My DH and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary on June 16th. Since it was a Saturday, we celebrated with a whole day's program. We started off with a visit to the Attukal Devi temple, then got a family portrait taken, had a grand buffet lunch and finally my DH treated me to a Diamond Necklace - only it was the movie!
I do not profess to be a Lal Jose fan per se. But I do love and never tire of watching a few of his movies like Meesa Madhavan (incidentally etched in my mind as the first movie we watched as a newly married couple in 2002! :-) ) and Classmates (which a few Malayali friends brought to a theater near Minneapolis in 2006). He is no doubt a versatile director but has also made indifferent movies like Spanish Masala, Mulla and Pattalam. Arabikkatha, with Dr. Iqbal Kuttippuram was critically and popularly acclaimed and the pair has again brought a good movie to us.
Diamond Necklace is set in Dubai. In Arabikkatha we saw the seamy side of Dubai in which ordinary workers have a tough life of it. Diamond Necklace shows us plenty of the other side - the opulent, extravagant and mesmerising Dubai and it is no coincidence that our hero lives in Burj Khaleefa - the current icon of Dubai. Dr. Arun (Fahad Fazil) works in the oncology department of a reputed hospital and is a favorite with his patients because of his cheerful bedside manner that infuses hope and happiness in his patients. His other passions are cars and living the good life with a lot of flirtation thrown in . His life changes when a sprightly new Tamilian nurse Lakshmi (Gauthami Nair) is appointed at the hospital. It takes another turn when his mentor's niece Maya (Samvrutha Sunil) decides to open a designer boutique in Dubai. A vacation to Kerala puts him in Kalamandalam Rajasree's (Anusree) path. And then Dr. Arun is in a fine quandary.
The director has found a superb cast to bring his film to life Fahad, Samvrutha, Gauthami and Anusree have given wonderful performances as the key characters. The songs are great too and Dubai is real eye candy. If only they didn't have to drag in the usual "Gulf Kochamma" characters to elicit a few laughs - news flash - ITS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE! And it's not fair that such a flawed Dr. Arun may get to redeem himself, but a few stay-at-home mothers can't. A plus point: if you are haunted by the specter of credit-card debt, you can pick up a few tips from the movie!
The second movie: Ee Adutha Kaalathu is a humour noir movie written by Murali Gopy. He also plays one of the six central characters of the movie - Dr. Ajay Kurien - and excels in both fields. Dr. Ajay Kurien and his wife Madhuri (Tanushree) have a troubled married life, Vishnu (Indrajith) and Remani (Mythili) find it difficult to look after a family of 6 members on income derived from housemaid service and recycling waste material, KBC Channel's star reporter Rupa can't get her Police Commisioner boy friend Tommy (Anoop Menon) to marry her because his career is in a crisis. The movie starts of with these different threads and soon we find how all are interlinked in overt and covert ways. The imagery of the Rubik cube is very apt and as the final facet falls into place we can't but help but yell ,"Hurray" ourselves.
This is one of Indrajith's best performances to date - he is the best of the cast.
Some one-liners to watch out for - they will look completely unfunny here, but once you see the movie, you'll understand!
Vishnu: I was there to steal and madam, you were there to ... um... have food.
*****
Vishnu: Start the car, sir!
Bonacaud Ramachandran: How am I supposed to do that? Which car?
The movie is a must watch. Warning: Not for children. Also keep an eye out for the picture shown in the very last shot - shows the gist of the movie! Another Wah for the writer and director.
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