Spoilers ahead…
It’s tempting, sometimes, to zoom in on one scene as the nutshell of a movie, and that scene, for me, came at the beginning of Alamara (cupboard), directed by Midhun Manuel Thomas. Arun (Sunny Wayne) is going to get married to the 47th girl he’s been set up with. This alliance seems to have clicked – hence the single-file train of cars en route to the wedding location, cars filled with Arun’s friends and family. Suddenly, a relative gets a call. This bride isn’t to be either. She’s eloped. The man who took the call takes it upon himself to deliver this news to the people in the cars behind him, all of which have, by now, come to a halt. He sprints to the first car and says, “The bride has run away.” He runs to the second, does the same. Down the line, he reaches a car that, unlike the others, has just one man in it, the man driving. Upon hearing the news, the man shrugs and says, “What should I do?”
Read the rest of the review on Film Companion, here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Jyoti S Kumar
March 22, 2017
Renji Panicker is one of the most sought after actor in Father’s role in today’s new gen cinema. I guess this happened especially after Om Shanti Oshana. He lends a certain coolness, dignity and the air of experience to the character that he essays. I’m sure his deep set voice is an asset too…
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naveenkrwpress
March 22, 2017
Renji was super in the short Premam role too
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Shankar
March 22, 2017
Baddy, you’ve been on a tear, watching malayalam movies…..awesome!
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brangan
March 22, 2017
Shankar: It’s mainly that they are releasing a lot of films with subs. Else I’d be watching only the odd Premam or Bangalore Days that came with subs 🙂
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Rahini David
March 23, 2017
They will when they realize that including subs means more reviewers and more reviewers means more viewers and MAY mean that the cost of including subs is easily realized.
Hope this continues.
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Rohit Sathish Nair
March 23, 2017
This is when you know that Rangan Sir’s move has really clicked. Even a month ago, the prospect of Rangan Sir reviewing a random Malayalam release like Alamara was nearly unthinkable. Rubbing my hands and waiting for National Awards season now!
As much as I liked Renji Panicker in whatever I watched him in till now, I do feel that he has a slight element of luck, especially when you see that Lalu Alex, one of whom Panicker has largely replaced on screen today, got tyecast pretty fast in hammy roles, even though he could do subtle well enough. Ranji Panicker has the advantage of getting to star in a slightly larger variety of films.
PS: Anyone who liked even parts of Midhun’s debut ‘Aadu’?
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Navneeth
March 23, 2017
Seeing as they oversee the acting in their films, from facial expressions and body language to movement, positioning and utilization of space, is it any wonder that directors do make for decent actors?
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brangan
March 23, 2017
It also has to do with your job profile. I was writing a lot more in my Express days, as I was a pure writer there. All I had to do was write reviews and columns. The job profile changed at The Hindu, where — due to my seniority — I was also handed supplements to run, etc. And that kind of takes a toll on you writing. Now, at FC, I am back to being a pure writer (and of course there are the video segments, but that’s also all film-related).
One other factor is that different reviewers cover different languages.
At the Express, the Tamil review beat was taken, the English was too, so I was left with Hindi.
At the Hindu, I started with English (as Tamil and Hindi were taken), then, when the Tamil critic retired, I started doing Tamil reviews.
This is the first time I have been asked to write about (reviews or otherwise) the gamut of south Indian cinema. So this, plus the frequency of subtitled films, is why you’re seeing more of these reviews from me.
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Rohit Sathish Nair
March 23, 2017
Long Live the Revolution!!!
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Sundar
March 23, 2017
“I was also handed supplements to run, etc. And that kind of takes a toll on you writing. Now, at FC, I am back to being a pure writer ”
But sir lot of us used to eagerly look forward to such pieces (like those in sunday magazine)..Does this mean only reviews (and ‘part of the picture’ type articles) going forward?
Slightly disappointed. Not the least bcoz it used to deal with pop culture (around/about), your thoughts on good hollywood movies (eg: la la land), and sometimes like after the ‘Madras’ backlash (subjectivity of review etc.,) also some obit pieces if some film luminary passes away.
Hope you also touch upon these issues at some level in your role at FC.
But overall i,like many others here, feel that this move to FC is terrific. For you because you are spared to review a “kavalai vendam” or “kadavul irukiran kumar” . For us because our cine taste buds are gonna be satiated with a pan-southern cuisine!!. And we all are the better for it….
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Aman
March 23, 2017
Then we have the RSS-type who likes to breakfast on beef…
That character seems like a cheeky touch on the part of the film maker.
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Raj Balakrishnan
March 24, 2017
Hi BR, so you will not be reviewing hollywood/English films anytime soon.
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Jyoti S Kumar
March 24, 2017
Navneeth: So directing made samudhrakanni a better actor? Ineresting thought. Recently I had also remembered Bharathiraja’s role in aayutha ezhuthu and how much I liked him in it. The first meeting of Michael at the university and the final showdown with Inba.
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Rohit Sathish Nair
March 24, 2017
‘Seeing as they oversee the acting in their films, from facial expressions and body language to movement, positioning and utilization of space, is it any wonder that directors do make for decent actors?’
I don’t know if this analogy applies to Renji Panicker because almost none of the films he directed or wrote have the presence of a ‘performance’. Especially his later films (until the Next Gen took charge) always had repetitive over-the-top gimmicks by the actors more or less. I don’t think it would be wrong to say that he is one of those who made Suresh Gopi from an up-and-coming versatile actor to a tired caricature of himself
I liked Bharathiraja in AE too. I guess he is one of the reasons the film works inspite of its flaws.
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Navneeth
March 25, 2017
Rohit & Jyoti: it was a general observation based partly on personal experience. Good directors are able to understand their actors & their methods as well as judge whether the performance is working for them, or what needs to be corrected. The blame for bad casting/performances should fall squarely at the feet of the director.
As handling actors is solely the director’s domain, and the director is an actor’s closest collaborator (to paraphrase one of my teachers, “On set, a director is the actors’ father, mother, friend, lover…”), you as the director need to understand them and be whatever they need you to be at the time (within reasonable limits, of course) in order to make them comfortable and bring out the best performances from them.
Being in actors’ shoes, when you’re guiding them by enacting & re-enacting the actions during rehearsals/while blocking the shot, is a rewarding experience. You become a lot more aware of timing and continuity – of dialogues, actions, movements, positioning (hitting your marks perfectly) – and you learn as well how difficult it is to maintain it accurately take after take!
My original point being, as the director thus familiarizes themselves with the actor & experiences their process firsthand, slipping into an actor’s mindset ought to be easier for them when it’s their turn to face the camera.
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babablacksheepweb
March 25, 2017
The ‘beef eating RSS man’ has been portrayed by Manikandan Achcari, who won the Kerala State Award for the Best Actor in a Supporting role for Kammattipadam recently.
The beef scene in the movie is a riff off a recent incident in Kerala wherein a BJP leader had been photographed eating (allegedly) beef. The leader denied the same saying he was just having ‘onion’ curry (in the movie the character asks for more onion on top). The same guy had earlier made a statement against beef and the photograph that surfaced led to a field day for online trolls.
The rss guy was the only character that worked for me in the movie and the rest of the movie was too boring – even the initial comedy parts which were supposed to be quirky. I found the writing and making not to be at par with the earlier films of the director Midhun Manuel Thomas. Maybe my expectations were high after his last movie – Ann Maria Kalippilaanu, but what shocked me was that some of the scenes looked amateurish, like out of a short film. I would love to know what others here thought about the making.
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