Pulimurugan

Without doubt,Pulimurugan was the most anticipated Malayalam movie this year that took two years in production taking its budget to a whooping 25 Crore making it the most expensive Mollywood film as per the makers.To my surprise,I was welcomed by the huge full-sheet paper ad this morning,first of its kind as far as Mollywood is concerned.Height of faith in one's creation??Ahh! Maybe.

The movie started of with some stellar frames of the lush green forests,presenting the childhood back-story of Lalettan which was portrayed brilliantly by one debutant child artist,a promising prodigy to lookout for in future.Vysakh proved his mettle once again by presenting a normal formulaic storyline by Udayakrishna that's lifted up a level by the convincing narration and good screen presence of Mohanlal .

The first half was really impressive with never-before seen breathtaking action sequences choreographed by Peter Hein,well-presented VFX,lovable performance by Mohanlal and hilarious counters shared between Mohanlal and Lal.The second half was little weak in comparison with the first,but made up to a large extent by the brilliantly presented climax fight sequence.

Peter Hein deserves a special mention for those spine-tingling action sequences which for itself makes up for a delightful watch from the big screens.The VFX team did their part notably well,adding to the brilliance of the action choreography.The action sequences were top-notch and undoubtedly the best to comeout from mollywood till date.The initial and climax fights were the best part of the presentation and received huge applause from the crowd.

On the negative side,the storyline was pretty predictable particularly to the second half that follows the normal pattern of masala entertainers that we have seen many a times before.The sub-plot involving Namitha,continuous praise of the protagonist by people around and a few double intenders could have been avoided to gain more pace and appeal among the family audience.

The backgroundscore by Gopi Sunder was thrilling and boosted the appeal of the title character.Songs were average with the pick being the lullaby sung by Vani Jayaram.Shaji Kumar did a brilliant job behind the camera,elevating the impact of few trivial seqeunces on the silverscreen.Editing by John Kutty was fine.

Coming to the performances Mohanlal was the backbone of the storyline and played the role of Murugan convincingly winning the hearts particularly in the emotional and action sequences.Another pic among the cast was the child artist who played the childhood part of Murugan brilliantly.Lal excelled with his amazing comic-timing.SurajVenjaramood,Vinu Mohan etc were good.Kamalini Mukherjee was okayish.Namitha didn't have much to perform than being the usual eye-candy as in her previous films.Jagapathy Babu was apt for portraying the role of the antagonist and portrayed his character effectively.

Overall,Pulimurugan is a wholesome entertainer with some stunning stunts as the major highlight.

One of the worst hyped-up Malayalam movies I've ever seen.The story line is incredible, the script is way below average and the performance is better left undefined. It's a case of a talented actor going over the hill and that the movie has already been such a super hit says how gullible we are as consumers and how our cinematic taste has reached a nadir. Not going into technical superiority since this is what money can buy these days. The movie is poor in terms of creative thought, cohesive screenplay and most unfortunately the incapability to separate a character from a marquee actor. The director had come up with some reasonably good movies but seems to have cowered before the myth that cinema revolves round a salable hero.

The songs and the scenery in the entire movie is good.

But it is very noisy, unnecessary disturbing noises will irritate you, may be some may get head ache too.

The jungle villain type character with uniform and gun and hairs like birds nest is actually funny, from no angle he looks like a villain.

In one fight sequence the hero is carrying his younger brother and fighting, i don't know why because he could have left him in a safe place fought the villains instead. The action director used more than required brains i guess.

Otherwise it is a one time watch movie only.

Givinng due credit to the positive aspects - The movie as such solely relies on Mohanlal's performance, which is awesome. But team work isn't balanced, though. Siddique's acting,camera work & Peter Hein's stunts were good too. Music is a let down, much suited for a low-bud film, doesn't suit Gopi Sundar's orchestration skills. Sudhir Karamana has been overacting in a few recent movies, which is in stark contrast with that of his father's fantastic controlled acting. Karamana Janardhanan Nair was one of Malayalam's finest. CGI is way better than that in any other south Indian movies released so far, although there are a few flaws which only trained eyes might spot. I wouldn't have noticed any of those, if I hadn't been working in Quality control in Animation Looks like the idea was to air the movie nationally but Jagapathy Babu, the ace Telugu villain's character & script couldn't deliver. Comparisons with Devasuram & Kireedam are hardly justified as both Napoleon & Mohan Raj carried off their equally important roles with flair & left a lasting strong impact. The pack of villains apparently have hurriedly-scripted roles. This is at a time when performance by a total newcomer Ashwin Kumar in Jacobinte swargarajyam was amazingly powerful & realistic. Otherwise the fact that excellent footages of Mohanlal fighting a snake and other scenes shown in teasers - yet removed scenes for optimizing the length of the movie is disappointing. Perhaps shortening stale comedy footage of Namita would have been prudent. Kamalini Mukherjee's expressions are hardly worth commenting- as is apt for any other imported actress, usual in Malayalam. Her casting again, must have had something to do with the intended national market of the movie. Also the stunt sequence while Mohanlal carries his fully grown-up brother while fighting is as ridiculous as watching some archaic Hindi movie. The Hype about this movie is hardly worth believing - Overall Grossly Disappointing

"story not an extraordinary one but entertaining and specially dedicated to all laletan fans"

Positives- 1.)Direction- Vysakh directed amazingly with lots of fan moments added making it an splendid watch.

2.) Story- Not an extraordinary one but it can entertain you.

3.)Mohanlal- Outstanding performance from mohanlal. Each and every scenes of his acting were brilliant and his action sequences need lots of applauds (It has already got from audience).

4.)Aijaz (childhood character of mohanlal), Lal,Vinu Mohan,Bala and Jagapathi Babu.

5.) Bg score and music- Gopi sundar once again proved and title song was superb. Without title song this movie would have got affected badly and its an asset to this film. Keep it up Gopi Sundar!! 6.)Action sequences- One of the best action choreography and i have never seen like this type of actions in Indian movies. Peter Hein has choreographed properly without any flaws and all of them were jaw dropping and thrilling.

7.) Cinematography and editing- Cinematography was visual treat and editing works were good.

Negative- 1.)Suraj comedies- Was bit outdated and boring. Plus all his jokes were lame. Cant blame him completely because the script failed in those portions and not him.

2.)Screenplay- Not Worst but could have been better because i felt out of all screenplay didn't offer nothing new and bored non mohanlal fans at certain areas with clichés.

Is it a Must Watch Film? Yes, It is a must watch film and you will never see this type of films in malayalam because its very rare and with budget of 25cr they have utilised it properly. No Indian films till now could make such an excellent product with this type of budget. Usually if you check other lang movies you can see it exceeds 40 cr + to make pulimurgan type of films and that too it fails to reach the expectations. So special applauds to director for that.

Overall- Go for this flick and surely it will be first malayalam movie to reach 100cr worldwide. If you check in terms of story it may not be that great but overall its a well packaged one and its surely a complete treat to mohanlal fans!! Don't wait for its DVD because you will get its feel only in theatre. And its a visual treat to everyone.

My rating- 4/5 (Go for this Flick!! ) For more reviews on all language movie go to - Ridinbal movie reviews