Finally got to watch this one earlier today, with a packed audience in tow, that was irritatingly loud, which was a huge problem for me, given there were no subtitles and I was straining to understand every nuance (I understand the language to an elementary extent, so that helped).
What stood out? The fine performances. The close adherence / sticking to reality- based plot twists (for most of the running time, except while dealing with the macguffin on occasion). The locations (Kerala, Kerala, Kerala - one of the loveliest places in India). The comedy and the camaraderie.
What did't work so well? The in-your-face/manipulative score, nee, cacophony. Glossing over few impact-laden occurrences (Indian movies do this all the time, and this is not the worst offender in that department, relatively speaking).
Conclusively, this will make my top list for 2013, but not right at the top. It is very heartening to see Malayalam cinema embrace, once again, performance-driven narratives such as this. To me, that's what differentiated them among the cinema of the south. Regardless of language, this kind of cinema needs nothing but encouragement, and I do hope if there is a remake, it stays close enough to the spirit of the original! 3 cheers to Jeethu Joseph and team.
What stood out? The fine performances. The close adherence / sticking to reality- based plot twists (for most of the running time, except while dealing with the macguffin on occasion). The locations (Kerala, Kerala, Kerala - one of the loveliest places in India). The comedy and the camaraderie.
What did't work so well? The in-your-face/manipulative score, nee, cacophony. Glossing over few impact-laden occurrences (Indian movies do this all the time, and this is not the worst offender in that department, relatively speaking).
Conclusively, this will make my top list for 2013, but not right at the top. It is very heartening to see Malayalam cinema embrace, once again, performance-driven narratives such as this. To me, that's what differentiated them among the cinema of the south. Regardless of language, this kind of cinema needs nothing but encouragement, and I do hope if there is a remake, it stays close enough to the spirit of the original! 3 cheers to Jeethu Joseph and team.