Reviews

Being someone who has seen most of Todd Solonz's movies, you know what to expect from him. And you won't get disappointed. I had the opportunity to watch the Middle East premiere of Dark Horse at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. It was an even bigger experience to have Todd present during the screening, and give it an introduction as a 'sad comedy, where it's up to you to laugh or not'. I don't know how big an impact this particular statement had on my state of mind throughout the movie, but I cant help mentioning the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The story revolves around Abe, a thirty-something who works for his father, pampered by an extremely loving mother, having a highly accomplished doctor as his brother, and having a passion for collecting toys. When he meets Miranda, a strangely damaged soul going through some serious depression, he begins to think of getting out of his desperation by having her as a partner. They eventually enter into a seriously unstable relationship, where you even begin to question whether there really existed any element of a relationship between them.

The beauty of the movie lies in the director trying to portray the dark side of the unstable mind, through imagery. One of the scenes which really got to me is where Abe is supposedly in a toy store, demanding a refund for his fiancé whom he wants to return, insisting that he has a receipt which as the store staff points out has its date smudged out. Even though this scene is a figment of his fantasy, it really goes to show how Abe perceives things in life. A few other incidents involving the unseen affection Marie (secretary to Abe's father) has towards Abe, and Miranda's ex-boyfriend Mahmoud, all seemed to perfectly blend into the movie.

Needless to say, Christopher Walken played a strong part as Abe's father, so did all the other characters including Selma Blair as Miranda. However a big part of the movie's success lies in the solid performance by Jordan Gelber as Abe, who i felt was just apt for the role and did total justice to it.

Final verdict: A story involving a dysfunctional (or perhaps semi- functional) family, two out-of-the-normal characters and their seemingly unstable relationship, brilliantly presented in the form of a comedy - which makes you laugh and at the same time think about the appropriateness of laughing. Entertaining, and thought-provoking.

As the name suggests, food is the basic theme of the movie, as we can understand from the opening credits itself, where it shows many of the most popular food joints and restaurants across Kerala. The male protagonist is an extreme food lover, as is clearly demonstrated with the help of some neat and clever humor. Lal, as always, performed a captivating role as Kalidasan. Asif Ali's performance as Manu (nephew of Kalidasan) is pretty average, as expected. So is Mythili's (as Meenakshi). Shweta Menon plays the female protagonist opposite Lal, and does a good job as Maya (Mythili's room-mate). A notable appearance is that of Baburaj (as Kalidasan's cook) in an out-of-norms character which comes as a pleasant and enjoyable surprise.

The plot starts off with Kalidasan and Maya coincidentally talking over a wrong phone call, that too involving 'dosa' which is a traditional South Indian food. Then everything goes as expected till they decide to meet, and then involves Manu and Meenakshi. Vijayaraghavan comes into the movie with a sub-plot which again is pretty ordinary and predictable. Towards the end, you begin to feel whether the story-writer was just trying to somehow find a climax and get over with it.

Overall, it goes down as an entertainment movie with a difference, and the director Ashiq Abu has to be praised for boldly trying out a different approach to story-telling in Malayalam cinema. My Rating: 7/10.