menon

Samar, as a child, is sexually abused by none other than his father. Because of a vigilant neighbourhood woman Meenakshi, Samar is saved and Meenakshi takes care of Samar thereafter, who calls him Veera. Even as a teenager Veera falls in love with Meenakshi. One night he has this terrible dream about his past and ends up in the bedroom of Meenakshi and he is more of Samar and nearly rapes her. For some wierd reason, which we should make out, Meenakshi continues having Veera in her home and she gets married to one of her old friend. This is too much for the boy and Samar stabs Meenakshi's husband on the very first night on their bed and there is a fire in the room. Meenakshi too is killed, later in the hospital I guess, because of this fire. But for Samar, Meenakshi is alive around him and he moves to Chennai from Mumbai to a home which looks apt for his kind of personality. Here he hunts down other girls and kills them. He cuts the hair, after he abuse/kills his victims, and presents to Meenakshi, for Meenakshi had lost all her hair in the fire  have a liking for the hair of these girls. He sees Sukanya, a school mate and tries to get her to his home. The movie unfolds through the events of the night when he tries to get Sukanya and through his confessions.

But let me tell you, this movie has a brilliant script. Of course, there are loop holes here and there but still, may I say this movie is quite different from the run of the mill ones, and is brilliant in more than a few aspects, unless we want to sit down and only criticize. The truth that Samar has a dual personality problem, that he lives as both Samar and Veera is clear only towards the second half of the movie. His halucination of having Meenakshi, whom he saved from the fire but left alive with a terrible face, who is living with him in the strange house in Chennai is made to look real until his dual personality is presented. But the script and the director - both by Mr. Menon, has done quite enough to keep the surprises in tact and producing a special thriller out of a true story. He has gone quite out of the way for this in few things, the length of the movie is only 90 minutes, there is  no background music or any songs, mind you its a thriller but with no background music, and only few actors.

It is the performances of the lead characters, especially the debutant Veera who plays Samar, who makes this one a very different watch. It is difficult to believe that its only his first movie. The Cinematographer, who has worked mostly under low lights, and the editor, both have done a brilliant job.

When I was told that this movie was about a serial killer and bla bla, I suspected that this would be yet another adaptation of a script/s from elsewhere. But all credits to Gautham Menon, this is purely an Indian thriller. To nit pick, we could find similarities with many such stories, but the way how it is told, Nadunissi Naaygal is a surprising winner.

I still thought, Mr. Menon has scripted it for an audience who are intelligent, even the lay man in the theatre seems to have enjoyed it, so I couldnt understand why he still decided to give a routine explanation by a Psychiatrist at the very end, which was not required at all.

Veera have some deadly dogs, but still the title isnt relevant.