Dhoomam

The start is with the protagonist Faahad Fasilgiving lift to his friend (Aparna Balamurali) in an audi car in rain only to get injected with some drug by a stranger and finds himself on top of a hill with the car exploding minutes after him walking out. As unconvincing as it is, the screenplay is too far from reality as Faahad has revealed super strength like powers who carries Aparna to a godown. And the rest of story is a game of expected trivia between Faahad and Roshan Mathews(Sid) in act of survival.

Inshort the film is "Survivor series" remade in the length of a movie. Roshan Mathews gave a good performance impacting his role and the plot of the film but the rest of the Cast are merely puppets and address flaws in the script itself.

The first half of the film was very very engaging and it was gripping to the core with a parallel kinda story-telling going back&forth, the interval block of the film was very well made and the film should've probably ended up there itself because the 2nd half was just about knowing the backstory of the vengeance and it was nothing special at all.

The problem of the film lies in its sloppy & disengaging screenplay in the 2nd part and the enemy of this film is its BGM since the bgm maker has done a poor job of not scoring any bgm at all and most of the sloppy scenes felt sloppy just because they lacked the bgm, there was literally no bgm at all when it was absolutely required.

This is a unique film where if you just watch the first half and walk out, you'll certainly feel like having watched a full movie and if you sit & watch the 2nd half, you'll regret not doing what I said earlier.

We should encourage more such stories that promise a better future.

It could have been a better ending with some punchline and some redemption. The ending was abrupt.

Of course it succeeded in describing marketing strategies and greed of industries like tobacco that thrive on addiction of it's customers.

One thing that I noticed was that most male character were not smoking but many women were. Especially in India where the larger proportion of smokers are male, this seemed incomprehensible. The men or boy who died of cigarette smoking were not characterised, but only referred. That was another missing point in the script.

Dhoomam delivers solid performances from Fahadh Fasil and Roshan Mathew. The story is great with a much needed message but falls short of an engaging screenplay.

The pace is slow, many predictable portions and poor editing. Jump cuts throught the first half makes the story less appealing. It confuses rather than suspense. The time is also a concern, could have cut short it further.

Music is ok but it does not add to the script.

Suspense holds till the end and the ending is good. Actors are great.

Can be watched for a different story line but as a whole film, it fails to deliver what it intends to.

Good Screenplay. The movie keeps you engaged throughout. Little long though.

The movie doesn't have any connection like it was explained as in the pre release publicity. Just one scene is about how the Statuary Warning... I don't know who that actress is, but she was the only hot girl in the movie. Jut joking on the outfits used. This is a typical Malayalam type of movie, with little mismatch in Kannada dubbing at times.

Over all, you can watch this movie once. You should wait till the end of the movie for you to like it to an extent. Since this is Hombale Product, you can watch it on OTT post release, but make sure that you watch in one go.