These bees carry a bite and a sting.

-
Just watched Solomante Theneechakal (Solomon’s Bees) - a Malayalam whodunnit crime investigation thriller written by PG Prageesh and directed by the veteran Mr. Lal Jose.

What a movie!!!

Starts off as a comedy movie of two young woman Constables in Kochi who are also Instagram stars.

Pretty soon one of them gets involved in a murder case and the questions are - what’s her role in that homicide and would their friendship stand the test?

The person killed is no less than the Circle Inspector of their police station who is a star in his own right with a massive FB following for his daring police raids on cocaine.

In comes Joju Joseph as the new CI David Solomon who investigates the case and that’s when facts and forensics come into play and what a play of twists and turns in the story that keeps you at the edge till the end is revealed - both in terms of the life taker and the motive.

And CI Solomon solves the mystery by way of a Biblical riddle by the same name as the title of the movie.

The twists continue inside the courtroom and outside after the verdict. What a message in the end about the true role of police.

Though a comparison with the titular Joseph  - Man with the scar (2018) is inevitable and many Joju Joseph fans would be disappointed (I wasn’t), it’s important to understand that both Joseph and Solomonte Theneechakal are very different stories even though both belong to the investigative genres and therefore Joju’s characterisation doesn’t stand the same chance here as in the award winning Joseph.

Though for me Nalpathionnu (41) remains Lal Jose’s best film till date I really loved the way he has directed this one. There are quite a few screenplay brilliance towards the end.

As I lay down to write this, my mind was drawn to some of the mindless crime and investigation thrillers I have seen in Hindi cinema off late (Silence: Can You Hear It being the one I chose to see and regret) and wondered if this would also be remade in Hindi and have some writer soil the character of Solomon with a cartoon of a police officer like that of Randeep Hooda in one of the recent Tiger Shroff’s movies?!!

Even a small budget investigation thriller in Malayalam like St. Marysile Kolapathakam (Murder at St. Mary’s) as well as the low key and yet brilliant 1990 movie Otta Kannikoodi (One Link More) far outshine some of the top notch rubbish that’s churned out in Hindi cinema.

I hope if this is remade in Hindi then it better be remade by someone of the late Nishikant Kamat’s calibre who beautifully remade Drishyam and not have Akshay Kumar/ Ranveer Singh in a larger/ louder than life caricature.

Do watch this one if you love a good investigative thriller even as you can fast forward through the first romantic song in the movie. Don’t fast forward through the second sad song as it’s interspersed with investigative scenes.

Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/Lb9yBVs1fwI

I watched it on ManoramaMax.

And this makes it two back-to-back brilliant investigation thrillers for me over the last two days; the other one being Kooman - the night rider by Jeethu Joseph starring Asif Ali on Amazon Prime. Here’s the trailer for that one even though I haven’t been able to write its review - https://youtu.be/OCGGoT23kh4




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the address of love?

-
Image
Did Malayalam cinema writing peak and breakthrough new highs with this one? I am nearly two and half years behind in watching this movie since its release in February 2023. Of late I had been getting upset with the fact that most of the Malayalam films have become marketing and advertising vehicles for alcohol with one exception being Janamaithri . I have been quite concerned with the way alcoholism has been normalised in the movies. I thought this movie was boring and wanted to switch off but the only reason I stayed on was the strong recommendation from my friend Rajesh. And I was about to switch this film off when in the first twenty minutes or so, it was just about drinking, smoking and pedestrian stuff when the first unexpected twist in the tale happens and it catches you off guard and then makes you wonder how is the story going to proceed from here with more than an hour of the movie still left. In that part of the movie, the little cat’s two scenes and its expression truly capt...
Read more

Don't watch this movie till...

-
Image
Am Ah This is no ordinary movie to watch. You need a certain kind of heart to watch it. A heart that can and cannot bear pain. Watch it when you are ready to expand the definition of entertainment and the purpose of cinema. Watch it only when you are sick and finally tired of the formulaic, insipid, uninspiring and stupid, big budget latka jhatka movies that come out from most of the film industries that make us dumb and dumber. What a movie!!! Finally I could weep tears of joy after quite some time. Thank you so much to the writer, director and Gopi Sundar who put together the background music. And thank you so much Dileesh Pothan for whatever would have prompted/ inspired you to act in this movie. While you will not agree to my request but it’s good to see you more in roles like these than the mix of villainous roles you keep playing. And what a scene it was between you and Jaffer Iduki - that scene outside the police station just as he says good bye to you. Hats off to the simple st...
Read more

Best of father-son films from the Malayalam film industry worth a watch by global audience

-
Image
Further to my review of Sanju last week given its strong father-son relationship story, here’s an interesting mix of famous father-son films in Malayalam language -  https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/fathers-and-sons-look-malayalam-cinemas-complex-relationships-84337?amp And of course while each one of them is close to my heart including Sphadikam and Paithrukam and while I resonate with Deshadanam at a totally different level given my equation with my son; my all time favourite is also the first one mentioned in this list - Kireedam (Crown). This movie released in 1989 and was later on remade in Hindi by Priyadarshan as Gardish in 1993 starring Amrish Puri and Jackie Shroff in the father son roles. (Incidentally, 1989 was a great year in Malayalam movie history when two more outstanding pictures came out - Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (A Northern Legend) and Mrigaya starring Mammotty). Kireedam is my favourite in this list for a number of reasons - including the fact t...
Read more