Jothish Nair

Beautiful frames, creative direction, enchanting BGM and special effects make a movie, an awesome visual experience. However, if the script is less convincing and wavery, the movie will definitely go down to the garbage bin. The film Erida written by YV Rajesh and directed by VK Prakash is a huge disaster. A 60 year old man( enacted by Nazar) marries an attractive young woman( enacted by Samyuktha Menon- imagined as a femme fatale by the writer and director which the audience couldn't relate). Straight away from marriage they go to play a poker game( the guy says it's a business cum leisure trip). The old man wins the game by distracting his opponent using his wife's charm( although we couldn't experience that; visually we are made to understand it through one of the dialogues). The opponent and his friends decide to teach the old man a lesson and recover the money he won in Poker. They employ a policeman for it.. etc etc etc I read somewhere that this is Samyuktha Menon's career best role and performance. May be, may not be, I'm not sure. The plot is unconvincing and a character in an unconvincing story directly becomes implausible. The tagline of the film- "A tale of Goddess in love" is misleading. So are some of the posters. Final note: Why is the heroine wearing just a shirt and no bottoms through out the film. ( The controversial costume (similar to Samyuktha in Erida) of Seema in the film Avalude Ravukal , a 1978 Malayala film, was the outcome of a situation in the story) The costume of the protagonist woman in this film has nothing to do with the story. Rating 0.5/5

Haven't watched better entertainer than Lootcase in recent times. There was never a dull moment in the Rajesh Krishnan directed film, although a faster pace would have been made the film more engrossing. Vijay Raaz as the goon and Gajraj Rao as corrupt politician stole the show. Kunal Khemu as the regular Joe on loose (protagonist of the film) and Ranvir Shorey as the bad cop was equally good. The lady lead Rasika Duggal who looked natural, was another name mentioning. The dialogues by Kapil Sawant was hilarious, especially the ones rendered by the crook who's a Nat Geo fan enacted by Raaz and crook politician enacted by Rao. Watching a dark comedy with a nice ending is an ideal weekend beginning (in normal times), and Lootcase substantiates that narrative.

For Malayali audiences, this film look like the Lucknowi version of our own super hit Ayyappanum Koshiyum, although the story is entirely different. There are wonderful comic scenes that would make one burst into laughter, especially the scene where Khurrana comes to compromise with Bachchan asking to adopt him and how Bachchan responds.