Lucifer - My thoughts
Now, if there is something that most of Kerala and Malayalis all over are talking about at this point in time is Lucifer! So it's only natural that it finds a mention here as well...
Now if you have not watched it, avoid reading...if you have , read on !
There are a few ways reviews are written these days...social media can break or make a movie! Fans create a never before hype and haters trash it like never before! Neutral folks are nitpicked by both! "Oh, how could you not like the movie" or "Gosh, how could you like it???"...these are one of the two questions I often hear!
So, considering I am neither a Lalettan fan or Prithvi fan, what I am going to pen down may not go well down with either of their fans! So, please skip of if a neutral view is not your thing!
Since it's been a just a day into release, I will try and avoid delving too much into the wafer thin story line that I thought it was ....
The movie begins with the death of PKR. The story is about how the family, his followers, the party, the political situation in the state change after his death ...we'll leave the detailing at that!! It's a done to death theme! We have seen many many variants of the same, some executed better in terms of story ! The backdrop is political but the underlying theme is "underworld"
Lucifer is slickly packaged. Prithviraj has made good use of the money pumped into the project by Ashirwad cinemas, but the slow motions were a tad too annoying! There were times when I wished they all walked faster! At least 30 minutes could have been saved had the slow motions been fast motions! But, I must say he has the skill but his tendency for bringing in twists is now becoming predictable! Infact, in the first few scenes before the title credits, ample clues were thrown in for a discerning viewer to guess the climax. And I have to say, Prithviraj did not disappoint me one bit!
Performances:
Not Mohanlal's career best as he claimed in the promotions. I did not feel any goosebumps on his intro! For that feel, I would watch Narasimham again! That is mass intro...this was rather lame! There were a few punch dialogues esp one to Saikumar, I loved that one 😂! He looked hot with the slight greys and thick beard! Performance wise we have seen better!
Manju Warrier looked good in her de-glam avatar. But she had nothing much to do. This was not a patch of Devu or Bhadra or Bhanu! Those were strong characters...this was the "damsel in distress calling out to Stephen Nedumpally for help" role that could have been done by anyone.
Tovino - now that speech on the podium - that was mass! He had some good lines and delivered it pretty well!
Vivek Oberoi - the lip sync was spot on for an actor who hasnt had much exposure to Malayalam! And, his swag was 👌 of all the lead actors, he was my pick of the day!
Indrajith - Now, I heard Prithvi saying how brilliant Indran was in the movie. Govardhan was cake walk for him considering he was the one portrayed Vattu Jayan so effortlessly in LRL...so,no, we have seen better from Indrajith too.
Prithviraj - Sidekick to Stephen Nedumpally.. normally, the kind of the role that Riyaz Khan does in a Prithviraj movie...you know the one where , he comes right in the nick of time to save the hero! He was just living out his fanboy dream of acting with the legend that is Mohanlal!
In this entire drama, the piece de resistance for me was actor Vineeth's dubbing for Vivek Oberoi! I fell flat for the man's diction and delivery! It was stylish, menacing and sexy all at once! That , honestly , was one of the most brilliant parts of the entire 3 hours I spent in the theatre!
The supporting cast all did their parts quite well...nothing outstanding, nothing terrible either!
The camera work was spectacular, music passé, item song unnecessary and fights gory! Murali Gopi has written better stuff but if this is way of paying tribute to the Manmohan Desai genre of films, I was not very impressed! But, I am thankful that I didn't walk out of the theatre confused about what I saw!
Overall, Lucifer reinforces what we know about Prithviraj already! He knows his craft , a better script can bring out better from him. His love for opulence, richness of frames and twists in the tale is out there for everyone to see...
To quote a friend who wishes to remain anonymous , in short, "IV Sasi and Joshi had an affair. They had a child who married Shaji Kailas and their offspring is "Lucifer""
Verdict: I am not overly impressed, maybe 2.5/5. I followed all the pre release interviews and expected a little more...was a slightly disappointed! My mother liked it because previous experience had taught her to keep her expectation really low!
Like Ruby said, maybe I should listen to child#1 when she voices her opinions about movies!
Vaal kashnam:
This is my wall, my post, my opinion. You can disagree but a derogatory tone will not be acceptable! A healthy discussion will be good and I would love to talk about a perspective I might have missed...
Now, if there is something that most of Kerala and Malayalis all over are talking about at this point in time is Lucifer! So it's only natural that it finds a mention here as well...
Now if you have not watched it, avoid reading...if you have , read on !
There are a few ways reviews are written these days...social media can break or make a movie! Fans create a never before hype and haters trash it like never before! Neutral folks are nitpicked by both! "Oh, how could you not like the movie" or "Gosh, how could you like it???"...these are one of the two questions I often hear!
So, considering I am neither a Lalettan fan or Prithvi fan, what I am going to pen down may not go well down with either of their fans! So, please skip of if a neutral view is not your thing!
Since it's been a just a day into release, I will try and avoid delving too much into the wafer thin story line that I thought it was ....
The movie begins with the death of PKR. The story is about how the family, his followers, the party, the political situation in the state change after his death ...we'll leave the detailing at that!! It's a done to death theme! We have seen many many variants of the same, some executed better in terms of story ! The backdrop is political but the underlying theme is "underworld"
Lucifer is slickly packaged. Prithviraj has made good use of the money pumped into the project by Ashirwad cinemas, but the slow motions were a tad too annoying! There were times when I wished they all walked faster! At least 30 minutes could have been saved had the slow motions been fast motions! But, I must say he has the skill but his tendency for bringing in twists is now becoming predictable! Infact, in the first few scenes before the title credits, ample clues were thrown in for a discerning viewer to guess the climax. And I have to say, Prithviraj did not disappoint me one bit!
Performances:
Not Mohanlal's career best as he claimed in the promotions. I did not feel any goosebumps on his intro! For that feel, I would watch Narasimham again! That is mass intro...this was rather lame! There were a few punch dialogues esp one to Saikumar, I loved that one 😂! He looked hot with the slight greys and thick beard! Performance wise we have seen better!
Manju Warrier looked good in her de-glam avatar. But she had nothing much to do. This was not a patch of Devu or Bhadra or Bhanu! Those were strong characters...this was the "damsel in distress calling out to Stephen Nedumpally for help" role that could have been done by anyone.
Tovino - now that speech on the podium - that was mass! He had some good lines and delivered it pretty well!
Vivek Oberoi - the lip sync was spot on for an actor who hasnt had much exposure to Malayalam! And, his swag was 👌 of all the lead actors, he was my pick of the day!
Indrajith - Now, I heard Prithvi saying how brilliant Indran was in the movie. Govardhan was cake walk for him considering he was the one portrayed Vattu Jayan so effortlessly in LRL...so,no, we have seen better from Indrajith too.
Prithviraj - Sidekick to Stephen Nedumpally.. normally, the kind of the role that Riyaz Khan does in a Prithviraj movie...you know the one where , he comes right in the nick of time to save the hero! He was just living out his fanboy dream of acting with the legend that is Mohanlal!
In this entire drama, the piece de resistance for me was actor Vineeth's dubbing for Vivek Oberoi! I fell flat for the man's diction and delivery! It was stylish, menacing and sexy all at once! That , honestly , was one of the most brilliant parts of the entire 3 hours I spent in the theatre!
The supporting cast all did their parts quite well...nothing outstanding, nothing terrible either!
The camera work was spectacular, music passé, item song unnecessary and fights gory! Murali Gopi has written better stuff but if this is way of paying tribute to the Manmohan Desai genre of films, I was not very impressed! But, I am thankful that I didn't walk out of the theatre confused about what I saw!
Overall, Lucifer reinforces what we know about Prithviraj already! He knows his craft , a better script can bring out better from him. His love for opulence, richness of frames and twists in the tale is out there for everyone to see...
To quote a friend who wishes to remain anonymous , in short, "IV Sasi and Joshi had an affair. They had a child who married Shaji Kailas and their offspring is "Lucifer""
Verdict: I am not overly impressed, maybe 2.5/5. I followed all the pre release interviews and expected a little more...was a slightly disappointed! My mother liked it because previous experience had taught her to keep her expectation really low!
Like Ruby said, maybe I should listen to child#1 when she voices her opinions about movies!
Vaal kashnam:
This is my wall, my post, my opinion. You can disagree but a derogatory tone will not be acceptable! A healthy discussion will be good and I would love to talk about a perspective I might have missed...
