aji-mohan-1980

This is another feather in the caps of both A K Lohithadas and Meera Jasmine. Lohithadas is one of the best screenwriter and directors in the Malayalam cinema industry. His style of story-telling and characterization are a reference for any emerging screenwriter. He always takes the best out of his actors. The characters he has created are found in our day-to-day life and are very realistic. One can blindly go for watching a Lohithadas written or directed movie without any second thought.

Meera Jasmine, as Priyamvada, has sparkled in the movie and it is very clearly her movie. Each and every expression on her face whether as an easy-going, carefree student or one going through a lot of turmoil in her personal life, is mindblowing. She is one of the best actresses to have donned the Malayalam film industry, the best since Manju Warrier. Her National Award for Best Actress in the T V Chandran-directed film, Paadam Onnu Oru Vilampam, so early in her career clearly talks of the abundance of talent this young actress possess. I liked her performance in two scenes in the movie, one in which she kills her brother-in-law Rajendran and the second when Sajan comes to visit her at the jail.

Other actors who stands out are Kudapalli Leela (Rajendran's mother)and Shammi Thilakan (Rajendran), the latter following in his father's footsteps as a talented actor.

The opening of the movie is not so good. The scene where the Collector is dressing makes one think that this is a comedy movie. And when the movie cuts into the flashback, it seems to be another one of those college romance movies. The story begins to unfold only after Sajan finds Priya working as a housemaid to make both her house and studies going together.

All in all, this is a great movie minus the songs which are not so good.

ONLY MALAYALAM ARTISTS CAN MAKE SUCH STRONG CHARACTERS LIKE THAT OF PRIYAMVADA, IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers stands out as the second best of the Trilogy, the first being The Fellowship. The directive skills of Peter Jackson and how he managed to draw up nearly six units working together, is really awesome. The cinematography of Andrew Lesnie is very enthralling and I think he must have won the Best Cinematographer award for all the three movies. The guys at Weta Digital are really marvellous. Its because of their imagination that we got to see such a spectacular portrayal of moving images on the screen. Hats off to Stephen Regelous for creating the MASSIVE CROWD DEVELOPER software, which was used in the battle scenes. The soundtrack by Howard Shore is mind-blowing and the track, Gollum's Song by Emiliana Torrini stands out.

The creation of the fully computer generated creature, Gollum is the highlight of the three movies. Its really amazing how such a character can be created using the keyboard and mouse of a computer. Each of its facial expression seems to be so realist, just like a human being. Andy Serkis's performance as Gollum is awesome. Gimli, the dwarf provide some humour to the movie, when all the other characters speak only serious stuff. I liked the Helm's Deep battle scene, where he asks Aragorn to throw him into the crowd of Orcs at the gate, provided he does not tell the Elves about it.

Frankly speaking, I have never read the Lord of the Rings Books before watching the movie. But the movie has left me captivated into thinking how the imagination of human beings work. Its so marvellous.

I guarantee that it is going to be the greatest movie for a long, long time to come.