One

I haven't seen a Malayalam political drama ever like this. Though the crew added some heroic elements in the script the main subject dealt here is awesome.

The vision and idea which the movie presents is good. But the way it's presented is a bit bad. The writing is very predictable and weak. Though is mamooty is charming as usual,his actions become boring through time because we know what's gonna happen. The actions are so utopian that by the end leaves us bored. Anyway this is a must watch for the ideas and ofc mamooty!

This movie heavily lacks an interesting plot. So many subplots and so many characters are present, but none of them end up making any lasting impact. It's a seemingly disjoint set of scenes which try to showcase the so called power of the main character, the Chief Minister, Kadakkal Chandran. This is done only because of the star value of Mammootty. They have milked it beyond a level. Slo mo scenes and random long dialogues for practically no reason. Just for some fans to applaud.

Some subplots get some heavy build up at first, but they either end up becoming unimportant or they end up getting totally discarded by the makers., leaving the audience wondering why were those subplots even showed in the first place.

This movie has a very long list of actors who do character roles. But none of them are actually important. There is Murali Gopi, Joju George, Alancier, Sreejith Ravi, Renjith, Shankar Ramakrishnan, Suresh Krishna, Jagadeesh, Meghanadhan, Prem Kumar, Risa Bava, P. Balachandran etc. You name them, they are there. Some of them are even there just for one scene or two. Why even bring them in here if you are not giving them any real roles.

This was like a one man show with no good plot or any character development to make us feel invested. The main conflict is of very low stake. It's just an idea. There was no proper execution of that idea to turn it into something which the viewers would root for.

The climax was the most boring part of the whole movie. A few cuts here and there, trimming the run time to just two hours would've at least made this movie a bit more bearable.

We've seen movies like Mudhalvan, Bharat ane Nenu, and Sarkar (Tamil) that are based on the concept of an ideal leader that the people want in a Democracy, a leader who is educated, honest, powerful, and compassionate. However, the above movies have had lead characters turning into leaders by provocation, compulsion, and outrage respectively. But, in One, you have an established character of a Chief Minister with all the good values and it is through his life, both professional and personal, that the movies travels through. The writers bring up several controversies and crises that Chandran comes across, but the core idea of the story, also the principal motive of Chandran, is dropped off in the beginning and picked up from somewhere in the end. It was quite intriguing how the first hour of the movie was assembled, but the excitement dips after that. For an actor like Mammootty, the character of Chandran is a cakewalk, in fact, it is his screen presence that keeps the movie floated. A lot of actors come and go, but only a few get to perform, and talented actors like Nimisha Sajayan, Binu Pappu, and Joju George are under-used to a large extent. Even though 'One' speaks volumes for the common man's problems, its fictionalized method of storytelling makes it unconvincing. The writers had in their minds what an ideal Chief Minister should be, and they penned it down accordingly, but the Indian Audience know how stinky and dirty the country's political system is, making the character of Chandran and his actions a hard pill to swallow. But 'One' ends on an optimistic note, promising that there'll be better changes in the country, almost motivating the voters ahead of the Kerala Legislative Assembly elections in April.

Good movie and political thriller... Good direction.. Murali gopi wow.. good performance.