Odiyan

Odiayan tells the story of Manikyan, the last of the Odiyan clan, who were infamous for manipulating darkness with their supposed sorcery to scare folks.

I have been fairly distant from Malayalam cinema off-late, not on purpose. The material the industry keeps churning out were less than impressive, a mere attempt to make some money.

I have been following Odiyan's journey since it was first announced and have been eagerly awaiting it. The premise seemed exciting and the cast was solid.

When the trailer arrived, I lost a little hope, I thought to myself, "is this another "mass" action flick that Aashirvad, Mohanlal and Anthony Perumbavoor are just trying to cash in on?" Nevertheless, I bought myself a ticket and sat down like the Lalettan fan I am for some masterful acting and a trip to a bygone era.

Sadly, Odiyan was a disappointment. There are glimpses of epic hiding here there and everywhere throughout the runtime, but an abundance of hero worshipping and dumbing down ruin the film.

I had watched an interview with Director V A Shreekumar recently where he described the first draft as a more classical approach with "light" as the villain. He goes on to say that How it was producer Anthony Perumbavoor who persuaded him to opt for an antagonist in human form for commercial purposes.

Mohanlal as always brings his A-game, not for a moment do you get hung up on his makeup and prosthetics. Manju Warier and Prakash Raj also give noteworthy performances, everyone else sadly is just apt. This is predominantly due to the fact that there wasn't room for their characters to grow.

The action sequences in the film have been getting much praise and it is very impressive and engaging, but at certain points, it stops fitting the time-frame and the narrative. Likewise, the visuals seem oversaturated and rather ill-fitting, this over-saturation transfers on to the night scenes, which seems to happen often in Malayalam films off-late. As a film where darkness plays a key role, you would think they would perfect it a little more. The soundtrack by Jayachandran is enjoyable, but it fails to impress.

Mohanlal and his teams need to start thinking about his future pictures as cinemas and stories rather than mere products that cater for all.

Odiyan is a much awaited movie in mollywood which is a very hyped movie in the career of Mohanlal. The reason for all the expectation about this movie came from the fact that director Sreekumar Menon described the movie as one of the best action thrillers ever came in this industry , he guaranteed top notch action scenes and superb vfx will be in the movie, a budget of around 35 crores for this movie also given expectations in the minds of the fans about the quality of this movie. But when movie released all those huge expectations were shattered.

Positives:

* The movie had a simple but convincing story which is closer to reality even though some obscure fantasy elements mixed in

*Performance from Mohanlal is especially good he has given an emotional portrayal of a person alienated and feared by almost everyone, Manju Warrier and everyone else also did their part well

*Nothing special to mention about action scenes but they were not bad could have been improved

*Camerawork was good, beauty of the village is captured well and night scenes required a bit more brightness but it was adjustable at most times

Negatives:

*Character of Prakash Raj in the villainous role was not convincing enough his intentions were cliched and his dubbing also felt out of place and lacked emotional impact

*Climax of the movie was not up to the mark, the action in the climax should have been better

*Slow pace for an action thriller is always a fun killer it was the case here also at least 20 minutes could have been trimmed to make the movie more fast paced and interesting

*Since the movie had big budget vfx should have been better but here most of the scenes felt as cheap and unconvincing

*Though the movie was labeled as fantasy/thriller both of these elements were very limited in the movie , Odiyan was more of an emotional drama

Conclusion:- Odiyan is an average entertainer which will be moderately satisfying to the viewers if they lower their expectations about the movie

Poor directed movie. Movie is laging in second half. But mohanlal done his best.

1st half is good and only the animation part in 1st half is disappointing.When coming to 2nd half there is lot of lag.The climax fight is terrible. Mnju warir is not at all a good choice for the female lead role.

I fail to understand the harsh criticism this movie has received so far. Is Odiyan extraordinary? No. But it is a really good family entertainer. The movie is loaded with interesting concepts, some fine acting by Mohanlal, visual treats and great stunts. It does drag in parts, but is definitely worth watching for the numerous positives it has to offer.