Amen

If there was an option for 20/10 . I would have given that such an amazing film. LJP proved his brilliance in this film.

AMEN is one of the biggest hits in Malayalm cinema in 2013. AMEN aspires to be a magical love story set against the backdrop of the beautiful Kumarankari village which has a colorful and boisterous Syrian Christian culture. The director Lijo Pallisery is obviously inspired by Emir Kusturica's BLACK CAT WHITE CAT and Fellini's AMARCORD.

The script and the performances are so weak that the director has to resort to slapstick in slow motion and beautiful visuals to shore up audience interest. The film is like a collection of every single cliché in Malayalam cinema - the feuding families, cruel priest, star crossed lovers, naughty kappiar and the supportive grandmother. The first 40 minutes of the film is used up in introducing the boisterous, naughty and hard drinking but highly devout villagers of Kumarankari. Some of the characters are just there to get excreta thrown at them or fall off bridges or get chicken curry thrown at them by fiery and defiant Christian women. Some of the comedy scenes seem to have been added only to increase the length of the movie or because the writer did not know what to do with the main plot which is the love story between two individuals that can be fulfilled only if the bumbling guy can pull up his socks and lead his church music band to a victory in a fierce domestic clarinet competition. So you have the usual cringe worthy scenes where the heroine and the hero grin at each other and the hero's sister reprimands them and the heroine and the hero's sister lash out at each other for no obvious reason. Most of the villagers are loud imbeciles and the writer cannot come up with even one witty or biting piece of dialog so every other line is filled with expletives and all of the dialog has to be delivered at the top of the actor's voice almost as if the actors could shout the audience into liking the movie. The whole film is a bunch of beautiful visuals strung together by banalities.

The performances indicate the continued decline in acting standards in Malayalam cinema. None of these new character actors can hold a candle to nedumudi or tilakan or jagathi sreekumar. I have been watching malayalam movies for the last 25 years and as far as acting performances were concerned, it was like travelling in a mercedez benz but nowadays its like going around in a Marathi 800. Fahad Fazil is his usual dull and flat self. Swathi Reddy doesn't do much except smile with her crooked teeth (which is nice to look at) and act defiant. Indrajeet does a decent job as the liberal minded priest. John Paul was mostly convincing as the cruel head priest. But the guy looked like he was hammered most of the time. Everyone else was below average.

Anyway, this is a huge opportunity lost. If the director had paid as much attention to the script as he did with the visuals and the sets, this could have been a very entertaining and magical film.

(3/10)

Taken in a previously unseen manner, Amen promises what it gives by the title, a pure divine comedy. The story has all what is needed in optimum level, along-with an excellent performance by an ensemble cast. The technical brilliance in camera and every other aspect of the film are to be noted. Director Lijo Jose, who had already shown his class with the critically acclaimed movies "Nayakan" and "City of God" proves he is a man to look out for in the future. Fahadh Faasil, Indrajith, Swati Reddy did their roles with full commitment, and so did the film's entire crew. The audience will surely be surprised at the film's way of making, and undoubtedly, the climax was one of the best in Malayalam cinema!

The movie is made to good entertainment package for all age group. Its a movie which has moved away from conventional way of making Malayalam movies in recent times. The plot revolves around the lives of few people around an ancient Syrian Church in a Kuttanadan village called Kumarangeri. Solomon (Fahadh Faasil) is in love with Shoshanna (Swati Reddy) who is the daughter of a wealthy contractor. All the characters have played well and story moves logically well except one scene where the character eats liquor glass. Movie is packed with good humor, romance and a very good climax.The movie moves slowly but suits the story line. Whole story revolves around musical folk band which is struggling for its survival in parallel with a love story which is also struggling to survive. It also depicts the politics of church priests and trusties.Songs are good with a different style. Choreography of the movie is well appreciated. Fahadh Faasil had done with the character with Mani as per the expectation .A Malayalam movie fan of Old days will not be disappointed with Amen,

Lijo Jose Pellissery's first commercial success Amen is a wonderful treat filled with stunning aesthetics and an extremely creative world of magical realism. The film tells the story of Solomon and Shoshanna, two lovers who strives to be together despite having Shoshanna's family members standing against their relationship. Solomon is a saxophonist in the church band who has great talent in him but fails to express it due to a fearful memory. Fahadh Faasil and Swathi Reddy shined as Solomon and Shoshanna but the best actor award goes to Kalabhavan Mani for playing the role of Louis Pappan. As the story progresses Louis Pappan discovers the artist inside Solomon, from there on happens a change in Solomon's life and situation. The film also tells about choosing humanity over the evil of religious traditions and cultural norms.

Lijo Jose Pellissery created a wonderful movie of magical realism which has creamy cinematography and amazing camera movements done by the skilled Abhinandam Ramanujan. There was a shot which had the camera rotated in a semi-circular path set at a long and wide angle, the focus point of the frame was a boat going through river. I wondered how Abhinandam managed to do this kind of a camera movement from this kind of an angle. The plot was cliche but it was narrated in a different manner that was so fresh. PS Rafeeque's screenplay was well written with freshness and without much errors and it had nice quirky comedy by both Rafeeque and Pellissery.

As a director this film got Lijo Jose Pellissery's level raised among other malayalam directors and also gave a huge hope to cinephiles. The direction was visionary and aesthetically shot with the angles of POV he chose. Prashant Pillai also did a fantastic job in designing the sound and bgm beautifully.

Divine comedy, it's not worth missing!