KUMBALANGI NIGHTS

Post 2012, numerous movies was introduced in Malayalam film industry with the hashtag 'realistic'. But 2011 was interesting since Traffic was released which was the first of its kind movie in Malayalam with non - linear film making. Post Traffic, directors got a sense of inspiration to experiment with innovative film making technologies. Even though there was no such stellar cast in these sort of movies, they tend to fair well. Movies like 'Chappa Kurish', 'Njan Steve Lopez','Ee Adutha Kalathu' went on to grab a good share of critical acclaim which was a turn around for Malayalam industry.

So with the posters of Kumbalangi Nights indicating something different and with the assistance of an upcoming promising production venture of Fahad, you never know- another movie is grabbing all the attention. Released along with '9', ' Kumbalangi ' strongly needed something which holds the audiences - something which differentiates them from a sci-fi/psychological/horror movie.
Well that something was not there. That three-act structure was no there. You don't know where this film is going, but you definitely know one thing for sure - YOU ARE IN KUMBALANGI.

Something which I peculiarly noticed in this movie was shortage of dialogues, I mean shortage of unwanted dialogues to be precise. Every dialogue was scripted well, framed well. Shyam Pushkaran maintains his quality when coming to penning scripts. Lead casts was not performing, ' merging/syncing with the screenplay would be the right word to define their performances. Soubin delivering his career best performance voyaging through different emotions. Well the impact of the movie would have been less if they replaced someone else with Fahad's role. I can't imagine anyone other than Fahad in this industry to pull out that role. That was terrific, horrifying and hilarious at the same time - Fahad Fazil was the stand out performer even though he had less screen time comparing to others.

When a director is on his debut, and comes up with a film of this quality, you know there is lot of promise in our industry. I won't say go grab your tickets or rush into the nearby theaters to watch this flick. Take your own time, visit Kumbalangi, experience their lives, relish their memories.
Peace !