Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Memories (2013)


A Drunkard cop who is not dismissed from Service even when he is drunk all the time and runs into people,gets beaten up in bar,is always drinking in the fucking park and carries his poison everywhere even when he is investigating a serial Homicide.
Apparently he is in some sort of guilt trip as he lost his wife and daughter to an avenging terrorist and the loss of his loved ones have driven him to this drinking drive and has no intention pursuing his job or care about his loved ones. His brother is ashamed because of his behaviour and requests him to stay away from his wedding.
A Serial Killer is on the loose who hangs the bodies of victims in a Jesus Christ Crucification style and carves letters in Aramaic on their chest which is in fact phrases and prayers from Bible.
It's a pretty linear story with the final resolution being the Hero redeeming himself from his tragic past and looking forward to bright new life with his loved ones and also the orphaned cousin sister of the serial killer himself.
What's different from Jeethu Joseph's previous Movie "My Boss" is the fact that he is movie is looking much better than the last one. There are some pretty juicy moments from the Cinematographer Sujith Vasudev whose work in Suresh Unnithan's Avar also deserves appraisal. The Dialogues are pretty serial lingo but there are some pretty witty retorts from the Drunken Cop retorting to his mother,priest and boss who all wants him to return back to normal life. Instead he wants all of them to let him be.
It's a neatly told thriller with some chroma work especially when travelling in car sequences where the smart application of this wonderful tool has delivered some pretty eye candy sequences. It's sad that in a malayalam movie the characters depending on English language to express verbally and some time it's  absolutely cheesy especially in the climax.
The Red Herring concept is neatly visible in this one especially with the assisting cop and post mortem doctor who all adds up to the whodunnit of the story but even if you are smarter than Einstein you can't predict the killer since he is totally kept from being seen and only makes a prominent appearance once the film is riding towards it's end.
The End scene where Prithviraj is firing the gun in the leaking gas through a fish tank as the bullet is coated with water it insulates it from the gas that's leaking efficiently into the room. If you imagine how a gun works, the gun powder in the chamber ignites a combustion process once the trigger goes off and the minor explosion in the gun chamber generates heat and thrusts the bullets through the barrel. What Prithviraj is actually doing with the Fish Tank trick that he is water coating the muzzel flash from igniting the fumes while the entire gun chamber combustion ignites enough sparks to sparkle the gas in the room or am I being naive and I have the wrong ideas about the facts that I mentioned here.I don't know.
I also can't help but notice how Jeethu Jospeh names his films. It's all in English and it all has something to do with the alphabet "M". Mummy and Me, My Boss and now Memories. Basically he is telling the same old stereotyped stories in a new packing resdesigned to deliver exactly the way the audience dig it in a simple way. No Hoohah, Just plain Old stuff!