Level Cross

*Levelcross,* starring Asif Ali, Amala Paul, and Sharafudheen, directed by Arfaz Ayub, offers a completely new experience in Mollywood with a storyline full of twists and turns. The film provides a decent amount of thrilling moments without spoon-feeding the audience, making viewers actively engage their brains to solve the puzzle. Asif Ali's portrayal of his character is remarkable, maintaining a consistent performance from start to finish. However, Amala Paul's performance felt somewhat boring in the middle, and Sharafudheen delivered an average performance. Arfaz Ayub's direction was different and new, and I appreciated his unique approach.

On the downside, the set design felt artificial in many places, which detracted from the movie's overall realism. Despite these flaws, *Levelcross* is a decent one-time watch with a lot of new experiences for the audience. The film's unique approach to storytelling and its engaging plot twists make it worth watching, even if there are areas where it could have been better.

The film takes us to a desert where time and place become unrecognizable.

A railway track passes through the desert. Although there's no road crossing it, there is a level crossing.

In this desolation, a gateman and his donkey exist... and as each scene unfolds slowly, we are drawn into the story environment of 'Level Cross'.

Beautiful frames... Appu Prabhakar's cinematography allows us to enjoy three-quarters of 'Level Cross'.

The long shots, the slow pace of storytelling, the lack of dialogue, and the absence of many characters make the first half-hour a bit dull, but the film picks up as the train starts moving.

The film becomes engaging through predictable yet flawless interval blocks.

The director manages to confuse the audience by narrating the story of the three characters from different points of view.

Even though the film stands out for its technical excellence and unique narrative style, 'Level Cross' is not for everyone.

If you look closely at Asif Ali's performance as the gateman Raghu, you'll find shades of Mammootty's Putturumis and Mada. However, it's no small feat that Asif Ali managed to carry off the role so effectively.

Although Sharafuddin and Amala Paul handle their roles well, they are not given as challenging roles as Asif Ali's.

Vishal Chandrasekhar's background score blends magnificently with the film's mood. There are minor flaws in the set design, especially in the house near the level crossing, but they don't take away from the overall experience.

The twists in the second half enhance the enjoyment of the level crossing scenes.

In the end, I was convinced that the ghost story-the one about a spirit walking with its head turned around-was not just a subplot but an integral part of the narrative. The director doesn't hesitate to let the audience guess who the ghost really is.

Leaving aside the slow-paced storytelling and the overly dramatic dialogues, Arfaaz Ayub's 'Level Cross' is an experimental film with technical brilliance that deserves appreciation.

Though not seen much Malayalam movies, I saw this movie by postive reviewes. I found movie absolutely fresh and well written.. story start with alone man working in remote area near railway crossing..his life change when he found girl near crossing...movie initially start slow to portray man's routine but after 30 minutes you will force to know story of both main characters..it's not typical masala movie but slow burn thriller...after minutes by minutes your excitement leval is gone up...I found main lead actor is very versatile...his dressing mannerism and involvement of character is fabulous.. definitely watch movie for thrilling elements..only downpart is climax.which I feel should done better.

Well, let me phrase out positives and negatives which I felt about the movie:

Positives * Asif Ali's performance was really good. Amala Paul was also good, but I didn't find the performance of Sharaf, that convincing.

* Movie was visually great. We all were wondering where is this shot. From the first scene itself, the movie took us into another far far place.

*Even though some parts of the movie was predictable, climax was not what thought was going to happen(Didn't see that coming!! 😅) *Even though the movie was slowly paced, it was interesting and we would feel curious on what is happening and what could happen *Dialogues were realistic * Definitely a good attempt in making

Negatives *Some part of the plot were totally predictable *Even though it was an interesting watch, it was not all that nail bitting thriller.

Overall, I would say a cliche sentence. Not everyone's cup of tea. But I really liked the making and aesthetically appealing visuals. To some extent, it was thrilling and interesting.

A good attempt from the creators. There are very few movies like this from Malayalam cinema. Asif Ali has done an amazing job and so far 2024 has been rewarding him so well, lots of good movies with characters of different shade.

The production design is the highlight of this film and the location also plays an important role in the movie. The movie is slow-paced and this is where it becomes a tedious task for the audience. It would have been great to wrap it up early but the movie went on and on. Even though it's only 90 minutes, I found the film somewhat difficult to watch. Many thriller elements could have been added to this movie but anyway I appreciate the effort from the director.