Some commentary on Hungama and the Malyalam movie it was remade from

, watched Hungama and the movie one after another because a little burnt out, good entertainment, I laughed I rolled my eyes, I compared and contrasted, so much more sexual energy and chemistry among characters in 1983 movie, the characters feel more real, low budget but feels closer to the message, hungama feels disjoined in time and space, desexualized and deromaticized, not a hint of human connection between characters, poor casting, actors overwhelming, underpowered female actors, lots of space to talk

Earlier this evening I was running out of steam as the excessive working on the website for the past month, specially writing on topics I don't really care about and have little expertise in is weighing me down. I didn't want to write, didn't feel like going on a walk, sleeping at 6.30 in the evening was not an option. So I watched Hungama. And then the Malyalam movie that inspired it Poochakkoru Mookkuthi, which shall hereby be known has PM.

Solid, solid entertainment, I laughed, I rolled my eyes I compared and contrasted, and I made judgments. So much to talk about. There's about a thousand times more sexual energy and chemistry between characters in the 1983 movie compared to the one released exactly 20 years later. The characters in the older movie feel more real, and yeah the low budget nature of it does hamper the creative possibilities but it feels closer to whatever point its trying to make. The modern Hungama feels dis-jointed both in time and space, the transposition of social mores of Kerala in late 70's to one of Mumbai in early 2000's doesn't feel right, neither is the city believable. The newer movie is desexualized and deromaticized, it has little human connection, the casting is just terrible, the strong actors give great performances but they overwhelm the director's choice where better decisions could have been made, the choice of female actors makes female characters much weaker in Hungama compared to PM, and the flirty casualness of the older movie is gone, replaced by timid, tight fakeness.

There is so much to talk.

Also, I believe one of the characters in PM might be the androgyne Shiva, or some symbolic representation of him but that's a story for another day.