Gaganachari

A very good attempt at a proper sci-fi satire rooted in Kerala. The dystopian United States of Kerala with the overgrown vegetation over the buildings was set up pretty nicely. All the Malayalam pop culture references were so fun to watch, and the updates given to some were definitely the most laugh-out-loud moments. Gokul Suresh's dialogues referencing his father were also really great. But it meant that this was primarily for the 90s kids. If the comedic aspect of Gokul Suresh's character was reduced, I would've painfully felt like relating to that character, but I don't want to that much, lol. The use of traditional murals to playfully convey some ideas and the ending twist etc made its satiric approach work really great. The insistence on rituals and their powers at that point, the lies, the murals etc can be read together as why our society is like this today. The visual effects were great for what it is, but the extensive use of AI images is a turn-off for me. Even in music, there was a very derivative quality to it that I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be references or not.

This is the first ever full fledged sci-fi mockumentary ever in Malayalam and been hearing about this film since it got featured on so many international film festivals and I can tell you this one was genuinely worth it. You've got to have an open perspective considering the budget of this movie. If you can get your head around the low budget CGI shots you won't feel anything odd about this genre debut from Arun Chandu.

The cast seems to be pretty perfect for this type of story telling. The background scores are pretty captivating however I could sense the resemblance to a lil bit of daft punk and old mohanlal movies here n there.

The script and character enactment are all solid , as a whole the director , cast n crew have managed to pull a good one here. I would definitely recommend this movie to any malayali who likes sci-fi/fantasy.

The film is good. The story is all over the place but still very fun to watch.

But the usage of AI for a lot of its visuals give midjourney vibes. AI causes a lot of Inconsistency in visuals which kind of ruin some parts for me. Hopefully the team behind the movie gets bigger budget on their next projects so they can use proper cgi.

Gaganachari scores high in how it treats its familiar (yet experimental, for Malayalam) plot, garnished with a heavy dose of pop culture references, making it palatable for both 90s and 2000s kids. The sci-fi mockumentary packaging, which I only remember from a recent Krishand film, looks and feels fresh. The humor flows organically, even when a few writing misses occur in the second hour. The cast is terrific-each fitting their respective roles to the T. Gokul Suresh is surprisingly good as the lovestruck loser Allan, and so is Anarkali Marikkar as Alieyamma. Ganesh Kumar and Aju Varghese bring in the laughs with their one-liners, making even generic events like dinner, sleep, and meditation look entertaining.

There is overuse of AI but it's understandable given what the makers were trying to achieve here. Ultimately, what we see and hear on screen, looks incredibly believable for its given budget, and that's what should matter at the end of the day. The socio-political subtext is also played for laughs, and I particularly enjoyed the writing (and visual) choice of painting Kerala in a greenish excess, as opposed to the typical dystopian desert shades. Sankar Sharma's music also adds zing to the proceedings. I'm unsure if the sequel (or is it a spinoff?) holds the same level of potential given it'll be a star-led vehicle, but we'll just have to wait and see. Good work, Arun Chandu!

To be honest, I really liked it. It's got good graphics, not so good story (but still watchable) and the whole story-line just makes me keep watching. And one more thing - this is not for a typical Malayalam movie "REVIEWER". The whole concept of post apocalyptic tale and subtle puns against the current/near future political agendas are good.

One thing I got to mention is the VFX. Sure most of the images and animations are questionable (I know about the existence Midjourney and blender). But it was good by the choice.

I really hope there will be a second part. Will there be a second part to this?