Hot Takes: Petta & Mikhael

Hot Takes

 

Hot takes are reviews of movies released recently. These are movies that do not merit a thematic analysis and are not the usual reflections that I put out on here.

Petta

 

Written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj of the Pizza fame, Petta follows in the tradition of Rajnepics starting with Kabaali. The action blockbuster (with a collection of 125.8 cr as of this writing) depicts the life of Kaali (Rajnikanth), a hostel warden dealing with a rather unruly crowd in a predominantly Tamil-speaking college in what appears to be Darjeeling. Being the righteous man he is , he puts an end to endemic ragging of freshers by Michael ( Bobby Shima), the no-good son of a non-good contractor, while intriguing on the behalf of the affable Anwar (Sananth Reddy) in his romace with the lovely Anu (Megha Prakash). A few fights and a romance later , a blast from the past hits Kaali ,forever changing the winds of the story-line.

Rajnikanth does not fail to impress in his role as himself. Vijay Sethupathy and Nawassuidn Siddiqui also deliver their goods as villains with character. That being said, the movie leaves a lot to be desired from its writer-director Subbaraj, especially in the plotting of the tale. The first half of the movie, with all its punchlines and romances, was almost immaterial to the crux of the plot. The second half, however, is definitely better written with an intricate trope-subversion in the end. (See this articlehttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SubvertedTrope ) The movie is full of tropes, some well-written and some not so well-written attempts to depict issues of social contention like moral-policing and inter-religious marriages are dealt with, even though sometimes they look too obvious like the party which seems to be a weird cross between Bajrang Dal and the BJP.

The action scenes are worth watching and the music is exhilarating.

It's an enjoyable movie for Rajni fans, but it falls short of the 'great' mark.

Mikhael

 

This Nivin Pauly starre is a film of could have-beens. Directed by Haneef Adeni ,whose blockbuster , busted the Firstpost rating system. (See https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/the-great-father-movie-review-mammoottys-swagger-dominates-an-absurd-film-on-child-rape-3363542.html), this follows proudly in that tradition.
Michael John (Nivin Pauly) is a timid doctor who absolutely dotes on his younger sister. Jennifer Through a series of unfortunate events she ends up the target of a psychopathic crime-lord George Peter (Siddique). Nivin Pauly is kind of awkward in his transformation into the guardian angel for his family, but the action makes up for what is amiss in the plot. Gopi Sundar's music takes the cake, though.
Two performances I'd like to flag are of Siddique and the child artiste playing Jennifer. Siddique , even though a quite despicable villain is not the regular baddie. He delivers the goods when playing the role of both a loving father as well as a psychopathic criminal in the same vein. The child fulfills the role of Jennifer ,with her characteristic mix of toughness and innocence. The author must be excused for declaring that he was more concerned with Jennifer' fate than Michael's.
  This was a film of could-have-beens. I'm no proponent of realism in movies, but there should be a definite framework within which a plot should move.There was a lot of potential which could have been transformed this average movie into an excellent one; the waste of the buff eccentric Marco (Unni Mukundan) . the unexplored tensions between Michael and his stepfather Anthony(Ashokan) , the intrigue between Marco and the Davi family, Geomentrge Peter'son's mental health issues,etc.
Another thing I can't stand are the constant throwbacks to Michael the archangel, a very poor attempt at allegory.
I'd think Mr. Adeni would do well to first write his script  before filming and NOT the other way around.