Movie Name – Urumi
Producer- Shaji Nadeshan, Santosh Sivan, Prithviraj
Director- Santosh Sivan
Cast– Prithviraj, Prabhudeva, Genelia, Nitya Menon, Amol Gupte, Jagathy Sreekumar etc.
Music– Deepak Dev
Cinematography– Santosh Sivan
Story, Screenplay, Dialogues– Shankar Ramakrishnan
Review By : Unni/Kerala9.com
‘Urumi’ may have its flaws, but it has got more plusses than minuses, in fact much more of plusses than our usual films and is very much unlike any film that we see in Malayalam.
‘Urumi’, as has already been told through posters and promotional trailers, is the story of a person who wanted to kill Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer who came to India in 1498 and then paid two visits later and also became the Portuguese viceroy in India. The film explores history from a purely Indian perspective and tells the story of Chiraykkal Kelu Nayanar (Prithviraj), who had pledged to kill Vasco da Gama, who had inflicted cruelties upon many Indians and who was merciless in his ways. Kelu Nayanar is accompanied by his friend and trader Vavvali (Prabhudeva). Into this story come characters like Arackal Aisha (Genelia), Chiraykkal Bala (Nitya Menon), Chenicheri Kurup (Jagathy Sreekumar) etc.
The film begins from the modern day, where we meet Krishna Das (Prithviraj) and Tarzan (Prabhudeva), two friends who take life in an easy-going manner and who want to make some easy money. They are brought face to face with some facts from history that has got something to do with Krishna Das and which also would affect his future and perspective.
The way the film has blended the present with the past, using the same artists (Prithviraj, Prabhudeva, Genelia, Nitya Menon, Vidya Balan, Jagathy Sreekumar etc) in both the present and the past to play different characters and drawing parallels is indeed notable. The film stands out by way of notable performances, excellent technical features, good music and a really remarkable script. Of course there are scenes where we find things a bit tedious, like in the final battle scenes and all, there are places where the makers should have made the film crisper, there are places where we feel the director is not able to rise to the level demanded by the script and the subject, there are times when we feel the film could have been trimmed a bit. But overall, ‘Urumi’ is a movie that stands out. It’s excellent work, but I am sure we can’t have more of such movies as such a big budget is not feasible, except very rarely.
Performances
Prithviraj is simply superb as Kelu Nayanar. Prabhudeva too puts in a commendable performance. Genelia leaves an impact with a role which no one would imagine her to be doing. Amol Gupte, who is already proven to be a great performer, makes his mark, Jagathy, Nitya Menon, Vidya Balan, Arya etc do justice to their respective roles. Everyone is good in their respective roles.
Technical aspects
Santosh Sivan’s cinematography, as usual, with locations hitherto unexplored in Malayalam Cinema, simply leaves us spellbound. Sreekar Prasad, ace editor, too does a wonderful job, but the film could have been trimmed a bit it seems. The other technical aspects too sync in perfectly well.
Music
Deepak Dev has done a wonderful job of the songs and the background music. I had never before expected Deepak Dev to be part of such a project, a period film. Hats off to Deepak Dev.
Script
Shankar Ramakrishnan, who is in charge of the story and script, has no doubt done great amount of research. That shows not just in the screenplay, but in the dialogues too. The film owes a lot to the excellent script that he had done. Kudos Shankar.
Direction
Santosh Sivan is of course better as a cinematographer than a director. But he no doubt has directed ‘Urumi’ as the subject deserves. There is no point saying that some other director could have done better, because ‘Urumi’ is a Santosh Sivan film and he has done it the way he wanted it to be. Perhaps only someone like him could make the feel come live. Of course there are portions which he should have trimmed and made in the way it’s handled in Hollywood films like ‘Brave Heart’. But it’s to be remembered that he is making a film with a big budget and he has to keep in mind that it’s the audience of Kerala who’s coming to see his films and not the international kind of audience. So, he has definitely had to make the film the way it would appeal to average film goers too. Good work, Santosh Sivan and team.
Overall verdict- Different, excellent, must-see movie…
Rating: 4.25/5
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Its simply amazing. everybody performes well specially “Kelu nair”. But im not so much happy in Arya’s voice and dubbing. Except this movie is fantastic. Santhosh Sivan did gr8 job. Prabhudeva also done great job as a supporting actor.
Now U people tell how many malayalam movies have you seen of such technical standard? I bet there are not much.
Hello smilu, for your information, I know for sure that U have very litte knowledge about Vasco De Gama. The least you need to do is look for some details about him in Wikipedia before you write something like that (as if you know all about him). Your comment about Vasco De Gama was completely misleading. Before you ask others to understand something I believe that you need to know atleast a thing or two about that something. By the way, In your comment
“first understand that.. VascodaGama had not done these kind of things friends. THis is a HISTORY made by the director for this FILM.”
You imply that Santhosh Sivan and his team are a bunch of idiots.
How silly of you!!.
I have to say that you have shown your ‘IDIOCY’ in that comment.
I also have to admit that it is because of your idiotic comment I am writing this comment, otherwise I am not a commenting kind of person on a movie review. So please make sure that you know what You say, as there are enough idiots out there who will believe the Idiocy you say, may be for life, they will never know that they have been feeded with wrong information.
SMILU, this is for your information about Vasco De Gama from WIKIPEDIA.
” PILGRIM SHIP INCIDENT:
Vasco da Gama inflicted acts of cruelty upon competing traders and local inhabitants. During his second voyage to Calicut, Gama intercepted a ship of Muslim pilgrims at Madayi travelling from Calicut to Mecca. Described by the Portuguese historian Gaspar Correia as one that is unequalled in cold-blooded cruelty, Gama looted the ship with over 400 pilgrims on board including 50 women, locked in the passengers, the owner and an ambassador from Egypt and burnt them to death. They offered their wealth which ‘could ransom all the Christian slaves in the Kingdom of Fez and much more’ but were not spared. Gama looked on through the porthole and saw the women bringing up their gold and jewels and holding up their babies to beg for mercy.
After demanding the expulsion of Muslims from Calicut to the Hindu Zamorin, the latter sent the high priest Talappana Namboothiri (the very same person who conducted Gama to the Zamorin’s chamber during his much celebrated first visit to Calicut in May 1498) for talks. Gama called him a spy, ordered the priests’ lips and ears to be cut off and after sewing a pair of dog’s ears to his head, sent him away.”
So now you know what Vasco De Gama have really done….
By the way I liked the movie, the simple fact that the movie has an excellent script and the Awesome high standard of movie making involved is good enough for anyone to like this movie.
Actually, one has to watch this movie in a theatre to experience the real Awesomeness this movie has to offer, rather than watching a pirated copy of this movie on your PC or TV.
The people who have watched it on PC or TV will never know the Awesome feel that you get while watching it on the big screen!!!!!….
URUMI a gr8 movie…gud acting by prithvi…i lik the song ‘alakadaloli’…it’s a nice song by deepak dev..and also swetha and yesudas sang it well…prithvi congratz!
hello who said its a historical movie.. there is no HISTORY like this… 😛 first understand that.. VascodaGama had not done these kind of things friends. THis is a HISTORY made by the director for this FILM. only that much. and about the film a normal Average film. Spent lot for Camera… but not to the limit.. 😛 Felt like crying some time.. 😀
Not very good…..but good
Awesome performance by prithvi,genelia,prabhu deva and all.I love the song chimmi chimmi too much….nithya menon looks more prettier than usual in the song….!
superb movie, much better than pazhassi raja
No words to describe … Excellent, Awesome, Brilliant movie… its indeed a treat to my senses.. Shankar is a very good story teller.It is evident he has conducted a great amount of research, with the story, dialogue, script. Great Job Santosh Sivan. All credits goes to the Writer, Director and Prithvi ofcourse all the crew members of URUMI.. Special mention of the character Chenichery.. I hate him… Jagathy is great and amazing in that character.. I bet this is the only movie where he has put effort in learning the dialogues…:) Thank you.. Thank you very much for making such a great movie.. Awaiting many more movies with such standard…
Really nice 1.Prithwi roczz.1 of de best in malayalam.Sometime felt lagging but overall nice nd better.
Really nice 1.Prithwi done agood job.1 of de best in malayalam.Sometime felt lagging but overall nice nd better.
first of all let me say its a great movie from Santhosh sivan. Actually i didnt get any good opinion from my friends who watched the film but i thought any how go and watch the movie.. i dont know now also how i spend that 3 hrs. its really wonderful.. its truly a historical film and the picturization is really great.
URUMI IS VERY NICE MOVIE…..I APPRECIATE PRIDIVIRAJ FOR HIS PERFORMANCE.WE CAN REMEBER THESE KIND OF HISTORICAL HERO’S THROUGH THIS MOVIE.THIS IS A TRIBUTE TO THEM.AND WE SHOULD REALISE HOW CRUEL THESE WESTERN PEOPLE WERE.
lol..i have read ur coments abt urumi…//wat i can tell those wo r gng to film..this is simply awesome…pritvi..have done a great job……….
we guys alreadt saw 2 times here in bangalore……….so thanks to santhosh sivan and pritvi..for cmg with tis kind of films…superb……..
hai i agree with some of ur points, but after seeing the movie i don’t felt it as a good one, the fighting scenes are same as the traditional malayalam movie style…so u don’t compare it with hollywood movies…the film makers said that the actors undergone kalari training for months!!! i don’t believe it…. as you said “Santosh Sivan is of course better as a cinematographer than a director”, i agree with it…we have seen his talent in the movie ravan….
before going to watch urumi we had great expectations due to the news reviews we gone through in channels and newspapers…i would say it is not a masterpiece but a different kind of malayalam movie…i don’t understand some parts like vidyabalan’s dance like an item number.. why was that thing, if she was like a goddess or something like that then there are lot of other ways to show things…performance wise i thing genelia was outstanding and nothing to say about jagathi’s facial expressions, it was amazing anyhow we know that he is master in that….
as you said, the final fighting seen was bit boring to me…the film lost its flow in most of the scenes…when the director and the crew are taking such a great responsibility then they have to try making it better…because nowadays we are comparing our movies not only with the malayalm but also with other languages…we can’t say that we don’t have such technicians in our industry…here we can do things with low cost as we have seen in yanthiran like movies, where foreign art directors needed 5 crores to make robot sabu cyril did it with just 5 lakhs, see the difference…
i don’t think urumi as a great malayalam movie…the film doesn’t give any entertainment or feelings to me and even to my friends…actually what happened is that we expected more but the result was poor…..any how good work Santosh Sivan
hay box office i have lock comments about the movie urumi the people have say they are wast money to go in thriter watch movie urumi what i have belive one you said or other guy said