Best movie of this year hands down!

Pretty Good

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Its one of the best movie's of 2017 with complete proper mixture of emotions and moral message to youth and family My rating- 4/5 Positives- 1.)Mohanlal (4/5), Meena(3.8/5) and Aima sebastin (4/5)- Mohanlal was the perfect choice and he does his role smoothly. Meena is best combo with mohanlal and here also works out well. Aima's role was good and she does it without any problems. And rest of the cast didn't disappoint me but sharaffudin's character couldn't bring any comedy to the screen and makers didn't utilize him and that disappointed me.2.)Direction( 4.3/5),Script(4.4/5) and story (4.5/5)- Direction went smooth from Jibu Jacob. He once again proved like his previous movie(vellimoonga). His direction didn't bore the audience and he also succeeded in making emotional scenes effective also those few thrill scenes were rightly made.Script by Sindhuraj was excellent and he succeeded in adding comedy to this emotional family drama. He also succeeded in not boring the audience and he surprised me because his last few outings weren't that great. Story was also good and thought provoking.3.)Songs and bgscore (3.3/5) 3.)Cinematography (3/5) 4.)Edits (3/5) 5.)Good message to family and youth Negatives- 1.) Didn't utilize great comedian sharafuddin properly (Thats the only negative i found and they could have given him few comedy dialogues to make his role funfilled) Is it a must watch? Yes, its a must watch with your family.Overall- This movie surprised me a lot because its overall packaging was excellent and it was a moving movie without any lag scenes. Its a perfect family movie and please do watch it.My rating- 4/5 (for more reviews go to- Ridinbal movie reviews

Watching the latest Mohanlal movie "Munthirivallikal Thalirkunmpol" is like enjoying your favorite meal, the more handful you have, you keep loving the dish more but until you are about to reach a point your stomach can't take any more, you are given a quick desert and the meal gets over. The same happens for the movie too, it fills your mind with happiness from the word go and we enjoy it to the fullest. This movie makes us happy and our mind content.Mohanlal effortlessly plays Ulahanan the Panchayat Secretary. He continues to amaze us, the quick transformation of his facial expressions is priceless, his fingers to his whole body emotes every expression even his tongue convey the state of his mind. He's the best in these kinds of roles which he had done in the 80s and mid 90s and we saw a little bit of it in the first half of Drishyam. Here it's for the whole length of the movie. Parallels can be drawn from Drishyam as Meena is his costar and his elder daughter is in 12th std. but the similarities end there. The best part of the movie is that it flows, nothing much is happening on screen and we can't predict where the movie is headed. That's what I liked of the movie. Mohanlal is the usual middle-aged guy whose life oscillates between home and office. He's dying of boredom, in office it's the petty fights of ruling and opposition parties while home it's the teary TV soaps that his wife follows. The only solace is the time when he shares the drinks with his neighbors. Mohanlal to get devoid of the boredom decides to have an extra-marital affair and here the story begins to blossoms and we get what we were waiting for- The Mohanlal, with no strings attached, it's just delight to watch him perform.Meena looks like she has put more weight but keeping in mind the age she's playing on screen it's not much of worry. She has the charm to hold the romantic scenes. Also, middle-aged romance is a territory which is rarely exploited in Malayalam cinema. Here we have a couple finding love once again after many years of courtship. And the movie has convincingly portrayed the plight of the couple what they go through and how they end up in agony. Movie inspires to get rid of it and be like what you were years before. It conveys to fall in love once again. And Mohanlal and Meena had done a perfect job in convincing to be the lovable couples they were.Complementing Mohanlal's energy is Anoop Menon, who is also at ease playing the playboy kind of role who maintains many extra marital affairs. Bindhu Panicker who plays their neighbor gets a good role after a long time.The bond Mohanlal or Meena shares with the kids was undercooked, Mohanlal doesn't share a good conversation with Sanoop in the whole movie which was a downer. If there was also there it would have been perfect. Aima as Jini delivers what is asked of her. But sad to see the talent of Sanoop having nothing to do much than complete the family picture. And Joy Mathew too is wasted as Mohanlal's college mate. He is in the movie like for two blink and miss scenes. Suraj also disappoints as he hasn't got much to do.Jibu Jacobs second outing after the surprise blockbuster Vellimoonga, shows his directing skills by holding the film together when the film was showing some signs of lag when the couple's romance was given too much screen time. The movie is adapted from the short Story Pranayopanishath of V J James. But, M Sidhuraj made it into a screenplay which can be enjoyed by people of all ages not only for the middle-aged couples alone. The crispy dialogues and the non-preachy way of storytelling was good. But the pun intended ones was not liked by a few sections of people and some complained they can't watch the movie with parents. For them I just want to remind them this movie doesn't have that much of adult rated jokes compared to MayaMohini.Of the songs, Jayachandran's "Athimarakombilee… "was soothing and "Kuttanadan kayal…" –the happy fast number one, was a must have for a Mohanlal movie in the previous decade, but having all the family dancing in the ploughed field was a new experience.Another delight is having M Jayachandran coming back as music composer, not that he was off for a while but he hadn't composed music in a major film for a long time and Pranayam (2011) was the last Mohanlal movie he had composed. And good composers who are in the peak of the game shouldn't be kept for long from doing their work.The movie is pure fun and spreads happiness for the entire length and during the last few minutes keeps you in the edge. And everyone comes out unscathed. Also, it was good to see it's not preachy as the movies of these kind of movies tend to be. A good family movie which you can surely enjoy with your family's company.

The reason I think this movie is a one time watch is purely because of the performances. Yes, I'm a Mohanlal fan but surely won't remember this movie for more than a week. The Complete Actor put in a entertaining performance along with the evergreen Meena and those two were the primary reasons you would be able to sit through for nearly two & half hours. Anoop Menon is an absolute treat and he is the biggest comic provider in the movie. Amy was charming and so was Sanoop. But the plot leaves you bewildered not because of its brilliance but some stupid sequence of events. Take for example Mohanlal says let's go to Shimla and of they go for a 5 minute song and dance. Then he says let's go to our native place and there is another 5 minute song and dance. Also the first 30 minutes made me irritated primarily because of Asha Sharaths clichéd and terribly delivered romantic dialogues. All in all I give this movie 7/10 out of which a solid 6 goes to cast performance especially Anoop Menon. And the one star to the rest aspects of the movie. Watch this only for Lal-Meena & in particular Anoop Menon.

When was the last time we saw Lalettan as a down to earth family person — a caring husband and loving father? Of course, last year's Telugu blockbuster, Janatha Garage is one, but I would consider it as the latest in the list inspired from 1972 classic - The Godfather. So it was in Drishyam (2013) which re wrote most of the collection records in Malayalam cinema that we saw Mohanlal as a family man — a role which he plays with ease and excels like any other. Mohanlal always plays it safe with directors — we don't frequently see him associating with debutants or relatively newcomers and this is one factor which differentiates the two big Ms of Malayalam cinema. So when the film was announced with Jibu Jacob as the director whose debut film Vellimoonga was a surprise hit at the box office along with M Sindhuraj as the script writer, I had my doubts — 75% of which went wrong as I walked out of the hall after watching the film. Based on a short story Pranayopinashath by V J James, MVT narrates the tale of Panchayat Secretary Ulahanan played by Mohanlal and his wife Annie played by Meena. The screenplay captures various moments in their lives, mostly at the Panchayat office and the housing colony. Ulahanan is a middle-aged government employee, a man quite used to the boredom of middle age and his life is about home and office. Mohanlal plays this portion extremely well, with an annoyed face, salt and pepper hairstyle and a stubble. Anoop Menon, Alencier Ley Lopez, and Kalabhavan Shajohn play the roles of Ulahanan's neighbor's cum friends. The film after establishing the characters takes a turn when Ulahanan attends a college reunion, where he realizes its the absence of love and passion that's making his life boring. The flirt Venukuttan, played by Anoop Menon advises Ulahanan to get a girlfriend and Neha Saxena's Julie is introduced. Thanks to the script writer and director, the voluptuous Julie doesn't have that much of a screen time and the role is like an extended cameo. The character, however, is important in the screenplay as Julie is the reason for Ulahanan to realize that his LIFE is his WIFE which is the film's tag line — My Life is My Wife. The middle- age romance between Ulahanan and Annie is beautiful though their reconciliation scenes was a bit melodramatic and dialogue clichéd which were booed by the audience. This forms the crux of the story and we are presented with various cute moments from their lives along with sub plots and a convincing climax.The film was actually set for a Christmas release, however, was delayed by the theater strike in Kerala. Among the cast, other than Mohanlal, Meena impresses again. She once again proves that, among the contemporary actors, she is the best leading lady for Mohanlal. She is one of those rare actresses who gets/chooses script backed, performance oriented entertainers even after the comeback. Their combination is great and the same magic which we saw in Drishyam is more or less present here too, with Meena getting more screen time. Manju Warrier too would have excelled in this role, I guess. Aima and Sanoop play their kids. Aima does a decent job, especially at the climax while Sanoop has nothing great to do. Anoop Menon is a talent wasted. Venukuttan is a role that can be easily played by someone like Aju Varghese or so. Sharafuddin who plays the office assistant Reji, Suraj Venjaramoodu who plays the President, Sudheer Karamana who plays Chalakan all makes into the list of underutilized talents. I was glad to see Bindu Panicker on screen after a pretty long gap. Malayalam cinema is always known for its content and this film is no different. On the technical side, cinematography by Pramod K Pillai and editing by E S Sooraj is okay, nothing extra ordinary there. Music of this film is a big let down as none of the music directors — Bijipal nor M Jayachandran has offered a hum-worthy/catchy song. The visualizations of the songs, however, make up for the shortcoming as the audience is kept engaged to an extend. Bijipal's BGM was, however, satisfactory. I was not a fan of M Sindhuraj as a scriptwriter and this film doesn't prove me wrong. Many of the dialogues were clichéd and scenes unwanted. The film needs a bit of trimming here and there. MVT is typical Sathyan Anthikad type film — no suspense, twists or surprises, yet we are kept engaged till the end. The biggest positive of the film is that it doesn't get preachy anywhere, though there were ample moments for that in the film. The story line is highly predictable though the climax was a good one. The topics of extra marital affairs, teenage infatuations, and frictions in the marriage have been told and tested before and its the presentation and the lea pair's extraordinary chemistry that did the job here. Yet there were some highly melodramatic scenes and clichéd dialogues which were welcomed with boos by the audience and I seriously feel its time to say good bye to those sentimental scenes as not even a single scene are left without being booed. And not to miss the ending sequence where Mohanlal quotes the Bible, a quote remembered by the Malayalam audience for the great storyteller Padmarajan and his classic Namukku Parkan Munthirithoppukal. Also, it's not quite common to see novel or short story adaptations in Malayalam and the very latest one which I can recollect is Ranjith's Leela which was, of course, not made for the common audience. To conclude, after the thrilling Oppam and high voltage Pulimurugan, Mohanlal had made the right choice of Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol. The film's USP is Mohanlal and the Mohanlal Meena chemistry, go for it, you may miss the star but the actor definitely won't disappoint you.