Kerala Cafe

When I went to see the movie Kerala Cafe, I knew it was portmanteau film consisting of ten small films directed by ten directors. But I didn't know which film was directed by whom. So while watching the movie I kept guessing the directors of each film. Of course I had no idea about the style of some directors like Uday Ananthan, Shankar Ramakrishnan and Anjali Menon.

I could guess three correctly. The surprises were Shyamaprasad film `Off Season' and Shaji Kailas's `Lalitham Hiranmayam'. Known for his serious themes, Shyamaprasad seems quite at ease in handling comedy. May be we can expect a full length comedy from him in future. I wrongly guessed that Lalitham Hiranmayam was made by Shyamaprasad as it had some heavy duty emotional scenes albeit short ones. But Shaji sprang a surprise. I forgot that Shaji has a flair for melodrama, which is evident in his action films like Aaram Thampuran and Natasimham.

I could guess B Unnikrishnan as the director of `Aviramam' as the director has a fixation for themes in which the protagonist is in financial troubles. The other correct guesses were `Bridge' by Anwar Rasheed and `Makal' by Revathy. In Bridge, Rasheed has gone the way of his compatriot Amal Neerad. Spectacular visuals of Kochi landscape. Has anybody captured the filth in Kochi so well in camera? From the love for Kochi terrain I could guess that it should be someone very familiar with the place. `Makal' was the most easy guess as the story about child prostitution told so touchingly could only come from a woman director.

If I was more alert I could have guessed Lal Jose as the director of `Puram Kazchakal'. Anjali Menon's `Shubha Yatyra' was a delight and she should be directing more mainstream films.