Almost into the last quarter of 2025 & it has been a year where we have been witness to some humongous hits in the form of "Lokah", "Empuraan" & "Thudarum". In the meantime, we also had Lalettan befittingly bestowed with the Dadasaheb Phalke award, which essentially meant that the Malayalam film industry has been going through some optimistic times. Over the part fortnight, there were a handful of releases & the track record of the cast and crew certainly raised hopes. So will the good times continue???
Mirage: "Illusion of a compelling screenplay!!!"
Jeethu Joseph is one name that doesn't need much introduction courtesy of his impressive directorial resume. Hence when his latest release was announced & that too in the 'thriller' genre, the expectations were quite understandable. To add to that, he had started shooting for "Drishyam 3" which meant the limelight was firmly on him.
Based on the story by Aparna Tarakad, the screenplay was worked upon by Jeethu & Srinivasan Abrol, which was quite average to be honest. The movie unfolds with a train accident in which Kiran (Hakim Shahjahan), a financial consultancy employee had travelled. Unaware about the fate that had befallen on him, his fiance, Abhirami (Aparna Balamurali) files a missing complaint with the police. Soon enough, his death was confirmed & that's when she was pursued by his employer's henchman as they believed that Kiran had given her some incriminating evidence against them. In addition, she was also pursued by SP Arumugham (Sampath Raj) & Ashwin (Asif Ali), an online investigative journalist, who had their own share of intentions.
The main issue that I felt was the lack of an engaging screenplay that could keep us hooked. Rather than relying on the story, it seemed like their ploy to arrest our attention was to throw occasional twists. Most of them failed to create an impact except for a couple of them (no comments on when it is as it will be a spoiler). The writing failed to enhance the drama or elevate the thrill at any instance which is a prerequisite for any suspense thriller. On the technical side, it was decent though Vishnu Shyam's music lacked the impact that the movie needed.
Though Asif Ali was showcased as the hero, I dont think he had much to do as the character was not well etched. However, he did what was possible and gave adequate support to Aparna who did justice to her part. Hannah Reji Koshy was decent along with Sampath while both Hakim & Deepak Parambol, who are good artists came across as very average.
Verdict: Would certainly rate it as one of Jeethu's weakest movie & look forward to his comeback in "Drishyam 3"!!!
Rating: 2/5
Karam: "Rehashed version of Thira minus the freshness & subdued thrills!!!"
If I had to go through Vineeth Sreenivasan's filmography, "Thira" would hands down be my absolute favourite. The theme, performance of Shobhana & the supporting cast and the manner in which that movie was executed was top notch. It is unfortunate that Vineeth hasnt made a sequel for it as it did have the content for it. His latest directorial venture looked like a departure from his usual style and hence it was interesting to see as to what he has come up with.
The story has been penned by Nobel Thomas who also plays the protagonist, Dev. He was court marshalled from the Army due to his anger and commitment issues which seemed to have sprung from the unresolved issues with his father, Mahendran (Manoj K Jayan). His relationship with his girlfriend, Sana (Audrey Miriam) was also not approved by her family and as fate might have it, they were separated. However, things started to look bright when Tara (Reshma Sebastian) & their son came into his life. But a visit to Lenarco as part of a conference threatened to put his family's life at risk.
In terms of the story, I fail to understand as to what exactly was unique in this except that it is based abroad in a fictional land. The core theme is almost identical to "Thira", to the point that even the theme song had a similar line. However, unlike the Shobhana starrer, this one lacked the freshness and even the thrills were significantly subdued due to the predictability factor. However, on the technical side, it was neatly done be it Jomon T John's visuals or the action choreography which was impressive. At the same time, Shaan Rahman's BGM was average and failed to elevate most of the scenes.
There is no doubt that Nobel has done a fine job when it came to the action sequences though his performance was decent. When it came to performances, Audrey does deserve praise while Reshma has also done her part aptly along with Kalabhavan Shajon. Baburaj did evoke laughs while the much talked about antagonist role by former Kerala Blasters coach, Ivan Vukomanovic was fine from an appearance point of view while it was rather one dimensional.
Verdict: Just like Jeethu earlier, I would rate this as one of Vineeth's weakest movie to date with hardly much uniqueness to it!!!.
Rating: 2/5
Balti: "Generic yet engaging gangster drama!!!"
When I initially came across the stills and poster of this movie, I actually thought that it was a Tamil flick due to the colour tone as well as raw and rustic look which is typical of Vetrimaaran's projects. Eventually, I happened to see an interview of Santhosh Kuruvilla who had bank rolled this flick & stated that it was a Malayalam flick that had an equal mix of Tamil as well as the story was staged in Velampalayam, located in the border of both the states.
This marked the directorial debut of Unni Sivalingam who had also penned this action drama which had kabaddi as its backdrop from which the title was inspired. Velampalayam was under the control of the powerful loan shark Bhairavan (Selvaraghavan) who kept his adversaries, Soda Babu (Alphonse Puthren) & G-Maa (Poornima Indrajith) at bay. Even as he had control over most aspects, one arena that he failed to impose his authority on was in kabaddi, as his team which was handled by his brother struggled to win over the local team which was headlined by a gang of four friends, Udayan (Shane Nigam), Kumar (Shanthanu Bhagyaraj), Suresh (Shiva Hariharan) & Mani (Jeckson Johnson). It was just a matter of time before they crossed paths with Bhairavan & the impact that it had on their lives is what this movie is about.
It would be fair to say that Unni has done a fine job in his debut venture in terms of how he had executed it. The pace at which the story moves along manages to paper through the fact that it is quite predictable formost parts. The template is quite similar to what we would expect from such gangster dramas where there will be friendships, unbridled energy to achieve anything that stood in their path, rapid rise through the ranks, fall from grace & betrayals. In the initial segment there is focus on kabaddi but that gets sidelined completely later on. However, the camaraderie between the friends & individual mindsets which puts their lives as well as those of their loved ones was captured well and keeps us engaged. On the technical side, action choreography was top notch & the way it was captured by Alex Pulickal in a raw and realistic manner deserves praise. Sai Abhyankkar's music was decent while Shivkumar Panicker's editing in the action sequences were good.
The camaraderie between the four performers was palpable and all of them deserves appreciation for their impressive display in the stunts and in kabaddi. Shane did justice to his part while Shanthanu was decent (way better than in the woeful "Angel John") as I dont think he was successful in extracting the potential of that character. Both Selvaraghvan & Poornima were good while Alphonse felt comical rather than impactful . As for the rest of the cast, both Shiva & Jeckson were ok along with Preethi Asrani.
Verdict: Despite the generic template, the movie has been executed quite well with good performances overall from the artists!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
