One of the much awaited Onam release this year was Fellini's "Ottu" as it featured the man of the moment, Chackochan who has been on an absolute roll over the past few years with his smart movie choices. In addition, it also heralded the return of Aravind Swamy to our industry for the first time since the 1996 Cricket World Cup. The trailer looked cool & with two extremely talented as well as handsome lead actors on board, it certainly gave me expectations though the matinee show just had a handful of people.
As in his debut venture, Fellini had penned the script in which Kichu (Chackochan) is entrusted by a group with the task of befriending David (Swamy) who was the trusted lieutenant of the dreaded gold smuggler, Assenar. Incidentally, David had lost his memory in a shootout which took the life of his boss & Kichu was promised a hefty amount in exchange for recovering the former's memory who apparently knew the whereabouts of a valuable consignment.
The primary flaw is the lack of excitement or thrills that was expected when we get a sense of the plot. Apart from the chemistry between the lead pair, hardly anything worthwhile happens that could be termed as engaging. It is definitely picturized in a stylized manner & kudos to Gautham Sankar for that while Kaasif's music was average with the BGM especially in the latter segment being impressive (for some reason, the BGM in the climax vaguely felt like "Vikram" to me). The last 20 minutes does have some credible twists reminiscent of Abbas Mustan style but it felt like it came too late as it fails to engage the audience convincingly until that moment. The action choreography oscillated from being good to average with the shootout sequence being rather mundane.
On the performance front, with the writing being pretty weak; there isn't much Chackochan could do in terms of the character. In the case of Aravind Swamy, the situation is partially better as the character had a sense of mystery to it which he conveyed properly with his expressions & shift in body language as per the sequence. A special mention to Vineeth for his excellent dubbing for Swamy. As for the rest of the cast, none of them had much to do while Jackie's cameo barely created any impact.
Verdict: The twists & stylized picturization are the reasons that warrants a watch. However, it fails to match expectations with a rather lousy screenplay where the protagonists spent time exchanging pleasantries & also on a dour road trip. In short, it will surely take some inspired writing to make the audience interested in the prequel & sequel!!!
Rating: 1.75/5
Regards...Ben
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