Churuli

The flick creates its intensity afters 10 mins and it prolongs the momentum until Soubin appear. Well trimming the rest, the movie is riveting to the core, Chemban and Vinay are annoyingly intriguing, Jaffar is exceptionally a subtle hard nut to crack. Lijos urge to showcase himself as daring and ultra liberal is ostensibly evident by juxtaposing profanity in every dialogue. However, the story, screenplay, setting, casting and score totally creates the ambience to keep one's eyes glued till the end. On the whole the movie is an eccentric, magical but yet leaves one numb.

From the opening narration of a fictional folk tale and a casual mention in one of the initial scenes about a couple of Americans being taken by aliens, Churuli sets its base for an absurd and abstract atmospheric film. That's exactly what the film is until the end, with its foul-mouthed bas**** of the Churuli village living unhinged. Is it a village isolated and observed as a free-living cult by the couple of aliens who appears a couple of times? Is the constant deja vu for many characters because of a time loop? Does the "Madan" change its host from time to time? Who knows. It's not about finding the answer, it's the journey through all that, the experience that counts here.

Didn't think the profanity is as bad as everyone makes it to be. Nor did I think the movie wants to confuse everyone either. Only because the people are so conditioned to have a story with all answers in it, people are confused, if only people stop trying to find a definite answer and find the experience of different possibilities, it would be much more entertaining and less confusing.

I'll try to keep my review as short and spoiler free, and I suggest those who really really would like to read a review before watching the movie to only read this. The film is best experienced first hand, without any pre-notions.



I am really happy to be one of the very few people to watch the world premiere at the 25th IFFK at Thiruvananthapuram, and in one word the film could be explained as mind-blowing. This is not the ordinary Malayalam cinema, this is a whole new world of ideas. Since the movie has not yet been released to the public, let me just summarize it in this: Lijo does something really confusing that leaves us stuck. Apparently I feel that that was his aim too. He wants the viewers to be trapped in the spiral or Churuli he created. Each time you think about the movie, you find something new, and it again traps you in the whirlpool. And that concept is just wow, he did that perfectly. And I say this loud and clear, only malayalam industry could attempt such brave experiments. One of the best movie industries in the world.

Keep a special attention to the story said at the beginning (which is present in the trailer too), personally I felt that that was a fourth-wall breaking story. Yes, the audience are as much part of the film as the cast . As Lijo himself said: "This is not a Cinema, this is a Churuli(Spiral/Whirlpool)".

As I didn't understand so many things, one dialogue from 'Tenet' was always coming to my mind - "Don't try to understand it, feel it." I'm sure there'll be many like me who will think what actually happened in the climax or in the entire movie.

The basic plot of this film is nothing but the short story which was presented beautifully at the beginning. 'Churuli' means spiral or labyrinth, Lijo successfully justified the title of the movie.

Technical dept and sound designing are always great in a LJP film. The conclusion of the movie is confusing, I didn't find any hidden meaning if there was any. Now, after finishing the movie, except the ending which reminded me of 'Hot Fuzz', I didn't find the necessity of any of the characters or the moments. I think I've to revisit it again & again to understand it fully. So, I can't say if the movie is good or bad, I'll just say if you like these confusing executions you'll like it too.

Available on Sony LIV.

© MandalBros.

N. B. I feel the movie BORING in the midway. Now, you can say I'm not ready for this kind of High Level Cinema, maybe YES. 🤷‍♂️

Churuli is checkpoint in Malayalam cinema The film explores the same wild instincts in man and in a favourable environment it pops out alone with elements of SciFi and as always it's well directed well shot and well edited (keeps up the regular LJP standard in all technical aspects).. But the catch is it demands it undivided attention and deep inside thinking so for some mediocre folks its just a 'theri padam'