sesht
Romeo and Juliet has been adapted many, many times, and it will go on. In spite of everyone knowing that art imitates life, this is perhaps a singular illustration of how life, repeatedly, across milieus, imitates art, and how no one has ever learned from it, ever.A relationship between 2 lovers is theirs, and theirs alone. No one seems to 'get that', though, and this is another ode to how everyone else screws it up for the main protagonists, who want, nee, need, nothing more than to be left alone, with each other for company, for life.In an era where movies with shorted runtimes are much appreciated, this one is almost 3 hours long, and takes it own time through each of the events that unfold. It lets every character breathe, and delves into their lives as well, showing how the fate that befalls each of the characters ultimately illustrates life itself, in the areas that it is shot in beautifully, and how the fate of one is always irrevocably linked, sometimes even intimately, from the ones around you, even if you want to be left alone.It also depicts how certain acts, that remain on record, never get erased enough when one seeks second chances, and how one will always get dragged back to into something they thought they left behind, and perhaps never wanted to be a part of in the first case.Annayum Rassolum doesn't have anything new to offer, doesn't have anything new to say. But what it does, in depicting life as it plays out, keeping the play as its template to do so, is worth being a part of for the course of its runtime. it is as good when it is following the trajectories of its supporting characters as it is when it allows the main leads to interact, and regard one another silently, as they used to in the good ol'-fashioned ways.Most of the background score is soothing and mellifluous, along with 2-3 of the foreground tracks, which are also very apt, along with being equally, if not more, soothing. There are complete stretches sans the spoken word (but with sounds from the milieu at that time, sometimes interspersed with minimal score), with very minimal use of the background score too, that are wonderful to behold. Also, each track is timely and relevant, and doesn't drown out the plot. Ravi pauses them long enough to move the plot along, and lets them resurface appropriately. It is very rare to see that in action, and this is a very good example that other helmers, especially in the mainstream local milieu, could make a note of, and try to emulate.Fahadh has been great in everything I've seen him in, and this is no exception in that aspect. He owns it, completely, and to me, he is the Sanjeev Kumar of this generation. Andrea Jeremiah. Love her already. And what a voice! All she has to do is say, 'Pokkatte' softly (or however), and no one would be surprised at Faasil's character's falling for her. I've seen her in a mainstream flick before this, and hope she does as much work in front of the cam as she does behind it (vocals). Sunny Wayne acquits himself well, as do the rest of the cast, and I've seen many others pulling their weight in other flicks as well.There is also an undercurrent of subtle irony running throughout, with a parallel tale, and it gets even more apparent in the narrative as the movie nears its eventual denouement, which might surprise those among us who know the bard's tale, and that IS a good thing.I bought tickets to watch this on the big screen, but ended up missing it. Glad I bought the DVD. Recommend a watch, but mostly for those among us who're patient with their movies, and can watch this one in 1 stretch only (watching it with breaks interspersed will be doing the movie a disservice).
pratheek nappady
It was one of those movies that stay with you. Even a day after I watched, it would still make you think of the smallest scenes in the movie. That is the thing I love the most about such movies. There would be a small scene in it somewhere that would connect with you, and it would stay with you. That can happen only when the movie succeeds in generating that vibe in its audience. For different people it would be different scenes. Rajeev Ravi had a story in him begging to be told, and he said it in the most heartfelt way imaginable.The general theme is the age old story guy meets girl of a different religion, falls in love, family finds out, all hell break lose. But as with such movies everything relies on the way you narrate the story, and it is in that, that Rajeev Ravi does the magic. Everything felt original, there were probably no other influences other than his own real life experiences. The genuineness of the situations and scenes shone through as though it was biographical, preserving the feelings of the smaller moments. Even the way he showed Kochi felt genuine. There was no effort to glamorize any part of it. The revival of 2 old classic songs were a perfect fit for the movie. They felt as though they were made for this movie.Fahad Fazil steps into a different league with his acting. The guy looked every bit the character he was playing, he did not falter in even a single scene. On the contrary, in some of the scenes he was simply phenomenal. In my opinion, the last scene in which he runs into Anna's house and his reaction to the things happening there was so subtle and genuine that it was on an entirely different level. If i had to pick a flaw it would have to be casting a heroine from a different language. I'm not rubbishing Andreah, she did a great job in almost every scene, but the real issue is that to minimize the awkwardness of lip syncing dialogs, she was given as minimum lines as possible. What results is that her character ended up being almost mute, some of it could be attributed to the depressed nature of her character but at other times it looked like something was missing to me. Otherwise what a movie!
Appu Bhattathiri
Annayum Rasoolum is a two hour 48 minute film. For that duration, I felt the film was long, really long. But I liked the experience that director Rajeev Ravi gave me with his film. I don't believe that the story of Annayum Rasoolum is fresh but the kind of experience that the film brings does evoke a sense of freshness to Malayalam cinema. It had life and romance. For the IFFK that just got over, there was a competition film called ID directed by Kamal KM. This was one of those competition films that I liked a lot cause of it's making. Annayum Rasoolum has been made in a pattern very much like that. The coincidences in the making pattern is not born without reason, of course. Madhu Neelakandan, the director of photography of Annayum Rasoolum, is the same man who held the camera for ID. And that is not it, Rajeev Ravi was also one of the producers of that Hindi-English picture and the makers of both the films have the background of FTII, Pune, if I'm right. The film has employed sync sound for a major part, I believe and quality of audio in the conversation is sometimes pretty less but even then the performance and the life of the scenes stay intact. The casting seems to be one of the greatest strengths of this film with a fantastic actor, Fahadh Faasil, playing one of the title characters and a totally convincing cast doing the supporting roles. There are of course some in the lot who could have been better. Fahadh Faasil is proving over and over again that he is the most promising actor Malayalam cinema has seen in a few years. Andrea Jeremiah is beautiful as Anna. The film makes use of her screen presence and does not demand her to perform much. I would have hoped that Sunny Wayne did a little better. He has got the looks and a bloody charming voice, just that he seems a little lost in the bigger picture! There is also this fantastic actor, whose name I believe is Shine, who gives a stellar performance. I liked Aashiq Abu in the rather short role (than his bigger role as a director of four odd films.) I dint quite like the character or the idea about casting Ranjith in the film. Rajeev Ravi's experience as a DoP must have given him the strange confidence to keep camera at angles that would be unimaginable to at least half of the filmmakers in Kerala! The film does evoke the life and feel that I have experienced in some Latin American films but the length killed a lot of the little fun for me. By the time the film neared it's end, I wasn't exactly getting the emotional impact that was expected. I did hear a few stories that told me about the kind of freedom that the actors where given by Rajeev Ravi to improvise. This has to be one of the greatest pluses in Annayum Rasoolum. The edit by Ajithkumar has definitely picked up all the right shots and the music adds to the flow. But I'm not sure if I would enjoy Annayum Rasoolum again on my repeat viewing or if this film would be worth seeing over and over like many of the better films in Malayalam that never has lost the beauty of re-watch! 'Patience is a virtue' and for this picture you would need that in tons.
