Nanma Niranjavan Sreenivasan 1990

Trust Jairam to take you to Kerala and then get you in the swing of localness. He is like the grandma who tells you stories with warm chocolate milk and cookies. That was an American metaphor but you get the picture right?

Jairam is the quintessential malayali. Almost all his movies are about the common Keralite guy who has common problems under coconut trees. He does such a fanstastic job of it that I can tribute a whole new genre of Malayalam movies about him.

Nanma Niranjavan Sreeivasan is a movie about a simple guy who is interested in local theatre and hanging out with his friends. A police job application changes the story towards a differnt village, new acquaintances ,romance and suspense. All mixed but not thrown about like some meaningless masala bag.

Excellent movies are those which can depict the same old formula but bring its own freshness by aspects like dialogue, cinematography and giving ample oppurtunity for other characters to flourish. In doing so, the viewer gets an idea about what the movie is saying indirectly and maybe more. In particular this movie does so by the ever brilliant Oduvil and Mukesh. Urvashi as usual is her best as the girl who battles her pretty eyes.

Watch it for naadan feel, old theatre life and some comfort time.

Director - Viji Thampi

Kallanum Policum

The art of storytelling is rare. Its easy to bring twists and plots in a basic story and keep people glued. But to create the basic story itself is something which only comes from a focus to keep things simple.

Movies are no less. I love movies and can sit and watch one or two everyday,depending on how many dishes dry in the sink ;) I love old movies specially and the reason I do is coz they had a lot of original thought process in their cinematography, plot and storytelling. Malayalam movies have set a benchmark in brilliance and have been coped by other Indian film industries (sadly without known credit). And amongst the pillars which hold Malayalam film industry ,I want to mention Mukesh.

Though Kerala is synonymous with Lal and Mamootty, there have been less precious but gems nevertheless such as Mukesh. Having mostly acted in movies which capture quick interest without concentrating on one-man-show gimmicks or cheap thrills, he has a foundation of himself.

Of his scores of movies, I love Kallanum Policum which I surprisingly missed inspite of Asianet Movies' ever running movie reruns. An engaging story,simply told without dramatic set ups or bends and still surprises at times. Or maybe its so well told that it surprises?

Mukesh's trademark confused-harrased look, KPAC Laitha and Innocent's banter, the wonderful bunch of side actors with their small but talented roles and the setting of Kerala greenery ( I'll call it as bonus ) all make it a movie you can watch on a monsoon day.