Reviews
Pathram (1999)
The best political thriller in Malayalam
This is a brilliant effort by renji panickier and joshy, they created probably the best political thriller in malayalam. The movie revolves around a cruel businessman (NF Varghese) who uses people for his personal glory and some sincere journalist who wants to expose him to the public. The person who steals the show is late NF Varghese who acts as Vishwanathan. His character was carefully developed by panickier and the actor gives full justice to his role.He was even better than murali in some scenes. The background music when he comes and the actor's immense screen presence and his dilagoues deliveries add more depth to the character.Suresh gopi and Biju menon were good too. Rest of the cast was its usual itself. It was quite interesting to see Manju warrior in a explosive role where she uses abusive languages to tease one of the police officers. One of my best scene in the movie's are 1) Suresh Gopi is beaten by the police and the villain comes and consolidates him. (not like usual Hindi movies) 2) The sudden death of Biju Menon 3) Climax of the movie. Though direction is very good, it is renji panickier who must be given credit for movie. Dilagoes were just enough and developed each character carefully. A must watch for action movie lovers and fans of both renji panickier and suresh gopi.
Kaalapani (1996)
Probably the only original movie of Priyan
A very good movie acted superbly by the leading actors. The movies story revolves around the lives of Indian prisoners during British India. Some says its inspires from Schindler's list but i don't think there is a single scene to scene copy. though there is some similarity in the story like 1) one bad jailer who kills prisoners without reason and both dies in the end. 2) A white guy trying to help prisoners(in this movie a doctor and in SL- schindler).
But overall I believe the movie is original and there is no frame to frame to frame copy like now-a-days. The dedication of actors for the movie was unbelievable. Mohanlal goes to the extent of licking Amrish Puri's shoes! The movie is very violent and has lot of blood and gore. Though the movie cannot be watched with family, it is probably one of the finest south Indian movie showing freedom fighting of India. The direction of priyan is very good. Most of the scenes are original and some scenes are really good too. Priyan is wasting his real talents by copying other movies. Overall a very good movie with good acting and good direction. 4.5 out of 5