Nizhal

A weak attempt at creating a psychological thriller, Nizhal feels drab from its very first shot - doused in bizarre-looking CGI. The core plot does intrigue, but there's an entire act dedicated to the protagonist's PTSD which gets conveniently ignored and has zero payoffs in the end. What was even the point? The mask, the rains, the atrociously loud background score - all of it feels gimmicky as hell. Nayanthara is criminally underutilized here - there's nothing in Nizhal that truly challenges the actor in return for a nice, fat paycheck. The script contains psychological thriller elements but the way they're visualized on-screen is lacklustre. I'm disappointed by Appu N Bhattathiri's directorial debut - this is clearly no edge-of-the-seat thriller.

How does a 7 year old, innocent schoolchild know the specifics of crimes which transpired 25 years ago? Has someone been feeding him these stories? Does his dead father communicate with him? Why does a man wearing a 'batman' like mask befriend the boy? Malayalam movie #Nizhal is supposed to be a whodunit, but the slow pace is a downer. Running time should be reduced by 20 minutes. Cinematography n performances r good. Rating 2.5/5.

The plotline of this thriller is a rather unconventional one; but very enjoyably so. As the movie progresses, the plot thickens with constant twists and turns that'll keep you gripped and guessing till the very end. Since the movie builds up a good amount of suspense, I was worried that the climax of the movie will fail to deliver like most movies that start off strong and end flat. But to my surprise, the climax was rather satisfactory, albeit slightly over the top (no pun intended). On close scrutiny, you'll start noticing that a lot of the nuances in the plotline seem to very conveniently fall in place; however if you choose to overlook these minor practicality issues (which you should in my humble opinion), you are sure to enjoy this oddball thriller. Most of the cast put up a pretty decent performance; however, the performances of Kunchacko Boban as John Baby and Rony David as Rajan were truly exceptional and stood out from the rest. To add to that, great cinematography (albeit with average CGI), great sound design, great direction and a very good pace make this movie a definite WATCH.

The basic story idea of NIZHAL was really interesting, but the problem is it's lengthy screenplay. I didn't feel bored by the way. It is a slow paced thriller, because the time gap between 2 twists is too long.

So many questions may arise within you while watching, that's why maybe you'll expect something big to happen in the climax. But the ending may disappoint you.

Overall it's not at all a bad film, rather a good film, but could've been better. I think you should give it a try, you may like it.

A One Time Watch.

Available on Amazon Prime Video.

© MandalBros.

First of all, the story line is very much different from what we have seen all these days in such kinda movies.

When it comes to execution, the technical department has done exceptionally well and the suspense is maintained till the very end.

Climax is a bit disappointing.

Give it a watch for the cinematography, BGM and the story line. And of course for the performances of lead cast and the kid needs a special mention.