Vaazha: Biopic of a Billion Boys

The story is mainly about five friends who come together and their seriously mischievous acts. Their parents try to separate them but they end up together in same engineering institute. All of them are bad at studies how will they cope up in this cruel world.

I saw a Hindi dubbed version and I thoroughly enjoyed 80 percent of movie. I enjoyed it as a native viewer. I don't know if it would be same for people from south. The movie is a hilarious drama-comedy.

The 20 percent that I dint enjoy comes as we approach end. The boys weak at studies how will they cope up? It's shown their parents finally support them and even take up insult from relatives. Also I dint like the negative ending.

It came to my mind that in real world parents mostly hide what their children are pursuing with something respectful if their children are weak. This was not shown.

Music in Hindi dubbed version is above average.

Final Verdict: Do watch it. With the hilarious comedy in place, I was jumping in my seats. You may be surprised.

This was an entertaining watch - one you can watch with friends and even family - but with friends you might enjoy the first half tremendously. ( Especially if you older than say 27-28 ).

First les talk about what works : -

1. Casting was spot on - the story happens across different time periods and all actors, especially the child actors of various ages played convincingly and the pair of father's and their son were casted really well as well. Especially the pair of Noby and his son ( all actors including child actors resembled him )

2. Period settings were on point ( the dress may be less so, but attention to detail was really commendable)

3. Cinematography and screenplay was organic and done with passion and finesse ( there is a fight scene near the middle which was brilliantly shot, similarly the stunning shots towards the end, inside the house, hospital - all were excellent.

4. Perfomance were pretty good - especially Aziz and Kottayam Naseer.

Now things that could be better -

1. Editing / direction could have been more crisp - the pace in the second half felt a bit too slow and few scenes seemed a bit of repetition and few elements felt could be elaborated or explained with more depth ( the story line around the 'sucessful' guy and his troubles and issues could either have been excluded or explained a bit more in detail - now it looks like a caricature and you don't 'feel' much for his plight due to this )

2. Ending was good and bad - won't go into details since it might spoil - but more depth could have given on what happens to the boys a bit more

3. Music and score was just ok - not really giving any lasting impression ( I cannot even recollect any song from the movie after leaving the theatre)

The story is pretty straightforward and this combined with clever acting and directing makes this movie an above-average experience. The talent-rich cast is one of the main highlights of this film.

The climax could have been executed more neatly, but that's not a drawback at all. After all, this is a pure comedy movie. There were lots of laughable moments. The second half was more engaging for me.

The veteran actors has done a great job. Noby Marcose deserves more roles like this and there is no point in typecasting him as a mimicry star.

Overall a good movie and we would love to see more films from the same cast in the future.

Vazha - A laugh riot. Really had a good laugh this year in theatres after Premalu. All actors did well except Basil. He is repetitive and I had enough of him. He is omnipresent now in every other movie.

Joemon jyothir was exceptional. Expect to see him many more movies. Started liking him from guruvayoor ambalanadayil the only part I enjoyed in that, otherwise a dampener movie.

Post interval the movie moved to emotional track and thought they would insert "Nanma" or preachy mode thankfully the movie again pulled back to the comedy genre and ending was also not a usual one. Music was exceptional as well but sometimes it is too loud that some dialogues are not heard clearly.

Highly relatable to 90s Malayalee kids entertainer. What could've been complete cringe behaviour and humour of the so-called backbenchers is saved and enhanced by some clever use of performances, editing etc. The inclusion of actual "Vaazhas" throughout the movie was fun. The emotional aspects they tried in the second half worked really well. The inclusion of different father-children relationships was great. Even the surprising empathy that is given to the issues of the so-called first benchers when you expect the movie to take the side of the protagonists was nice to see. However, I'm not sure how much this will work without a houseful audience.