I am Mother – post apocalypse, continuation of humanity is in the hands of a robot. Movie setups the premise very nicely where we get to see a shielded shelter managed by a robot. Out of the embryos, one embryo gets picked by the robot to restart the humanity. Baby girl grows up to be an adult, named only as daughter. A robotic mother concept is used effectively to explore maternal instincts of protection, control, and sacrifice. When daughter questions why she is the only human, while there are other embryos, robotic mother replies it has to learn as a mother before it grows the other embryos. Trust between them gets tested when a woman shows up from outside world. I felt alien woman setup would have worked much better as a competing human mother but it did work as is for the final twist. An interesting movie to get your thoughts going about scope of AI, can AI be a better parent than humans? 😀

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Kumbalangi Nights –  this is one of those transformative movies to be experienced since it is hard to write about the moments it creates, how it juxtaposes love, affection, and patriarchy with two families. Bobby’s family of 4 brothers, with no women in the household is an open environment, literally there are no doors. Then we get Shammy’s household with 3 women, wife, sister-in-law, and mother-in-law, a normal family. While Shammy represents toxic masculinity, how he feels entitled, can’t take a No for an answer, Bobby and his brothers, while still masculine, figure out how masculinity can behave without a need to rely on position of manhood. This is where writer and director succeed in the conveying the depth of the story with organic story development, beautiful scenes and moments and decode the masculinity without resorting to any kind of messaging. There are so many scenes to write about, Shammy’s a complete man introduction scene, how he decides who sits where in the dining table, where Saji asks his younger brother Franky to take him to a doctor since he is not able to cry after a tragic event, Franky yearningly looking at a picture of Mary with baby Jesus and we get to see a similar frame later in the movie, Bobby’s snap of I am a Man, mind you to Babymol when she refuses his advances in a movie hall, mother refusing to join the four brothers when they request her to stay with them to handle the new changes in their lives, yes, the list is a long one. Something to be said about Mollywood, they continue to find interesting stories which are so rooted in reality. Thanks to the writers and in the hands of good directors, and pool of actors who love exploring challenging roles, we continue to get movies like Maheshinte Prathikaram, Angamaly Diaries, and Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum.

Official Trailer: