Most of the times you would want to write a review as soon as you have seen the movie if either you liked it very much or if it is very terrible. Most of the movies will fall into this category. Every now and then comes a movie which is neither good nor bad that you would not get any motivation to write a review for the same. It's been almost 2 weeks since I have watched "Bangalore Days", but only now I am motivated enough to write a review, for the heck of it, more than anything else.
Written and Directed by Anjali Menon, "Bangalore Days" is too long for starters. The leisurely pace with which it is staged gets tiring after a point. Not that there is something in it for the director to have deliberately chosen this pace. Story about the lives of three cousins (who are more of best buddies) when they are in Bangalore could have made a bit better with lifelike experiences coupled with imaginative characters rather than the maker taking refuge in the age old cliches of Indian cinema.
A conformist, a rebel and an ambivalent, make up the trio of lead characters and they end up confronting what they ought to according to the long laid template of movies of this type. A conformist in the real bad world of ruthless people learns his lessons the hard way before he himself turns a rebel by challenging the traditions that he conformed to all these years by marrying a foreigner, who herself is a rebel having adapted to a foreign culture disowning her own. But still he gets what he wanted, a girl who lives her life extolling the tradition, values and culture of Kerala. Nivin Pauly is brilliant in his portrayal of Krishnan PP aka Kuttan, although it is one of the most ridiculously typecast role you could think of, a Malayalee software engineer form rural Kerala in Bangalore bumbling his way to glory.
Next template is Dulquer Salman's Arjun aka Aju. A rebel, who is an impulsive novelty seeker, a byproduct of early parental discord and broken family, he ought to conform once he falls in love. What else can change a rebel, other than our age old love for a timid, innocent girl (who is also physically challenged to milk the lachrymal glands). Only solace is that the director some how managed to avoid the airport climax, albeit for the sake of being different, let have the climax when the lady is about to alight the taxi heading towards airport, so much for the novelty. But again Parvathy shows her class in the "mother of all cliche" role. Dulquer is terrific.
The third story is as ambivalent as its character, Divya Prakash aka Kunju. Nazriya has done a pretty decent job in this role. As a part conformist- part rebel Divya, who settles for a safe arranged marriage yet has the audacity for a fag right before the nuptial, one gets a bit disappointed with the amount of time she lets herself to get treated like she gets. And Fahad Fasil's Shiva is another set piece, "once bitten twice shy".
Movie has a wonderful musical score by Gopi Sunder. "Mangalyam" song is an instant hit. Sameer Tahir's cinematography is terrific. And one must appreciate the cinematographer-director duo for refraining from undue gimmickry in the form of using different color tones for the three main characters, an irritant which people are employing regularly these days.
On the whole, "Bangalore Days" is way too long, especially since the purpose is only eavesdropping on the life of people we have been seeing in movies since time immemorial.
Bottomline: Mundane days.
2.5/5
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