Thironthoram Dude

Delivers to the hype. The Prithviraj Directorial debut, Lucifer, truly quenched the longing for an entertaining Mass movie from Mohanlal. It’s truly ‘the thriller’ that many of the recent high profile Malayalam movies promised to deliver but was unable to deliver. I must confess, I was not at all a fan of the recent ‘Pulimurugan’ circus as well (It was at best a below average movie) ! An Ensemble star cast, a humongous budget and the fabled ‘first venture’ into direction by prodigal son of Malayalam Cinema had ‘recipe for blockbuster’ written all over it from the day the movie was announced. However the recent high profile duds such as ‘Odiyan’ and ‘Kayankulam Kochunni’ did leave the skeptical Malayalee in me a bit doubtful at times. Lucifer, however, did deliver handsomely. A lot of what was on the screen owed to what was on the paper prior to the first day of shooting. Murali Gopi’s script gave us quite a few fan-worthy moments with not so subtle references to ‘Erupatham Noothand

Worth a watch. Netflix had hit he ground running in 2019 with a host of big name Originals in The Meyorowitz Stories, Dumplin and Velvet Buzzaw. Triple Frontier now adds to the list. The movie however failed to deliver to the fullest of its potential. Triple Frontier leads us through the lives of 5 ex-special forces men who are going through less than ideal times in their lives. They decide to rob a cartel boss for a score that would set them for life. Oscar Isaac  and  Charlie Hunnam  as ‘Pope’ and ‘Ironhead’ were thorough in their roles, whereas Ben Affleck maintains his usual ‘I do not have any clue on what I am doing here’ expression throughout the movie. The movie passes through its best phase by the end of the hour mark and from there on its a slow meandering journey towards the end. Quite few of those sequences should have been avoided. I would recommend this as a one time watch but only if you are done with the better recent Netflix offerings in  Love, Death & Robot