•ONE WORD: A boring romantic movie with poor comedies.

RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2023.

DURATION: 2 Hours 32 minutes.

DIRECTOR: Ramesh Thamilmani.

GENRE: Romantic Comedy Drama

STAR CAST: Harish Kalyan, Ivana, Nadiya Moidu, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, Mirchi Vijay, Venkat Prabhu, Sandy Master and so on.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Dhoni Entertainment Private Ltd.

MUSIC DIRECTOR: Ramesh Thamilmani.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Viswajith Odukkathil.  

ART DIRECTION: Arun Venjaramoodu

EDITOR: Pradeep E Ragav.

PRODUCED BY: M S Dhoni, Sakshi Singh Dhoni and Vikas Hasija.

REVIEW BY SAKTHIPRIYA KS

•POSITIVES:

1: Performance of Ivana.

2: Cinematography.

3: Songs and background scores.

4: The Humour scenes of Yogi Babu and Mirchi Vijay.

•NEGATIVES:

1: The movie was lagging at many points.

2: Unsatisfying climax.

3: Screenplay

4: At some points, comedies did not work out.

5: Illogical scenes with a tiger.

6: The concepts.

•Detail review and analysis of the film:

•SO WHAT’S HOT?

1: The comeback of the evergreen actress Nadiya Moidu.

2: The Humour scenes of Yogi Babu and Mirchi Vijay at some points worked out.

3: The Screen presence of Ivana made me remember the blockbuster Love today movie.

4: The music was done well by the director himself.

5: The costumes of the artists were good.

•SO WHAT DIDN’T WORK OUT:

1:The movie didn’t create any impact.

2: Unconvincing story.

3: The comedies were mediocre.

4: Overdramatic scenes.

5: Illogical scenes of the tiger.

STORY:

The Young Couple Gautham (Harish Kalyan) and Meera (Ivana) were dating for a couple of years and Meera decides to spend time and get to know her future mother-in-law(Nadiya) before marriage. Meera gives an idea of a trip to Coorg to get to know about her future mother-in-law and the outcome of this adventure is the rest of the movie.

•DETAIL REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF THE FILM:

The idea of getting to know each other between Meera and her future Mother-in-law is the true baseline but the makers of this movie stretched into more than two and half-an-hour. This screenplay was an utter waste of time and it failed to do justice for the plot. The movie had an inorganic narrative style and there were many scenes of forced comedies. The comedy scenes in the screenplay went unrealistic and the writer Ramesh Thamilmani approach of bring authentic comedy went flat. As a viewer, I couldn’t connect with the forced comedies. The story written by Sakshi Dhoni was predictable and the story of the movie was not having enough components to engage the audience.

At some sites, specific scenes were elevated by Harish Kalyan, Ivana And Nadiya. The flashback of Nadiya where her husband dies did not give any impact or emotional feel. The scenes which supposed to create impact were not executed well by the director Ramesh Thamilmani. So, the movie was gradually failing to create an impression. The emotions in the screenplay such as romance and sentiments between the son and parents was not having an authentic feel, therefore, the value of relationships in the movie was poorly written and it killed the soul of the film. Also, the dialogues in the film felt unnatural and the conversation between the characters were not having a power to impress the audience.

In the film, Mirchi Vijay often used to tell that the romantic story of the central character is always boring, likewise, the entire story of the movie was making my viewing experience dull. The bizarre tiger sequence and some scenes of ultimate climax were sluggish. Also, the saddest part of the Screenplay was, the movie was scrammed with unnecessary comedy scenes which created lag. The screenplay writing was collapsed and the stretched long writing was horrible to wear. So the long duration of two and a half an hour was felt boring. As a movie that comes under the genre of comedy film, the makers are supposed to evoke laughter but the things went upside down and in the name of comedies they had given the worst cinematic experience.

The director should have concentrated only on direction leaving the duty of the music director to someone else which would have made the movie better. I did not feel connected and engaged with the movie. The screenplay should have been made better and overall the director should have done his job in a much better way. The writing should have been more impactful to create an effective screenplay where this movie did not contain the required elements to get engaged to this flick. The director didn’t give this movie a fun-filled outcome and the only optimistic outcome was the good music and moderate background scores.

•HOW ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS?

Harish Kalyan, Ivana, Nadiya Moidu, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, Mirchi Vijay, Venkat Prabhu and Sandy Masterwere the primary actors in this film.

Harish Kalyan’s acting did not give an impact and did not feel any connectedness to me. The acting of Ivana gives soul to the movie and her expressions didn’t fail to win the hearts of her fans. The performance of Ivana was in a much better space to showcase her good acting skills than Harish Kalyan. The screen presence of Nadiya Moidu was really good and she made the screen superheated. Yogi Babu as always did his portion to the best and his comedy scenes were moderately good. Mirchi Vijay’s performance as a supportive friend to the hero was relatively fine but did not give much impact. VTV Ganesh, Venkat Prabhu and Sandy Master have done moderate acting according to their roles.The forced laughter scenes and unnecessary character appearances of Sandy Master, VTV Ganesh and Venkhat Prabhu should have been more effective which failed to create an impact on their roles.

•HOW WAS THE MUSICAL DEPARTMENT?

The song and background scores were composed by Ramesh Thamilmani, the Director of this movie. The song Salana written by Madhan Karky is a moderate melody sung by RK Adithya. The Song Grill Chicken is a folk song sung by Gana Vinoth was somewhat good. Kaattu Payapulla was a fast-beat song given voice by Anthony Daasan and Paal Dabba. Tikki Tikki Tata sung by Nithyasree Venkatramanan and Madhu Iyer was a good party song penned by Madhan Karky. The song Is Kis Kifa with the dance performance of Sandy Master was exceptionally good. Overall the songs and background scores were good to hear.

•WHAT’S BEHIND THE FILM?

The CGI works in the movie at the end of the film was horrible and the illogical Tiger sequence made the movie even worse. Also, the colour tone was inconsistent and the poor camera angles gave me the feel of watching an advertisement or short film. So the cinematography of Viswajith Odukkathil was underwhelming with moderate angles and shots. The editor Pradeep E Ragav should have trimmed the unwanted boring scenes and the overall length of the movie felt boring. For smooth watching, the editor should have cut the unnecessary scenes.

•OVERALL:

The movie LGM shortened outlet of Let’s Get Married directed by Ramesh Thamilmani had given me a boring experience due to the utterly waste screenplay and direction. To be honest, I didn’t enjoy this film because of the poorly made script and moderate direction. The performance of Ivana, Harish Kalyan, Nadiya, Yogi Babu and Mirchi Vijay was overall good but it did not help to make the movie into a fun-filled laughter film. This time it was not a sixer to MS Dhoni as his fans would have expected more from the film.

VERDICT: BELOW-AVERAGE

RATING: 2/5

A Review by Sakthipriya. KS

Review for Voice of Sathyanathan:

• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R

•Language: MALAYALAM

•Duration: 02 Hours 17 Minutes.

•Genre: Comedy Thriller.

•POSITIVES:

1: Direction  

2: Performance of Dileep 

3: Performance of Siddique

4: Comedies

5: Cinematography

5: Editing

6: Songs

7: Entertaining first half

•NEGATIVES:

1: The story is predictable

2: The screenplay could have been better

3: Average Background score

• ONE WORD: A watchable and entertaining comedy film from Dileep and Rafi.

•STORY IDEA:

The plot of the film revolves around Sathyanathan (Dileep) who does the furniture business and he lives with his wife (Veena Nadakumar). Due to a misunderstanding, Sathyanathan will face enmity with his neighbour Tabala Varkey (Siddique) and it will create a lot of headaches for Sathyanathan. Sathyanathan also has a problem of tongue slip issues and it will make things worse when he abuses the Panchayat President (Johny Antony). This will lead to some serious unexpected issues and how Sathyanathan faces it can be seen in the rest of the story.

•DETAIL REVIEW:

The film Voice of Sathyanathan is directed and written by the hitmaker Rafi. The movie is produced by Badhusha N. M, Shinoy Mathew, actor Dileep and Rajan Chirayil under the production companies of Pen & Paper Creations, Badushaa Cinemas and Graand Production. The movie is currently in theatres with a censor certificate of clean U.

It’s a Dileep movie after 3 years and we all know the combo of Dileep and Rafi had always produced many hit comedy films. So when Voice of Sathyanathan was announced my expectation level went a little high. But when the trailer was released I had mixed feelings about the movie. Still, I love to watch Dileep-Rafi movies and went to watch the FDFS and I can say that I enjoyed the film. Voice of Sathyanathan is not the best work of the Rafi-Dileep combo but the movie has enough components to entertain us. The major winning highlight of Voice of Sathyanathan is the comedies. The Malayalam industry and family audiences in Kerala were craving a good comedy film and now they got the right one, through comedies Voice of Sathyanathan will definitely entertain and it’s a nice choice for the family audience.

As I said the comedies in Voice of Sathyanathan were entertaining, after a long time I had laughed enough. The situational humours which Rafi wrote was hilarious and it matched the situations perfectly. In the film I didn’t feel the comedies were overdramatic, the humour situation didn’t feel exaggerated and Rafi was successful in producing good comedies. The first half of the movie was crammed with very nice entertaining comedies and the combination scenes of Siddique and Dileep was brilliant. All their combination scenes were funny and I really enjoyed and laughed well. What I liked about the writing of Rafi is he had added many humour angles in serious situations and none of them was boring to watch. Throughout the first half, the writing and direction of Rafi had the right momentum. But after the second half, the movie will get serious and the director Raafi had tried to establish the main plot. The second half is having a serious flashback and the movie revolves around those scenes but still, there is no scarcity of comedies. Till the ultimate climax, Raafi had held the grip of comedies and at the same time, he had focused on the main plot.

The comedy track in the film had the right balance and how Rafi combined it with the main scenario deserves special mention. Initially, I thought adding comedies in serious situations will affect the pace of the movie but the director Raafi was maintaining the equal balance. We all know what Dileep is capable of while doing comedies and here Rafi has amazingly used the acting talents of Dileep. So throughout the film, we will be able to see Dileep in a full energetic vibe and he gives the right tone for the comedies implemented by Rafi. The chemistry between Rafi and Dileep had worked out well, the communication between an actor and the director is crucial for a comedy film. And in Voice of Sathyanathan, I was able to see the teamwork between an actor and director because the comedies enforced by Rafi were cleverly and faultlessly delivered by the actor Dileep. The style of Dileep while doing comedies is fun to watch and Raafi clearly knows how to use an actor like Dileep. So the scripting and direction were cleverly made by Rafi to match the acting style of Dileep and it came out well and I was able to see the vintage comedy styles of Dileep.

The story written by Rafi has a lot of occurrences and it is combined with an emotional flashback. The first half largely focuses on the life of the central character Sathyanathan. The tongue slip issues and the problems associated with the Indian President case issue take the movie forward with engaging comedies. And the second half is the journey of Sathyanathan to save the character of Joju George. So what is his next step, who will he face, what are the obstacles in front of him and how do these problems affect his personal life can be seen in the second half. Both the first half and second half have the strength of comedies to engage us so the movie won’t give any feeling of lag. Till the end, without getting bored I was able to watch the film.

Now the negative, the first thing is the screenplay. I wish Rafi could have invested more time in writing the screenplay because when the movie is touching the main plot things start to get predictable. What is next can be easily understandable and the thriller mood of the film in the second half was moderate. How the central character faces the villain and how our hero escapes in the climax could have been executed in a better way. The ending and the scenes towards the climax reminded the writing techniques of Udayakrishna. During those scenes, I didn’t see the style of Rafi and the climax had only given an ok feel. The villain character was not that powerful, and the way Rafi ended the movie felt rushed. But the situational comedies given by Rafi will make these flaws dissolve. The reason for that is while watching the film I was able to engage myself within the film rather than thinking about these negatives.

Dileep as Sathyanathan was fantastic, his comedy timing and how deliver the comedy dialogues were fun to watch. The old comedy style of Dileep was able to see in Voice of Sathyanathan. The facial expression of Dileep in comedy scenes was perfect and he also managed to do well in the emotional scenes. The comedies of Dileep are the major highlight of Voice of Sathyanathan and I’m sure everyone will enjoy it. The character of Jojo George was brilliantly written by Rafi and the emotional angle in the character of Joju George had worked out well. The sentiments and the love of a caring father were authentically brought by Raafi to the screen. And Joju Geroge delivered another notable performance. The scene in which he cries after seeing the death of his wife was outstanding and the natural acting skills of Joju George were able to be seen. The flashback scenes of Jojo George had made an impact and it was satisfying. The performance of Siddique was hilarious and he had drastically scored with his perfect humour timings. The combination of scenes of Dileep and Siddiqui is a major winning highlight of Voice of Sathyanathan. Veena Nadakumar as the wife of Dileep did an honest performance and her acting was good. Makarand Deshpande did the villain role and it was like an ordinary villain. I wish Rafi could have written his character in a better convincing way. Jagapathi Babu shined as the Police officer and Johny Antony, Benny P. Nayarambalam, Ramesh Pisharody, Alencier Ley Lopez and Jaffer Sadiq had done justice to their respective characters.

The music composed by Ankit Menon was good, the song ‘O Pardesi’ sung by Sooraj Santosh and Ankit Menon was melodious and it matched well with the combination scene of Dileep and Veena Nandakumar. The background score was average, in many scenes I felt a mismatch. The tunes were not properly sinking with emotional scenes and also some of the background tunes in the comedy scene were poor. The cinematography of Swaroop Philip and Jithin Stanislaus was filled with fair frames and shots. The visuals of Mumbai city were captured nicely. The duration of the film was not long, the editor Shammer Muhammed had done a near work with proper cuts and transitions.

• CONCLUSION:

So overall I enjoyed watching the film Voice of Sathyanathan and I will recommend this film to watch with your family and friends. The entertaining performance of Dileep and the hilarious comedies in the film will make you laugh and engage. There are some flaws in the script and the second half could have been executed better but still the convincing comedies and the energetic performance of Dileep and Siddiqui will make you laugh. If you love to watch a clean movie with good comedies then you can book the tickets for Voice of Sathyanathan.

•VERDICT: A Watchable Comedy Movie 

•RATING: 3.25/5

• A REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R

Review for KURUKKAN:

• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R

•Language: MALAYALAM

•Duration: 02 Hours 05 Minutes.

•Genre: Comedy Crime Thriller.

•POSITIVES:

1: Performance of Vineeth Sreenivasan 

2: Cinematography 

3: Editing  

4: Songs

•NEGATIVES:

1: Direction

2: Story

3: Screenplay

4:  Performance of Shine Tom Chacko

5: Courtroom scenes

6: Background Score

•ONE WORD: An investigative movie which has no impact.

•STORY IDEA:

The plot of the film starts with the murder of Neenu (Mareena Michael). Neenu is a famous social media influencer. She will be found dead in her home and Circle Inspector Dinesh (Vineeth Sreenivasan) will be given the duty to investigate the case. During the investigation, CI Dinesh will come to the conclusion that the newspaper boy Hari is the killer. To make the case stronger Dinesh will seek the help of Krishnan (Sreenivasan) who is often used by the police as a false eyewitness, so in the end, who will win the case?

•DETAIL REVIEW:

The film Kurukkan is directed by the newcomer Jayalal Divakaran and written by Manoj Ramsingh. The film is produced by Maha Subair under the production company of Varnachithra. The film has the star casting of Vineeth Sreenivasan, Sreenivasan, Shine Tom Chacko and Malavika Menon in the lead roles. From today the movie is currently in theatres with a censor certificate of clean ‘U’.

When Vineeth Sreenivasan and Sreenivasan joined together after the hit film ‘Aravindante Athidhikal’ for an investigative movie with a comedy backdrop I was having some expectations but after seeing the trailer the expectations went down. Still, the father-son combo of Vineeth Sreenivasan and Sreenivasan was giving me excitement because I was eager to know how they were going to act together and how their chemistry would work out. But unfortunately the film ‘Kurukkan’ had given me a big disappointment because of the worst direction and script. Honestly, I didn’t like the film, the movie was boring and as a movie which comes under the genre of comedy thriller the film had miserably failed to entertain. My reasons for disliking this film are plenty, so let’s review the movie ‘Kurukkan’ in detail.

The first negative factor of this film is the script, the script for this film is written by Manoj Ramsingh and it includes the story, screenplay and dialogues. I would say it’s one of the weaker scripts I have seen in recent times. The main problem associated with the script of Manoj Ramsingh is his writing has failed to create an impact. Basically, the movie is an investigative thriller filled with comedies so here both the police investigation and comedies in the script were poorly written. None of the scenes gave me a satisfying feeling and the investigation methods in the film looked amateurish.

As an investigative film, the movie should have the power to thrill the audience but in ‘Kurukkan’ no kind of thrill or excitement was felt. All the investigation scenes looked impractical and the lazy writing of the scriptwriter is the main reason for it. There are courtroom scenes in both the first and second half and the way the writer wrote those scenes was ridiculous. The court proceedings and the character of the Judge played by Srikant Murali were out of a sense. I think the writer Manoj Ramsingh has no idea about the court proceeding and how a Judge will represent the court. In this film, the courtroom scenes were like a mockery and both writer and director have failed to produce some authentic courtroom scenes. 

When looking into the direction of Jayalal Divakaran I would say his way of filmmaking was average. The direction went flat in many areas and the issues of continuity were felt. The good thing about the direction of Jayalal Divakaran is he managed to utilize the acting talents of Vineeth Sreenivasan. Some of his comedies and the climax portion with an unexpected twist were directed moderately by Jayalal Divakaran. The film Kurukkan is having a big twist in the climax and both the director and writer brought an unexpected twist to surprise the audience. And I would say the twist in the climax was unexpected and I didn’t expect it. But for me, the climax twist didn’t give a shocking feel because the journey of this film from the very beginning till the climax is ineffective. The shoddy investigation and how the character played by Shine Tom Chacko gets involved in the investigation was unconvincing. So the unexpected twist in the climax went like normal and an impact was missing all over.

Next the comedies, for adding the humour the script was having plenty of places but it was not utilized well by the writer and director. The comedies were mediocre and the only thing that worked out was the few situational humours of Vineeth Sreenivasan. Also, the scenes of Aswath Lal and Sruthy Jayan were having decent situational comedies and their combination scenes with Vineeth Sreenivasan were good. But the director and writer were not successful in evoking laughter. As I said, some of the few scenes in the investigation and climax portions were the only scenes that worked out and the rest of them were overdramatic.

The biggest drawback of this movie is the character of Shine Tom Chacko. His character is the most crucial part of this film but sadly his character was not having the proper depth and efficiency to carry the movie forward. Also, I felt Shine Tom Chacko was a miscast because his attitude and body language was not fitting for the character. The acting of Shine Tom Chacko was flimsy and the way he acted in the courtroom scenes at the climax was unsuiting for the situation. Shine Tom Chacko’s dialogue delivery was average and the combination scene with Malavika Menon was boring. In the film, the character played by Shine Tom Chacko gets involved in a murder case and through his character, the movie finds the ultimate hidden truth. But how he gets involved in the case, how he finds out the truth and how he conducts the case in the court was filled with impractical and senseless scenes. Problems of logic and a kind of rushed writing had killed the character and also the unsatisfying performance of Shine Tom Chacko had failed to create an impact.

Looking into the positives, the first positive factor of this film is the performance of Vineeth Sreenivasan. His screen presence was the only element which helped me to finish this movie. It’s the first time I am seeing Vineeth Sreenivasan playing a police role and he has given a good convincing performance. Most of the comedies in the film didn’t work out for me but some of the situational humour of Vineeth Sreenivasan was fun to watch. His fun-filled character and the foolishness involved in his character were beautifully acted by Vineeth Sreenivasan. His energetic performance held the movie from not falling off. The climax portion had an unexpected twist and the way he acted in those scenes was entertaining.

Malavika Menon did a notable supporting performance, she was having moderate screen space but she had given an honest performance. Sreenivasan as the witness had given his best, we know his health condition is not proper so his overall performance was affected by his health issue. The acting of Sreenivasan in the courtroom scenes was impressive but his dubbing was average. Srikant Murali as the judge was not that great because in some portions I felt his acting was not matching the satire of a Judge. Dileep K Menon and Sudheer Karamana as the advocates did a great job and their acting was suiting the profession of advocates. The cinematography of Jibu Jacob was fair with decent frames and the editing of Ranjan Abraham didn’t give a lag or mismatched feel. The duration of the film didn’t feel stretched and the transition of the scene was properly edited out by Ranjan Abraham. The musical work was fine and the composer Unni Elayaraja delivered some good songs but his background score felt ordinary.

• CONCLUSION:

Therefore, due to the bad screenplay and direction, the movie ‘Kurukan’ had given me a disappointing experience. I didn’t like the movie, so I won’t recommend this half-baked movie to anyone. The only thing I liked about the movie was the performance of Vineeth Srinivasan and his acting. Maybe if the script and direction were done well, the movie would have been at least watchable so kindly you can watch the film ‘Kurukkan’ at your own risk.

•VERDICT: BELOW AVERAGE 

•RATING: 2/5

• A REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI R