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Vinodhaya Sitham (2021)
What does it take to make an entertaining movie from a simple story with no frills? The answer will be a talented actor, a good director and an uncomplicated screenplay in that order. Vinodhaya Sitham (2021) is an unexpected entertainer, available on Zee5 and scores a ‘Ripe’ easily. The film directed by Samuthirakani and starring Thambi Ramaiah is about how the life of a busy executive change when he gets a second chance to live but with an expiry date of 90 days. I enjoyed the film and I am glad OTT platforms exist to give movies like this a market. Parasuram is a dedicated husband, caring father to his…
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Dikkiloona (2021)
Featuring Santhanam and Yogi Babu, Dikkiloona is a romantic comedy with a dip of science fiction. It was released on Zee5 and gets a ‘Raw’ rating. If you can tolerate the half-wit screenplay and the belittling dialogues of Santhanam, the film does make you giggle in many places. Mani (Santhanam) is a lineman with Tamil Nadu Electricity Department, he gets access to a time machine in a lab run by rogue scientists, and with the help of his friend Albert (Yogi Babu) he travels back in time to remedy his marriage. The first attempt goes as per plan but then it is complicated. In the process, Mani discovers what is…
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Ninnila Ninnila (2021)
Ninnila Ninnila (2021) was a feel-good movie that mostly happens inside the kitchen of a popular restaurant, because of that it reminded me of Chef (2014), but the story here was different. The Telugu film is available on Zee5 and in Tamil dubbed as Theeni (தீனி). As the gifted young chef, suffering from muscle spasms and sporting a pot belly, Ashok Selvan has given his best performance. The film though a bit slow in many places was a delight to watch due to its grounded screenplay, the right mix of love, loss, food & hope. With Nassar, Nithya Menen, Ritu Varma it benefits from a fine casting. It gets a…
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Malaysia to Amnesia (2021)
Malaysia to Amnesia (2021) is a comedy film by Director Radha Mohan whose lesser-known films like Uppu Karuvaadu (2015) and Brindavanam (2017) I liked too apart from the popular ones like Abhiyum Naanum (2008) and Mozhi (2007). M2A stars Vaibhav & Vani Bhojan, but the true heroes of the film were M S Bhaskar and Karunakaran, from the beginning they dominate every scene and have turned a wafer-thin plot, into a fun film. It is available on Zee5 Premium. Arunkumar (Played by Vaibhav) is a successful businessman, happily married to Sujatha (Vani Bhojan) and blessed with a cute chubby girl (Colgate Vedika). Yet, he has an affair with a girlfriend Bhavana (Riya…
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Friends: The Reunion (2021)
Friends (1994-2004) was the popular comedy sitcom of the 1990s. It defined the category of having a story around a close-knit group of friends. In the next two decades, scores of films and television shows around the world were ‘inspired’ liberally by Friends. During the early two-thousands, Friends and Frasier, which were both on-air, was my stable dinner companion, when I was on my many business trips to the USA away from my family in India. I carry nice remembrance of both the shows, with Friends being special. Last week, Zee5 in India (HBO Max in the USA), released a sort-of silver-jubilee reunion of the six cast members titled [wait…
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Mathil (2021)
Owning a house has been a central theme in Tamil artworks for a long time. Writer Mr Devan had immortalised the practical difficulties of constructing your own house in his classic “Rajathin Manoratham” and Director Balu Mahendra and Archana had brought to life the middle-class working woman who struggles to get a house built. We can see Mathil (2021) be a continuation to these and a tribute to similar works. Mathil (2021) is a Tamil film available on Zee5 starring director K S Ravikumar. It highlights the issues faced by the common man in the hands of politicians and people in power. In this case, the problem starts when a…
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Hotel Mumbai (2018)
Hotel Mumbai (2018) is a fictionalized account of the terrorist attack on the iconic Hotel Taj in Mumbai that happened on 26th November 2008. The film does a reasonable job of covering the terror unleashed by a handful of boys with sophisticated weapons on the metropolitan city of 15 million residents. On that line, I was expected more from the film but it came out being simple with only a few moments that took to your seat’s edge. It is available on the Zee5 streaming service. The first few minutes of the film sets the mood well, showing how the gunmen were able to simply walk into their locations of…
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Chintu Ka Birthday (2020)
Chintu Ka Birthday (2020) is a Hindi-language drama that is available on Zee5. The entire film happens inside a small house in Baghdad where an Indian family stuck due to the war preparing for their 6-year old boy’s birthday party. In the film there is no action sequences, no chases, no killings, other than a few gunshots and sounds of a bomb-blast – still we are able to feel the outside tensions through audio and dialogues. There was not a single dull moment. There are no good sides or bad sides in the film. None of the characters displayed any heroism or martyrdom and that’s what makes the film stand-out.…
