It's been ages since I have written the review for a Malayalam movie & it was primarily coz of the lack of movies being released at my place on the same day as in back home. Hence when Lalettan's "Odiyan" was released here, I was naturally thrilled until I read crushing negative reviews about it on social media. However, I still decided to give it a try after all different people perceive the same movie in different ways & also maybe coz my last name was "Thomas". So was the flick as bad as what I heard???
The film unfolds in Varanasi where a drowning female is rescued by a long haired unkempt sage who in the next scene turn up in a village called Thenkurissi. He turns out to be Odiyan Manikyan (Lalettan), the last among the Odiyan clan who were said to possess powers to assume animal forms. Odiyan was back in his village after a self imposed exile of 15 years after he was forced to leave it on the back of two murder accusations. Incidentally, one of them was the husband of his childhood friend Prabha (Manju Warrier) & it soon becomes evident that her cousin, Ravunni Nair (Prakash Raj) had masterminded the whole plot. So how will Manikyan prove his innocence as he put his skills to the ultimate test.
This has been a venture in the news for quite a while & there has been immense hype towards the lead up of its release. The project was helmed by the debutant V A Shrikumar Menon who is quite a known name in the ad world. Despite being his debut venture, one thing that had stood out was how Shrikumar boasted about himself & the movie as truly incredible prior to its release. Well it's a claim that most of us bought after all Harikrishnan of "Kutty Srank" fame took on the Odiyan folklore which was an interesting concept that felt both fresh & intriguing. Surprisingly, rather than focus on the Odiyan angle it turned out to be a typical hero-villain revenge saga that we have watched numerous times. I am not saying that it has to be taken like the effects of "Vellichapadu" on a family as in Murali & Prithvi's "Veeralipattu", but the Odiyan theme could have been explored much more effectively. To make matters worse, Shrikumar's execution left a lot to be desired.
On the technical side, the visual effects was pretty average & though Peter Hein's action sequences were impressive, it didnt have the desired impact coz of the sloppiness or Shrikumar's lack of vision. With regard to music, M Jayachandran has given some incredible tracks especially 'Kondoram' rendered by Shreya Ghoshal & Sudeep Kumar which was equally well picturized though the placement of it was rather odd. Sam C S also deserves praise for his catchy BGM along with Shaji Kumar for his cinematography. There is no denying the fact that the movie moves at a snail's pace at times & Johnkutty ought to have done a better job with the editing as it wears down the audience by the end.
Lalettan has done a fine job as the protagonist & his effort is there to be seen be it with his expressions, body language or agile action scenes. Manju did complete justice to the role that was offered to her while the role didnt do justice to Prakash Raj's caliber as it was something that he has done innumerable times with the only difference being the dark makeup applied on him (did Shrikumar mean to imply dark means evil...so imbecile). As for the rest of the cast, Sana Althaf, Manoj Joshi, Innocent, Siddique etc, did their parts aptly,
Verdict: Prior to the release of the movie, Shrikumar has put up a FB post in which he claimed that they had already collected 100 C through the sale of rights & pre-release bookings. Well I dont know whether it's true but there is no doubt that after all his boastful statements I feel he ought to be called "Pushkumar". As far as the movie is concerned, it's a decent flick which if watched without the outrageous expectations that Pushkumar has created, then it will surely satisfy the audience. In short, wort hurt to give it a try but I hope MT Sir doesnt give him the script for "Randamoozham" as I doubt whether he has the caliber for it!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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