Minnaminnikoottam Review

rahul0471 · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:19 am Post subject: Minnaminnikoottam Review

Minnaminnikoottam has a tremendously dynamic youth brigade fruitlessly making an effort to infuse some glow into a long dead firefly. When a petty lovers' tiff that doesn't warrant another glance gets long-drawn-out to a never ending narrative that goes on for about three tedious hours, I found myself wondering as to when real romance had flown out of the Malayalam cinema window.

Charulatha (Meera Jasmine) and Abhilash (Narein) are software engineers allegedly in love, though spats between the two are common. They are part of an eight member techie gang that also has the boisterous Manikunju (Jayasurya), the tactful Rose Mary (Roma), the docile Kalyani (Radhika), the seemingly indifferent Pachan (Anoop Chandran) and the forever-happily-married couple Sidharth (Indrajith) and Mumtaz (Samvrutha). Life is all sugar and spice until Abhi's dad (P Sreekumar) makes an appearance and derides Charu's family, or what's left of it. A miffed Charu takes off to Singapore with no intentions to return ever.

Presto, you got it right. It's a rich-boy-meets-a-middle-class-girl tale that is as old and lame as it can possibly get. In order to mask the obvious, this oft-told yarn is jam-packed with plenty of style. The apartments are plush, the workspaces swanky, food is all cheeseburgers and French fries and last but certainly not the least, there's plenty and plenty of beer flowing around.

You shouldn't for a moment believe that these kids have got it all on a silver platter though. Charu has had to battle it out in life literally, after her mom took off with a lover when she was five. And there's Rose Mary who has even been a housemaid (which seems to be the in-thing these days) before she became an engineer. Yeah. Yawn.

Oddly, watching Minnaminnikoottam, I felt like having spent an evening in a swish supermarket buying up new commodities that I am learning to spell first. Because beneath all the glitz is a void that's quite tiresome on account of its insignificance. You hence drop your head in disgust when they croon 'We are in love!' and tolerantly wait for the torment to be over, so that you can get on with the rest of it.

There are scenes aplenty, when you almost make up your mind to hang up your boots. However, since you get to spot them a mile away, you sportingly wait for this mind-numbing romantic romp to come up with something a wee bit fresh, which never happens. It's a whole lot of bad ideas in succession leading to a syrupy end that is instantly forgettable.

It's a pity that almost every actor in this multi starrer leaves a mark of earnestness, with regard to performances. When you come to think of it, it isn't entirely their fault that they are asked to play around on a silly ground that's absolutely groan inducing.

There is this smug little world that Minnaminnikoottam depicts, that's far, far away from real life and real people. Which makes it a boring and meandering flick that's utterly clueless about relations, emotions and most importantly what it claims to be all about - love.

Rajappan · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject:

Minnaminnikkoottam - Strictly for Kamal fans
When one of the most awaited movies of the year, 'Minnaminnikkoottam' with a stellar cast hit the theatres, expectations were naturally high. An intented emotional drama from reel one to the last, Kamal’s new flick is a tiresome effort which only succeeds marginally to live up to the expectations.

The movie opens with Charulatha (Meera Jasmine), a software techie in Singapore getting a wedding invitation via email, from Kalyani, one of her long lost friends. The movie, after leisurely unfolding the credits, goes on to a long flashback. Then we see Charulatha and Abhilash (Narain), both software engineers working in the same firm, allegedly in love resolving a recent spat, which is common between them.

Their eight-member techie gang including loudmouthed Manikunju (Jayasurya), the diplomatic Rose Mary (Roma), the pious Kalyani (Radhika), the Tamil-speaking Parthasarathy (Anoop Chandran,) who all assemble together in the flat of happily-married couple Siddharth (Indrajith) and Mumtaz (Samvrutha).

Abhi's dad (P Sreekumar), an I A S officer who holds a big position in the Prime Minister's office comes down from Delhi to meet Charu and her family and make mock off her father (Saikumar) Balan, a bank officer. This ignites more problems with their relationship and finally, results in the death of Charu’s father. The much repressed Charu then move off to Singapore, away from her friends, unable to reconcile with Abhi.

Watching 'Minnaminnikkoottam' , the two hour 25 minutes drama, devoid of any strong plot and characterization was pretty demanding than entertaining. The egocentric relationships and strains in the ''the rich boy meet poor girl'' story planted in an IT backdrop are not at all convincing.

Moreover, the problem with ‘Minnaminnikkoottam’ is that, it will be accepted only when you have people who can associate with them. So the movie seems to be just aiming at the urban audience, with its plush beautiful apartment sets, brightly colored interiors and dashing work spaces.

Amidst its lavishness and grandeur, Kamal loses the life of the plot about the complexities of relationships, which hardly leaves a couple of scenes to linger with us.

He proves his brilliance only in the remarkably pictured songs, and not many sequences few and far between, which shows some amount of life. The talk of love, commitment and relationships, gets prosaic after a while, as the director and actors goes overboard with some emotional scenes going out of proportion. The biggest flaw that remains is this overblown sentimentality in lengthy wide shots, which repeatedly fills the movie's ever-stretching, never-ending story.

This can be a better movie if you are the type who doesn't demand a movie with the script racing away. And in that case, it’s quite medium paced with some flavor which conveys the dilemmas of persons in love. I surmise these types and getting rarer, these days.

Although the chemistry between Narain and Meera Jasmine is to become the mainstay of the film, they hardly have any and just not ooze any feeling as if they are in love. Narain has his grace and shows his potential of being at the centre of events. Meera Jasmine as a woman living life her way, trying to come to terms with her own inner conflicts, feels inadequate for the character, with some more added injuries from her carefree dubbing. Jayasuriya and Roma as confident, ambitious, modern youth seems the couple who provide some sort of relief to the proceedings with their share of humor and fun. Indrajith, Anoop, Samvrutha and Radhika does have cardboard roles, with not much meaty built ups.

The technical section of the movie is worth mentioning with Manoj Pillai once again, creating frames that are bright and glossy. Biji Bal's songs and rerecording suit the mood and few like ''We are in love'',''Thara Jaalam'' and ''Kadalolam valtsalyam'' are definitely hummable. Gokuldas in the art department does his bit to boost the looks of the techie atmosphere. But that cannot be said about the editing by Rajagopal, who could have trimmed down the sequences to pace it, better.

In conclusion, 'Minnaminnikkoottam' ends up as pedestrian, vacuous, body-beautiful, soul-lacking film, despite holding some amount of promise that signify nothing.

Rajappan · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:49 pm Post subject:

Kashtam kamalinte okke kalam kazhinju. d'oh!

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Bhuhaha · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:48 am Post subject:

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Tokaichan · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:44 am Post subject:

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