Vishudhan - Malayalam Movie Review

Directed by     Vyshakh
Produced by     Anto Joseph
Written by     Vyshakh
Music by     Gopi Sundar
Cinematography     Shehnad Jalal
Editing by     Mahesh Narayanan
Release date(s)     NOV 22, 2013
Country     India
Language     Malayalam

Cast
    Kunchacko Boban

Lal
    Mia George
    Suraj Venjaramood
Nandu

Hareesh Peradi

Shalin

Krishnakumar

Vishudhan tells the story of a man who life goes through phases of being God, Human & Devil. Kunchako Boban who has donned the role of priest who gets appointed at a church in a remote village in Idukki & Mia plays a nun from the local monastery. How the lives of these two change when they uncover certain truths which involves church, believers/followers and a local aristocrat (played by Hareesh Peradi).

'Vishudhan' will be Director Vysakh's first attempt at making a non-commercial, serious movie dealing with real life events. In fact Vysakh wanted this to be his debut film, but he ended up doing 4 commercial pot-boilers before, all of which ended up as big hits. Vishudhan takes the exact opposite route compared to his previous films. It is not a commercial, mass masala, potboiler.

'Vishudhan' is a fictionalized version of some real life events that happened in Kerala some time back. Basically its a revenge story but told with some convictions and honest intentions. Any film based on church or priest hood have always created unnecessary controversies, but this tells a controversial story without getting into to much details, without hurting anybody's sentiments. It discusses a issue that due to the influence of some powerful people didn't reaching people and was brushed under the carpet.

But good intentions don't make good films. Films should be entertaining and shouldn't test the patience of the viewers, which unfortunately Vishudhan does. Many scenes are without any purpose far stretched. The slow narration in fact affects what ever noble intention the film had. A non art-house kinda direction would have did the movie a world of good.

But the movie is not bad watch either. Its just that it could have been made much much better.

Kunchako Boban has given his career best performance till date - 3 variant characteristics - Priest, human and devil - shown with elan. Rest of the cast have also did a decent job. Lal's cameo length role felt like an unwanted set piece.Hareesh Peradi's acting reminded pretty much of his own iconic character [especially the dialogue modulation and delivery] , Kaitheri Sahadevan  from 'Left Right Left', which if not intentional, will be a big disadvantage for his future career.

All of Vysakh's previous films owes him a great deal for their success [except may be Sound Thoma], but this time its Vysakh the writer that fails the movie coupled by his direction which felt immature to handle such a theme.

Writing could have been crispier, even though there are quite a few note worthy dialogues.

Cinematography is the another positive aspect of the film, can say that the beautiful locations did half the job. There are few shots which are in fact breath taking. Editing should have been sharper, with many shots moving endlessly. There are 2 songs in the film which are hummable. BG score was okay.

So, in all Vishudhan is good attempt which got 'lost in translation'

Rating 2.75/5

Verdict Above Average

Last Word: You can watch it, for Kunchako