c u soon
This is a malyalam movie, which roughly falls into the genre of " Found Footage", though not quite, as the events are happening linearly in real time.
I am just going to quickly tell you the bare bones of the movie, because then I want to gush a whole lot!
The storyline is of a young man - Roshan Mathew (Jimmy), meeting a young girl - Darshana(Anu) and Jimmy's cousin, a techie - Kevin, played by Fahadh Faasil. Girl meets boy on tinder, then moves in with him and then disappears and then cousin tries to locate the lady.
That's it! That is all the story is but what a concept and even as experimental cinema goes, this one is truly special. The entire Indian film industry and millions of other Indians were just vegetating and these guys go and make a full fledged movie during a pandemic! I mean WTF!
And what a movie!
You are so sucked into the whole movie that it does not even register after a while that one is watching computer screens and mobile screens. Using just their faces, not even their entire bodies, all the actors competently put across emotions and trauma and they do it so well.
Darshana Rajendran gives a masterclass in emoting and your heart wrenches at her plight. One knows that there is a secret she is hiding and that she isn't quite what she seems, but at no point in the movie does one lose sympathy for her.
Roshan Mathew is really good, as the "little lost boy" who doesn't quite know what is happening to him.
Fahadh Faasil is as always mind blowing, sorry to be repititive but, man what eyes! He just raises the bar each time that he does a project. I was so happy to see his Kumbalangi Nights mustache back. The struggle his character is going through in this movie comes across strongly. Whether it is the hodge podge he has made of things by setting up a physical relationship with his business partner or it is his dislike of his family making use of his skills, Fahadh very clearly shows his discomfort. The ambiguity of his feelings and his confusion are powerfully depicted. And of course when he is finally empathetic of the situation unfolding, his sorrow is beautiful.
I have seen him do something similar in Njan Prakashan. This man is deserving of all the accolades in the world. He produced this one, so give his instinct a thumbs up too! I am awaiting his Maalik eagerly.
And finally Mahesh Narayanan, I mean Wowwww! He wrote, shot, directed and edited this movie, what a creator. It is humbling to see this creativity and I am in awe!
In all the reviews of this movie that I saw and read, a common vein of admiration was running through them for the malyalam film industry. And each one was wondering at how the budgets are so small and the output so great. The answer to this is an anecdote shared by Mahesh Narayanan himself. He said in an interview, "No one on the sets of a malyalam film has breakfast until at least an hour's work has been done." That is the kind of work ethic, that these guys have, so how can they go wrong?
Also the respect accorded writers is immense. This could be the reason that their content is so good.
At this point I no longer care, if the Hindi film industry does or does not pull up its socks, I am happy watching Malyalam cinema albeit with subtitles, till I learn the language. By the way learning malyalam AND learning to swish a loongi are number one on my to-do list. :-) :-) :-)
See you on the other side of Maniyarayile Ashokan which has also dropped yesterday.
Ganpati Bappa morya!
Pudhchya varshi laukar ya!
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#AllLivesMatter
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