What a movie! Priyadarshan has done it again. This movie never had any big marketing strategies for itself. I came to know about this movie when I saw a poster in REX theater. Askance glances at movie posters has almost become involuntary for me. This was just another one of those times. The first striking fact was the title. "Malamal Weekly" sounds a bit ackward, tad funny, and something that achieves to grasp the attention of a normal human being for more than the average time.
Ad-Hoc mental notes were made, a debate was raged in the cerebrum's court room and the verdict was out. "We need to watch this movie!". All that took a little less than the time Aquaguard takes to purify.
But mental notes are like tawdry slates that are provided to 1st grade kids. Lot of things get scribbled and they get erased over and over in a short period of time. "Malamal Weekly" turned out to be one of those unfortunate cases never to be remembered again. Lost into the murky depths of the brains' deepest corner - the well of forgotten thoughts.
But fate had its own game to play. It got us another chance encounter with "MW" yesterday.
It was a very peculiar situation as we ( your's truly and Lakshmi and Lakshmi ) ( did you say redundancy?? No No.. you are mistaken. They are two seperate entities. Freaks to be more precise. But hey, I am no different. ) were supposed to go for "Ice Age:The Meltdown".
"Sold Out." the guy at the ticket counter explained after staring at the monitor for a while and then taking time off to ruminate on the extreme amount of information that he imbibed from it.
As average normal human beings, we had to exclaim with a question.
"Sold Out???"!!!!
"Awww man".
Something that the ticket man did not dream about was three ticket crazy freaks intercepting him at very inoppurtune and busy moments asking if there were any cancellations.
Nothing worked. The only other choices that we had included "Pyare Mohan", "Hamko Deewana Kar Gaye" and "Malamal Weekly". Unable to choose between what we considered to be equally bad movies, we wiped out hopes with the remaining tissues at our disposal and decided with much sadness that it would just be food today.
Transit was a crowded place as usual. Hoards of janta hovering around the cosmic food chains with their exorbitantly over-priced oily dishes. It was at this moment the absolute ad-hoc-ness of the plan kicked in. While one Lakshmi ( LSC from now onwards ) waited with what little patience she had for a plate of Idly, we decided it would be "Malamal Weekly".
We bought tickets while LSC gobbled up Kenya's share of Idly's and we left lazily to the movie hall. We were late, but we did not care much for we assumed the movie to be bad.
Considering the game of fate, it was not much surprising that we had a stroke of luck. The movie began as soon as we entered the hall. We had not missed anything.
What began as a slow paced idyllic narrative soon turned into a fast paced, gripping ( in the comical sense ) and brilliantly plot driven movie. Acting was at its best. Every character is perfect. As perfect as the 10 that Aishwarya Rai gets from everyone. The entire movie blankets you with hilarious settings, that seem realistically accidental and yet so hilarious, much like the original Pink Panther. ( the current one has got reviews that not just hint, but point with neon lights at "bad" ) Paresh Rawal and OmPuri steal the show. A bit of melodrama put everyone in the audience off a little while after the interval. But the fun was back again to provide the movie with a hilarious ending. How much of it is believable? Well, definitely some bit. But some bits are just to far fetched. But I say, this was one of the hindi movies that despite all the loose ends has successfully provided me enough worth for my money. I definitely had fun and there is no denying that. And fun without popcorn - being munched for the much needed entertainment.
We, the trio marched out of the movie hall with smiles on our faces and wondering how all of this happened. Guess Ice Age 2 will have to wait.
Get yourself a break. Catch this movie. Long due I must say.
Signing off,
Me.
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