Praavinkoodu Shappu

I had a hard time figuring out how much I liked this film. This is one of those films that if I was watching with someone else, their opinion would have been pivotal to my final opinion of it. There's so much to like in this film, from the general quirkiness, the performances, the technical side with great cinematography and editing, etc. But at the same time, there's also a lot that doesn't work. It does feel like a try-hard most of the time. The plot itself is simple and lackluster but they have tried to make it interesting by making it a stylistic non linear comedy. The comedy was hit or miss. It's refreshing when it hits but a lot of times it misses and the misses are cringe at best and frustratingly annoying at worst. But towards the end, it kind of becomes a total tonal mess, and adding extensive exposition also didn't help. Overall it's kind of fun and the way it unfolds is certainly interesting but even with such a dream technical execution for a debutant director, the script lacks substance and shows the inexperience there. This really feels like people may love it if they get the vibe or they may just think it's another boring investigation movie.