Mallikarjun Kandkuru

It is grand and silly at the same time. Too much drama bro. Every dialogue, however innocuous it is, is delivered like the actors are all in a stage play. The visual effects are all great. That definitely makes it worthwhile. But keep your thinking brain aside - Prabhas beats up and kills at least 1250 people in the movie. Shruti Hassan is the damsel in distress, pouts all the time and lets people mansplain things to her. There is a city like Wakanda where all the action happens. At one point, armies from South Sudan, Afghanistan and Ukraine join the party (US and Russia apparently refused). All in all, fun movie bro. Definitely watch it. Also, look out for an actor who resembles cricketer Mohammed Siraj. Fun actor. He flies a kite and all.

Watched Kaapa. Important observations below. 1. If it’s only 15 villains, Prithviraj can beat them up all by himself. 2. If it’s 25 guys however, Prithviraj needs the help of the 60-year-old Jagadeesh.

Boring. Yet another movie in the tried and tested template of a larger-than-life hero thrashing baddies in moves that question Sir Isaac's works. The scar that Paul Barber bore in the 80s makes a reappearance on Mohanlal's back. Honey Rose does what Mohanlal could not do to Barber back then - she rips Mohanlal's shirt apart in one smooth, swift, precise move to reveal the scar and thus his past. Siddique plays the 474th villain role of his career, however this time with a wig and not a clean shaven head. During fights, Ettan positions himself in dark corners of the room and waits for goons because - gasp - Ettan can see in darkness! Many new faces and three pretty girls do what they can to do uphold Ettan's image. Arbaaz Khan is a police officer and speaks better Malayalam than Siddique; the latter puts on an accent perhaps to add some more 'variety' to his character. Irshaad and Tini Tom do what they were told in a neat way. So on and so forth. The plot is supremely dull and the story is absolutely pointless. Remember the phase where Lalettan made movies such as Onnaman? This one would fit in right there. Avoid by all means.

A man hung by a rope, a horse, a desert and a savior who comes from nowhere. That classic setting from the 1960s Clint Eastwood western inspired the scene that introduced the big daddy bandit Ithikkara Pakki (Mohanlal) to the movie. As you cringe and hope against hope that the background score would at least be creative, you would be disappointed yet again. By the time you got to that scene, you had already endured a full hour waiting for the movie to take off, wondered why the female lead has an accent of a Dubai-educated Malayali and if women shook their hips like Shakira and pouted like Angelina Jolie even in the 1800s. Nivin Pauly did his best to look macho. He sprinted, he flexed his muscles and he looked very very angry. All the while, even in the tense Kalaripayattu duels, you secretly expect him to break into his trademark mischievous smile and feel like saying “Ah. Umesheey. Enthallaa?”. Babu Antony looked charismatic and graceful in his 246th role as a martial arts guy. He took some tricks from Kungfu Panda this time around and used this fingers to poke a couple of holes in the villain’s ribs. Sudheer Karamana and Sunny Wayne led the team of bad guys and did really well. The rest of the team consisted of a few Namboodiris led by Edavela Babu and some hapless Britishers all of whom tried to look like Tom Alter. If your weekend is not packed, you could still go watch the movie.