The leadup to Vishu saw a plethora of movies hitting the screens & OTT platform with quite a few of them making us to sit up and take note. One such movie that caught my attention was Appu N Bhattathiri's "Nizhal" which from the looks of it seemed like a classy mystery thriller with an interesting cast. Even the mask that Chackochan's character wore (pretty commonly seen in EPL) as part of a protective gear for the nasal bone fracture added to the intrigue. So did it provide what the trailer promised???
John Baby (Chackochan), a judicial magistrate had met with an accident that left him with experiences that felt eerie. His friend & clinical psychologist, Shalini (Divya Prabha) was of the opinion that it was a case of post traumatic stress & should subside with time. As part of their conversations, she tells him about a consultation that one of the schools had requested her for to assess a small kid, Nithin (Izin Hash). Apparently, he had narrated a murder story in school which seemed to be too true to be fictional. This aroused the investigative streak in John & he decides to probe as to whether there was indeed some truth to Nitin's tales???
Appu is a relatively well known name in the industry as he had worked in numerous movies as a commendable editor which saw him being awarded with the 2017 State Award for his craft in "Ottamuri Vellicham". However, in "Nizhal" apart from the editing responsibilities he decided to step in the director's boots for the first time armed with the script penned by S Sanjeev. There is no doubt that the duo has done an impressive job in keeping the audience engaged right until the very last 20 mins. Like slow cooked pork, it slowly and steadily builds up the flavour; however when it came to the point of the big reveal; it turned out to be bland. On the technical side, Deepak Mohan's visuals was delightful & Sooraj Kurup's BGM was fine.
This is the first time that Nayanthara & Chackochan were paired though they did share screen space in "Twenty20". But I am not going to talk about either of them as the star of the show was Izin Hash, who is a well established star in the Middle East having been part of numerous ads. His on screen presence & confidence were praise worthy and kudos to Appu for choosing apt artists for the different roles. Chackochan as usual has done a fine job along with Nayanthara, though it werent roles that tested their caliber. As for the rest of the cast, they were ok.
Verdict: There is no doubt that the makers has done an impressive job in maintaining the mystery & intrigue pretty much right throughout the movie. Even the technical aspects were on the money to be frank. However, they messed it up in the latter half which will surely be a downer among majority of the audience. In short, you can still give a try with reservations!!!
Rating: 2.25/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment