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Adrishyam

Farhad Dalal
By-
Farhad Dalal
Rating
2 Star popcorn reviewss

Introduction

It is still a Wednesday and I am experimenting! With that I finished watching the new Malayalam film Adrishyam on Amazon Prime. Every time there is a Malayalam film in town, I am excited but here I was more skeptical than excited. And the reason for it is that the film titled Adrishyam is actually a bilingual which is simultaneously shot in Tamil too, and titled Yugi. The moment the film becomes a bilingual, the entire scenario changes. Malayalam films have often struck a chord primarily because they are deeply rooted in the place or area where the drama is set in. But as far as bilinguals are concerned, this specific portion would always be dicey because all of a sudden, you are catering to two separate cultures at the same time. I am never in favour of this as the film then would begin to lose its identity. But then does Adrishyam manage to impress, lets find out.

Story & Screenplay

Adrishyam follows the story of a group of unrelated incidents taking place at the same time. How are they related? And what is the mystery? The story here is a clear case of a drama stuck in the late 2000s. There is no real novelty factor and the writing is a bit of a concern here. If I have to dig in rationally, there is still a decent story here but the screenplay of about 120 minutes doesn’t help its cause, primarily due to its poor execution.

The drama does begin with a kidnapping and a murder which triggers an investigation. It is at the very beginning that the world building was in question. This by no means did feel like a Malayalam film which often unfolds in an unassuming manner with the right doses of world building, wherein characters are laid out with effectiveness. Instead here, the drama is scattered that almost made me repelled towards it. The humour here is forced, something that just wasn’t required. And to top it, the lip sync had a major issue which basically threw me off right at the beginning. This while all my fears around a bilingual came true!

The proceedings are just plain average and do not exude any sort of confidence. The investigation should have been thrilling but here you just go through the motions. Even the set of twists towards the halfway mark is just random and nothing which would totally shock you. It is a clear case of lazy writing and an ever poor execution. To be fair, things do get slightly more structured and a little better watchable in the second hour but again the main damage was done in the first hour. The twists are turns in the second hour would have been far more impactful had there been a grip on the drama in the first hour. And personally for me, I could guess the twista from a mile away. It doesn’t help when you have been consuming content day in and day out! Overall, the screenplay is meh, just meh!

Dialogues, Music & Direction

The dialogues are plain average and do not give you any vibe of the area where the drama is set in. Also, the lip sync is off and so it just potentially will throw you off. The music and BGM are generic, nothing much to shout about. The cinematography gives a stale vibe to the drama. Director Zac Harriss just lacks execution in his craft which was a bit of a shame because it eliminated any little potential which the story had.

Performances

The performances are decent but nothing much to shout about either. Anandhi as Karthika goes slightly overboard with her performance. Pavithra Lakshmi as Pavithra and Athmeeya Rajan as Shalini get very little scope to perform. It did pain me to see Joju George and Sharafudheen being wasted in their respective roles, knowing and their characters had the potential for an impact. Narain as Nanda is decent.

Conclusion

Adrishyam is lacklustre and patchy coupled with a below par execution that makes for a tedious watch. Available on Amazon Prime.

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