Odiayan tells the story of Manikyan, the last of the Odiyan clan, who were infamous for manipulating darkness with their supposed sorcery to scare folks.
I have been fairly distant from Malayalam cinema off-late, not on purpose. The material the industry keeps churning out were less than impressive, a mere attempt to make some money.
I have been following Odiyan's journey since it was first announced and have been eagerly awaiting it. The premise seemed exciting and the cast was solid.
When the trailer arrived, I lost a little hope, I thought to myself, "is this another "mass" action flick that Aashirvad, Mohanlal and Anthony Perumbavoor are just trying to cash in on?" Nevertheless, I bought myself a ticket and sat down like the Lalettan fan I am for some masterful acting and a trip to a bygone era.
Sadly, Odiyan was a disappointment. There are glimpses of epic hiding here there and everywhere throughout the runtime, but an abundance of hero worshipping and dumbing down ruin the film.
I had watched an interview with Director V A Shreekumar recently where he described the first draft as a more classical approach with "light" as the villain. He goes on to say that How it was producer Anthony Perumbavoor who persuaded him to opt for an antagonist in human form for commercial purposes.
Mohanlal as always brings his A-game, not for a moment do you get hung up on his makeup and prosthetics. Manju Warier and Prakash Raj also give noteworthy performances, everyone else sadly is just apt. This is predominantly due to the fact that there wasn't room for their characters to grow.
The action sequences in the film have been getting much praise and it is very impressive and engaging, but at certain points, it stops fitting the time-frame and the narrative. Likewise, the visuals seem oversaturated and rather ill-fitting, this over-saturation transfers on to the night scenes, which seems to happen often in Malayalam films off-late. As a film where darkness plays a key role, you would think they would perfect it a little more. The soundtrack by Jayachandran is enjoyable, but it fails to impress.
Mohanlal and his teams need to start thinking about his future pictures as cinemas and stories rather than mere products that cater for all.
