Urumi

I saw the movie Urumi (Malayalam) couple of weeks ago in my PC, courtesy Moserbaer Home Video. After watching the movie, I was very much impressed with the movie for various reasons. First, the director (Mr. Santosh Sivan) has mixed history and fiction in right proportion and has delivered the goods with clear narration. The story of man called Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, and his intention in traveling to Malabar Coast were very well depicted. Second, casting of the movie by Mr. Sivan was perfect to T. There is no body as hero or heroine except the story. The plot of the story unveils the character as it progresses. Prithiviraj, as always, has done justice to his character except for the mundane voice he carries throughout the movie. The action sequences involving Prithviraj looks good except for climax fight which prolongs for a while. Prabhu Deva the actor as "Vaavali", Prithviraj's Muslim friend, is quite an revelation. Why does Tamil directors (he being multilingual director) didn't use his acting potential I don't understand. Prabhu done a neat job of his character. The special mention is the scenes involving him and Nithya Menen, which is of romantic-comedy genre. Genelia is another good cast of the movie. She depicting the character of Arakal Ayesha the Warrior Princess is nice. Congratulation for Genelia for boldly doing action sequences with great élan. The closeup shorts of Genelia looks ravishing and I really admired her. She looks innocent, brave, and sensuous (rather a unheard combination). Nithya Menen is the scene-stealer of the movie as she oozes seducing intonation for which everyone will definitely fall for (Nithya keep a watch on your weight as it may sideline you). Nithya is really a good-find for Mollywood as well as Indian cinema (she does act in all south Indian languages). Other supporting cast be it Vidya Balan (debuting in Malayalam), Jagathi Sreekumar, and Arya (latest heartthrob of Tamil cinema) all have done their role with full justice. (I don't no why Tabu came in for blink-and-miss scene, which you can even not call as cameo. Actor of her caliber can be given a more stronger role even if it is shorter.) Finally, the parallel narration by which he connects the past and the present is quite good and new for Indian cinema. Coming to Santosh Sivan, we know that he is a great cinematographer with great International acclaim. I have also seen is movie "Behind the Rains," which was good. I guarantee that Santosh Sivan is one director who can make a good, neat, sensible film with minimum budget (no pun intended) without compromising on technical aspects as well as on story. Urumi being a combined production of Prithviraj and August Cinemas (Sivan's production house) is an quality cinema which is engaging and entertaining and you know to learn about the history of modern India. Great and bold attempt. Keep the good work going!!!

Best camera and a very good story Actions, sound effects are awesome

Urumi is a n excellent example of directorial excellence meets mesmerising performances and technical perfection.Director-Cameraman Santhosh Sivan has created a clear masterpiece of visual extravaganza with artistic beauty.

Performances::Pritvi is outstanding in the movie with clear mannerisms and body language of Kelu Nair and has done his best performance till date.PrabhuDeva does his malayalam debut mesmerisingly,with a witty,light role.Genelia shows her excellence in acting by giving what her role wants in the best possible way.Other actors like Nithya Menon and Jagathy are casted in perfectly apt roles.

Some +ves::1)The script by Shankar Ramakrishnan is commentable and the dialogues are excellently written.2)Excellent music and choreography.3)Beautiful costume designing by Eka Lakhani,which requires a special mention.4)Commentable direction skills showed by Santosh Sivan.

Some -ves::1)A lagging start.2)Some amateurish characters,like that of Vidya Balan.

Verdict::Urumi is a hearty fantasy movie enriched with artistic and technical brilliance,for all the good movie lovers. My Rating::8.5/10

Well its one master camera-work film,that u seldom see in a mallu movie. You may fall in luv with each frame in the film, they are so beautifully taken! There was a nice storyline, and Santhosh Sivan was again gud in bringing a bit of theatricality to his characters. Prithviraj did his job very nice.He seemed to blend in with the character more. Aarya made an impact. Prabhudeva was also cool, except dat some of his tamil mixed malyalm didn't turn out well. The Girls lukd stunningly awesome, and that was a superb casting! Genelia had some serious problems with lip movements in dialogue delivery. The foreigners were more authentic than in PazhassiRaja, they gave a decent performance too.. Music blended with the film well,cheers to Deepak Dev. The Minute sounds were an attraction done by the Sound Recorder. Costumes were another speciality! The film seemed losing its pace at some occasion, but recovered soon. And, the part where the past blends with present leaves in our mind, something to think about. The last Scene was the most touching one..

Overall, this Visual Feast is a must see by a Mallu! I'll give it a 8/10

A commendable film with a close-to-perfect script, some timely performances from the artistes and technical wizardry that is on par with the rest of the regional language films. All said, this movie also gives an insight about the history of Kerala which was unsung of. The story of a young hero who gave all he had to save his land from the Portuguese. And another factor which is quite apt was running the the present world and the old version in parallel.

All said and done, the writer had a source material to rely on and he showered enough fictional characteristics to the story. In spite of that the script lacks a cohesiveness especially until the third act. Some of the dialogue's were sloppy and did not reflect of that of that particular time period. Other than that this was a fine effort. Santosh Sivan's camera-work: there needs no special mention of his work here. Everything is picture perfect. Some scenes evokes a plethora of feelings and it just stays even after the movie gets over. But there were points and sequences where a bit of a pause could have helped a lot in making things look and feel much more better especially in the war scenes towards the end.

Performance-wise I would say all have done an exceptional job especially Prabhudeva, Nitya Menon, Jagathi. Prithviraj's wooden voice is a big letdown though. He shows no sign of variation through the movie. But he got to save his face towards the end with some classic performance and expression variations. Nitya Menon was the perfect seducer. Never seen such a good seducer in our industry. Her eyes speak volumes.

Music by Deepak Dev was different in this. His usual themes were all gone. It was a good thing he went in for a re-invention. Good songs and average BGM. The BGM that plays when Prithviraj courts Genelia is pure awesomeness but again there is huge familiarity with the tone there.

All in all this was a good movie. Definitely worth a watch at the cinemas. Go for it. It is a different experience all together.