Off late too many malayalam films have focused kochi as a subject like the new age multiplex hindi films have treated mumbai . though one among them city of god is fresh , gritty and raw which is slick and boasts of some fine performances .
parallel story telling is quite a new age thing at the same time tricky as it might not yield the desired result and confuse the audience . one disastrous example was salaam e ishq and even a maverick mani ratnam could not make it work in aayitha ezhuthu . so for a one film old director lijo this was a definitely a challenging stuff in which he succeeded to a larger extent .
despite having half a dozen lead characters it is the city kochi that grabs prime attention in the film which is big and bad .
all the characters in one way or the other gives a check on varying shades of the city.
indrajith in the immensely likable role of velu plays a coolie worker who has a soft spot for parimalam (parvathy in a fantastic role ). together the duo represents the tamil migratory population of kochi seen in places like vaathiruthy .
then we have prithviraj with his ever grinning face playing goonda jyothi lal also close friend of sony ( guess rajan p dev's son) , a business tycoon and producer .
rima kallingal is a popular actress surya prabha with a dirty past who lives in a starry bubble but in real is a victim of domestic violence and casting couch while shewtha menon plays a menacing women seeking revenge for the murder of her riche rich hubby .
how all these characters are interlinked and culminate at a point is what the film is all about .
film is layered with each episode and even before you get over what you see there will a different set on screen which might be confusing initially but once you know what exactly is happening film becomes engaging .
each and every scene is connected to one another and it also goes rewind mode many a times which might take you for a ride . couple of high voltage action scenes are quite pumping .
indrajith and parvathy have well etched out roles and they have done full justice to it . indran is superb and his romantic antics will bring the house down . also he proves his range with wide spectrum of emotions flowing .
parvathy is superlative and depicts right amount of energy for the role .
rima maintains the gloomy shade of role and delivers a good performance . prithvi have a unidimensional role with limited scope . shewtha in a not a lengthy role is quite apt while rohini is superb .
cinematography is slick while usage of songs for narration is appreciable . had the screen play been more crisp in the second half then the film would have been more engrossing .
hats off to director lijo for making a out of the box cinema in malayalam though his west influence is quite evident .
city of gods is a experimental cinema in many ways and is definitely something which needs to appreciated . but then it's also not your pop corn fum film with usual dose of comedy , songs and light hearted romance .
i will go with a 3.5/5 above average rating for this piece of cinema which indeed is a one step ahead in malayalam .
parallel story telling is quite a new age thing at the same time tricky as it might not yield the desired result and confuse the audience . one disastrous example was salaam e ishq and even a maverick mani ratnam could not make it work in aayitha ezhuthu . so for a one film old director lijo this was a definitely a challenging stuff in which he succeeded to a larger extent .
despite having half a dozen lead characters it is the city kochi that grabs prime attention in the film which is big and bad .
all the characters in one way or the other gives a check on varying shades of the city.
indrajith in the immensely likable role of velu plays a coolie worker who has a soft spot for parimalam (parvathy in a fantastic role ). together the duo represents the tamil migratory population of kochi seen in places like vaathiruthy .
then we have prithviraj with his ever grinning face playing goonda jyothi lal also close friend of sony ( guess rajan p dev's son) , a business tycoon and producer .
rima kallingal is a popular actress surya prabha with a dirty past who lives in a starry bubble but in real is a victim of domestic violence and casting couch while shewtha menon plays a menacing women seeking revenge for the murder of her riche rich hubby .
how all these characters are interlinked and culminate at a point is what the film is all about .
film is layered with each episode and even before you get over what you see there will a different set on screen which might be confusing initially but once you know what exactly is happening film becomes engaging .
each and every scene is connected to one another and it also goes rewind mode many a times which might take you for a ride . couple of high voltage action scenes are quite pumping .
indrajith and parvathy have well etched out roles and they have done full justice to it . indran is superb and his romantic antics will bring the house down . also he proves his range with wide spectrum of emotions flowing .
parvathy is superlative and depicts right amount of energy for the role .
rima maintains the gloomy shade of role and delivers a good performance . prithvi have a unidimensional role with limited scope . shewtha in a not a lengthy role is quite apt while rohini is superb .
cinematography is slick while usage of songs for narration is appreciable . had the screen play been more crisp in the second half then the film would have been more engrossing .
hats off to director lijo for making a out of the box cinema in malayalam though his west influence is quite evident .
city of gods is a experimental cinema in many ways and is definitely something which needs to appreciated . but then it's also not your pop corn fum film with usual dose of comedy , songs and light hearted romance .
i will go with a 3.5/5 above average rating for this piece of cinema which indeed is a one step ahead in malayalam .
Haven't watched the movie so far... Ur minute review makes me curious about it! Kudos!
ReplyDeleteit's a treat for those who wants to see changes in malayalam. do watch it
ReplyDeleteSaw ' City Of God'...Lijo Jose Pelliserry 's second venture....went with lots of expectations...bt dissapointd..The peculiarity of this film is it is divided into 3 narratives, each having a different perspective on the city of Cochin..Repetitive narration always was makin pathetic.....But can surely say Lijo Jose Pelliserry s a dir our industry needs from a tarantino-oliver stone family....
ReplyDeleteactually when i look back guess the film could have been more concrete emotionally . prithvi's and shwetha's track was half baked .
ReplyDeleteone could empathize only with indran-parvathy track .
forward - rewind narration was intelligent i thought but after one point yes it was repetitive . still a bravo attempt in malayalam.