Chola

What made me watch Chola was Sanal's terrific previous venture Ozhivudivasathe Kali (yet to see S Durga). Barring the solid performances of Joju George (as the molester) and Nimisha Sajayan (as the abused) and the stunning cinematography by Ajith Aacharya, I couldn't really take to Chola the same way I did with Ozhivudivasathe Kali. The transition from eerie drama to magical realism wasn't seamless and a random interjection of Stockholm Syndrome only made it worse. I like the way Sanal tackles the theme of oppression (this is the third in what one could call SOCU - Sanal's Oppression Cinematic Universe) but Chola takes things one step too far. This is one of the few films (in recent times) that makes effective use of its natural locales (Venu's Carbon is another). The ambiguity in (almost the entirety of) the second half and the climax left a bad taste in my mouth.

An eerie depiction of the story of an innocent girl who sets about to enjoy the day with her boyfriend. Though predictable, it strikes hard on you. Cinematography and music are the key elements that glues your mind on the movie. They add greatly to the rawness. Not a movie for everyone. Strong theme.

This story could be told with in 15 -20 mints. Spend remaining 1 hour to show the cinematographic skills and another half an hr for hero's unsuccessful attempts to convince heroine ( same dialogue, same actions, same reactions )

The film stars good but becomes bore later. The film moves at very slow pace with still camera videos for long duration. The story is also didn't make sense after second half. The thrill is lost in second half. Janaki was just crying always except the beach scene. The ending was wierd. The director couldn't tell why the girl who initially tried to run away from Jojo and was later following Jojo. When he touches her she starts crying. When her boyfriend tried to help, she pushes him and goes with jojo. Janaki had same emotions throughout the scene.

Zero rating.

I watched Chola expecting it to be a good movie given Joju George's brilliant Joseph. Nimisha Sajayan was very effective in Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum but most certainly not in Chola. What a terrible movie Chola turned out to be.

The opening scene of the boy waiting impatiently for his girlfriend held promise but was exceedingly slow as was the rest of the movie, lingering pointlessly on frame by frame by never ending frame. The plot went sluggishly from slow to weird and eventually bizarre.

If the girl and the boy went mad, then believe me we the viewers also will go mad just by watching this film.

This is one instance where I should have read (and trusted) the reviews first! Now Im wondering whether I should bother to watch Sashidharans S Durga at all.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Available on Amazon Prime with English subtitles