Still can't get over the fact it was filmed on iPhones -- the saturated colors they added in post! Definitely a glimpse into a world I would never know otherwise. I absolutely love the actress who plays Sin-Dee - what a firecracker. The ending scene is one that's really going to stay with me.

City of God is part of the New Generation of Malayalam films with a hyperlink non-linear narrative of four interlocking stories. It came out within months of Traffic, the first of the new wave Malayalam cinema, but City of God was pulled within a week of release. It may have been a bit ahead of its time. It felt much grittier and more violent than Traffic, and isn't really suited to a broad family audience. I felt Traffic relied a bit too much on the audience's familiarity of all the actors in that multi-starrer, and I didn't really get to know any character that well. I liked City of God much more. A signature of Malayalam New Wave films is an accident, and coincidences that bring people together and set off the events of the film. City of God starts with a horrific car crash. Prithviraj is driving a car that crashes into a street light pole, after hitting a motorscooter with a young couple. There's also a van full of toughs that pile out to confront Prithviraj after the crash, and then we flash back. We see the events of the film from several perspectives, replaying various key scenes from the point of view of different characters. This is a movie where you have to pay attention a bit to catch on to what is going on. Full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/03/27/city-of-god-lijo-jose-pellisserys-moving-hyperlink-new-generation-malayalam-film-may-have-been-ahead-of-its-time/

Lijo Jose Pellissery's 2013 Malayalam film Amen has all the elements that should make it a tailor made movie for me. It's a quirky comedy about a band competition and the lead actor even plays the clarinet, the very instrument I played as a child. The film reminded me very much of the comedies of Michel Gondry or Wes Anderson. We have a cast of odd characters in this Kerala village. Pellissery seems to have a troupe of actors he likes to reuse -- like Wes Anderson does in his films. The film has a magical realism element to it, like the film Amelie. There's an inherent sweetness to the story, and a nostalgia for life in this little village with it's troubled church. The film opens with a story about a prank delivery of a packet of faeces causing a fued between two families in the village. This has nothing to do with the main story of the film, but sets the scene of a village where everyone gets in each other's business. Read the full review here: https://wordpress.com/post/moviemavengal.com/8675

A new Mani Ratnam film is an Event with a capital "E". He is one of the top Indian film directors and an auteur. He makes the films he wants to make, and doesn"t just try to chase commercial success. I'm lucky in that there is a theater five minutes from my house that shows Tamil and Telugu films. I was able to catch a matinee of Ratnam's latest film, Kaatru Veliyidai today " the title translates to something like "Breezy Expanse." I haven"t seen tons of Tamil films, but the ones I'vesought out are mostly Mani Ratnam films, Roja to OK Kanmani. He is the master. Kaatru Veliyidai is a romantic drama set around the Kargil War. Karthi plays Varun or "VC", a cocky fighter pilot, and Aditi Rao Hydari is Dr. Leela Abraham. I have never seen Karthi in a film before, but I could tell he is a STAR and quite a good actor. Full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/04/07/kaatru-veliyidai-mani-ratnams-latest-romantic-film-with-complex-characters/

Fukri is an amusing timepass family comedy directed by veteran Siddique who also acts as the Fukri family patriarch in the film. Jayasurya stars as Lucky. Lucky is a wannabe engineer who with his band of friends tries different get rich quick schemes. They accept a job for two young women caught skipping school for a Salman Khan film. They girls want Lucky to pretend to be their cousin to meet the school principal. Of course Lucky falls for the beautiful Nafsi (in the red scarf below) played by Prayaga Martin.



The girls say he is the son of their long lost uncle who left after a violent argument with their grandfather over his interfaith marriage. The girls saying that Lucky is their cousin sets everything in motion. Both his Brahmin "grandmother" and his Muslim grandfather (Fukri) then want to meet Lucky and welcome him back into the family fold. To complicate matters, the real child (Anu Sithara) of that long lost son reveals herself to Lucky.



At first Lucky and his friends are enjoying staying in the wealthy homes of his "family", but Lucky's good nature lends him to try to mend the rift between the two families. I'm sure you'vesuspected that the long lost son makes a dramatic appearance, and it's Lal, so it's quite the entrance.



Read the rest of my review here:

https://moviemavengal.com/2017/03/06/fukri-a-mediocre-malayalam-family-farce/

I have a huge comedy crush on director Taika Waititi at this point. I am deliriously happy that he is directing Thor Ragnarok. I adored his Sundance film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, one of my top 10 films of the year. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is now on Amazon for rental or free with Amazon Prime. I realized this weekend that his earlier film What We Do In The Shadows is also on Amazon Prime. I started laughing in the opening credits with the cheesy skipping scratchy New Zealand documentary board logo for this mockumentary. Taika co-wrote What We Do In The Shadows with co-star Jemaine Clement (known for The Flying Conchords on HBO and voice work in the recent Moana). Taika made a short film first (available on Youtube here), and then premiered the feature film at Sundance in 2014. Taika stars as the fussy 379 year old vampire Viago. Clement is the 862 year old Vladislav, and they share their Wellington, New Zealand flat with two other vampires, the relatively young vampire Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), aged 183 and the ancient vampire Petyr. Full review: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/03/06/i-loved-taika-waititis-brilliant-vampire-mockumentary-what-we-do-in-the-shadows/

I saw a Malayalam film tonight that absolutely blew me away. Margaret of Don't Call It Bollywood emailed me that she'd heard great things about Angamaly Diaries -- did I want to join her tonight? So, I went in knowing pretty much nothing about it, other than that @Mozhin123 raved about it to me on twitter, too. Every single face in the film is new except one cameo by the debut screenwriter, actor Chemban Vinod Jose (Charlie, Kali, and Oppam). I had director Lijo Jose Pellissery's film City of God recommended to me, but this is my first film of his. Oh. My. God. Pellissery is the rock star of this film! The direction and editing knocked my socks off! Read the full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/03/22/angamaly-diaries-a-fresh-malayalam-crime-film-that-knocked-my-socks-off/ I participated in my first podcast discussing this great film! You can listen here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/03/24/my-first-podcast-margaret-of-dont-call-it-bollywood-and-i-discuss-angamaly-diaries/

I mostly loved Raees. I'vebeen so looking forward to this date " finally a new Shahrukh Khan film.

Raees is a great character for Shahrukh. He's playing a gangster " but a bootlegger with a heart, who makes dinner for his wife. He's got a lot of swagger and panache to him, and we are totally on his side as he seems to only kill bad people.



I love how the film starts, with the child Raees who works as a lookout and a mule for the local bootlegger. Even as a kid, he has lots of moxie, and you never, ever call him four-eyes.



Full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2017/01/26/raees-a-great-character-for-srk-and-a-crowd-pleaser-of-a-film/

A new Prithviraj movie is worth a 40 minute drive, and his latest is Ezra which finally came to a few US theaters this weekend (it released in Kerala on Feb. 10). Margaret of Don"t Call It Bollywood and I met to see a matinee, and the movie was playing at a theater that doesn"t usually play Malayalam movies, so there was a sparse crowd. I didn"t see the 2012 horror film The Possession, but remembered the trailer with the family finding an antique box that turns out to house a dybbuk, an almost demon like spirit that possesses the body of a living person (from Jewish folk lore). The Yiddish word that dybbuk is derived from is "cling". Read the rest of my review and why Ezra about a Jewish demon/spirit was so hilarious to this board member of my synagogue. Oy. https://moviemavengal.com/2017/02/26/ezra-a-malayalam-horror-movie-about-a-jewish-dybbuk-that-i-found-hilarious/

Watched at a special screening at our synagogue for NCJW. Really hard to watch when Linor talks with all the other victims of rape who share their stories with her. Linor is an amazing brave woman to take her personal tragedy and not only speak out, but create a website for and counsel other victims. She then went to law school and became a prosecutor herself.