Throughout the film I was wondering what might have led director Althaf Rahman to create Neeli, a haphazard horror comedy that goes nowhere with its somersaulting script and ends without answering the chief questions that would make it at least fathomable. The entire thing is a joke where Mamta Mohandas's character goes back to her ancestral home to live a better life away from her philandering and sadist husband (Neeraj Madhav) but ends up ruining it further after her kid goes missing. Enter Anoop Menon whose spirit hunter character with his silly contraptions tries and fails at comedy while also adding the little sexism that the film boasts of. Director Rahman is terrible at telling his actors what to do because an otherwise talented Mohandas stands out like a sore thumb here, looking like she is lost in almost all the sequences that she is supposed to lead. Supporting actors Baburaj and others hardly make an impact mainly because the story is nonsense. There is this missing kid at the center of the plot, with peripheral paranormal proceedings that are as confusing as the side arcs that Neeli tries to add to the mix. I witnessed at least half a dozen ghosts in this film, which apparently has no connection to anything. Suffices to say that Neeli is a pure waste of time, and easily one of the worst and pointless film I have seen this year. TN.
