mybackupidmrgd

Director Shaji Kailas has made a good mystery/thriller movie that has only one character in "Alone". Mohanlal pulls off the one man-movie with ease and elegance. The movie has an average first half flowed by a good second half and climax. Go with low expectations and if you are a fan of the actor you may like it.

Performance wise we have Mohanlal on screen, and Manju Warrier, Prithviraj, Baiju, Siddique, and others as voice artists.

The dialogues could've been a little more sharper and that would've pulled the movie up a few notches. This is a welcome change for Lalettan in 2023. I am a fan of the actor and I felt the movie was overall a good watch.

Andhadhun was a pure classic. It was so good that you try to solve the jigsaw puzzle for days after watching the movie, and even after so much effort it seems like an unsolvable riddle.. I like movies like this - Carbon was the closest malayalam movies have come, to that level IMO. The original had a lot of intricate details like the ricocheting gunshot inside the lift (if you know which). But here the attempt to remake such a movie has resulted in a very artificial output without any feeling of nativity.

Dialogues even have the tone and modulation of their hindi originals. And the scenes where Prithviraj shifts to local malayalm become unbearable. Rashi Khanna destroyed the role a fine actress like Radhika Apte played. Radhika's clueless & disbelieving expressions in some scenes are replaced with just general awkward expressions. Prithviraj has lost his natural way of presenting characters in yesteryears. He just wants to make things look detailed and just brings in unnecessary drama to certain scenes.

Mamta isn't half as convincing as Tabu was in the role that had a lot of fine touches in the original. Surprisingly the characters Martha and Lopez bring in some natural acting, and Jagadish is terrific in his role. Unni Mukundan was good, and this seems to be good recent best, but is nothing to write home about. Karamana, Ananya and Shankar were good in their roles.

Music didn't have the magic of the original, but was above average.

Overall watch it if you want to laugh seeing an unintentionally hilarious movie and the artificial dialogues. This is what happens if you don't put in any work yourselves while remaking and think the base material will work in your favor... Honestly, a dubbed version might've been better.

It's surprising when you know that the movie didn't have much of a story & you kindof knew where it was going the whole time, and yet sat through it just because of the performances.

Even though well presented (good production values), there is a sense of hollowness throughout the movie, maybe because it was predictable to the T. The actors were good, be it Dileep, Indrans, or others. Props should also be given to the director for trying to explore religions, values and coming up with some good moments.

Other than that, things seem staged and convenient and artificial at times. I bought into the movie's premise just because of Siddique's acting. Sometimes I feel that other than the big M's, these character actors (Siddique, Sai Kumar, Vijayaraghavan, and many others) can hold together weak scenes just with their great performances.. And Siddique does it beautifully to the extent that I'd call him the main hero in the movie, and props to Dileep for taking this up, even though he doesn't get introduced up until the last one hour of a 2 hour 9 minute movie.

Overall, this movie, even though isn't having much of an entertainment value, can be seen just for the performances.