Drishyam (Malayalam) (2013)

It took me over a year to watch Drishyam (Malayalam) and I do hope that this review will prevent the rest of you from waiting so long.  Drishyam isn’t a brilliant movie by far in several aspects chief amongst them being its pace in the first half.  But make no mistake.  It is a very very good story and it has some superb performances that come together quite beautifully.

Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is a Cable TV Operator in a small village called Rajakkad in Idukki district.  Its up in the hills – the western ghats – of Kerala right in between infinite shades of green.  Georgekutty is married to Rani (Meena) and has 2 daughters Anjumol (Ansiba Hassan) and Anumol (Baby Ester).  Georgekutty is an orphan who studied only upto Grade 4 and has slowly but surely become reasonably successful.

Jeethu Joseph spends a whole amount of time – nearly an hour and 15 minutes – to build up the story about the middle class respectable life in Rajakkad. He builds the equation between Georgekutty and the local the corrupt cop Sahadevan (Kalabhavan Shajon). A little too much time before coming to the actual plot – one of blackmail, murder and a desperate Inspector General stacked up against a 4^th class pass whose only education comes from the world of cinema.

You will have to be extremely patient with Drishyam because for over an hour, you cannot quite figure out what is about to happen.  Even after you figure it out, Jeetu Joseph doesn’t pick up the pace dramatically till about 15-20 minutes from the end when it all comes together.  So be patient because you will not be disappointed at the end of it all.

The performances are simply superb – as usual from Mallu cinema.  A big part of the performances comes from the casting.  Mohanlal not only looks like your average ordinary middle class fellow from Rajakkad but carries it off with a conviction of your average ordinary middle class fellow from Rajakkad. 

The only minor error in casting – that is more than compensated by performance – was that of Asha Sarath as IG Geetha Prabhakar because she just looked too young to be a mother of a high school boy and the IG of Police.  But the woman can act I tell you!!!  But the pick of the lot had to be Kalabhavan Shajon as the despicable cop who will not shy away from hitting an 11 year old girl.  Class act this man!!!

You could watch Drishyam in one of many ways as under

1. Download at http://kat.cr/drishyam-2013-malayalam-brrip-1080p-x264-aac-5-1-e-subs-mbrhdrg-2gb-t10045310.html
2. Buy a BD version on amazon - http://www.amazon.in/Drishyam-Mohanlal/dp/B00KBN25FO/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1434780768&sr=1-2&keywords=drishyam
3. Watch on your mobile on hotstar - http://www.hotstar.com/#!/watch-drishyam-online-1000051783-m (but this doesn’t have subtitles)
4. Wait for the Hindi version that is scheduled to release on 31^st July 2015 – its an identical remake from the looks of it

Either ways – enzoy!!! 7.5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMASubc1y_k

Tezz

Akash Rana (Ajay Devgn) is has just completed his engineering and wants to start a business of his own. He is in love with Nikita (Kangana Ranaut) who is a British Citizen. Much against her father’s wishes, she marries him. Akash becomes successful to the point of teasing his father in law with a new Mini Cooper that he purchases within no time. The father in law of course drives a Bentley and looks the other way.

All is hunky dory to the extent that Akash even helps out a couple of people. Firstly, he saves Megha (Sameera Reddy) from the hands of the police who are about to deport her. He also helps Adil (Zayed Khan) with a job at his engineering firm. Now the tricky part is that all of the above is illegal. Hilarious isn’t it? The Brits are trying to get illegal immigrants out of the country and our people have started a mini racket of sorts.

Akash of course gets caught and deported. The other 2 escape. Everything that Akash had saved up for is over. Now he seeks revenge. Revenge against the people who were basically doing their job right? But no, Akash believes in the concept of a world without borders and wants the Brits to suffer – Kyonki aaj izzat milti nahin hai. Chheen ni padti hai (You don’t get respect these days. You have to snatch it). Therefore, he decides to leave a bomb on Train no. 121 from London to Glasgow. That’s when the ride begins.

Now the basic premise of the movie is really ridiculous but then there are crazy people across the world who believe that they should be allowed to work in other countries without proper permits. That kept aside, Tezz has some really good work from Priyadarshan for a change. All chase sequences are really well shot. The outstanding one being where Megha is being chased by half the cops of Great Britain.

There are also sequences of Zayed Khan’s body double (quite obviously) providing a fantastic exhibition of Parkour or free running as they call it. The funny part is Anil Kapoor being able to emulate them at the same pace. So on one hand, the finishing is much better than most of the movies seen of late but on the other, you have too many inconsistencies. I guess, one can never get a perfect Hindi movie that needs effects.

Decent performances from most of the cast including the otherwise insipid Ranaut – except one scene where she is totally over the top about communicating her pregnancy to Akash. The only person who forever surprises me with his capability of getting movies is Zayed Khan. No acting classes can help this person. Not even Vishal Bharadwaj with all due respect to VB. Mohanlal and Boman Irani are outstanding in their respective roles.

If you have seen Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable and Speed and any other runaway train movies then there is nothing new in Tezz. If not, you could actually enjoy it. 5 on 10. Worth a dekko for certain. You will not leave disappointed.

Valid point also to be noted – and we need to give credit where it is due – Tezz is shot predominantly in English and dubbed in Hindi later for Indian audiences. I would love to see the English version sometime. It would actually take up the movie a notch I am guessing.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/