"Oppam" is caught between being a decent movie and having to please the "macho male" image that Mohanlal fans have to come to expect of him over the years. Mohanlal as always is convincing as a Blind man, but the end fights with the police and many such scenes were just added for fan-service. !
Priyadarshan has dropped off the cliff as far as direction is concerned, been ages since he did a good film.
[MENTION=133135]kaayal[/MENTION]
Amal Neerad is one of the bigger disappointments in Malayalam film industry, simply because the
guy has so much potential. He has the
best visual asthetic of present day Malayalam directors (maybe along with
Lijo Jose ), he was the
DOP for many RGV movies like "James", and a Pune FI graduate to boot !
Many things were expected of him since his debut
"Big B" in 2007, but the guy overdoses on the stylish cinematography , SLOW-MO and all these mexican Standoff's. He pretends he is malayalam's
Tarantino, but forgets that the greatest aspect of Tarantino's films is the
SCRIPT, which is
NON-EXISTENT in most of his films. He is becoming the cheap desi version of Michael Bay (I love him though). But I catch every one of his films though, simple for the promising visuals which he always delivers..
Nivin and
Dulquer seem to be fan fav's among mallus and other Indians these days, simple because
they were in the right set of films at the right time that expanded Malayalam film's viewer-base in recent years .. !!
Prithviraj could only dream of
these quality films or directors this good in his intial/formative years as a young actor (2005-2010).
By this era, most people see Prithvi as a veteran of 15-16 years (he started as a hero at 17), while in actuality he's only 2 years older than Nivin and 4 more than Dulquer. But
his screen age is higher.
I for one am a bigger fan of Prithvi, simply because, he actually is far more involved in the filmmaking process and
want's to genuinely take the Industry forward, like the Aamir Khan mould. See the kind of experiments he has done with his films and production houses, -
Mumbai Police, Ezra, Ennu Ninte Moideen. Comparitively Nivin and DQ have been very lucky to be picked by the most happening and innovative filmamkers at present ! Their film choices though exciting are still relatively safe roles in more "happening subjects" like college romance etc.
I have high hopes for
"Tiyaan", Murali Gopi (script) has written gems like
Ee adutha Kalath and
Left Right Left, both of which were brilliant films. But he has fallen off the radar since then. The movie will be very political as Murali's scripts always are, it seems like an clash-of-ideas film, since the two leads (prithvi and Indrajith) are playing a Hindu and Muslim respectively and religion features heavily in the promos.
Nivin is nowhere near Mohanlal as an actor, simple because of the huge talent of Directors that Mammooty and Mohanlal got to work with in their early days. Neither is Dulquer the next mammooty . For sure, Nivin has started to occupy the
"Everyman malayali" image that Mohanlal always owned, because of his
Boy-Next -Door looks and his roles. But
both M's were once in a generation talents , and its a shame they have reduced themselves to be trying to ape the oldie "Masala" heroe's of Tamil and Telugu.
Such a waste of great talent in the past 10-15 years. They have a few good ones once in a while , but it doesn't do justice to their ability ...
Good to know you watch Madrasi films, Madrasi language is tough without SUBS
. .I Didn't know Bongs watched anything outside their " Art Cinema "snoozefests though.
But
"Ustad Hotel" is a great film. Haven't seen Swades, so won't comment on the comparison. One thing people don't realize is that most of the big hits of "
Dulquer" and "
Nivin" were
pretty solid and innovative scripts .They would have
still done really really well even if cast with some other actors... They find themselves in one of the greatest phases of modern Malayalam cinema, in the prime age to exploit it .
I would suggest you to follow some of thegood films of
Prithviraj,
Fahad Faazil or
Jayasurya as well who
are a class above Nivin and Dulquer as actors, and in some cases (Jayasurya and Fahad) are plain unlucky to have the same kind of commercial success with their films..
