Over the course of past 11 months, I have watched numerous movies but at times, due to various commitments, I have missed out to write my opinion about many of them. However, there are certain movies that is so impactful that I make sure to find the time to pen about it, to encourage as many to check them out. One such movie is Dinjith Ayyathan's "Eko" that had hit the screens last week. So why did I like it so much???
Bahul Ramesh places the story in Kattukunnu, a sparsely inhabited mountain range in the Kerala-Karnataka border, where Mlaathi (Biana Momin) lived with the support of the young caretaker, Peeyoos (Sandeep Pradeep) & numerous canines for company. She was a Malaysian by birth and one of the wives of Kuriyachan (Saurabh Sachdeva), an expert dog trainer and a character so sinister & intriguing that saw him create many enemies over the years. He had presently gone into hiding to escape from them & the latest person who came in search was his partner of yester years, Mohan Pothan (Vineeth). So was Kuriyachan actually in that region???
As part of media promotions, Bahul did mention that he was inspired by Edgar Wright's 'Cornetto trilogy' & hence this was the third and final instalment of his own 'Animal trilogy' which included "Kishkindha Kaandam" & "Kerala Crime Files 2". He has created a fantastic script which is a slow burner and keeps us engaged until the very last shot. Dinjith has done utmost justice to the written word with his visual depiction of the intriguing world building. The duo doesn't resort to spoon feeding the audience & that was a smart move as it maintains the mysterious aura right throughout and wows us when we understand the revelation. There are other subtle iterations that they convey with the behaviour of various characters but revealing that here will take away the thrill for many of you.
Along with the script, the technical aspects were executed impressively with Bahul handling the cinematography. The calmness, beauty and dangers of nature are captured exquisitely & that adds more impact to the scenes. Until I heard the background score of this flick, I personally felt that there was no one to even challenge Jakes Bejoy this year but Mujeeb Majeed proved me wrong, as it was just top notch stuff. Similarly, Sooraj also deserves praise for a fine job done with the editing, while the art department also did justice to their work.
Another major positive is the casting choice as it presents us with a set of characters who are known to us but still makes it difficult to make any preconceived notion as to how their characters would behave. Sandeep has always done reasonably well in the few opportunities that he had got and over here, he truly impresses especially towards the latter half, showcasing his ability. Biana Momin was fine with KPAC Leela providing apt dubbing. Vineeth is an artist who has continued to impress over the past few years & with his performance here, it is a reminder that he is an artist that needs to be explored more. Saurabh's choice was good but I dont think he was able to effectively convey the vile and sinister nature of Kuriyachan. Each & every artist have also done their part aptly be it Ashokan, Narain, Saheer Mohammad, Binu Pappan, Ranjith Shekhar etc.
Verdict: This is undoubtedly the best Malayalam movie that I had watched this year. Could it have been better? Well it could have if Saurabh's performance was more effective. However, that doesn't diminish the effect of the story as such. In short, dont miss it!!!
Rating: 4.25/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment