Nizhal

The child actor .Izin Hash is so brilliant. But the movie falters with funny CGI. The execution on screen is lackluster. The pacing is extremely slow for a thriller. A lot of time is wasted before the exciting things begin to happen.

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.

Despite a smooth, flowing and aesthetically pleasing narrative style from debutant director Appu N Bhattathiri and an earnest lead performance from Kunchacko Boban, a simplistic, unsatisfactory climax reduces Nizhal to a below-average watch.

Kunchacko Boban stars as a judge who takes interest in a strange case while recovering from a bout of PTSD following an accident. Nayanthara's character comes into his life as a stereotypical single mom who in desperate need of a saviour for her troubled son,

In a criminally underwritten role, an actor of Nayanthara's stature is reduced to a one-dimensional caricature and it makes you wonder why she even opted for this movie.

What promises to be a psychological thriller loses itself slowly as it delves into the supernatural, due to half-baked and unconvincing writing.

While there have been many success stories of murder investigations clubbed with elements of the supernatural (Pretham, Ezra etc), this isn't one.

In the new Golden age of Malayalam thrillers of the likes of Anjaam Paathiraa, Operation Java and Drishyam 2, this is just a pale, uninspiring attempt.

Not recommended.

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.

RATED 7/10 Language: Malayalam Source: Amazon Prime

One time watchable thriller...The first half of the movie was good and the thrill factor is totally lost when the reveal the reason... its so silly and total movie looks so lazy after that....