Nizhal

How does a 7 year old, innocent schoolchild know the specifics of crimes which transpired 25 years ago? Has someone been feeding him these stories? Does his dead father communicate with him? Why does a man wearing a 'batman' like mask befriend the boy? Malayalam movie #Nizhal is supposed to be a whodunit, but the slow pace is a downer. Running time should be reduced by 20 minutes. Cinematography n performances r good. Rating 2.5/5.

The movie from the release of its first look had created an excitement in movie buffs. But the fact is that it couldn't break the expectation level. The first half was very impressive and it seemed to be a new plot. The viewers who moved to the second half with great anxiety were disappointed as the movie ended as a normal film with many questions remaining unanswered. For a film with such a good start deserves better a tail end. But the direction and photography are appreciable. The bgm was nice as it could create a psycho mood. Also the casting is perfect and each and every actor even those who appear only for a single scene have done their part very well...

The plotline of this thriller is a rather unconventional one; but very enjoyably so. As the movie progresses, the plot thickens with constant twists and turns that'll keep you gripped and guessing till the very end. Since the movie builds up a good amount of suspense, I was worried that the climax of the movie will fail to deliver like most movies that start off strong and end flat. But to my surprise, the climax was rather satisfactory, albeit slightly over the top (no pun intended). On close scrutiny, you'll start noticing that a lot of the nuances in the plotline seem to very conveniently fall in place; however if you choose to overlook these minor practicality issues (which you should in my humble opinion), you are sure to enjoy this oddball thriller. Most of the cast put up a pretty decent performance; however, the performances of Kunchacko Boban as John Baby and Rony David as Rajan were truly exceptional and stood out from the rest. To add to that, great cinematography (albeit with average CGI), great sound design, great direction and a very good pace make this movie a definite WATCH.

A weak attempt at creating a psychological thriller, Nizhal feels drab from its very first shot - doused in bizarre-looking CGI. The core plot does intrigue, but there's an entire act dedicated to the protagonist's PTSD which gets conveniently ignored and has zero payoffs in the end. What was even the point? The mask, the rains, the atrociously loud background score - all of it feels gimmicky as hell. Nayanthara is criminally underutilized here - there's nothing in Nizhal that truly challenges the actor in return for a nice, fat paycheck. The script contains psychological thriller elements but the way they're visualized on-screen is lacklustre. I'm disappointed by Appu N Bhattathiri's directorial debut - this is clearly no edge-of-the-seat thriller.

First of all, the story line is very much different from what we have seen all these days in such kinda movies.

When it comes to execution, the technical department has done exceptionally well and the suspense is maintained till the very end.

Climax is a bit disappointing.

Give it a watch for the cinematography, BGM and the story line. And of course for the performances of lead cast and the kid needs a special mention.