Two Actors

 Watched a couple of movies over the weekend and saw a lot of arguments on the acting skills of one (still going on). Since its been so long since I wrote a post, thought I will record this. 

Compared to his other movies 'News of the World' is very ordinary. Tom Hanks have set the bar on acting so high that it is difficult, even for him, to hit it every time. That said, it is still a very decent movie set apart by the calm acting skills of him. He is old now and is bringing the frailty of that into the acting without effort.

The premise is the very-common western story of a lost girl being returned to her family and the old man who helps with it. Here, Tom Hanks is a old, Civil war veteran who goes around towns reading news papers for the working people in the night. A sort of like a live news show on the move. He comes across an Indian girl - who need to be returned to her family 400 miles from where they are. By circumstances, he takes up that work and what happens next is the story.

The movie has its melodramatic elements well-etched - there is a shoot out in the valleys, a chase and a riot in a town. However, it is the calm moments that stick with you - when the girl and Tom Hanks try talking to each other and start saying the words for the things around them in English and Kiowa to each other or when Tom Hanks visits the cemetery of his wife, who passed away when he was travelling around. Those are the moments that make the movie good. Overall, if you like Tom Hanks, you can definitely watch it.

There is a definite argument going on between the acting prowess of Kamal and Mohan Lal in the Tamil Twitter. To me, Mohan Lal remains the one and only actor in India who can give any actor in the world a run for their money. While Kamal is good, he is more melodramatic (in the fine tradition of Tamil cinema, no wrong in it!) and subtlety in acting is a skill which I value more and Lalettan is the master of it!

That aside, the movie we are talking about is the sequel to Drishyam - aptly named, Drishyam 2. I liked the movie - it still retains the clever elements of Jeethu Joseph's movie and plays out them quickly to the expected end. Unlike last time, this time you know that George Kutty is gonna win and we are just waiting to see how the hand is played.

The only disappoint I'd is the dependence on the deus-ex-machina  elements of the screenplay - not one, but two - which kind of dampens the cleverness and move into the realm of Luck. But the movie also recognizes the fact that the crime is not going to be excused, whatever the reason might be, and so the 'crime is the punishment' for Georgekutty is a good way to ensure that there is some sense of justice in the story (which also makes it different from the superhero culture, which is a relief!).

So, if you like Mohan Lal like I do, definitely watch it and if you like good cinema, then again watch it without fail.