Veer

Cliche galore. Check. Overt melodrama. Check. Chest-thumping heroism. Check. Colorful loud dialogues. Check. Lame script. Check. Yet, Veer is a fun watch. Its a Salman Khan film all the way, and the man shines so bright in the tailor-made role that nobody but Mithun Chakraborty is visible in most of the scenes. Sallu is the next Telugu hero at Bollywood after Sunny. Period. There are 2 factors which might have influenced my opinion on the film. First, I watched the film in Bhopal among (presumably) Sallu fans and the atmosphere was electric. Its indeed a pleasure to watch a kick-ass film in such a setup. Secondly, I had read some reviews before and they were not very favorable, to say the least. So, I went with very low expectation. The film basically is a dated love drama which is done to death in Bollywood, but in a grand scale. Technially, the film is topnotch, with only the sound department lagging behind. (Look what Pookutty has done to me! ) New gal Zarine Khan looks like Katrina. Good. And acts like her too. Bad. There is lot of effort went into this film, especially in direction, camera and art departments. Unfortunately, the script is out of the league. The film also lacked a solid, action filled climax which is a decent expectation considering some awesome action shots in the prologue. Overall, the film is a keep-your-brains-at-home fun film and a must-watch if u happen to be a Sallu fan. The film might not become a Wanted at the BO, but its gonna make some decent bucks from single screens.

Happy husbands
Against all obviousness, I hoped that won't be a remake. My hope was shattered in the first title slide itself, in which the makers briefly declared that the film is inspired from Charlie Chaplin, which is a 2002 tamil film. But except for some minor modifications the film seem to be a scene-by-scene rip off of No Entry, the 2005 Bollywood smash hit which itself is 'inspired' from the Tamil original. As I sat exasperated, the film started with pathetically choreographed title song followed with a done-to-death cliche scene of heroine talking to a idol. I had lost all hopes when things started improving. Most of crowd obviously have not seen No Entry, and they seem to love the film. Their cheers got me more engaged and I think the film is a pretty decent rip-off. Jayaram deserves much of the credit, I guess. His mannerisms and body language were superb and at par with Anil kapoor's rollicking act in No Entry. In a role that made even Fardeen Khan look good, Jayasurya does nothing extra-ordinary. Though expanded compared to Sallu's role, Indrajith has nothing much to do. Suraj repeats his usual stuff and amusingly makes them work. The girls were pretty ordinary, including hot favorite Rima. The girl has a nice stylist, but her make-up man seems to a little bit too busy for her. A below-avarage effort from music department. Very average camera and sound. Ordinary editing. On any day I will go for No Entry over Happy Husbands, but if u have not seen the former, chances are that you might like the film.

I have to add, the tendency to rip off from other languages esp Hindi is alarming. We did copy a lot from hollywood, but most of them were modified and modulated pretty well. Now for the global Malayali, why are they serving the same dishes in different plates? Copying like this will kill creativity and hard work. Its certainly the easy way out, and it seems to be paying off too. Gulumal and Happy husbands are such shameful copies and they did/are doing decent business. Even Ividam Swargamanu took cues from bollywood. This is bad. And it might get worse. I'm scared.

Ividam Swargamanu

Watched it from Aluva Matha. Film is an enjoyable fare with good messages. Other than a note of caution against land grabbing mafia, it also deals with themes of hope, resiliency and counter-aggression. The role, though different from his usual roles there days was a cakewalk for Lal. It was good to watch him belt out nostalgic stuff. Lalu Alex excelled in a unusual villain role. Jagathy's role was also interesting. The film's first half was technically poor, esp the editing. One would hope Roshan had spent more time with his team and material. The film seems to be heavily inspired from the fantastic Ghosla ka Ghosla, including the funny villain part. I found the fake documents part to be more interesting. It appears to be well-researched and is well executed too. Some might miss songs, i didn't. Over all, the film is worth a watch. Its a shame that the attendance was just about 50%.

Chattambinadu Review
When I entered Aluva Zeenath cinema pompound for the evening 1st show, I was in for a not-so-pleasant surprise. The attendance was shockingly low: less than 50%! Pity because the film is supposed to be a mass film. Chattambinadu is a 'remake' of Rajamanikyam with some kannadiga essence thrown in. Direction looks very amateurish. A very half-hearted attempt by Shafi. The titles as well as the song was pretty good. Other 2 songs were pathetic, to say the least. This perhaps is the worst screenplay by Nayarambalam, ever! Having said that, the film is NOT boring and has some fairly funny mements. Mammootty again successfully demonstrates his command on accents and other than that the role is a cakewalk for him. Suraj and Salim did raise some laughs, despite being repeatative. There are no other notable characters in the film. The film can serve as a medium for time-pass and might please die-hard fans. Overall, its a disappointing attempt.