Chola

Sanal Kumar Sashidharan's penchant for uncinematic but breath taking and realistic shots of nature is one of the prime things that stood out for me in "Ozhivudivasathe Kali". Chola had more of that.

There are a few scenes that are just world class and timeless. The trailer bit. There is a scene that blends in a dramatic climax with raw nature. That scene can stand proud alongside Tarkovsky movie scenes. There is a scene where a very key incident is presented with camera movement and accompanying soundscape. That scene was brilliant too. These scenes are easily ten on ten scenes.

The movie maintains it's darkness. The movie is attempting to say something tall and radical. That in itself is so controversial that it can turn off a lot of viewers. However, even if you let the movie say what it wants to, the movie has not been able to say it convincingly.

Nimisha, Joju and Akhil Vishwanath have had their share of brilliant acting. However, there were portions that did not seem to gel as well. Nimisha's natural acting and voice modulations were impressive.

However, there were also technical imperfections. There was a scene with the camera following the actors in the jeep. The jeep stops and the camera just rushes into the jeep and turns around, making the camera very precarious. Pretty blatant an error.

Not an easy watch. Would recommend a watch to art movie lovers for some really brilliant pieces in the sonata even while the movie as a whole failed for me.

An eerie depiction of the story of an innocent girl who sets about to enjoy the day with her boyfriend. Though predictable, it strikes hard on you. Cinematography and music are the key elements that glues your mind on the movie. They add greatly to the rawness. Not a movie for everyone. Strong theme.

With An Off-Day Game in my mind, I watched this flmovie and although the plot seems very familiar and Contempo, but as the movie rolls things get even darker and raw with a nightmarish climax layered in a wild rather barbarous manner. Joju effortlessly portrays a less spoken but dangerous barbarian, who heedlessly unmasks his predatory plunder and goes berserk at its pinnacle, Nimisha scores as the naive townee who then confronts her impending fate and turns absurdly preposterous due to the shock of what she went through and is deranged and helpless, Akhil is annoyingly original as a unsophasticated weirdo love interest skillfully behaves in each frame as it gains. The plot regardless a roadie, cans the high ranges of eastern kerala with the heavy set rains in each frame keeps the intensity of what is to come, each frames are commendable, especially the usage of source lights, 360 degree pan shots to elevate gravity of some pivot moments, ariel and long cut shots were placed at the right juncture. Laudable screenplay, cinematography, minimalist but elevating scores, spontaneous acting rather behavioral or unscripted acting, casting, setting, its rustic and raw treatment, altogether makes this unsung flick mollywood's disaster movie monument.

What made me watch Chola was Sanal's terrific previous venture Ozhivudivasathe Kali (yet to see S Durga). Barring the solid performances of Joju George (as the molester) and Nimisha Sajayan (as the abused) and the stunning cinematography by Ajith Aacharya, I couldn't really take to Chola the same way I did with Ozhivudivasathe Kali. The transition from eerie drama to magical realism wasn't seamless and a random interjection of Stockholm Syndrome only made it worse. I like the way Sanal tackles the theme of oppression (this is the third in what one could call SOCU - Sanal's Oppression Cinematic Universe) but Chola takes things one step too far. This is one of the few films (in recent times) that makes effective use of its natural locales (Venu's Carbon is another). The ambiguity in (almost the entirety of) the second half and the climax left a bad taste in my mouth.

This story could be told with in 15 -20 mints. Spend remaining 1 hour to show the cinematographic skills and another half an hr for hero's unsuccessful attempts to convince heroine ( same dialogue, same actions, same reactions )