Ullas Unnikrishnan's Zacharia Pothen Jeevichirippundu builds suspense like a thriller film high on steroids. An anti-climax, it narrates the personal investigation of the deaths of three people - a couple and a stranger - that happened on a Christmas Eve 10 years ago. Lal's character is a friend of the man (Manoj K Jayan) in the couple and is now joined by his acquaintances (Neeraj Madhav and Anjana Menon) to find out what really happened on that unfortunate night. Director Unnikrishnan has a basic story in hand, but uses long, very long shots and a brilliant background score with multiple genres to lift the story ahead. Flawed as it may be, with a plot that is riddled with holes since the start of the investigation, there is a charm in the shots that take the film forward. Although a tighter editing would have removed more than an hour of the running time (a lot of unnecessary shots here) and made it a much better watch, it is still an unconventional craft. You rarely see such experiments in Malayalam cinema, and even if you leave out the horrible performances and those slow-mo sequences that seem to be the style of Mammootty in most of the film he has been doing lately, Zacharia Pothen Jeevichirippundu earns a few good points for being peculiar and attractive to say the least. The final one hour is complex, and brings out the predictability in the plot, which under performs compared to the electric and intriguing start, which is why I could finish watching the movie. An average afternoon watch with your family because Unnikrishnan should be given a chance. TN.
