Mili (2015) Online

In Malayalam they say, "Kunnille addi kittathente kurava!" which literally in English translates as "This is all due to the lack of admonishment from parents during (her) childhood!" That is the only conclusion one can derive from this haphazard story of a girl, that will induce nothing but distress in its audience.

Mili (Paul) is a niggardly introvert who troubles the people around her when she lapses into an undefined state of kinda self-inflicted misery. Starting from her childhood, of which there is only a fraction in the screenplay, she has had problems. Mainly governed by a feeling of inferiority complex, she punishes her fellow friends, colleagues, and kin when she is feeling low; for example, being a source of irritation to her hostel roommates by sleeping at night with the light ON, taking up hours in the restroom, etc. A strict attention- seeker that she is, her intentions are questionable and she lives in a way like the world owes her something. Why should one sympathize for such a lousy human being? And one wouldn't mind letting this person end up dead, six feet under.

But, the story feels otherwise. It sympathizes with Mili and puts up a show of gimmickry. There is not a particle of sense in what follows, for Mili is an artificially flawed character. I am all yes for women-centric films, but this is a cacophony, generating gist-less motivation for the heck of it. Mili's story basically happens around the ON-OFF relationship of a womanizer. If he is dating someone, she will unleash fury and try to take her life; if he is single, she is all jovial.

Rajesh Pillai had impressed me once with his 2011 thriller film Traffic. But, now he has run to the other side of the extremity scale. Coughing up a blatant story about a pretentious girl is not the type of story one expects in a true motivational film. This is, at best, a film made to cash in on Amala Paul's unwarranted fame.

Additionally, the film has one of the worst attempts at non-linear narration. It might be that the editor botched it up, but the film as a single output, clearly shows the makers' lack of diligence. The music and songs are good intrinsically, but together with the narration, it goes haywire. The story has no real humor, and Paul's unmade facial close- ups further agitated me. Cast performance is good. But, where was Nivin Pauly, by the way? (I guess I might have missed him.)

I was looking for a reason why the makers decided to make a movie that neither inspires nor entertains. And then the final scene, inspired by How Old Are You? (2014) and Nagaravaridhi Naduvil Njan (2014), appeared: Mili making an emotional speech about her life. It's funny how morons think their stories are preach-worthy.

BOTTOM LINE: Avoidable! This is existential drama aimed to crowd-please and mint some moolah, and does not qualify as an entertainer. 3/10.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

First off, this is nothing to do with the Hrishikesh Mukherjee 'Mili' from the 70s. Good thing, I suppose, since I generally prefer original works over remakes. However, in this instance, perhaps remaking the original might something good.

Not that the intent here is in anyway bad - perhaps that is the only thing that kept me in my seat, curious, and perhaps even mildly hopeful about the eventual denouement.

The story of an ugly (um, not really), awkward duckling, a non- achiever, gradually battling whatever life throws at her, and metamorphosing into someone likable, plus an achiever, is not really new, but it has to be done well to warrant our time and attention, esp. in the local milieu.

However, the arc the main lead is taken through, across various stages in her life, does manage to bring (nee, take) you down, along with her, into the dumps she perceives (bear in mind this is still middle>higher class that she belongs to, so they stay rooted in that milieu, which means the dumps are not actual dumping grounds that people in the lower class are thrown into, for no fault of theirs other than being accidents of birth). Her lackadaisical attitude, along with healthy doses of brooding and self-pity, ensures that is never actually mentally present when life happens to her.

During this phase, the makers puzzlingly ensure that we are kept at arm's length, and make it difficult empathize with this character. While she has her (temporary) nemeses as a triumvirate of 'Mean girls', she is no less mean to them (the puzzling bathroom and the sleeping-light instances come to mind) and while this is a good thing that colors our perception in that she can stand up for herself when needed, those very instances, and a few others, also make it difficult for us to empathize with the various 'difficult' predicaments she puts herself in. The opportunity for the lead to have moments of poetic justice with her set of 'mean girls' also seems tired, contrived and clichéd.

Not wearing makeup for your 'Indie' minded screenplays is 'worn' as a badge of honor, but I find it difficult to evoke any empathy for that, since the biggest task is gonna be allowing your audience to forget about how you look, from the way to portray the character whose skin you slip on. Amala Paul's casting, and her performance, never mind the paths it takes you, fulfills that implicit edict, in spite of the fact that it seems done for effect.

To me, Paul was the almost-lookalike of Deepika Padukone. In this flick, she does manage to shrug off that non-image, and put in a fairly decent effort. So far, while her performances have been decent, her work has been mainly in mainstream trash (I think), most of which I (thankfully?) have missed.

One thing this skims over the surface of, is the everyday class discrimination aggressively prevalent within the middle->high (privileged) class against the people that do take care of said privileges. When everyday realities are dredged up like this, I do wish they were treated better. But full marks for bringing it up at least.

Based on this experience, while he should be probably be more selective about his future supporting roles, Nivin Pauly should be commended for taking roles that have him play second-fiddle to leading ladies (Ohm Shanthi Ohshaana), or other leading men (Bangalore days), or sports-dramas (1983), and while he was rewarded with author-backed roles in almost all of his previous efforts, it turns out to be something of a disaster in his case here. His characterization starts off alright, but as the flick progresses, that aspect is never explored, since the minute Pillai gets back to Paul, he just stays there, and doesn't care that it might be a good idea to have the other supporting characters some airtime as well.

Before I forget, one of the boldest decisions has to be the lack of a main romantic plot. Not succumbing to that, almost a la 'English Vinglish' or 'How old are you', was interesting.

I won't dwell on the simple, lackadaisical plot, but the final 15-20 minutes have to be the most preachiest I have seen in a long time, where the makers use the lead as their prop to preach down to their audience, taking the moral high ground, while conveniently, and quite comfortably, forgetting how the main character herself was responsible for most of the predicaments she 'found' herself in, that she was trying to extricate herself out of. Loud, plodding, boring are the words that spring to mind when I try to recollect that section, and almost bring crashing to the ground all the almost-good intents that came before. Ah, I knew why the word 'loud' came to mind - the background score. Accompanied by a sound design that is as cacophonous, the manipulative-sounding, but not managing to pull that off score, has to be one of the worst I've heard in a while, successfully taking me out of every moment when it makes it appearance. To be fair, I have found heavy-handed use of the score to be a common issue plaguing Malayalam movies (1983 and Drishyam spring to mind instantly), while there are those that do such a good job of it that I forget the others (OSO, Thira, to an extent, and Perariyathavar, to some extent).

Female-led good cinema needs its audience. This, however, is not one of the good ones, IMHO, and can just about be endured on TV.

I saw Mili, the Malayalam movie, a few days ago. A good piece of art remains good irrespective of all the comments and reviews. So, I would rather re-look at Mili than re-view her.

Mili (Amala Paul) is a timid, shy, diffident girl who doesn't want to leave her comfort zone, and doesn't know to say NO. The story narrates how she gains her confidence and learns to be assertive. A simple story, directed and filmed brilliantly.

Kudos to Rajesh Pillai for a wonderful movie with such a delicate and not-larger-than-life subject. Now that I think about Mili, I see Mili in each one of us. We all have her inside us, in some form, in some stages of our life. Watching this movie reminds us of how we overcame our comfort zone and also encourages to face the challenges that we are still scared of. It also teaches us that our real comparison should be made not with others but our older self. On the terms of how much we improved and achieved.

Being a heroin-centric movie, Amala Paul amazes us with her acting and expressions and transforming character and what-not! Nivin Pauly, as always, impressive. On a lighter side, if Amala Paul, in her depressed phase, can look like this, then just imagine how good-looking can we be in our joyous moments??? Smile and confidence do matter. And Mili just proved it.

If you understand Malayalam, please do watch it. You won't be disappointed.

Here's wanting to see more of sensible movies.

The last time, Rajesh Pillai enchanted me with his captivating thriller Traffic; so I was eagerly awaiting for his next film...He was the only reason I watched this movie, and I do not regret that decision; this time he has come back with an entirely different movie..The story of the development of a shy girl into a grown woman. A subject I believe that no other Malayalam movie has touched upon so far. And he has taken that subject into his hand, a good script that is all; even though he has taken that script also into his heart and gave it his vision; his unique vision that is evident throughout this movie. If ever there is a director's movie, Mili is that. Every frame exudes the creativity of a genius. He turned what could have been an overly melodramatic film (I hate melodrama) in many a directors' hands into one of the best Malayalam movies of 2015.

The only comparable aspect to Rajesh Pillai in this movie is Amala Paul's performance as the title character Mili. She has done more than justice to her role. After seeing her performance in Indian Pranayakatha, this role again speaks volumes of her acting. She is a very good actress. The director really got the subtle emotions he wanted from his lead role. Brilliant Amala Paul...keep it up.

Another thing to say is about the really good music and the beautiful lyrics...I should say the music formed the spine of the movie.

The performance of the supporting cast was superb as well. I can identify no fault with this movie.. This is a confidence-inspiring feel-good movie. Go and watch it.