Movie: Odiyan
Rating: 2/5
Banner: Daggubati Creations
Cast: Mohanlal, Manju Warrior, Prakash Raj, Innocent, Narien, Nandu and others
Music: Jayachandran, Sam C S
Cinematography: Shaji Kumar
Editing: John Kutty
Action: Peter Hein
Written and directed by: Shrikumar Menon
Release date: December 14, 2018
Malayalam legendary actor Mohanlal has become very popular in Telugu as well in the recent times thanks to films like 'Janatha Garage', 'Manamantha' and 'Manyam Puli'.
His latest “Odiyan” has generated lot of buzz. Let’s analyze this movie.
Story:
Odiyan Manikyam (Mohan Lal) returns to his village after nearly gap of 15 years. He has a reason to come back.
His sole purpose is to protect Prabha (Manju Warrier) and her family from the evil guy (Prakash Raj) after his return.
What is the back story of Manikyam and what is his connection with Prabha? That forms the rest of the movie.
Artistes’ Performances:
Mohanlal, the legendary actor is spotless in this role of Odiyan. He has lost lot of weight for this role. But his action stunts are not as effective as we had seen in ‘Manyam Puli’.
Manju Warrier as matured woman has given convincing performance. Prakash Raj has played regular villain’s role with ease.
Technical Excellence:
The action stunts are composed by Peter Hein but they are not great. The stunts are just okay; the cinematography is good.
The production design is appreciable. The film’s slow-pace tests the patience.
Highlights:
Interesting concept
Cinematography
Drawback:
Poor execution
Slow pace
Lack of high points
Routine revenge scenes
Analysis
“Odiyan” is a person belonging to a mythical clan. According to the film, they are like magicians with the ability to change their shape. In North Kerala, Odiyans were used to terrorise people to death by appearing in animal forms at night. The film is based on this legend.
Mohanlal has played “Odiyan” and the beginning of the movie narrates this story as well as the various tricks of odiyans appearing as animals
During the first half of the movie, we don’t understand where this movie is driving to. Once the basic thread is revealed that Mohanlal is trying to protect Manju Warrier and he is on the mission of taking revenge, the whole exercise in the second half turns pretty boring. Poor execution by the director goes against the intention.
The director has interesting basic story line but his screenplay, his slow-paced narration has spoiled the proceedings. Moreover, the film turns out to be an exercise to replicate “Manyam Puli”.
While the Peter Hein’s action choreography in “Manyam Puli” was the main highlight, here the stunts that happen in dark fail to impress. Though some stunts are really superb, the rest lack dhum.
Mohan Lal’s character also lacks appealing. His various animal avatars and other proceedings are not clap worthy at all. The romantic scenes and the villain’s character remind us old 60’s and 70’s movies.
There is lot of build up for the character Odiyan and his special powers but in reality the action that he does are damp squib. So, it turns out to be much ado about nothing.
The love story in the second half tests the patience further though Mohanlal looks charming as young guy here as he had lost lot of weight for these scenes. He really looked young.
All in all, despite the mythical concept, the movie is a drab with unexciting scenes, lengthy runtime and old-style sequences. This is a below par movie from Mohanlal.
Bottom-line: Disappointing!