Kudos to Malluwood for having owned the sci-fi and other fantasy genres from Hollywood. They've managed to create hits on the most difficult genres to succeed in India. Be it Minnal Murali or Lokah chapter 1 and several other horror/thriller genres as well, Malayalam story writers have aced the art of coming up with mind boggling scripts rivalling their Hollywood counterparts. Even for those that are lift offs from Japanese Korean movies, when the same is available for every other director, the best work comes from their industry and credit should be given where its due. I am not sure if this movie is an inspiration from any other European/Asian or American version, but the presentation, picturisation everything keeps you spell bound and is quite engaging as well.
Storywise, it is about time loop concept, possibly the most interesting yet potentially confusing of plot lines. A police officer gets transferred from city to a remote village. He sees an accident on his way to the station and that becomes his first assignment after taking charge. His colleague, a rough and tough fellow cop, is dead against them proceeding further with that case, for it involves them entering into a forest, which has never been properly mapped for a way in or out and has always rumored to be hosting sinister beings. They see a crow like statue bang in the middle of the forest and suddenly hear weird noises which transports them into a different timeline, at the same place. Everytime someone sheds blood, the noise is heard and the timeline alters. How the police officer manages to get out of not just the forest but also into his timeline, while encountering several hair raising situations and one involving a family connect as well, forms the story. There are several repeat scenes, obviously, considering the story is based on time loop. But still felt, at least ten to fifteen minutes could've been easily trimmed out with the characters showing same reactions, in same costume, across same locations, with no dialogue and just walking around. Once you've made the point, why drill it again and again begs a question. That apart, the ending and the final twist which may make the police guy venture back into the forest is quite interestingly done. It takes a while to grasp the storyline concept and for those who saw the movie for first time in theater, must've been a hard half hour to cross unlike those who were lucky enough to read the review to understand the story before watching.
As i mentioned before, Mallus seems to've mastered the art of storytelling for the web. It is exciting to see such genres being handled with clarity and confidence in our context. More power to them.
Comments
As for those who saw the movie in the theatre and had difficulty following the first half an hour - they should be wise enough to follow the Golden Rule . Always read Gilu's review before watching any movie.