MadhuraRaja Review

Now, I haven't watched Pokkiri raja in it's entirety for two reasons -
a.  I am not a huge fan of Prithviraj in action roles and
b. I dislike Shriya Saran

So, when Madhuraraja was announced it was just another Mammootty flick for me...

Now, let's define a background here...I am an 80s kid...so, I grew up on a good dose of Mammooty and Mohanlal movies...I have seen their best, their worst and the mediocre ones too! While I admire them both, my heart beats slightly more for Mammooty than for Mohanlal...it has always been so and will always be so! But, that doesn't stop me from calling out his trashy movies or appreciating Mohanlal's good ones either!

So, with the premise set,  let's move to what I thought about Madhuraraja...now, this comes straight after the performance heavy Peranmbu and honestly I needed something like this to remove the weight off my heart! Mammootty has questionable comic skills but he makes himself a part of movies where the comedy is handled by experts while the action, sentiments etc rest safely with the superstar! MadhuraRaja also follows the same pattern. An island in distress, his father steps in first , he can't do much and then Raja lands with his sidekicks and cleans up the system! Cliched, yes! We have seen it all umpteen times...and every scene is predictable...but was I  bored ? Not in the least bit...because that is how I had decided to approach the movie....it was just a means of spending 2.5 hours without wondering why the hero does what he does....no Illuminati, no twists and most importantly no slow motion. Everything happens really quickly and I appreciated that very much!!! While Lucifer displayed the director's penchant for extravagance, class, style and twists in the tale,  MadhuraRaja is a very "in your face" kind of experience. There is no class here, only mass!!!!

MadhuraRaja is the kind of movie you can safely leave your brains behind and step in for . You won't miss much if you don't it watch either...

I had fun and honestly enjoyed it a tad bit more than Lucifer (the slow motions killed my viewing experience)...I found the music also peppier in this one. There was too much blood and gore than I would have liked...that could have been avoided esp if it has been targeted as something for kids to enjoy during the holidays. Nothing much to say about the rest of the cast either...none of them were annoying nor did they impress...

At the end of it all, I asked my 6 year old who she like more "Stephen Nedumpally" or "Madhuraraja" . She was quick to respond "Madhuraraja. He was funnier than Stephen Nedumpally ". She was seen clapping for the fights and dialogues. After a while, she did add, " Actually, I like them both...maybe they are brothers ..they are always hitting the bad people! "
The 11 year old still dislikes both the Ms...I think it's time that I introduced her to vintage Mammootty and Mohanlal!

This isn't going to set the box office on fire, considering Lucifer's good run...and it was quite evident because the theatre was near empty even for the 3.20pm show....

Verdict: It's not a total bore and Mammootty's screen presence is spectacular!

From the eyes of a mother....

I am a member of a popular FB group called Bangalore Schools! It’s my one stop guide about everything related to the education sector in Bangalore. While mostly the topics remain relevant to schooling in Bangalore, there at times some shares and discussions about children in general

Today, the first post that caught my attention on Bangalore Schools when a parent posted an article with a video of a 3 year old having a major melt down in an aircraft, thereby causing severe distress to co-travellers! The article tagged the child demonic, mother inadequate and the great man who shared this echoed the sentiments in the article. The article irked me for more reasons than one –
1.  Invading the privacy of a family by video taping a little child's meltdown
2. Spreading the above video on social media with an article that reeked of condescendence
3. Judging a child
4. Judging a parent

Though I was itching to respond, I decided to let go because some people have brains the size of a peanut and they just don’t see reason. But, at one point this man's tone got my goat when he wrote “Honestly I have seen other ways.. I have seen kids spitting on public from rooftops and parents just ignoring them “they will grow up and learn”. I am sure many would advocate that and be sympathetic to the parent. Unfortunately, I feel there is a need to help the child know what is right and what is wrong and not all parents do it the best way.”

This was wrong on so many levels! There may be parents who take gentle parenting a bit too far and do not reprimand their kids for inappropriate behavior. That is the choice that they have made for their kids and maybe it works for them better than other popular ways. What right does a 3rd person who has so idea what the child is like comment on his/her upbringing?  The only time an outsider has any right to comment or do something about it is when it affects them directly
...until then, the only thing we can and should do is "mind our own businesses" .

In my own house there are 2 kids, as different as chalk and cheese ! While one figures out that she needs to mellow down when she gets 'the mommy glare' from me, the other has a 'devil may care attitude'. Both the kids were raised in the same household by the same set of people. So it’s not like we taught them differently ! They are 2 different individuals with 2 different  personalities!!! That said, both are easily distractible if I hand over my phone to them. Despite knowing it, I don’t do it 9 times out of 10 because I believe they need to experience boredom. It will help them look around and soak in what the world has to offer. It will help them be tolerant of each other, make friends with absolute strangers, pick up a book to read, or 'just simply sit without doing anything’. This is what growing up is all about. We cannot be showing them the way all the time, some roads have to be traveled alone! And when they take that journey, they need strangers to be tolerant of their fears and their reactions to it! None of us became adults and I bet all the million stars in the sky that none of us were perfect! We would all have had our moments when we were monsters that even our parents couldn’t recognize! 

Anyways, I digress...so one of the things the man wrote was about how parents don’t respond when kids spit from rooftops!!! He called it poor upbringing! I call it “copying adults”
Many million educated , well brought up adults spit and on the streets of India every single day. The footpaths are laced with these that walking on the road is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. You just cannot look up and savor the sights around you while walking . You have to look down to see what your stepping on! Bikers stopping in the middle of the road to attend nature’s call is an every day sight and not all of them are uneducated!   How many of these grown up men have any one of us called out to , told them to zip up or find a public toilet? I see adults sitting in buses spitting out chewing gum, phelgm and what not....when we cannot and do not really do anything about such things, why are we quick to label a 3 year old as demonic and difficult?
Surely, the adult is easier to correct than a child? Yet, we chose to attack a child who may be battling a lot of issues that he/she cannot be verbal about! The parents also would be trying their best to help! It’s not like parents ensure that their kids are at their worst behavior on steping out. It’s a part of growing up! 

We as adults behave inappropriately in public at times. The other day I was at my child's school. I was at the waiting area as were other parents. A father, who obviously comes from a middle/upper middle class family, sitting opposite me decided that the school lounge was his house and he took off his shoes and stretched out his legs on the coffee table kept in front of him.
There were atleast 3 other parents sitting around that coffee table and no one said a word. I guess most of us were just too stoked at the man's obnoxiousness.  While I also didn't say anything, I stared long enough with disdain on my face until he put his feet down!!! I know it’s rude to stare, but at that point in time, I didn’t care for niceties! It took him nearly 15 mins to bring his feet down !!! If a nearly 40 year old man took that much time to understand that his behavior in public was inappropriate, I certainly would not judge children, no matter how old they are ! In retrospect, I should have just told him to put his feet down but most 'adults' don’t like being told what to do!

Why am I saying this now?

Children are tiny humans trying to find their way about in this big bad world! It takes an entire village to bring them up!!!! Most parents try their best, but sometimes even the best is not enough! This is when a helping hand from a stranger will make a world of a difference. Sometimes, that may be what it takes to calm the child! I have received and offered help many a times! And each time , someone offered assistance ,I was only grateful for the understanding!
There was one time when my younger one was around 2.5-3 and we were flying out to Kuwait…the entire 4.5 hours, she turned to the back and struck a conversation with the elderly couple behind us…no matter how hard I tried, she just wouldn’t cooperate. Finally, the lady asked me to take a chill pill and engaged her so much so that my girl wanted to go home with them!!!! Maybe it was my luck that I was flying with understanding co travelers  and not the kinds who would video tape unassuming children trying to adjust in a claustrophobic environment for such a long time !!!

At the end of the day, children should behave like children…else they wouldn’t be children! They would be narcissist adults like us!