harineem-209-525488

The film is just a blood fest with no proper reason. Vijay is living in a hill station with his wife Trisha, teenaged son and daughter as a cafe owner and part time animal rescuer. We have a long fight with a Hyena at start which is shot well.

Then a bunch of hooligans are shot dead in his cafe when they misbehave with his staff and daughter. The publicity that follows brings more goons to town. We have Sanjay Dutt coming to town claiming that he is his son Leo. Gautham Menon sets out to investigate and gets a convoluted story on Leo who was part of a drug cartel and did mass murders till his twin sister is picked for sacrifice by his father. He rebels and burns the whole contraband and is killed in the process by his uncle Arjun.

The second half is about Vijay denying to one and all that he is not Leo. But he fights with reflexes and strength of a trained soldier or assassin. But the people around him do some checks and accept that he is not Leo. How dumb can you be? You have seen the guy with a remarkable aim and reflexes and merciless butchering of his attackers. But you still think he has a clean history and overnight he has become so efficient and ruthless. And the director thinks its a big twist when he reveals his identity.

Why is Sanjay Dutt and Arjun so determined to make him acknowledge he is Leo? There is no solid reason ever given.

Madonna Sebastian is wasted in a 5-minute role.

The conclave covers a papal election with Ralph Fiennes as the person in charge of the process. It is beautifully shot with some excellent cinematography. It keeps your interest throughout the process. We are asked to accept these men of faith with all their faults. They make it very clear that there is no perfect person to take up the papacy and we must accept the person with their faults.

Ralph Fiennes plays his role very well but rest of the cast just do whats necessary. I was surprised by the BAFTA nominations for supporting actors. There is nothing out of ordinary here for such an award nomination. The luxurious facilities these cardinals receive should make believers question the institution. Apart from the fact that the nuns have to be servile to these powerful men who are supposedly leading their faith. The twist at the end was not so spectacular or path breaking.

The story is a love triangle where two women desire one man. The second woman has no chance and does not even reveal her feelings to the man till the end.

Raakhee is a extremely rich woman who falls in love with her childhood friend Shashi Kapoor who also reciprocates her feelings. Rati Agnihotri also has feelings for him but keeps it to herself knowing the pairs love.

But Raakhee's jealous and insecure nature gets the better of the relationship and she drives herself to uncalled misery. The last scenes between Raakhee and Shashi are beautifully acted and picturised.

The whole cast performs well but you cannot expect a clearly middle aged pair to be taken as someone in 20s by the audience. Shashi had just done "Utsav" where he played a lecherous old man and Rakhee had played Amitabh's mother in "Shakti".