Neerali Movie Review

13/07/2018

08/CR/Malayalam/U 

Neerali (translation: Octopus) is a 2018 Malayalam Survival Drama film directed by debutant Ajoy Verma and written by another debutant Saju Thomas. The film starred Mohanlal in lead role. It also starred Suraj Venjaramood and Nadhiya Moidu. The music is handled by Stephen Devassy and DoP by ace cinematographer Santhosh Thundiyil who previously works were Rustom, Rowdy Rathore, Jai Ho and Devadoothan (2001). 

Trailer below:

Plot: 

As shown in the trailer, Sunny's (Mohanlal) wife Mollykutty (Nadhiya Moidu) got pregnant and was admitted in Calicut. So, he decided to go to Calicut from Bangalore with the help of his friend, Veerappa (Suraj Venjaramood), who by the way, was travelling to Calicut. In the midst of their journey, they caught with an accident and rest of the movie depends how does they survive from the accident and their multiple flashbacks before the incident. 

Why should you watch this film? 

° Mohanlal's first release in 2018, after eight long months. 

° The first kind of movie made in Malayalam based on Survival genre.

° The hit combo of Mohanlal and Nadhiya Moidu, after a long time and comeback of ace cinematographer Santhosh Thundiyil after Akasha Gopuram (2008).

+ves and - ves

+ Mohanlal and Suraj Venjaramood 

+ DoP and Editing

+ BGM and Music 

+ Story

- Direction

- Screenplay and Dialogues. 

- Parvati Nair and Nadhiya. 

- VFX, a bit. 

Teaser below:

Performances:

* Mohanlal as Sunny George did a good job. The movie was mostly under his shoulders. He's new trimmed avatar was cool but the hair styling and make up was bizarre. 

* Suraj Venjaramood as half Malayali - half Tamil Veerappa did a fine performance but sadly, has nothing to do much.  

* Nadhiya as Mollykutty, who dubbed herself for the first time, was kind of extended cameo but was okayish performance whereas another important role by Parvati Nair as Naina was irritating. 

Technical Aspects:

* Editing and Direction by Ajoy Verma: He did a successful attempt in editing the feature film but the direction was lackluster, maybe because of his inexperience as a director. Having actors like Mohanlal and Suraj, he didn't exploit their acting skills instead made them sitting up in a vehicle. 

* Script by Saju Thomas : The Survival genre usually provides us the goosebumps of what's next gonna happen. That's missing throughout the film. The story is quite simple with two short storylines of Mohanlal and Suraj, it could have been made better with a engaging screenplay. Unfortunately, it was half-baked one. And the dialogues were so amateur kind of. 

* DoP by Santhosh Thundiyil was a saving grace for the film even though there were some unwanted shots under the vehicle. 

* Stephen Devassy handled the music department and he did a satisfactory job, especially in background scores. Another saving grace. 

* Other departments such as sound designing, DI, production designing were fine. VFX in some scenes could have been more better. 

Final Verdict: A decent first half and a half baked amateurish second half altogether makes Neerali into an average flick. One time watchable film. 

#avmoviebuff* Rating: 2.5/5

(* - strictly my opinion)