Old wine in a new decanter...but what a decanter - probably the best Spiegelau or Riedel. That sums up Casanovva.
The "story" - Casanovva (Mohanlal) is a flower merchant mogul. He lands in Dubai with plans to nab a gang of four thieves who are kinda like John Abraham's gang in Dhoom. When his first plans go awry, he has to lay a very elaborate trap not just to nab them, but to make them suffer. And he wants to do it before the Interpol officer (Riyaaz Khan in a decent role for once) can cotton on. Why does he want the thieves for himself? Aah, for that you have to watch the movie.
Casanovva could be described as a hedonist's ultimate fantasy and has enough "speed" for an action junkie. That's about it. There are a couple of glaring errors in the plot - or am I being too finicky by searching for ants in Black Forest pastry? The costumes are wonderful - except for Lalu Alex's purple suit (the actor must have hated it, good thing the tone of the scene was meant to show his anger and discomfort, the suit brought it out beautifully). But there was lots of eye candy to compensate for anything like that. Do watch out for a sequence in the "Love" song for Casanovva singing in all magazine covers on display - fundoo...
All in all, a well-packaged respite from a fortnight of all-night battles with kids' flu, emergency hospital visits and dealing with residual infections. No one but a frazzled mom can appreciate the world of perfect mani-pedis, loooong smoooooth legs and the recreational sport of shopping better than the world's greatest Casanovva!
Worth watching? You won't be bored - except while watching the daredevil thieves doing their mid-jump roll ad infinitum....
Edited to add: Do I sound as though I liked the movie in the review? I was being totally sarcastic. Ok, let me make it clear - remember Kamal Hassan's wonderfully packed boxes in "Pushpak"? Casanovva is like that - all glitz and glamor on the outside, putrefaction inside. I hope everything's clear now!!!!
The initial reviews and reports were terrible. Your review states its okay.. Hope we'll have collection figures to get back the 50K deposit...to Maxlab
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ Sreekala!I guess loyal fans like you make Mohanlal thrive in Kerala Film Industry.:)
ReplyDeleteIts a Pathetic Attempt at Saving Mohanlal's Dying Career.I actually wanted to write a blog Describing tnis ultimate crappy movie which bores you to death.For me it was a torture watching someone Like Mohanlal trying to do things that do not suit his personality.The movie name itself 'CASANOVA" suggested its crap,but my dad being a mohanlal fan made us go for the movie.We all regretted seeing this movie,as it was something that makes no sense at all.I think its Mohanlal's Fanasy that has been made into a movie(thanks to the fact that he is Rich)I cannot accept that beautiful ladies like Shriya wud find Mohanlal sooo desirable.Plzzzzz its tooo much to accept.Its time for ppl like Prithviraj & others in the same age bar doing such movies & not Mohanlal.He is no hunk like Hrithik or Prithviraj,so spare us such movies.Also the fact that with his bulk he can do the kind of antics that is there in Dhoom 2 is tooo much to digest.It is something that was ridiculed in Srinivasan's movie & only on that note I accept that ppl like Mohanlal is no different than Vijaykant,Rajnikant etc who are there in potboilers.
He should stick to movies like Pranayam & not make a mess of himself.I have lost all respect for mohanlal after watching this movie.Malayalam movies of late anyways has lost its charm.Gone are the days when you could proudly say we have movies like Kireedam or Manichitrathazhu.Today watchin a malayalam movie is at a risk.There are maybe 1 or 2 movies out of 5o which is worth watching.Time to replace oldies.Its a new Generation that we are looking at.
All in all in my opinion is please do not waste your money on this movie by goin to a theare.I lost 900 bucks thanks to this movie.:(
I would say You could watch it on CD probably.
Sorry on the diiference of opinion Sreekala.:)
@ Smitha: No probs with difference of opinion! If u read my review again, you can see that I have been finding it difficult to say good things about it so I speak about costume, the glitz etc. Hedonist's fantasy is not meant to be a compliment! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat said, I do believe that Mohanlal is THE one to play that role - because the role requires a "jaded" and old Casanova. If you look at the original Casanova, he was no hunk either. He psychologically manipulated women to get them, looks played no role in his seduction. Again, did u watch Mohanlal do the salsa? I bet Prithvi cannot dance like that yet (and I am a huge Prithvi fan, but imagine him doing classical dance moves and you can see the biggest comedy!Ok, ok, Hrithik can!) I am not a Mohanlal fan per se, but that actor still has stores of potential him as does Mammootty. The only problem is that they don't get the roles suitable for them and they still have to make enough money a year to send their kids/grankids to schools in Ootty. :-)Hence movies like these.
I was not bored for a second in the movie - who can be with so much eye candy around? If nothing, I was enjoying the wonderful architecture and decor in the background!!!
"they still have to make enough money a year to send their kids/grankids to schools in Ootty. :-)Hence movies like these. "
ReplyDelete..liked this part! :D
Gawd!Thanks for the clarification that was added on like an after thought. I should say that all the sarcasm was totally lost on me as well, and I thought you had genuinely enjoyed the film!! :o Phew! :)
ReplyDelete